Why doesn't anything work? - bit-tech.net Forums

WilHarris · 27th Jul 2005, 08:29

http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2005...ng_work/1.html

XUntitled · 27th Jul 2005, 08:59

Gremlins

OR my other theory is really small zombies. But anyway...

My recent technology mishap was this... I'm in the middle of a Call of Duty game in which my score is 41 kill and 6 deaths after 11 minutes (aka I'm doing kick ass). So I bring up the console and type what I thought was 'record', I get an error... hmm it seems that my c key stopped working. On further investigation it turns out my z, x, and c key stopped working for no reason. They were working thirty seconds early but now they stopped.

After taking the keyboard apart, I can't find any problems. It also wont work in any of my mother computers. So I take out an extra keyboard, plug it in and I'm on my way. I get into windows, but now theirs a new error. The caps lock key is stuck on. It wont turn off. I try it in another computer, still stuck. I take the keyboard apart and once again can't find a problem.

So now i'm down to my last keyboard. Its a small, mini travel kind of keyboard (some thing like 88 keys, can type with one hand). This keyboard has the 'Fn' key to double other keys (such as the letter 'j' can also be used as the number 1). Well its stuck to. I can't use half the keyboard because numbers are coming up instead of letters. I open this keyboard up, and I'm not sure what I did but I got it working.

So now I'm down to this little piece of junk travel keyboard.. All I wanted to do was play a couple rounds of Call of Duty

Darkedge · 27th Jul 2005, 10:12

christ you guys are unlucky. Remind me not to ever travel by boat with you as I don't want the boat to hit an iceberg

Sunny-D · 27th Jul 2005, 10:37

recently, also known as today, my laptop wont boot unless i boot with all extensions turned off, which requires booting whilst holding down the 'shift' key. and amazingly, ive forgotten both times i booted up today. freakin macs. 'yea, these are user friendly. theres no tinkering required. just hit power and go.' yeah, right.

then theres my iPod. you can only read half of the screen (the left half) because i fell onto it while skating. so to see anything you have to guess the end of the word. and you have no idea what the battery life is, because the battery metre is on the dead half.

other than that, my technology has been behaving well lately.

GuardianStorm · 27th Jul 2005, 10:37

If i plug my keyboard in via the USB on board my mobo, the pc freezes while shutting down

if i plug it into the USB 2 expansion card, it works fine, if i plug it into the onboard PS2 it works fine :S

The only reason it goes into USB is cos otherwise the control software has interesting affects, like bringing media player or winamp to the front when i press pause, if it is USb'd it dosent.

i will cope....

Zidane · 27th Jul 2005, 11:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Caines

If I'm honest I use it mainly for wireless browsing and playing Bejeweled in the toilet (whilst I wait for them to pull their fingers out about the availability of the Blackberry Connect software)

pull their fingers out of where..... i had the most bizarre mental image.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Caines

As far as I'm concerned if it fits in the hole then it ought to work.

im slightly concerned about which holes your trying to fit things into.....

</shameless mis-quoting for the sakes of quality>

i run linux, very happily..... but, if i load XP pro in a virtual machine, it a) turns my pcm volume down to 0 when windows starts, and b) turns off the key-repeat on my keyboard (the thing that makes hhhhhhhhhhhhh if you hold down h, i just get h no matter how long i hold down)

i think a lot of things can be attributed to "functions over functionality", i.e. "lets make usb drivers for a million devices", rather than "lets make usb drivers for a hundred devices that work perfectly every time". coupled with the insane rush to push technology into the market place (when was the last time you ever heard a company say "no, lets not sell this new product that will gross us a squillion dollars until we fix this niggling bug") and you get the net effect of things that *almost* work just fine.

as for the usb thing.... it might just be me, but has anyone noticed that XP seems to install a driver for each socket you plug the device into? i have two usb ports on the front of my pc, if i plug my usb-disk into port1, windows installs the driver, and if i then plug it into port2 windows goes through the driver installer thingummy *again*. surely it would just need one driver for one device?

