Posts by SnowDog

When I set it up, all I did was put my normal pop server names in.

But as I have said, I could never get the set up to work properly. Single pages were served fine, but as soon as I tried to call another PHP page the system reported an error - one which didn't occur on a web-based server. I wasn't alone in experiencing the problem, but by then it didn't matter. And there were other quirks as well.

But that was 3 or 4 years ago.

Being online these days with high-speed connections means there's not much point in going through all the hassle unless you are doing it professionally (IMO). I always upload my scripts directly and test them there - after all, that's where they need to work.

This is exactly the point I was making.

If I were you I'd forget it for now and stick with your web server. Or get some web space which allows PHP.

http://www.oinko.net/freephp/

Well, thumping it is never a good idea, but it does point you in the direction of something being loose or sticking.

My first thought was maybe the HDD.

The basic check we get people to do is remove power cord, remove battery, plug power cord in and attempt startup. This performs a reset.

If nothing happens there is a hardware fault.

Then we try to narrow it down:

1. Check fuse in power socket - in your case you have power to the PSU so it isn't that.

2. Any obvious damage to power socket on the laptop? Missing or loose pin. Loose socket casing.

3. Plug in battery and try powering from that only.

If there is obvious damage to the laptop socket, we take it in for repair. Ditto if it won't power from a battery we know has charge after a reset.

If there is any uncertainty over laptop AND psu or laptop OR psu, we take in both.

I've had a couple of cases where the psu light goes out (or flickers) and we always take the psu in for that and usually the laptop as well - even if it is working on battery - just to make sure it gets fixed first time around.

Is it under warranty?

From what you described, it could be that the socket has come away from the board (i.e. by straining the cable) or that the connection became intermittent and it has arced/sparked, causing MOBO damage.

Yes, if you want to run them locally on your machine. You also need mySQL if you plan to use that.

And it isn't as easy as it sounds, and you may find some things don't work (sending form mail, for example).

To start with, it might be best to stick with your webspace (if it handles PHP) because that way you can stay focused on PHP and not all the messing about associated with setting up Apache on your system (i.e. trying to figure out if something isn't working because of your PHP code or the set up on your system).

Another question to add, what does it mean by binary or source code installation.

You don't need the sourcecode.

Yes, but unless you have a server with PHP running on it you won't be able to see the pages.

Your webspace must have PHP capability (and most free ones don't). In that case you have to install server software on your PC and put PHP on that.

But unless you have a webspace to upload to that can handle PHP no one else is going to be able to see your pages.

You don't actually need any.

If your web server can handle PHP, all you need is a text editor and as long as you can upload files it will work.

I use this editor:

http://syn.sourceforge.net/

If you want to run PHP files locally then you need to install PHP and server software. Several variations possible but they take a little bit of setting up no matter how easy the installation guide tells you it is ;)

http://uk2.php.net/install.windows

http://www.thescripts.com/serveradministration/webservers/apache/theapachewebserver/index.html

There's nothing wrong with IE.

This is the price you pay for downloading beta software and not reading the part which warns you it could crash your system ;)

The same thing happened when SP2 was in pre-release. Loads of people insisted on installing it before anyone else and it messed up their systems no end.

Well, as a starting point just assume it IS RAM and get that tested.

If you really aren't comfortable with this it would be best to get it looked at in a store otherwise you could cause more damage without knowing it.

The HPs I know have AMIBIOS not Phoenix. What is yours?

You're not likely to magically fix it. Wiggling stuff could cause more damage if you don't know what you're doing, so be careful. Something is wrong and to find out what you need good diag information in at one end to get a reasonable answer out the other.

What BIOS do you have? Codes are different between BIOSes.

Assuming it's Phoenix BIOS the information I have about it says to check your RAM in the first slot.

Basically, I'd just check your RAM first.

How secure does it need to be?

The problem with Javascript is that the code is in the page, so it is quite easy to crack it.

You'd be better off using a server-side script (PHP, Perl, etc.). That way, the passwords are checked on the server so are harder to crack.

When we get anything like this on telephone support, we book out a motherboard and power supply as standard to start with. Depending on the machine, sometimes other components can also be affected (blown keyboard, etc) but you only find this out later.

There's not much else you can do. It's likely to be either the PSU, the MOBO, or both.

