Random Irritations

[Alan Clifford]

Just got a blue screen of death on my work laptop out of nowhere. I shut it down and it will not turn back on - well, it sort of does as there are lights under the keyboard, but I can't get anything up on the screen. Was on the phone to our IT for ages, and all he said was try long-pressing the power button (didn't work), then he just gave up and said it's out of warranty and that he can't do anything. All well and good but I have personal documents on here that I haven't backed up anywhere else in a long time - financial records for my Sunday football team, and for the Thursday night football group I run. Logs of all my golf scores and stats for the last 8 years. I am well and truly f..ornicated.

Any IT experts please, I'm all ears. This screen was the last thing I saw.

View attachment 53296

When it's switched on, can you access from another computer with, for example, ssh or sftp? Or even ping it.

 

[Slab]

Blimey -is that the only telly package you can have though ? Are you able to get satellite telly

Yeah we've different satellite providers on top of the feeeview channels and the usual OTT options
Its just the license fee that's wrapped up in electric bill

 

[RichA]

Just got a blue screen of death on my work laptop out of nowhere. I shut it down and it will not turn back on - well, it sort of does as there are lights under the keyboard, but I can't get anything up on the screen. Was on the phone to our IT for ages, and all he said was try long-pressing the power button (didn't work), then he just gave up and said it's out of warranty and that he can't do anything. All well and good but I have personal documents on here that I haven't backed up anywhere else in a long time - financial records for my Sunday football team, and for the Thursday night football group I run. Logs of all my golf scores and stats for the last 8 years. I am well and truly f..ornicated.

Any IT experts please, I'm all ears. This screen was the last thing I saw.

View attachment 53296

My work laptop did that a few times a couple of years ago. The long press on the power button worked, but for about 30 seconds or more.

 

[Orikoru]

My work laptop did that a few times a couple of years ago. The long press on the power button worked, but for about 30 seconds or more.

I've done it several times for up to minute - with the laptop on first and with it off first. Still got nothing.

I actually had this two years ago and it did get fixed but I cannot remember how.

When it's switched on, can you access from another computer with, for example, ssh or sftp? Or even ping it.

I have no idea what that means.

 

[Alan Clifford]

I've done it several times for up to minute - with the laptop on first and with it off first. Still got nothing.

I actually had this two years ago and it did get fixed but I cannot remember how.


I have no idea what that means.

Dear IT department,
When my computer is switched on, can you access it from another computer with, for example, ssh or sftp? Or even ping it.
Thanks
Orikoru

 

[IanM]

I had something similar once, I took the battery out to kill everything and started again!

If you Google the words on screen, there's lots of chat on need boards about it.

 

[Orikoru]

Dear IT department,
When my computer is switched on, can you access it from another computer with, for example, ssh or sftp? Or even ping it.
Thanks
Orikoru

He flat out refused to help me any further when he said the laptop is out of warranty. He just said apply for a new one. I told him I have important documents I need to get off it and he didn't give a toss.

 

[Orikoru]

I had something similar once, I took the battery out to kill everything and started again!

If you Google the words on screen, there's lots of chat on need boards about it.

I have searched and all I seem to get is the long-press power button thing which isn't working. And a lot of solutions that require the laptop to at least turn on first so you can punch stuff in. It seems dead as a dodo right now.

 

[jim8flog]

Finding a tradie that's not too busy.

Kitchen is getting installed in two weeks and I've got nobody to disconnect the gas oven.

as others have

Gas ovens are normally plug in devices in modern houses

I understand if it is a temporary disconnect/ reconnect then it is legal to do it yourself.

 

[jim8flog]

But it doesn't look good if only 8 million people watch their best effort.

The massive difference is you choose to pay for SKY


Apologies I should have said ''the other 50m who are supposed to pay for the TV license''.

I wonder if someone who watches tv without paying for a license is included in the viewing figures

viewing figures used to only be an estimate.
People used to agree to have a box on the back of their TVs that recorded what they watched and they extrapolated the figures from that.

Maybe now all TVs have a 'we know what your watching' sending back the info via wifi.

 

[jim8flog]

Just got a blue screen of death on my work laptop out of nowhere. I shut it down and it will not turn back on - well, it sort of does as there are lights under the keyboard, but I can't get anything up on the screen. Was on the phone to our IT for ages, and all he said was try long-pressing the power button (didn't work), then he just gave up and said it's out of warranty and that he can't do anything. All well and good but I have personal documents on here that I haven't backed up anywhere else in a long time - financial records for my Sunday football team, and for the Thursday night football group I run. Logs of all my golf scores and stats for the last 8 years. I am well and truly f..ornicated.

Any IT experts please, I'm all ears. This screen was the last thing I saw.

View attachment 53296

This may well be a windows problem not a laptop problem. (I get it from time to time on my desktop) although it often hardware related.
You could try booting from another device cd/dvd if it has one or from a USB stick .

good article

Boot From External USB Drive or USB Stick | DELL Technologies

Hi friends, I have the Inspiron 15 3000 Series (Intel) - 3567 laptop. I want to boot from a USB (Linux distro) either a stick or a hard drive connected by cable. I could use help conf...

www.dell.com

It may need the bios resetting to do this.

