BleepingComputer.com: Sudden USB Modem Death

Most of it, yes. I don't really know how to back up settings and such, if that's even possible (please let me know if there's a way!), but I've saved the files and bookmarks. My email is all web-based, so I thankfully won't have to worry about any of that.

Euphemism, on 26 February 2011 - 11:42 AM, said:

If booting the computer into Windows, then you find no PC Doctor. My post was quite clear about this. Do not boot Windows to execute PC Doctor. Defined was how BIOS loads and executes PC Doctor from a disk drive location that Windows cannot read. Diagnostics exist if that hard drive was provided by HP.

Also exists on a CD provided by HP. And is downloaded from the HP web site. PC-Doctor must execute without any Windows running. PC Doctor means loading no software on your machine. PC Doctor cannot be seen if Windows boots.

Previous post discouraged loading any software on your machine. Never change any driver or software on a machine that is unstable. Changing anything without first identifying the problem makes no sense. Reloading a driver may even make the problem exponentially more complex. Another reason why good diagnostic procedure says first get facts. As the previous post stated.

And ignore magic box solutions such as the UPS which does nothing to protect or fix the modem or disk drive.

Meanwhile, an adjacent surge protector may have made modem damage easier. Grounding of a phone line where phone wires enter the building says everything about protecting computer hardware. Different from diagnostic procedures to find and eliminate a hardware failure. This paragraph simply summarized what previous posts said so that others do not confuse the issue and solutions.

Defined from symptoms is what has failed inside the modem. And why that modem damage would exists (ie defective or insufficient earthing at the AC breaker box). Also defined are what is obtained to solve what may be a completely different problem either with the disk drive or something adjacent to that drive.

It is HP. So PC Doctor would be provided from three sources. PC Doctor means loading no software. PC Doctor means booting PC Doctor - not Windows. Always find a problem before fixing anything.

Queen-Evie's recommendation is the only other task that machine should be doing. At minimum, every file in the My Dcouments directory (folder) must be downloaded elsewhere (if possible, burned to a CD-Rom).

And finally, correct a probable reason for modem (and maybe other) damage. You should have at the service entrance what must be installed to protect any modem (and all other appliances).

This post has been edited by westom: 26 February 2011 - 08:59 PM

I do have the new modem now, and it's working fine, but I've noticed the heat issue is now worse. This is the first time I've used the dial-up modem in a week or more now, this being a new one and the drivers being installed from the disc that came with it. I didn't really think that'd cause an issue, considering that it was the same type of modem down to the model number and same disc as the one we'd already experimented with. I wish I'd read the above post before then, mentioning how much worse changing even just drivers could make the problem, but I couldn't get the thread to load with the spotty wifi and haven't been online since last trying until now with the new modem. Things went horribly wrong with the hard drive during driver installation, to the point that it now claims 100 more MB of free space is lost each time I boot the machine and has massively longer startup and shut down times. The drive also clicks much more often and, at infrequent and seemingly random times, makes a chirping noise.

Anyway. The new heat problem... It's running at 46C at the lowest now, and jumping by 5C - 10C every time I load a page or hover my Object Dock or anything, really, that would use even a portion of CPU power. Which, by the way, the usage is staying in the high 30's and mid 40's percentage and I can't figure out why. It used to always spike around the mid-20% while I was just doing normal online usage and hover down in the 5 - 15 percent range! Now, just using my mouse's scroll wheel can make it jump from 25% CPU usage to 40%. That's an actual example! Could it be the modem drivers causing a problem? I really don't know, but it's very disconcerting. Or could the hard drive be to blame? I notice that the temp zone "TZ01" (listed as an ACPI) is hovering around a higher temp than normal, as well, and spiking just as oddly as the CPU temps. Is that my hard drive? I really have no clue what that temp zone is, but I've always assumed it was either the fan or my hdd.

I understand the validity of using heat as a diagnostic, but this is odd new behavior that is very sudden. And I do prefer not to stress my system any further than necessary because high temperatures are likely to make its life shorter. (Even if that's only due to already-faulty components.) Plus I'm afraid of fire, so... Just something I consider a problem, even if it's safe for the CPU. And right now, with the new issue, I would honestly say that the important part is figuring out why in the world my CPU usage has suddenly skyrocketed. That seems to be directly related to the temperature hikes.

And I apologize for assuming I'd be able to see PC Doctor in the hard drive through Windows. I can and still do on my mom's old PC, so it was a familiar program and my mind kind of went to what I knew. That said, however, I don't know if it's for some reason not on this system or I'm missing the window of opportunity, but I can't seem to get PC Dotor to load upon boot with any function keys. There's no labeled "press key now" type screen, so maybe that's part of the problem. Or maybe I'm just very slow. Or it may not be on there. I can't download it because at this point saving more data would be disaster to the hard drive. And I received no discs whatsoever from HP when I bought this system (direct from their website about two years ago), so I know I don't have it on a disc anywhere.

Euphemism, on 01 March 2011 - 02:20 AM, said:

Well hit the function key at the right time when the BIOS is executing. Long before any part of Windows loads.