Well, you could download normaliz.dll and see if replacing it works. You might also need iertutil.dll.

This seems to be quite a common problem when installing IE7.

Can you get into Safe Mode?

Is it sorted now? I'm sure it will be fine - just a case of figuring out how to use it :)

Read the manual first, though.

Did you copy it into the VOICE folder? The manual (possibly on the disk) will tell you how to use it.

I thought it was just us blokes who only read the manual after they'd exhausted all other possibilities :)

Well, now you need to read the instructions because I haven't a clue how that model works - but all you really have to do is drag music onto that drive and it'll get copied into it, and when you use the navigation buttons on the player itself you'll see the tracks listed.

You shouldn't actually NEED to disconnect it.

I find it is best for all the equipment to leave the USB cable plugged in and just connect the player when you want to put music on to it (or delete what's already there). However, if the cable is plugged in the front USBs it is easy to accidentally lean on it and damage the ports on the computer, so you'll have to decide.

I think that's it. It WILL be empty at the moment.

If you know you don't have any cards in your card readers, the J is probably the one. Does it disappear if you unplug the MP3 player. Can you still open it if the player is removed?

Mmmm. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?

I think it raises a big question mark over the laptop charging function. Can you get it tested at a store?

Are those removable drives ALL there to begin with?

When I plug in a Flash device it appears as a new removable device. My money would be the one labelled J on your machine (the others are probably card reader slots).

What happens if you click on J on the left side (or double-click it in the main area in the middle)?

It could still be a dud, though.

On an established system , if the battery is simply taking zero charge we'd usually assume it was either the charging mechanism or the battery and deal with it accordingly (batteries not under warranty, of course).

Just a thought, was the supposedly dead, original battery doing the same thing? That might swing it towards the laptop itself rather than the battery.

Or anything else?

It might appear as MP3 player or something. The device is obviously being detected.

What if you plug it in first and then open My Computer?

It's annoying not being able to see what's happening because I'm sure it is there :)

When you plug it in, does the computer make the ding-dong sound that shows a USB device is plugged in? (I assume it IS USB).

With My Computer open, click on the Folders button at the top and then expand My Computer on the left side to make sure you can see the drives.

When you plug the device in it should make the sound and a new drive should appear.

Does that happen?

You've hit the nail on the head with being more interested in solving it that finding out all about it.

Most times, that's what people want: a quick, easy fix so they can use their computer productively.

If I were you I'd call Compaq and buy a replacement set of disks. They aren't expensive and you get the correct drivers for your system.

I've also seen it on systems with ATI cards. In any case, I'd be looking at the graphics card first. Does it do it in safe mode with just basic drivers?

How old is it?

They can always be repaired (unless obsolete with unavailable parts)but unless under warranty the cost sometimes makes it pointless.

Have you tried removing the mains, taking the battery out, then trying to power from mains only (with no other stuff plugged in)? What happens then?

Is the power socket on the back loose and is the pin in the middle still there?

Is the power adapter working? Your original shutdown problem may have nothing at all to do with the current non-starting.

If it still won't power, and if it isn't the adapter, then you could have a large bill to pay.

Unexpected T_String usually means syntax error somewhere ;)

And usually nowhere near the line number it reports :rolleyes:

We sometimes get problems like this with customers who call us at work, but I stress that just because someone has similar symptoms it doesn't means it's the same fault... so this is just some thoughts :)

What I usually do (hoping that the customer is going to be able to set their router up again) is hold the reset for 15 seconds and let the router reboot itself. That should put it back to its out-of-box settings.

Then, get them to scan with their laptop.

If it turns out the laptop is using the non-Windows wireless software I switch back to Windows wireless zero configuration and rescan. Usually the machine then finds the router.

Next step is to try and connect. Annoyingly, router vendors have started supplying them with security already enabled and that can be a problem because a customer will swear they typed the key in right when in plain English they didn't get it anywhere near right, so make triple-sure you do put it in properly when you get to that bit ;)

(Note: had a customer the other night with whom I was doing a walkthrough of recovery. Three times she told me everything was unplugged from the back except for the keyboard, mouse, monitor, and power cord. To start with, what she actually meant was that she had unplugged nothing. 2nd time, she had unplugged the printer. Third time I discovered she had still got the ethernet cable and …

Usually, a caste on the screen indicates that a colour channel isn't working properly - on desktop machines I've seen it when a pin on the VGA cable is bent or broken and even when the customer hasn't plugged it in properly and it is slightly out on one side.