as for the hardware, i can sort of understand. i tend to buy not-top-end gear thats been tried and tested, install it, set it up and it works just fine if i leave it to do its job (i.e. i dont overclock or anything). aside from taking my machine down every few months to clean the accumulated gunk out of its fans (i smoke like a chimney around my pc, and its very dusty here), it just runs and runs. but i do, occasionally, get the odd peice of hardware, i have a memory stick that will work on one motherboard here, but no others, i have an old pci gfx card that will work on 5 mobo's, but not the sixth (all six are exactly the same brand/model etc). just "odd little quirks" of the hardware that seem to defy any logic. my chair is going the same way too, but thats just through sheer use, it has two worn patches on it, right through to the foam, where my thighs and bum go (im skinny and have a bony bum), but considering the amount of use it gets, im well happy its lasted this long.

NuTech · 27th Jul 2005, 11:43

Quote:

"As far as I'm concerned if it fits in the hole then it ought to work. "

Keep telling my girlfriend that. She just wont listen.

Will · 27th Jul 2005, 11:44

I see you said don't get me started about your bluetooth adapter, well I know your pain there...such a pain to get it working right (and all I ever do is use it to transfer files, so god help me if I ever wanted to start syncing my phone to anything via bluetooth).

As for your NAS box, surprised about the keyboard error thingy...isn't there an option in the BIOS for the halt on errors which you can set to 'no errors' or something. I can't say I've seen many motherboards which don't have an option for this...

Generally I just about manage to get things working as I wan't most of the time, I seem to have really bad luck with getting sent the wrong item or something thats dead on arrival though which is just as frustrating - it seems online companies like to test my patence by doing things like sending me the wrong version of a motherboard (Dabs did it twice), then last week ebuyer sent a replacement motherboard to Wales last week rather than my home in Wolverhampton (for reasons yet to be explained, then theres OcUK sending me an opened/used and broken A8N-SLI Premium yesterday!

bigal · 27th Jul 2005, 12:12

my scope says "Error 41" on startup every time, but it means nothing to anyone, not even HP who make the thing and i spen £10 on a new battery for it (thinking it would fix the prob) and now all it does is remember the time...
I have a LCD screen on my pc which the left hand side is 10 pixels higher than the right hand side..

If i put my hand behind my pc for anything, the power lead disconnects just enough for my pc to turn off, however hard it is plugged in and the DVI plug for monito 1 allways falls out...

the fan in the sides of all the pcs here are noisy...

i have loads of software probs, like winamp crashes if you load a radio station while listing to another song, and if i unplu my USB mouse (plugged into a US -> PS2 adaptor) (KVM switch) it wont work again unless i unplug the adaptor...

actually i am doing pretty well nowadays...

FIBRE+ · 27th Jul 2005, 12:39

Damn gizmos, reel you in with all there shiney goodness then turn there nose up at you cos they cant be arsed to work "ive got more important things to do" they say.... pah!

Oh, and this forever chasing the broken part when something is almost working perfectly, you fix the brocken/dodgey item and something else decides its had enough

RTT · 27th Jul 2005, 12:44

all my stuff just works

now i am waiting for something to break

27th Jul 2005, 13:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by RTT

all my stuff just works

Me too, yay!

3.5SE · 27th Jul 2005, 13:32

Nothing works for me either. My water-cooling pump all of a sudden decided not to start this past weekend. A reboot of the PC got it going again. But it stopped again the other day. It's hit or miss, needless to say I'm scrapping my water-cooling system and going back to air cooling. Ordered $80 worth of air cooling equipment to replace my $300+ water-cooling stuff.

Now the mouse in my new, expensive Logitech Dinovo Media set does not work. It worked all of about one day. Now when I plug the USB cable in the system just doesn't see it. This is on three separate computers. The keyboard works fine, I'm typing on it now but I had to use another mouse with it. Hopefully Logitech will get me a replacement. They've done so in the past.

