Recent Tech Troubles

Rico · December 22, 2011, 05:04:59 AM

For a couple months now my Comcast internet has been crap. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Upload speeds are nearly zero at times. They have come out twice and checked every wire, dropped a new line outside, and put on a Comcast modem again. It still is crap. Last night when I tried to call them I just got a message saying there was an issue in my area and service would be back up at 1:20am! LOL! Anyway, I've about had it. Probably will be making a deal with the other devil (AT&T) soon for at least internet. I hate to change because I like having it all under one place but AT&T Uverse doesn't work well with TIVO, I hear. So I probably would keep the cable TV with Comcast. Anyway, just wanted to vent a bit. Does anyone here use Uverse?

Oh, and another odd thing. It seems what I thought was a dead hard drive recently isn't so dead. I tried it in another PC and it worked fine. I think I need to Flash the Bios on my main machine (a slightly scary prospect, but I've done it on other machines before). For some reason my main machine isn't recognizing this hard drive anymore. My only guess is that the Bios has been messed up somehow. Anyway, another thing to fix.

P.S. Plus I had to repair a leaky toliet last night. Why does everything break during the holidays? LOL! :ohwell

billybob476 · December 22, 2011, 05:38:58 AM

I thought my USB hard drive had died, it would randomly disconnect from the computer, it turns out the USB to micro USB cable that was connecting it to the computer had gone bad. Maybe check that out if you can.

Internet problems suck!

As do leaky toilets!

Bryancd · December 22, 2011, 06:23:18 AM

Quote from: Rico on December 22, 2011, 05:04:59 AM
P.S. Plus I had to repair a leaky toliet last night. Why does everything break during the holidays? LOL! :ohwell

Becuase Murphy, of Murphy's Law fame, knows you're home. :)

Rico · December 22, 2011, 06:36:26 AM

Quote from: billybob476 on December 22, 2011, 05:38:58 AM
I thought my USB hard drive had died, it would randomly disconnect from the computer, it turns out the USB to micro USB cable that was connecting it to the computer had gone bad. Maybe check that out if you can.

Internet problems suck!

As do leaky toilets!

Yeah, I already checked the SATA cable by using the cable that got it working in the second PC. I suppose it could be the power cable to the drive, but it is spinning so that seems unlikely.

P.S. The toilet was an easy fix. Just a leaky cold water line to the toilet. Took maybe 30 min. to fix.

Jobydrone · December 22, 2011, 06:48:42 AM

Could it be your USB port? Mine seem to randomly stop functioning once in a while until a reboot resets them, I find it is generally caused by plugging and unplugging my Xbox 360 controller from my Mac. Why won't Apple just play nice?!?

Rico · December 22, 2011, 08:34:30 AM

The drive I am having issues with is an internal, SATA drive. No USB port required. ;)

billybob476 · December 22, 2011, 08:38:54 AM

Oh I was also under the impression it was an external drive.

turtlesrock · December 22, 2011, 08:40:53 AM

you know what i always do, turn it off, turn it on again, and everything seems to work. :)

Rico · December 22, 2011, 08:45:05 AM

Quote from: billybob476 on December 22, 2011, 08:38:54 AM
Oh I was also under the impression it was an external drive.

Nope. I do have an external drive, but that's fine. It's the Bios that started all of a sudden to not recognize the drive properly. I tried to turn off S.M.A.R.T. monitoring in the Bios, that didn't help. Tried a different SATA port, different SATA cable, all no luck. But put this drive in my secondary PC and it recognized it fine. It's a 1 TB Western Digital. So, I'm going to try flashing and updating my Bios. The machine it has trouble in is about 3.5 years old. But the odd thing is that until a couple days ago it was all just fine.

the_geeky_one · December 22, 2011, 12:44:19 PM

Don't even get me started on Comcast...they take the fun out of the internets...don't record my shows properly...call me on Saturday morning to sell me stuff...don't take young females seriously when they call to complain...and watch Judge Judy when they should be making sure the dvr they gave me actually works...

I'm glad you have other options Rico. Hopefully, the slow loss of business to U-verse will encourage them to up their game.

Rico · December 23, 2011, 08:01:06 AM

Well, I just flashed by Bios (always a little scary - even with a backup). Now, to see if it will recognize my hard drive again.

billybob476 · December 23, 2011, 08:04:12 AM

Yeah there are very few ways to brick a computer these days, a bad BIOS flash is still one of them :)

Dangelus · December 23, 2011, 08:22:03 AM

The modern bios flashing methods within Windows is pretty safe, it's those old DOS methods that you have to worry about!

Rico · December 23, 2011, 09:03:09 AM

Quote from: Dangelus on December 23, 2011, 08:22:03 AM
The modern bios flashing methods within Windows is pretty safe, it's those old DOS methods that you have to worry about!

I had to do it the old way - using an outside of Windows method. My machine is almost 4 years old.

Ok, here's another update. Flashing the Bios didn't seem to help, or updating a few system drivers. So, I swapped the drive with another drive in my system. Basically hooking it to another SATA channel and hooking that other drive to the channel the "bad" drive has been on. And lo and behold - everything shows up and works now! Totally weird. My SATA channels are all the same, no special colored or master ones. Anyway, all seems good and my drive is back again. I should probably run a few diagnostics on the drive, just to be sure. But, I'm happy! :)

billybob476 · December 23, 2011, 09:12:16 AM

If you can get your hands on a copy of SprinRite it wouldn't hurt to see if the drive is in the process of failing. It's a bit pricey but a good tool to have if one of your drives takes a big dump :)

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm