Computer Screamed As It Died

So, a few days ago my computer–the one I bought new last August–started screaming. It was a microphone feedback kind of thing. With head phones, or without. Sometimes it would stop, but if I touched it near where the mic is located, it would start. Then yesterday, I couldn’t stop the sound by muting the computer and had to force it to shut down–I mean hold down the power key until it gave up and died.

I finally got it to re-start, but it can’t recover and can’t even system restore, even from safe mode. It keeps talking a catestrophic failure. I’m posting at work now because, though I can sometimes get online at home, it usually is un-responsive, or takes a bazillion years and then says windows is unresponsive.

And I don’t want to let the guy here at school look at it because it was fine until I let him mess around with it earlier this year. It’s been gettin slower and slower since, with more and more issues.

So, what do I do?

I sincerely hope you can throw it out the window, no pun intended, and buy a Mac.

HG

And a fly buzzed by.

You should describe your computer and OS.

If you bought it last August, it should be under warranty, no? Just take it in to have it repaired.

If you don’t have a warranty, you could take it to one of the many computer repair shops on Jianguo Road and get a quote on the repairs.

You can also have a technician come to your house to look at it, though he will probably need to take it away and return it to you when it’s repaired. I know a tech who does house calls, his name is Eyick and his number is 07 222 6571.

Good luck!

Sounds like a problem with either the power supply (they tend to make high-pitch noises before dying) or the power regulation circuitry on the motherboard (which can also cause the same noise).
Having a Mac as someone suggested wouldn’t have made any difference in this case, as it’s a components failure and judging by the fact that the system has problems starting, I’d say the power regulation circuitry is about to fail. Get it fixed ASAP or more things could break inside the system.

[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]I sincerely hope you can throw it out the window, no pun intended, and buy a Mac.

HG[/quote]

If you knew how many problems I had with my wife’s Mac for my presentation at the book festival last week, you wouldn’t be saying that. :smiley:

Can we not make this a “shoulda got a Mac” thread? It really doesn’t help the OP.

Thanks.

irishstu
Technology Forum Moderator

[quote=“RobinTaiwan”]If you bought it last August, it should be under warranty, no? Just take it in to have it repaired.

If you don’t have a warranty, you could take it to one of the many computer repair shops on Jianguo Road and get a quote on the repairs.

You can also have a technician come to your house to look at it, though he will probably need to take it away and return it to you when it’s repaired. I know a tech who does house calls, his name is Eyick and his number is 07 222 6571.

Good luck![/quote]

All good, but I believe the feline in question is in Chang Hua.

What? She moved? I thought she was in Renwu, just outside of Kaohsiung. OK, this complicates things. It’s a bit of a drive back to Kaohsiung if the computer is under warranty, and Eyick will definitely not do a house call that far up north.

I tried! :slight_smile:

Hmmm… this sounds like you have a program in there that is going nuts (#1), taking up CPU time - meaning that it has convinced the computer to pay more attention to it, than any other program/process.

However, there could be other problems. You could have a heat issue (#2). You could have a virus(#3). You might have a feedback problem with your microphone and speakers (#4). You might just have bad luck (#5).

Let’s try to fix them in order:

(#1) Right click on the bar at the bottom of your screen and select ‘Start Task Manager’. Click the processes tab. You will see a list of programs that are running. Click the header that says CPU. If you only see a zero at the top of the list, click it again. You should see a list of programs that are running with the amount of work that it is demanding of the computer. That should be something like firefox, Internet Explorer or any other known application that is as resource hungry as a web browser. (Sorry about rushing through that. Ask me if you want a better/more detailed explanation of the above.)

(#2) The temperature outside is warming up and your computer might not be keeping up with the increase. You might have a problem with the fans in the computer, or one or more heat sinks might have come loose. Do you see/hear any fans running?

(#3) Do you have a good antivirus program? When was the last time that you updated it? When was the last time that you scanned your computer? I recommend MS Security Essentials. It’s free. It works.

(#4) Disconnect all your audio stuff. Does that help? If it doesn’t, try disabling your audio via Windows. Do that by right-clicking the speaker icon in the lower right hand corner of your screen. In the new window, select recording devices. Right click each item in the list and click ‘disable’. If that doesn’t help, make sure that you right-click each of the items and ‘enable’ them. (unless you REALLY don’t want your microphone to work.)

(#5) Bad luck - I can’t help you with bad luck. Have you thought about going to church?

Did any of that help?

(I kinda like the one about going to church, but that’s just me. :wink: )

Computers are stupid.
Anyone who owns a computer is an idiot.
You shouldn’t complain when your computer screws up, you deserve what you get for having one.

Sorry, I’m practicing Posting Like An Athiest.
:blush:

I had a great church in K-town, but there’s not much in chang hua. Just started an on-line Bible study with some friends and . . . .

Anyway, I went home at lunch to clean a bit before the cleaning lady came (Whole nother issue–I know–but my son had flu last week and the place was a disaster area). I went to try to check out my OS and stuff–to make sure I remember correctly to tell you guys, but . . .

Apparently, the guy here at school has installed a new, and somewhat less than legal, OS. Thing was, they wanted me to use my own computer here to write class lessons and materials–because they didn’t have any computers with an English OS–but I didn’t have office, or PP, which I needed. This guy at school had an older copy of office, in English, that was, again, somewhat less than legal, but it wouldn’t run on my newer OS. So, seems like he solved that problem by installing the different OS.

Now, I’m not at all tech savy and I didn’t stand over him. I don’t have any idea what’s up with the screaming and where that fits into anything. I’m thinking that microsoft is blocking the OS, though, as it now says on the desk top that the OS isn’t valid. Anyway, the comupter guy here (who eventually set this computer up for me here) confirmed by phone that he made those changes to my personal computer, but he isn’t here today.

I bought the thing at 3C. Has the computer guy voided any warranty by changing the OS? I would think he has. I don’t have a copy of the original OS that was put onto the computer–because it’s not likely legal anyway–because at first they told me they didn’t have an English OS to put on it, then had a little talk and changed their minds.

I’m running Avast antivirus and scanned the entire systme just 2 days ago. It found nothing.

So, is there a 3C in Chang Hua? If I take it there, could they fix it?

Thanks. For (almost) everything.

Though some of this stuff is quite off topic, and maybe even quite funny, I just really wanna know how to fix my computer.

Geez, where to start…

Basically you have two choices.

  1. Take it back to that guy.
  2. Take it to 3C.

It kinda depends on what caused the problem. If it’s a software thing, then I’d be inclined to get the guy at school to put all that stuff back on and that should be the end of your problems (for a while at least).

If it’s a hardware problem, then it needs to go back to 3C. Unfortunately they might tell you the warranty’s void cos of messing about with the software.

Really, the guy had no business changing the operating system on your computer in the first place, but what’s done is done I guess. I suppose you could tell 3C that you were left with no alternative because your original software stopped working and 3C hadn’t supplied you with a disk.

Hang on, one other thing which I didn’t think of, the screaming noise can very much be the fan disconnect warning signal as in GTBK’s second suggestion. Open up the side of the case and see if the fan is spinning. If it’s not, then you need to have the fan replaced, as it would make the CPU overheat which would put it into really slow mode to prevent it from burning up. It’s a matter of a few hundred NT$ and it’s one of those things that sadly happens, especially if the computer is in a dusty environment.

[quote=“irishstu”]Geez, where to start…

Basically you have two choices.

  1. Take it back to that guy.
  2. Take it to 3C.

It kinda depends on what caused the problem. If it’s a software thing, then I’d be inclined to get the guy at school to put all that stuff back on and that should be the end of your problems (for a while at least).

If it’s a hardware problem, then it needs to go back to 3C. Unfortunately they might tell you the warranty’s void cos of messing about with the software.

Really, the guy had no business changing the operating system on your computer in the first place, but what’s done is done I guess. I suppose you could tell 3C that you were left with no alternative because your original software stopped working and 3C hadn’t supplied you with a disk.[/quote]

Okay, so basically I can’t do this myself, then. Thanks for being helpful, Iris. I’d not like the guy here messing with it again because I now feel that I can’t really trust him. I mean, not that he deliberatly did anything sneaky, but you’d think he’d have bothered to mention it.

Oh, and it’s a laptop/notebook type, not PC type computer. I really don’t think I should be opening it up by myself.

Now–any idea how much this might cost?

[quote=“housecat”][quote=“irishstu”]Geez, where to start…

Basically you have two choices.

  1. Take it back to that guy.
  2. Take it to 3C.

It kinda depends on what caused the problem. If it’s a software thing, then I’d be inclined to get the guy at school to put all that stuff back on and that should be the end of your problems (for a while at least).