TMM · 27th Jul 2005, 13:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigal

and the DVI plug for monito 1 allways falls out...

thats why there are screws on the plug....

Jordanis3r · 27th Jul 2005, 14:26

tut, tbh you guys are whingers! there is a solution to every problem, its just finding it and having the patience to do so usually ...

as for the article - just buy some decent equipment that works ...sounds as though everything you own is old and worn

logan · 27th Jul 2005, 14:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by RTT

all my stuff just works

All my stuff works...... just!

TGImages · 27th Jul 2005, 14:54

Here's a new one to me....

Got a laptop from one of my users that runs XP and just before the login window appears the screen goes black. It's still on as you can see the lighting along the edges but nothing on screen. If you connect an external monitor you get the video with the login screen. However if you run with the unit plugged in instead of on battery the screen comes up just fine. For some reason on battery it thinks it should switch to external video even with no monitor connected and no key combination will get it back to the built in screen.

Master Ninja · 27th Jul 2005, 15:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris

My PDA hangs, a lot. I won't go into the particular brand suffice to say I've had, oh... two, or three of them in my time. If I'm honest I use it mainly for wireless browsing and playing Bejeweled in the toilet (whilst I wait for them to pull their fingers out about the availability of the Blackberry Connect software)...

Whoops!

This thread is now about the most random and/or disastrous failure without reason that you've experienced. I've had two Hydor pumps not just fail, but fail for IDENTICAL reasons and after the EXACT same amount of time each (9 months). I contacted the company and they said they'd send a replacement part; that was months ago.

Hamish · 27th Jul 2005, 15:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by RTT

all my stuff just works

++

except for my joystick which wont work unless plugged into a mobo usb port, not a big deal i need the front ports for other stuff
and the slightly iffy raid controller which works fine now

monkeyville · 27th Jul 2005, 15:12

I cant surf the net while listening to music. Dont know why?

My bluetooth keyboard will fail to connect once every few days usually mid clan game.

The microphone will occasionally just start hissing as loud as it can usually while on a critical game or conversation, and the best one:

While on a very important call to the guy who decides if i stay at uni, my mobile decides to randomly reboot. Seriously i have never had such a worse for a reboot

27th Jul 2005, 08:29	#1
WilHarris Just another nobody Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Oxford Posts: 2,671	Why doesn't anything work? http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2005...ng_work/1.html

27th Jul 2005, 08:59	#2
XUntitled Supermodder Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: PA Posts: 454	Gremlins OR my other theory is really small zombies. But anyway... My recent technology mishap was this... I'm in the middle of a Call of Duty game in which my score is 41 kill and 6 deaths after 11 minutes (aka I'm doing kick ass). So I bring up the console and type what I thought was 'record', I get an error... hmm it seems that my c key stopped working. On further investigation it turns out my z, x, and c key stopped working for no reason. They were working thirty seconds early but now they stopped. After taking the keyboard apart, I can't find any problems. It also wont work in any of my mother computers. So I take out an extra keyboard, plug it in and I'm on my way. I get into windows, but now theirs a new error. The caps lock key is stuck on. It wont turn off. I try it in another computer, still stuck. I take the keyboard apart and once again can't find a problem. So now i'm down to my last keyboard. Its a small, mini travel kind of keyboard (some thing like 88 keys, can type with one hand). This keyboard has the 'Fn' key to double other keys (such as the letter 'j' can also be used as the number 1). Well its stuck to. I can't use half the keyboard because numbers are coming up instead of letters. I open this keyboard up, and I'm not sure what I did but I got it working. So now I'm down to this little piece of junk travel keyboard.. All I wanted to do was play a couple rounds of Call of Duty Last edited by XUntitled; 27th Jul 2005 at 09:15.

