[Coco] OT -- PC needs TWO Shut Downs

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/3/06 10:44:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
lamune at doki-doki.net writes:

>This  really isn't typical of a memory problem. Memory problems are  
>generally either completely random or totally persistent. Also they  
>generally don't manifest themselves in that  manner.

I agree, the shutdown issue is not a RAM thing.  RAM could be causing  the 
icon rot and forgetting to pwoer-save that I mentioned in a later  posting.

>The  most common cause of that particular behavior is a program that does  
>not respond or play along with the shutdown  sequence.

Yep, that's what I've been thinking.

>Best  way to figure this out is to see what programs are running. Kill 
>one  and then try the shutdown- then reboot the thing and start over. You  
>may find it that way. If not, it's something hidden, possibly malware,  
>or even your antivirus package, etc.
Right.  I do plan to check to see what programs do get shut down, if  any, by 
the first attempt.  It would be a riot if Norton AV were the cause,  but then 
AV cops have to break a lot of the laws themselves ...

>I'm  seeing a lot of weird behavior on machines from that vintage lately.  
>The capacitors are crapping out and causing lots of strange  behavior.

If the little chip caps that surround the SIMMs dry up, DRAM isn't worth  
much ...

>Fortunately PCs have almost no nostalgia value to me, so I'd  happily 
>trash it. I'll also take the same stance as I took with people  'round 
>here running Red Hat 9. Time to upgrade. That was so  1998...


I'd hate to re-install everything, and this PC does have nice audio and  MIDI 
connections on the front panel, and it has real peripherals like floppy and  
serial ports (and CD-R/W and DVD drives).
 
Actually, my Linux development and music apps box runs RH 7.0.  I try  to 
avoid the upgrade mania that Linux world has fallen into.  Someone gave  me a 
newer box with a recent Fedora on it, much nicer, but it has no MIDI  drivers and 
can't be given them easily, so it's a paperweight.  I'm  thinking of moving 
my Win98 hard drive into it and see if it will wake up as an  improvement to my 
rather slow Windows box.  --Mike K.