Backing up hard drive

[stacer]

I was able to make it go to a restore point in which Windows at least works. But I still want SE or someone who might know to let me know if they know what that error is and if I still ought to reformat.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Doesn't IRQ mean there's a hardware issue? Did you add any peripherals recently like keyboard, mouse, sound card, graphics card, etc?

IANATSR, so...yeah, wait for SE...

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

Sorry, I was on the computer, but I wasn't checking TWG.

IRQ is a hardware error. It means two or more devices are trying to use the same IRQ port at the same time. For this to happen when you aren't making any changes to the hardware, however, indicates that something very odd is going on.

You say after restoring to an earlier point, you're not experiencing the problem, though, so it likely indicates that the Operating System is the problem spot. Although it still might be that a piece of hardware is failing.

Let me try to narrow it down. what were you doing immediately before the error came up? something that was happening must have made the change (note: this doesn't mean you were doing anything wrong, but it helps me pinpoint the causality).

Try importing your mail to Outlook Express and see if you can operate normally. Make changes one step at a time so we can see the effect of those changes. If the error occurs again, we can see what may be causing it. (and if it doesn't happen again, then we won't worry about it)

[stacer]

Well, I did add a firewire adaptor card about, what, 3 weeks ago when I got my ipod. So that card and my wireless card are both in the multimedia ports. Oo--here's something. I had to switch the wireless card (Netgear, which is of the devil anyway) to the bottom slot because the firewire thing wouldn't fit in the bottom because it's huge. Would that be the problem? Should I uninstall/reinstall that?

[Peter Ahlstrom]

I suggest yes.

Or you may want to take the firewire card out and put the wireless card back where it was, until you get the mail situation worked out, and then work on the card situation.

Oh also if it's still crashing before it can complete an export to outlook, make sure you do it while you are disconnected from the internet and your wireless networking is turned off. It may be that it's crashing when it automatically tries to get more mail.

[stacer]

But I have to have a connection to the internet, because it's transferring to the internet. Right?

At any rate, I was in the hospital this morning, and slept the day away, so I'm probably going to be taking my time to fix this. (Woke up at 2am with pain so bad that I thought my appendix burst. Got to have my first ambulance ride and my first IV ever. They did all sorts of tests and were able to rule out appendix and a number of other serious things, so whatever it was, I think it was a fluke.) They let me come home at 11 this morning and just told me to take it easy, and they'll let my doctor follow up, so don't worry or anything.

[42]

I had a similar hospital visit, just without the Ambulance car ride. I was in sixth-grade and my severe stomach problems were a result of too much stress.

[fuzzyoctopus]

I had that happen too, once, in the middle of the summer while I was living all alone.  My home teacher freaked out a little getting this panicked phone call from me early one morning.  Went up to the health center, drank some horrible nasty stuff, then some more horrible stuff that numbed my mouth and stomach. Never found out what it was, so I know flukes can happen.  I hope this doesn't happen again, stacer!

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

YIKES!
that sounds... unpleasant

ANyway, what you want to do, before uninstalling stuff, is
Right click My Computer
choose Properties
open the Hardware tab
click the Device Manager button
Open the View Menu
Choose Resources by connection
open the Interrupt request (IRQ) section
Take a screen shot and email it to me at home so i can see if there are any conflicts.


Just because there are multiple things with the same iRQ number doesn't mean they are conflicting. I have a network card and an AGP adapter sharing an IRQ channel pleasantly, as well as a modem (albeit unused) and a PCI to USB card, and a sound card (admittedly disabled) sharing another IRQ.

Come to think of it, the Direct memory access portion of that same view in Device Manager might be helpful too.

send to the email in my profile.

[stacer]

K, will probably do in the next few days. Maybe tomorrow afternoon, maybe Monday night.