Is the ribbon cable in correctly and none of the pins missing or damaged? That's what I'd check first.

The usual trick we use is to make sure the machine completely discharges on battery, then fully charge it, then fully discharge it. This supposedly resets the 'fuel gauges'.

Does it run on battery at all when you disconnect mains?

Does it run on mains only when the battery is out?

Also, are the pins making contact with the battery? They can sometimes get bent, though I'm not familiar with the layout of this model. I'm sure a friend of mine had an HP machine where the battery had a discharge switch on it - I don't suppose this one does, does it?

I'm not saying it is any of these things, but they're worth checking first before assuming a dud battery.

She seemed to say it was under extended warranty in her last post.

would it be better to bring it in on an extended warranty to be fixed?

When we (at work) are dealing with these things under our extended warranty we assume it is HW unless a) obviously not or b) until proven otherwise. And a machine which restarts on its own could quite easily be HW. At the very least she will have tech support via telephone to diag it 1-2-1. Much better than trying to do it on forums with the delays and various alternative suggestions.

At the very least they should talk her through the recovery which she clearly isn't familiar with.

No, the recovery puts Windows and all the original programs that came with your machine back on.

It will not put back your music, photos, documents, or any other stuff you personally have put on the machine.

But, whoa!

It's under warranty????? :eek:

Get your moneys-worth and get THEM to sort it for you. Seriously.

You don't know if it is HDD related or not. If there are corrupt files, you need to try and find out why. It can be due to physical problems.

The HDD test will show that up front if the HDD is involved and if it isn't - a useful thing to know - he can then deal with it from there.

If you say to someone who thinks they've broken something "Was it hot" the first thing they'll say is yes, when actually they don't know because they don't know what the normal temperature is.

Does it get into Safe Mode?

The fact that it gets on to the desktop suggests it isn't 'terminally dead' :)

Something's wrong. But it's a case of finding out what.

By definition, if you have a boot CD and if the machine POSTs, you will more than likely be able to run the HDD test from the boot CD - especially where the error is clearly only occurring when Windows starts to load.

If the HDD passes then you can recover and take it from there.

In the mouse settings, does the double-click actually work?

What I mean is, does the left button actually work?

Does single-click work?

It's quite possible that the update to Norton has caused it (we get occasional calls where the machine suddenly becomes unbootable after a Norton update etc.).

Just to clarify, the message 'We apologise... etc.' is a standard message telling you that Windows didn't start up properly last time. Each time it fails to start up ensures that the same message is displayed the next time either you or it tries.

If you can't get to Safe Mode either you can safely assume that whatever files are needed to start Windows are affected. It is extremely unlikely you're going to suddenly find it working again and it is 50:50 at this stage whether it is a hardware or software problem. So, you are going to have to do something proactive to find out if something has broken.

Ideally, you don't have data on it you need to recover.

You can either download a HDD test utility and run that or run the restore package that came with your machine. If the HDD has a fault it will probably become apparent at this stage (ceratainly with the HDD test disk).

If no fault is found then the next step is to restore the machine anyway and get it working again. You can take things from there because you can't predict what is going to happen more than a step or two ahead.

OK. I've now come to the same conclusion as caperjack. It doesn't matter that you've got an Audigy and that link specifically mentions Sound Blaster.

However, since this is a new issue and there was apparently no problem before it started, you have either got a software problem that will more than likely be resolved by a full recovery or a hardware problem, which won't.

You're not going to fix this by going in changing things (unless you get really lucky).

Back up your data and recover. Then see what happens.

This is why I recommend the full recovery - if it IS SW then it could be anything. But it can't do any harm taking them all off. The only thing is, if it doesn't sort the problem it hasn't proved anything.

Sometimes, uninstalling through Device Manager and then redetecting the various HW can sort problem out if it is down to settings, but if the actual files are corrupted in some way it won't do anything. Uninstalling something in Device Manager isn't the same as uninstalling via Add/Remove (which deletes all/most files).

Try Device Manager first, then try a complete uninstall of all Creative files through Add/Remove. But from the sounds of things you're going to have problems now because the errors are getting more frequent.