If it’s a hardware problem, then it needs to go back to 3C. Unfortunately they might tell you the warranty’s void cos of messing about with the software.

Really, the guy had no business changing the operating system on your computer in the first place, but what’s done is done I guess. I suppose you could tell 3C that you were left with no alternative because your original software stopped working and 3C hadn’t supplied you with a disk.[/quote]

Okay, so basically I can’t do this myself, then. Thanks for being helpful, Iris. I’d not like the guy here messing with it again because I now feel that I can’t really trust him. I mean, not that he deliberatly did anything sneaky, but you’d think he’d have bothered to mention it.

Oh, and it’s a laptop/notebook type, not PC type computer. I really don’t think I should be opening it up by myself.

Now–any idea how much this might cost?[/quote]

Oh, it’s a notebook?? That’s different. There may be a restore function on it. Can you give us the make and model?

[quote=“housecat”]I had a great church in K-town, but there’s not much in chang hua. Just started an on-line Bible study with some friends and . . . .

Anyway, I went home at lunch to clean a bit before the cleaning lady came (Whole nother issue–I know–but my son had flu last week and the place was a disaster area). I went to try to check out my OS and stuff–to make sure I remember correctly to tell you guys, but . . .

Apparently, the guy here at school has installed a new, and somewhat less than legal, OS. Thing was, they wanted me to use my own computer here to write class lessons and materials–because they didn’t have any computers with an English OS–but I didn’t have office, or PP, which I needed. This guy at school had an older copy of office, in English, that was, again, somewhat less than legal, but it wouldn’t run on my newer OS. So, seems like he solved that problem by installing the different OS.

Now, I’m not at all tech savy and I didn’t stand over him. I don’t have any idea what’s up with the screaming and where that fits into anything. I’m thinking that microsoft is blocking the OS, though, as it now says on the desk top that the OS isn’t valid. Anyway, the comupter guy here (who eventually set this computer up for me here) confirmed by phone that he made those changes to my personal computer, but he isn’t here today.

I bought the thing at 3C. Has the computer guy voided any warranty by changing the OS? I would think he has. I don’t have a copy of the original OS that was put onto the computer–because it’s not likely legal anyway–because at first they told me they didn’t have an English OS to put on it, then had a little talk and changed their minds.

I’m running Avast antivirus and scanned the entire systme just 2 days ago. It found nothing.

So, is there a 3C in Chang Hua? If I take it there, could they fix it?

Thanks. For (almost) everything.

Though some of this stuff is quite off topic, and maybe even quite funny, I just really wanna know how to fix my computer.[/quote]

Ouch. It looks like a software problem - specifically your operating system. Even if you can fix your current problem, you are not getting any updates to Windows, and you really need those.

I recommend getting a legal copy of Windows 7 Home Premium in ENGLISH and installing over your current system. Maybe some online stores in the US ship to Taiwan. Although, if the guys at 3C are willing to install Windows 7 Ultimate, you should be able to get the operating system to switch from Chinese to English. AFAIK, that’s the only way to get a Chinese version of Windows 7 to switch over to an English version.

Oh, and by the way, the 3C people were the first cause of your problem. THEY are the ones who installed a ‘faulty’ version of windows in the first place. They should be able to upgrade you to Windows 7 Ultimate and then do the switch to English for only a little extra money (50 USD?).

Having said that, I’ve never done this, so I cannot tell you if the above is the best approach.

Anyone else have a better idea?


EDIT: just saw the point that you have a notebook. If you can restore the original operating system and then upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate… that might be the cheapest option. Ask the 3C people how much they would charge you.

Hmmm… still sound like the CPU fan has died, does it get really really hot as well?
And no, you’re right, you shouldn’t be opening that.
Changing the software won’t void the hardware warranty, so just take it back and have them look at it. Besides, this is Taiwan :wink:

[quote=“TheLostSwede”]Hmmm… still sound like the CPU fan has died, does it get really really hot as well?
And no, you’re right, you shouldn’t be opening that.
Changing the software won’t void the hardware warranty, so just take it back and have them look at it. Besides, this is Taiwan :wink:[/quote]

If you have fan problems, fix those FIRST… THEN, fix the operating system issue.

3C has like 10 stores in Chang hua. This from the city:

店號: 129
店名: 彰化中正店
地址: 彰化縣彰化市中正路二段451號
電話: (04) 7203996
傳真: (04) 7203987

tk3c.com.tw/StoreQuery.aspx

Lemme know if you need help looking.