Dastardly Blues(creen of death)

=CfC=Father Ted · March 19, 2011, 09:48:37 PM

Well chaps, seems that dear old T for Ted may have flown her final sortie. Jogged out to the dispersal this am looking for a post-brekkers air test and the bally Merlin refused to even tick over. Of course I was straight on to Wilkins, but all he could do was suck his teeth and tut. He promised to have a go, but was doubtful about a successful outcome. And, what with the balloon going up all over the place, it looks like a replacement crate may not arrive any time soon. The only upside to that is that I may be able to bag one of the newer marks if and when. The uphot is that I am grounded for the foreseeable future and even telegrams will become infrequent.

In other words...I get BSOD on start up and am struggling to sort it. Could be one of those things that look terrible, but are fixable, or just are terminal. It's XP sp3 and I've tried to use chkdsk by putting the HD in another PC, and now need to try reinstalling XP, but I'm not hopeful. Even if that works I may have to set various things up again, so won't be around for a while.

Hope to see you soon

Ted

=CfC=Fitz · March 19, 2011, 10:22:26 PM

Oh Dear! Sorry to hear that Ted.

There are a few things that you might want to try:

Hoover out your pc in case of a short caused by dust and re-seat everything (graphics card, RAM, cpu, cooler etc).

If this doesn't work, try swapping or removing components until you work out what is causing it. If you have 2 RAM sticks, take one out and try. If you have a spare graphics card/cpu/hdd swap them one at a time to see if you can trace the fault.

Also do you have long enough to read the error code that comes up on the BSOD? They don't always help but they can help diagnose the problem.

pip pip,

Fitz

CFC_Conky · March 20, 2011, 12:29:03 AM

Crikey!

First Silverback, then Bounder and now you Ted. It's looking like a lonely coop tomorrow...

It could be any number of things, does your machine emit any beeps before the BSOD? That usually indicates a hardware issue.

=CfC= Binks · March 20, 2011, 09:51:40 AM

Sadly, I too have problems with my "kite". My nice shiny one is in storage in Dubai, and the one here in France is so old it creaks when you turn it on, and I have to have the graphics settings set so low that I can't really see anything except stuttering blurs. Hors de combat for a while, or until a new contract permits an upgrade to the Binks internet tractor.

=CfC=Bounder · March 20, 2011, 10:03:35 AM

Dear Oh Dear!

Ted if you can still hear us......I know exactly how you feel. What I did manage to achieve with my set-up was to keep the BOD on the screen (unlike the default setting which re-starts the wretched machine as soon as BOD appears), this allows you to read the error codes and then Google them on the Mrs. standby machine.

Conky, I hope we will all be able to fly your mission again when everyone is back in business!

Bounder

=CfC=Father Ted · March 23, 2011, 09:39:04 PM

Well, despite Wilkins working round the clock to get me a serviceable mount for Tuesday's DF, it seems his efforts were in vain as the bally thing's gawn U/S once more. Or - to quote an England cricketer of the 80's when asked about an injury - the fecking fecker's fecking fecked.

My new Windows install complained of a corrupted file and refused to start, so I'm beginning to suspect the HDD is on the way out.

Bright side - might be a new PC in time for CoD...

Badgerton Smedly · March 24, 2011, 10:23:49 AM

Quote from: =CfC=Father Ted on March 23, 2011, 09:39:04 PM
Bright side - might be a new PC in time for CoD...

Yummy!

Gizmo · March 24, 2011, 12:48:54 PM

Sounds like it may be the HDD on it's way out but in the past I've found chkdsk reasonably reliable. When it's said the HDD was ok it turned out to be a corrupted Windows install.

Have you tried running the repair option on the Windows disc, might do it, or reinstalling Windows again. I've had a couple of dodgy fresh installs in the past but that may well have been user error.

Good luck old bean.

UrsusManor · March 24, 2011, 01:05:47 PM

One more hint: does your HDD make strange noises when working at high level?
When mine went dead some years ago it released Knock knock sounds during loading...and then it deceased...

=CfC=Father Ted · April 04, 2011, 08:34:41 PM

Thanks for the kind and helpful words, chaps! I re-formatted the HD and re-installed XP, but it took a looooooong time to boot. Chkdsk reported errors each time it ran, and then installing SP2 caused the reboot crash once more, so I've concluded that the drive is defunct. The upshot is that I have ordered a new machine, which should be able to handle CoD

It'll take a couple of weeks to come, but in the meantime here are some questions:

Badger - the 8800 card is now surplus to requirements at Craggy Island, so would you like it back? (Or would anyone else like it?)

Fitz - the rest of my machine is, I think, OK - would you like any bits (DDR2 RAM, PSU, case) for your server project?

Fitz - do you run Win7 (I ask coz of freetrack)?

Anybody - I managed to wrest my IL2 directory out of the wreckage - am I right in believing that just copying it onto the new machine is a feasible way of getting the prog to run, rather than having to reinstall it (plus all the patches and mods)?

Hopefully I'll see you all in a couple of weeks

Ted

5./JG27Farber · April 04, 2011, 08:50:38 PM

Craggy Island - o god I love father ted it was the best show ever!

O god remember that one where he waves at the chinese people through the window and it looks like hes hitler!? Ahhah

You should be able to copy it over mate, if you use UP a update and restorer run would be good aswell!

Badgerton Smedly · April 05, 2011, 11:15:12 AM

Hi Ted

Great news on the new machine - BRAVO!!!

Please recycle the 8800GTX onwards old chap!

=CfC=Bounder · April 05, 2011, 04:46:33 PM

Great news Ted.

Hope the copy/or drag function works. You may have to insert the disk.....not sure though about changing computers.

My chap made a "disk image" to transfer to a new HD...but in your case that may prove impossible!

Bounder

=CfC=Fitz · April 05, 2011, 04:56:17 PM

Hi Ted,

New pc! Huzzah!! Always a splendid occasion, hope Mrs Ted didn't cause too much hassle over it.

I don't have windows 7 yet. I am obtaining a copy shortly though so I'm going to try a dual boot and see how it goes.

Many of the components could be very useful for the '46 server so if you could let me know what you have I'll let you know what I might need. I'll bung you a few quid to go towards your new machine.

Anyone have any idea about the CoD server set up? I seem to remember seeing that the whole game plays as a server with only you connected in single player but I may have made it up.

Need to try a machine on 800x600 windowed, all low settings to see if an older machine could host a CoD server well enough.

Pip pip,

Fitz

5./JG27Farber · April 05, 2011, 06:04:13 PM

That was me that told you that Fitz I think.

We'd very much like a server over here on the blue side and we have no idea for specs.

Based on what we have discussed before, we over here reckon 4 cores, 6 ram should do it and everything else pretty much bog standard with a good connection. I reckon were looking at about Â£650 but its really all speculation.