When you say you reformatted and reinstalled, did you delete the exisiting partition?

It sounds like you installed a fresh copy on a new partition and left the old one there.

If you only did this recently and haven't installed a lot of other stuff yet, the cleanest way (IMO) is to do it again, but this time delete all partitions so the whole disk is unformatted, then do a full NTFS format.

First thing I'd look at is what IP addresses are allowed on the router and compare that with your computer's IP address.

When I'm diagging networks at work (specifically, trying to find out if the computer has a problem) for people I usually like to reset the router and turn off security, then set it up from scratch. It avoids having to get bogged down with lots of settings people might have changed.

To be honest, it looks like there might be a HDD problem.

I'd suggest getting a HDD test utility boot disk and running that. You've got to try and eliminate things to narrow down what the problem is.

It's pretty clear that it is more than likely a hardware fault - certainly the original problem.

How did you try to uninstall the Creative software? It always makes me nervous when people say 'delete' and not 'uninstall'. If you 'uninstall' using the Add/Remove programs application (or go via Device Manager) it will just say 'Creative' and you uninstall it with one (or two) button clicks. If you're trying to delete files manually you're going to cause all sorts of problems because Windows will still think they're there via the registry when they're not. The second it tries to access one of them: Bang. You'll have a problem.

When you get those blue screens, what is the STOP code it gives? By the sounds of it you're getting different ones.

If you want to get to the bottom of it quickly, I'd advise a clean reinstall and see if it still does it. It might not.

When we're dealing with problems like this at work, the whole point is to sort problems out quickly for the customers and a full recovery eliminates any possible software issue in one go. Then you can focus on finding out what's going on.

If it was the 50 error it can be due to drivers or hardware. And to eliminate SW you are going to have to do a recovery.

Now, the Pavilion 420 sold in the UK has a HDD-based recovery system and you access that by tapping F10 when you turn the computer on. It should then boot from the recovery partition and into the recovery program assuming that the partition is not corrupt in any way. I am assuming that the A420N is the same as the 420.

You should see a Window which says Non-destructive Recovery. To prove what you need to prove here you have to choose Advanced Options and then choose the Destructive Recovery or Quick Format option (whichever it says).

If it says anything about Windows own repair feature, click YES to continue with the recovery anyway. Windows Restore won't fix this problem if it does turn out to be a SW issue.

Oooh. And it doesn't matter that it was working a week ago. It isn't working now and that's what matters ;)

Remember that it will wipe the drive completely of your personal data.

I've no idea how you're going to use this code in your full script, but if you take out the ' in 'site's' it doesn't error any more.

If you want that character in your text strings you're going to have to escape it.

Use \' instead of just the '. That doesn't error, either.

Well, it's hard to say - but in my personal opinion, based on my experience with ATI cards, yes.

I stress that that is absolutely just opinion and at this stage there's no way of pinning the blame on ATI in your case.

Once you run the reinstall, if the problems persist then you're going to have to find a way of narrowing down the culprit. Is there any way you can try swapping/removing the various components to see what effect it has? It's only the graphics card that will need a swap and you can get hold of a basic one for about $30.

Bear in mind it will wipe your hard drive, so you'll lose everything, but it will at least tell you if it is a HW fault or not....

Was your machine supplied with a set of restore disks?

Well, it's up to you.

If you can think of a better explanation for not turning on for a while after shutting down, go for it ;)

What harm is there, though, in the absence of any better explanation, setting out to prove or eliminate the overheating hypothesis? One way or the other it takes you firmly in the direction of finding out the real cause, and is a whole that better than simply 'not thinking' it can be overheating.

I believe most laptops consume more power when on mains. That's more heat generated.

What happens if you take the battery out and power just from mains? Will it turn on immediately after shutdown then? If it still doesn't, the only thing I can think of preventing it starting really can be heat.

Does it shut down in exactly the same place each time?

You've got to try something to try and narrow it down.

When you say it restarts, do you mean it just turns off without warning and reboots?

How much RAM does your system have? Do you have that information?

It's either going to be a hardware or a software problem so the trick is going to be finding out which it is. So, if I was dealing with such a problem for someone I'd want to eliminate SW as the cause and move forward from there. And that means doing a full recovery.

After all, if it's 4 years old, been used for games and Internet, and never been recovered, that would be a doubly-good starting point.