27th Jul 2005, 10:37	#4
Sunny-D Multimodder Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Undisclosed Location, NY Posts: 200	recently, also known as today, my laptop wont boot unless i boot with all extensions turned off, which requires booting whilst holding down the 'shift' key. and amazingly, ive forgotten both times i booted up today. freakin macs. 'yea, these are user friendly. theres no tinkering required. just hit power and go.' yeah, right. then theres my iPod. you can only read half of the screen (the left half) because i fell onto it while skating. so to see anything you have to guess the end of the word. and you have no idea what the battery life is, because the battery metre is on the dead half. other than that, my technology has been behaving well lately. __________________ Eternal Project::\|AMD XP 2500+\|\|Abit NF7-S\|\|2x 256mb PC3200 Corsair Value Ram\|\|ATi AiW 9000\| \|WD800JB\|\|Seagate 40GB\|\|Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW 2.4xDL DVD+R\|Lite-On 16x DVD-ROM\|\|Win XP\|\|Logitech MX1000\| \|Audio equipment::: \|5G iPod Video 30GB\|\|Sony MDR-V150 Studio Monitor Headphones\| \|JVC MX series 460 watt stereo\|[/color] Laptop::\|\|Apple G3 Powerbook @ 266Mhz\|\|320 MB RAM\|\|4 GB HDD\|\|250 MB Zip Drive<--Currently dead (dog chewed cord)

27th Jul 2005, 10:37	#5
GuardianStorm Ultramodder Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Bournemouth Posts: 1,465	If i plug my keyboard in via the USB on board my mobo, the pc freezes while shutting down if i plug it into the USB 2 expansion card, it works fine, if i plug it into the onboard PS2 it works fine :S The only reason it goes into USB is cos otherwise the control software has interesting affects, like bringing media player or winamp to the front when i press pause, if it is USb'd it dosent. i will cope.... __________________ Sites: My Site :: My blog Tools: Project Log Previewer Curent Projects: Dark Vortex Finished Projects: Yarrrbox :: Laptop Stand :: Bench PSU MK2 :: FS2 Guides: How To Bend Metal

27th Jul 2005, 11:44	#8
Will Beware the judderman... Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Aberystwyth, boyo. Posts: 3,058	I see you said don't get me started about your bluetooth adapter, well I know your pain there...such a pain to get it working right (and all I ever do is use it to transfer files, so god help me if I ever wanted to start syncing my phone to anything via bluetooth). As for your NAS box, surprised about the keyboard error thingy...isn't there an option in the BIOS for the halt on errors which you can set to 'no errors' or something. I can't say I've seen many motherboards which don't have an option for this... Generally I just about manage to get things working as I wan't most of the time, I seem to have really bad luck with getting sent the wrong item or something thats dead on arrival though which is just as frustrating - it seems online companies like to test my patence by doing things like sending me the wrong version of a motherboard (Dabs did it twice), then last week ebuyer sent a replacement motherboard to Wales last week rather than my home in Wolverhampton (for reasons yet to be explained, then theres OcUK sending me an opened/used and broken A8N-SLI Premium yesterday! __________________ \|\| Email \|\| Some people are like slinkies. No good for anything, but they still bring a smile to your face when you push them down stairs.

27th Jul 2005, 10:12	#3
Darkedge Supermodder Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: UK Posts: 334	christ you guys are unlucky. Remind me not to ever travel by boat with you as I don't want the boat to hit an iceberg

27th Jul 2005, 12:12	#9
bigal fetch n execute Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Salisbury, UK Posts: 609	my scope says "Error 41" on startup every time, but it means nothing to anyone, not even HP who make the thing and i spen £10 on a new battery for it (thinking it would fix the prob) and now all it does is remember the time... I have a LCD screen on my pc which the left hand side is 10 pixels higher than the right hand side.. If i put my hand behind my pc for anything, the power lead disconnects just enough for my pc to turn off, however hard it is plugged in and the DVI plug for monito 1 allways falls out... the fan in the sides of all the pcs here are noisy... i have loads of software probs, like winamp crashes if you load a radio station while listing to another song, and if i unplu my USB mouse (plugged into a US -> PS2 adaptor) (KVM switch) it wont work again unless i unplug the adaptor... actually i am doing pretty well nowadays... __________________ The Alexster is back after a year random sebatical....

