More computer weirdness

On 3/22/2017 7:51 PM, RichA wrote:
My computer froze up, which isn't normal, it's never done it in 3 years. So, rebooted and...my desktop was "molested." Background image gone, most of the folders, settings in programs. Went and looked at "E" (Storage) drive and saw a slew of stuff missing. Did some searches, oh well, nothing much to do but rebuild, because (surprise, surprise) no restore points existed. So I rebuilt the desktop, to a point. New desktop. Did virus scans as well, nothing showing. Worked with it for 2 days. Came home after an hour on the 3rd day, computer was not sending a video signal to the monitor. So I rebooted...original desktop came back, everything as it was prior to the disappearance.



I've had my computer do these odd things at times. Resetting the CMOS fixed it.
A few years back a friend recommended to unplug the computer completely and and
let it sit for 30 min. or longer. This has worked well for me also. Could this
be related to the CMOS problem? CMOS drift?

"gray_wolf" wrote

| I've had my computer do these odd things at times. Resetting the CMOS
fixed it.
| A few years back a friend recommended to unplug the computer completely
and and
| let it sit for 30 min. or longer. This has worked well for me also. Could
this
| be related to the CMOS problem? CMOS drift?

As David Taylor said, loose connections sounds like
the most likely culprit. And checking all connectors
is always a good place to start. Just being very slightly
loose can sometimes cause problems.
BIOS settings problems are very rare when they
haven't been changed, and they don't cause things like
some missing files. They also don't "drift". And your
method requires caveats. First, you won't clear the
BIOS unless you pull out the battery. If you do that
you'll get the defaults, which is not always a good
thing. My elderly father did that once. I arrived to
find a Dell that was rebooting in a loop. As soon as
it came up it would reboot again. I had to catch it
quick and enter the BIOS to fix it.

On 3/23/2017 10:24 AM, Mayayana wrote:
"gray_wolf" wrote

| I've had my computer do these odd things at times. Resetting the CMOS
fixed it.
| A few years back a friend recommended to unplug the computer completely
and and
| let it sit for 30 min. or longer. This has worked well for me also. Could
this
| be related to the CMOS problem? CMOS drift?

As David Taylor said, loose connections sounds like
the most likely culprit. And checking all connectors
is always a good place to start. Just being very slightly
loose can sometimes cause problems.
BIOS settings problems are very rare when they
haven't been changed, and they don't cause things like
some missing files. They also don't "drift". And your
method requires caveats. First, you won't clear the
BIOS unless you pull out the battery. If you do that
you'll get the defaults, which is not always a good
thing. My elderly father did that once. I arrived to
find a Dell that was rebooting in a loop. As soon as
it came up it would reboot again. I had to catch it
quick and enter the BIOS to fix it.

I know about connectors. :-) I spent a number of years working on
early arcade video games. Connectors were the biggest problem.
Cheap IC sockets were a prime offender.

My problem was the computer would hang before it even listed the
harddrives. Clearing the BIOS (shorting the battery) was the first thing
I tried and it worked.

I've had harddrives cause weird problems like a hanging boot and such.
Not a mechanical failure but a contact problem on 6 different sata drives
over a period of time. Errors, very slow reading, crashing the computer.
Both Seagate and Western digital. The contacts on the backside of the PCB
that mates with the pins on the harddrive body were dirty. Problem was
very intermittent.