Try searching the net on how to start the lap top in to the bios before windows starts on a a dell

 

[Lord Tyrion]

As it's a laptop, can you just leave it on until the battery runs out? Then restart it. Might do nothing, might help

 

[Deleted member 29109]

I have searched and all I seem to get is the long-press power button thing which isn't working. And a lot of solutions that require the laptop to at least turn on first so you can punch stuff in. It seems dead as a dodo right now.

If it’s a work laptop there will be very little you can do as it will be locked down.

If you have access to another PC/laptop get a hard drive reader like this from Amazon and take the hard drive out of the old one, as sometimes you can recover the files.

 

[Alan Clifford]

He flat out refused to help me any further when he said the laptop is out of warranty. He just said apply for a new one. I told him I have important documents I need to get off it and he didn't give a toss.

In that case, I suggest taking it to your local, one man computer shop and see if they can get the data off it. If your employer says it is non-repairable and regards it as scrap, then your local computer man should be able to phyically remove the hard disk even if he has to trash the rest of the machine.

 

[Orikoru]

As it's a laptop, can you just leave it on until the battery runs out? Then restart it. Might do nothing, might help

The battery runs out within minutes because that's shagged as well.

If it’s a work laptop there will be very little you can do as it will be locked down.

If you have access to another PC/laptop get a hard drive reader like this from Amazon and take the hard drive out of the old one, as sometimes you can recover the files.

This is where I fall down, don't have any idea how to remove a hard drive.

 

[Bazzatron]

Two must attend business update calls tomorrow morning. See what happens you check your emails out of hours?

 

[Wilson]

In that case, I suggest taking it to your local, one man computer shop and see if they can get the data off it. If your employer says it is non-repairable and regards it as scrap, then your local computer man should be able to phyically remove the hard disk even if he has to trash the rest of the machine.

No idea on the size or type of company he works for, but I’d suspect most organisations will want it back so it can be disposed of safely and securely, if someone did that to one of our devices they’d be having a serious conversation with HR.

Are the documents not stored in OneDrive or similar? I echo the comments about probably being very little you can do, especially if it’s locked down, and although it’s frustrating I wouldn’t expect any of my staff to spend company time trying to recover your personal documents.

 

[GreiginFife]

Dear IT department,
When my computer is switched on, can you access it from another computer with, for example, ssh or sftp? Or even ping it.
Thanks
Orikoru

Unless the user is able to log on to an active user session (assuming a VPN is being used as a remote connection) then no remote access will be possible.

If its a corporate device it’s possibly got bitlocker or safeboot encryption that would need to be disabled before a user can log on. Being unable to see anything on screen would make that a challenge at best.

BSODs are usually hardware issues, in this case it looks like either a memory module or memory controller issue. But with the user having no technical knowledge or capability I wouldn’t even suggest opening the cover of a machine that belongs to an organisation and replacing a memory module to rule it out.

As frustrating as it is losing personal files, I have never worked for any client organisation that allows this under their technology usage policies. Their apathy towards the loss of personal data that potentially shouldn’t have been on the machine is not a surprise.

 

[GreiginFife]

No idea on the size or type of company he works for, but I’d suspect most organisations will want it back so it can be disposed of safely and securely, if someone did that to one of our devices they’d be having a serious conversation with HR.

Are the documents not stored in OneDrive or similar? I echo the comments about probably being very little you can do, especially if it’s locked down, and although it’s frustrating I wouldn’t expect any of my staff to spend company time trying to recover your personal documents.

Absolutely, if the machine is asset tagged and logged on the company’s asset directory then its a fair bet that they have to adhere to the WEEE directives on disposing of waste electrical and electronic devices. They may also need it to write off any associated costs if its still on the books.

 

[Orikoru]

Unless the user is able to log on to an active user session (assuming a VPN is being used as a remote connection) then no remote access will be possible.

If its a corporate device it’s possibly got bitlocker or safeboot encryption that would need to be disabled before a user can log on. Being unable to see anything on screen would make that a challenge at best.

BSODs are usually hardware issues, in this case it looks like either a memory module or memory controller issue. But with the user having no technical knowledge or capability I wouldn’t even suggest opening the cover of a machine that belongs to an organisation and replacing a memory module to rule it out.

As frustrating as it is losing personal files, I have never worked for any client organisation that allows this under their technology usage policies. Their apathy towards the loss of personal data that potentially shouldn’t have been on the machine is not a surprise.

I didn't tell him they were personal, I just said I had important documents on my desktop and documents folders. He didn't care either way.

No idea on the size or type of company he works for, but I’d suspect most organisations will want it back so it can be disposed of safely and securely, if someone did that to one of our devices they’d be having a serious conversation with HR.

Are the documents not stored in OneDrive or similar? I echo the comments about probably being very little you can do, especially if it’s locked down, and although it’s frustrating I wouldn’t expect any of my staff to spend company time trying to recover your personal documents.

You might be right about the OneDrive backup.. gonna cross my fingers and pray for that, once I get a new laptop.