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computer issues: part infinity

Re: computer issues: part infinity

MacBook Pro, 2011.

About five days ago it started acting weird. I closed it, put it in my backpack, and opened it up about twenty minutes later. However, it had gotten so hot I felt I was going to burn myself, the screen wouldn't turn on and I had to do a manual restart by pushing the power button. Turned it back on, everything was fine except that it had burned about 40% battery.

Later that night I was watching a video, and moved the computer to go get a drink. All of a sudden the video got stuck and repeated the same half second noise loop while the screen froze, forcing me to restart.

The next day both events happened again. So, backed it up onto an external drive, then updated everything imaginable. Seems to run a little better but the overheating in the backpack is still happening. When I put it to sleep connected to a power source on my desk it is fine, it only seems to be if I put it on sleep while it is stand-alone, as I could feel it getting warmer just having it shut in the living room.

Online searches show there are many possible reasons for this. A friend who said the 2011 MacBook was actually meant to be turned off in between uses, so I've essentially been killing it the last four and a half years, but I feel like that still doesn't explain why it just started happening.

Any ideas? Just an old computer? Will I have to take the a trip to the dreaded Apple Store?
 
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Re: computer issues: part infinity

It could be that the battery has simply ran its lifecycle. Though, I'm no expert on Mac hardware.

The reason your computer ran through all that battery life is the heat, as extreme heat will cause a battery to lose its charge faster than expected. Though, in this case, the heat may have been caused by the battery itself.
 
Re: computer issues: part infinity

My software protection must be failing, because someone keeps hacking into my USCHO account and saying stupid shyte under my user name. People will begin to think I'm a 6th grader. Is this a Symantec problem?
 
Re: computer issues: part infinity

Lately, when I open the CD-R drive on my computer (Dell Dimension 4600), it closes right back up. How do I fix that?
 
Re: computer issues: part infinity

the tray will retract for basically two reasons. First, there's a physical issue, in that something's triggering the sensor on the tray, the same thing as if you're trying to push the tray in when it's open. Second, the driver could have been corrupted. I would start with the driver, use Windows' system tools to search for a driver update or just reload the driver outright. If it's a sensor issue, then you'll either need to take the driver out and search for the physical issue that's triggering the sensor. Or you can just replace it. CD-R drives are really inexpensive, you should be able to find one for $15 or so, if you're just looking for the cheap fix.
 
Re: computer issues: part infinity

St. Clown said:
the tray will retract for basically two reasons. First, there's a physical issue, in that something's triggering the sensor on the tray, the same thing as if you're trying to push the tray in when it's open. Second, the driver could have been corrupted. I would start with the driver, use Windows' system tools to search for a driver update or just reload the driver outright. If it's a sensor issue, then you'll either need to take the driver out and search for the physical issue that's triggering the sensor. Or you can just replace it. CD-R drives are really inexpensive, you should be able to find one for $15 or so, if you're just looking for the cheap fix.
Click to expand...

Best way to troubleshoot this is to open up your boot menu when you first turn on the computer (usually F10 or F12, but might be different based on your motherboard), and then try to open it. As much as it could be drivers, it could also be some software-related malware, so give yourself a virus scan, too.
 
Re: computer issues: part infinity

Spartanforlife4 said:
MacBook Pro, 2011.

About five days ago it started acting weird. I closed it, put it in my backpack, and opened it up about twenty minutes later. However, it had gotten so hot I felt I was going to burn myself, the screen wouldn't turn on and I had to do a manual restart by pushing the power button. Turned it back on, everything was fine except that it had burned about 40% battery.

Later that night I was watching a video, and moved the computer to go get a drink. All of a sudden the video got stuck and repeated the same half second noise loop while the screen froze, forcing me to restart.

The next day both events happened again. So, backed it up onto an external drive, then updated everything imaginable. Seems to run a little better but the overheating in the backpack is still happening. When I put it to sleep connected to a power source on my desk it is fine, it only seems to be if I put it on sleep while it is stand-alone, as I could feel it getting warmer just having it shut in the living room.

