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1029usr078198
Forum Admin
USA
333 Posts |
 Posted - November 11 2008 : 07:29:44
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Listen now. or Download the archive.
Question: I turned my computer on and instead of coming up like normal, it just goes to a black screen with a line in the corner that’s blinking. What’s wrong?
Answer: Several things could be wrong, but what’s happening is that for some reason, your hard drive isn’t being chosen as your boot drive. Make sure you don’t have any USB drives attached to your computer and reboot. In the old days, this used to happen whenever folks left a disk in the floppy drive. They’d get a message saying “non-system disk or disk error” and would call in a panic. Pressing the floppy’s eject button then enter would usually fix the problem. Nowadays, floppy disks are not used, and even when they are, the symptoms are different. I have seen USB drives, especially hard drives that cause this problem. What happens is that the system restarts and goes looking for an operating system to start. If it should look at the USB drive before it looks at your hard drive, it’ll hang as you’ve described. Corrupted boot information on your hard drive is also a reason you might experience this symptom. If you have Windows XP and have an XP CD, you can boot from it, give four commands, remove the disc and it should start. Otherwise, call tech support for your computer and have them take you through it.
Cool Site: www.gadgettrak.com: When I was looking for this week’s gadget, I ran across an ad for this site and checked it out. You’ve heard of LoJack, and there’s something called LoJack for laptops. But what intrigued me about this site was the ad, which read, “We can tell you where your gadget is, who stole it, and even what they’re wearing.” I’ve had a cell phone stolen, and my son’s had his PSP stolen. We’ve forgiven them, but I would like to catch them so we could get our stuff back. Gadget Trak is for laptops, cell phones, PDAs, removable media like USB flash drives, and gadgets like your iPod. If you lose a tracked device, you can tell when your gadget is activated, and in some cases, you can even delete the data on the device. This is handy for laptops containing sensitive data. When your device is activated, it communicates with the Gadget Trak servers and they can even show you a map of where the device is located, approximately. Prices vary, and obviously you have to install the software on the device before it’s stolen (or simply lost), but since the FBI estimates that 1/10 of the laptops in the country will be stolen in the first year of ownership, I’m seriously considering it for my new laptop and for gadgets I carry around all the time.
Cool Gadget: SecuriScan Shoe Scanner: I may be an aviation buff, but I don’t’ get to fly very often. I’ve made one round-trip flight since 9/11 and I had to take my shoes off when going through security (thanks loads, Richard Reid). I’ve only done it twice and I don’t like it. It also makes the whole security check process take longer than necessary. I know this because today’s gadget, the SecuriScan Shoe Scanner makes it possible to scan shoes without having to take them off. It was developed at the University of Manchester using electric and magnetic sensing rather than radiation. The developer, Professor Wuqiang Yang is also working on a scanner for abandoned baggage and packages.
It's All “Geek” To Me: CMOS: Your computer has a small amount of memory made of this material. It is just like regular RAM memory, except it only requires minimal power for its contents to be maintained. This memory is sustained while your computer is off or restarting by a small coin-cell battery in your computer. This memory holds things like the current time and what order your disk drives will be searched when you boot up. When you turn on your computer, there’s a message telling you to press a certain key to enter setup. The “CMOS Setup” lets you see and modify the values stored in CMOS memory.
Links
SecuriScan on Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/20/securiscan-shoe-scanner-could-make-travel-safer-security-lines/
Shoe Bomber Article on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Colvin_Reid
CMOS Definition on TechTerms:
http://www.techterms.com/definition/cmos
CMOS on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cmos
DAConsult.com's Bookstore (October proceeds go to KBJS) :
http://www.daconsult.com/bookstore
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10/24/2008-NoBoot,GadgetTrak,SecuriScan,CMOS