27th Jul 2005, 12:39	#10
FIBRE+ Ultramodder Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Oxford Posts: 1,306	Damn gizmos, reel you in with all there shiney goodness then turn there nose up at you cos they cant be arsed to work "ive got more important things to do" they say.... pah! Oh, and this forever chasing the broken part when something is almost working perfectly, you fix the brocken/dodgey item and something else decides its had enough __________________ ++ASUS SLI Premium \| X2 3800 @ 2.6ghz \| XP-120 \| 2GB Mushkin \| 8800 GT \| XFI Music \| Seagate 320GB \ Samsung F1 1TB \| 520W Corsair HX \| 23" Dell S2309W ++ ++Zotac 9300 Mini ITX \| Intel E5200 \| Scythe Shuriken \| 2GB Corsair \| 8600 GTS (Passive) \| WD Black 2.5" 320GB \ Samsung F2 Eco 1TB \| Corsair VX 450W \| 42" Panasonic Viera++ ++Canon 400D \| Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 \| Canon 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 \| Sandisk Extreme III 4GB++My Ebay++

27th Jul 2005, 12:44	#11
RTT bwarp Moderator Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Berkshire Posts: 12,985	all my stuff just works now i am waiting for something to break __________________ This post is non-negotiable. All terms and conditions apply. Arguing on the internet is like competing in the special Olympics. Even if you win you're still a retard.

27th Jul 2005, 13:32	#13
3.5SE Multimodder Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: NY Posts: 88	Nothing works for me either. My water-cooling pump all of a sudden decided not to start this past weekend. A reboot of the PC got it going again. But it stopped again the other day. It's hit or miss, needless to say I'm scrapping my water-cooling system and going back to air cooling. Ordered $80 worth of air cooling equipment to replace my $300+ water-cooling stuff. Now the mouse in my new, expensive Logitech Dinovo Media set does not work. It worked all of about one day. Now when I plug the USB cable in the system just doesn't see it. This is on three separate computers. The keyboard works fine, I'm typing on it now but I had to use another mouse with it. Hopefully Logitech will get me a replacement. They've done so in the past. __________________ A8N SLI Prem., X2 3800+, 2GB Corsair PC3200, XFX 7800 GT, Lian Li PCV-2000B Case, Antec True Blue 480watt PSU sleeved, 74 GB WD Raptor HD, 160 GB Maxtor HD, Pioneer A09 DVD Burner, Cendyne 106S Slot Load DVD Drive

27th Jul 2005, 14:26	#15
Jordanis3r Jigsaw Master Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: London Posts: 624	tut, tbh you guys are whingers! there is a solution to every problem, its just finding it and having the patience to do so usually ... as for the article - just buy some decent equipment that works ...sounds as though everything you own is old and worn __________________ As the hours get longer .... the coffee gets stronger

27th Jul 2005, 14:54	#17
TGImages Grandpa Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Illinois, US Posts: 160	Here's a new one to me.... Got a laptop from one of my users that runs XP and just before the login window appears the screen goes black. It's still on as you can see the lighting along the edges but nothing on screen. If you connect an external monitor you get the video with the login screen. However if you run with the unit plugged in instead of on battery the screen comes up just fine. For some reason on battery it thinks it should switch to external video even with no monitor connected and no key combination will get it back to the built in screen.

27th Jul 2005, 15:12	#20
monkeyville Evilish Monkey ++; Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Surbiton - SW London Posts: 1,794	I cant surf the net while listening to music. Dont know why? My bluetooth keyboard will fail to connect once every few days usually mid clan game. The microphone will occasionally just start hissing as loud as it can usually while on a critical game or conversation, and the best one: While on a very important call to the guy who decides if i stay at uni, my mobile decides to randomly reboot. Seriously i have never had such a worse for a reboot __________________ \|eBay\| Because monkeys never hurt anyone. \|Hexus\| -=\|For Sale Thread\|=- -------- -=\|My Site\|=- "If crime fighters fight crime, and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?" [atrack]monkeyville[/atrack]