Online searches show there are many possible reasons for this. A friend who said the 2011 MacBook was actually meant to be turned off in between uses, so I've essentially been killing it the last four and a half years, but I feel like that still doesn't explain why it just started happening.

Any ideas? Just an old computer? Will I have to take the a trip to the dreaded Apple Store?
Click to expand...

Fun update. It has actually been getting better over the last couple weeks. I learned I needed to just let it sit about a minute on a flat surface before putting it in a backpack and it would go to sleep fine. However, the last week it has been freezing at random points (sometimes after opening a webpage, other times just scrolling, really something random that makes the screen move) and restarting.

Tonight, however, when it restarted it only beeped, and continued to beep until I finally found someone on an Apple forum say that an SMC reset by holding shift+control+option for ten seconds in conjunction with the power button, then releasing the three button and continuing to hold the power button for another ten seconds before finally turning it on helped it. Well, it did help it finally restart. However, the fans now sound like I'm flying at 30,000 feet and it has an X instead of a battery percentage. To be fair, this could just be the fans finally working since I hardly felt or heard anything for the past few months, but that doesn't explain the battery.
 
Re: computer issues: part infinity

My employer takes part in the MS Home Use Program, so I have full MS Office at home.

I'm thinking about making use of MS Access for tracking expenditures and setting a budget. My problem is that I'm not sure how I want to make the table structure. A parent-child relationship is a must, but I'm not certain on what the key fields should be and the joining value between tables.

Expense categories are another thing. Do I establish a preordained list of values within a separate table, or keep it open and dynamic? There are benefits to both methods and it's been a bit of a stumbling block for me, a real pickle of a humdinger.
 
Re: computer issues: part infinity

St. Clown said:
My employer takes part in the MS Home Use Program, so I have full MS Office at home.

I'm thinking about making use of MS Access for tracking expenditures and setting a budget. My problem is that I'm not sure how I want to make the table structure. A parent-child relationship is a must, but I'm not certain on what the key fields should be and the joining value between tables.

Expense categories are another thing. Do I establish a preordained list of values within a separate table, or keep it open and dynamic? There are benefits to both methods and it's been a bit of a stumbling block for me, a real pickle of a humdinger.
Click to expand...

When I'm designing a database, I usually lean toward the former. If there is a set of allowed values, the database should enforce that. I usually start with that in mind and only if there is a compelling reason do I go with something different. The next thing I usually find myself debating with myself over is whether I use a string or number based primary key in my lookup table.
 
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Re: computer issues: part infinity

St. Clown said:
My employer takes part in the MS Home Use Program, so I have full MS Office at home.

I'm thinking about making use of MS Access for tracking expenditures and setting a budget. My problem is that I'm not sure how I want to make the table structure. A parent-child relationship is a must, but I'm not certain on what the key fields should be and the joining value between tables.

Expense categories are another thing. Do I establish a preordained list of values within a separate table, or keep it open and dynamic? There are benefits to both methods and it's been a bit of a stumbling block for me, a real pickle of a humdinger.
Click to expand...
Buy Quicken. The $50 you spend will save you hundreds of hours...unless the point is that you *want* to spend hundreds of hours playing with Access and the budgeting is just an excuse to do so.
 
Re: computer issues: part infinity

LynahFan said:
Buy Quicken. The $50 you spend will save you hundreds of hours...unless the point is that you *want* to spend hundreds of hours playing with Access and the budgeting is just an excuse to do so.
Click to expand...

I want to get more proficient in Access. My company uses it much more than it should, and I need to sharpen my skills.
 
Re: computer issues: part infinity

St. Clown said:
I want to get more proficient in Access. My company uses it much more than it should, and I need to sharpen my skills.
Click to expand...

MS SQL Express is a better choice (and free). Even MySQL would be a better (free) choice.

MS Access is just miserable.
 
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