I just keep hitting F2, F5, and F8 until Windows boots. The restart while constantly hitting F12, DEL, and F10. If that does not get the boot loader to put up a screen of options, then I do it for F1, F7, and Cntrl S. Eventually I find the magic key that is never mentioned on the screen. Or get same from the HP web site where all this is listed for you unique machine.

Compaq used to have a little white square in one corner. Their Fx key only worked when that little square was flashing.

Second, 42 degrees is ice cold for semiconductors. Semiconductor damage does not start until about 250 degrees C. When I built an OP amp, it got very hot. So I read its specs. Do same for your CPU. As hot as it was, it was much cooler than max temperatures in the specifications. (What is your CPU - 70 degree C?) And those are temperatures only for stable operation. Not for hardware destruction. Later, old time engineers defined it better. "If you touch it and do not leave skin, then it is not too hot".

Intel CPUs have even operated at 150 degreed C without damage. That temperature only causes temporary reliability problems - not hardware damage.

Third, diagnostics. Also obtain diagnostics from your disk drive manufacturer. Download from their web site. Those diagnostics may also be useful. Or go to www.bootdisk.com for their CD-Rom with many disk drive diagnostics.

However I would stop booting Windows. Get PC-Doctor from HP. Either boot PC-Doctor from the CD-Rom that is supposed to come with your machine. Or from the CD-Rom burned from the HP web site. Or boot the bootdisk.com disk. Any one just to minimize the amount of hard drive activity. Accessing the drive in Windows is apparently causing data loss (if you have not copied any needed files).

And fourth, find a reason for that completely unnecessary modem damage. How to was described earlier. Apparently a surge, permitted inside the building, is finding earth destructively via the modem. That surge should never be inside a building.

I Googled and couldn't find much information about my specific processor (AMD Turion X2). However, what I did find - in the form of forum posts which didn't link to their sources - claims that it should have a max of between 95C and 100C, and that the usual usage goal should be "less than 70C". If I read correctly, the goal wasn't necessarily for avoiding damage but for avoiding the threshold in which performance is affected. And I do know from experience that the system will just black screen and turn itself off when the temperature reaches what it deems to be an unsafe temp (though I wasn't monitoring it back then, so have no clue what that temp is, just that it was reached through hours of playing a 3D game without any pauses in a warm-ish room). That seems to line up perfectly with the fact that the last time my system started to actually lag due to heat it was hot enough that, after keeping it off for a few minutes, it booted up at 65C. So I'd guess it was at least in the mid-70's or 80's. And I have run it for a good 20 minutes at 80C once while encoding a DVD project. (Though I don't think I have a very effective fan, because I had to hold the system above the desk half the time to keep it from going over 85C.) That's at least comforting, in terms of hardware damage likelihood.

But I do find it quite alarming that the CPU usage has suddenly gone up with no obvious reason and that's apparently driving the temps up. So, problem area or not in the temperature, the fact that the behavior is new and sudden does bug me. If that makes sense? Granted, I doubt there's any true way to figure out what kind of program/driver is causing the change without over-stressing the drive. So maybe I shouldn't focus so much there.

I'll have to try again to boot PC Doctor, and be more inclusive (I've only tried the function keys, not DEL or Ctrl+S). And now that you mention it, there is a very small window of opportunity (maybe a second, I'd guess) in which there's a grey or white block flashing on the screen. If nothing else, I can try to focus my key-pressing efforts there and see what happens.

Also, just to be clear, it's not that data on my drive is being destroyed yet/that I know of. It's that free space is. That's the odd part. It just keeps saying there's less and less free space, by 100MB at a time. Which is still a problem, most likely. Just wanted to be completely clear there. But I suspect that you are right about Windows causing/worsening the problem somehow, if only because the drive activity is very sparse and normal until the moment the Windows splash screen comes up. Then it's right into the usual problems and such.

Euphemism, on 01 March 2011 - 03:20 AM, said:

Let's use 95 degrees C. Computer must work perfectly happy in a 100 degree F room. So, CPU in a 70 degree room should be less than 75 degree C (with some error margin added). Clearly your CPU is well below that. If heat is causing timing and threshold changes, the semiconductor is defective. And diagnostics would identify the subsystem that was failing. If failing, then maybe failing fast to be obvious in the next many months.

Appreciate how so many fear heat because numbers are never learned. Your temperature margins are more than sufficient.

Indications are strong that the drive is failing. Other problems (ie bad SATA interface chips, defective voltage, etc) could account for this failure. But seeing the failure in a diagnostic and then not seeing the diagnotic fail with a new drive is the difference between, "it is fixed beyond a doubt" verses "did I accidently or temporarily cure a symptom"?

Why is the CPU consuming more power (heat)? That is what Task Manager (or even better, a program called Proceess Explorer) does. Identify what is consuming CPU power, or what is creating bottlenecks such as virtual memory faults.

I would not worry about more CPU consumption. It is mostly a curiousity. Ie, the malware protection software is suddenly doing a weekly check. Or your Microsoft Search is refreshing its database. But it is a perfect example of grasping facts to actually know something. Provided is how to create information from that increased activity observation.