I think it's time to update the standard 'solutions' to problems posted here...
- If it doesn't move and it should - WD40 (even though it isn't a lubricant)
- If it moves and it shouldn't - car body filler
- If it doesn't come apart and it should - angle grinder
and now the newest (boringly often) 'universal panacea'...
- if the PC has a problem - boot a Linux live CD (even if it's just a screw that's stuck, probably)
Hmm, well, there are other commonly suggested things of course. Apparently pressure washers will clean almostanything, assuming it does not smash it first of course.
I thought the standard responce to any computer problem was reformat. Seems to be the mantra of most of the computer fixers I've encountered. Unfortunately of course, all that does apart from involve you in a lifes work updating and putting stuff back, it simply resets the problems no doubt responsible for the eventual issue back a while. Groundhog day will come if the machine is still working by then. Brian
Or duct tape, for more minor fixes
Comedy aside; It doesn't *have* to be a Linux CD though, it's just the easiest way and it gives access to settings Windows doesn't like you changing. I have a WindowsPE XP CD I used to use for booting recalcitrant XP machines. There is also Windows to Go, which allows Windows to be installed on a USB stick with a persistence file, if you are Linux averse :) :)
I personally used a FreeBSD CD, or stick the drive in a caddy attached to my development machine.
Mother , "My Dog looks clean and tidy, how did you get his coat to fluff up that nicely". Me " Silly sod kept trying to bite the water from the pressure washer when I was cleaning your car so I pressure washed him as well,you won't have to brush his teeth for a while either".
To concerned dog lovers, I did turn the washer down to minimum and took great care to avoid eyes etc. Damn thing never stopped trying to bite the jet.
G.Harman
The answer is always gaffer (or duct) tape. For large jobs, it simply becomes *more* gaffer tape.
Colin Bignell
Or a nylon cable tie, or three.
I have recently been introduced to
I use the definitive Linux Live CD, Knoppix 5.3 (usb stick and actual CD for systems with MoBos cursed with a broken USB boot mechanism).
The later versions seem to have 'Lost Their Way' in terms of usability (no obvious means of sharing the hard disk volumes over the LAN by a simple two clicks of a mouse button operation for example).
I've also got a BartPE boot CD (winXP flavour) which can be useful to correct boot issues after an unplanned MoBo change but I only resort to using this since it takes a bad 3 or 4 times longer to boot than Knoppix (or almost any other Linux Live CD alternative for that matter), a rather glacial 5 minutes or so to boot to the desktop.
And, of course, as you mentioned, there's always the option to pull the drive out and hitch it up via an external adapter (e-SATA connected SATA docking station or else my trusty IDE to USB2 adapter in my case).
Pulling the drive out is usually to permit an unmolested AV scan of the drive's contents but can include running CHKDSK scans (I'd have either booted from the UBCD disc or pen drive on the stricken system to run HDD diagnostics beforehand or else connected it to my workbench test machine for that purpose).
If anyone is intrigued enough to burn themselves a Linux Live CD (or create a bootable pen drive to use as an extra faultfinding option, I recommend the Knoppix Live CD. You _might_ be forced to use the latest version but I'd recommend burning a copy of v5.3 as a good starting point regardless - if it boots ok, you have an easier to use desktop than the latest versions when you're not entirely familiar with Linux.
The OP is well justified in adding a "Linux Live CD" to the list of panacea solutions to "PC Problems" imho. :-)
Which has a light side, a dark side, and holds the universe together.
Actually, I rarely use a boot CD, per se.
I boot images of memtest86, etc. over the network.
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