I was up last night trying to get my computer sorted out, as after I plugged it back in and set it up, it was again having the same issue of shutting down - even though the repair shop couldn't locate the problem, as all components were working fine and they had it running for three days without incident. So, I decided to again use my lacking powers of deduction.
My wife laying down when there is work to do.
When I first started it up, everything ran fine for a few hours before shutting down again and then, it was shutting down after a couple minutes. It isn't an overheating problem, so I tried to see if it was some kind of peripheral or dongle issue. So, one by one I used each thing individually and then slowly adding them one by one to see if I could replicate the crash.
Firstly, other than a single monitor, I used a wired keyboard as the only input interface, then added a wired mouse after about an hour of no event. Still no event. So I switched over to a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Still nothing. I changed over the monitor with my second screen, all good. Then, I added both monitors together and things were working, then a crash.
Well, that is something.
A process of switching the ports over on different inspecting and changing HDMI cables over, as one goes into HDMI and one goes in to a Display Port with an adapter. So, this meant making sure that either screen, the cables, or the adapter weren't the problem.
All good.
So, it is either a port issue on the Graphics card, or a driver issue with the graphics card. Obviously, a driver issue is preferrable. All the drivers are up to date, but as I mentioned to the repair people, when the problem started and when I checked, windows had updated a few hours earlier. I had checked all the drivers and everything was updated there, but if they could check again. Which they supposedly did.
But, unfortunately, saying up to date and being up to date might be two different things, because I went to Nvidia, downloaded the latest update for the graphics card, which was dated 4 days after the windows update that seemingly caused the issue, manually installed it and so far, it hasn't had an issue. Both monitors are working, it was on overnight without incident and fingers crossed, the problem is dealt with.
This took me far too long to handle.
I don't blame the repair guys, as everything was working as expected on a single monitor, so they likely didn't plug in a second. And, even if they had, with different monitors, the problem might not have occurred.
It is frustrating though as this has been ongoing for about three weeks and caused a huge amount of hassle to my workflow, my office setup, as well as driving from place to place. But, I am glad that at least the largest financial cost was the 20€ for a diagnosis that didn't find any issues with the components. If I had been doing this myself, after checking the drivers which would have been up to date, I would have likely changed the power supply, as that seemed the most likely culprit. That would have been between 150 and 200€, and require me to do hours of YouTube learning, as I am not that proficient.
All up, it took many, any hours.
And this is where I will bring in a bit of a question. I do my fair share of work around the house, mowing the lawns and general gardening, laundry, dishes, vacuuming etc, yet my wife likely spends more time on the house cleaning generally. However, she spends zero time on the technical enablement of our home, meaning that she doesn't do any of the setup, and if there is a problem, none of the troubleshooting, repairing, or the like. And because she does none of this, she tends to discount it as work, underestimating how much time and energy actually goes into it. For her she says "this isn't working" and then walks away.
I suspect that this is similar in most households these days and as our technical footprint increases, the burden of time spent goes up. As does the need to learn about the various pieces of equipment from the user side, to the maintenance side.
I read articles where predominantly women complain about their lazy husbands that don't help them enough, but at some point, are there going to be calls to reduce the burden "Stay at home IT support"? Should wives and girlfriends (WAGs 😂) be pressured into taking some of the technical load in the home, at least on the components that are shared, like TV, PCs, gaming consoles (we don't have one), and appliances?
Or perhaps equality only goes one way.
Or maybe, this is a domain that men don't want to give up, as it might be one of the last bastions of relevance we can hold onto in the home and if we lose it, we are completely useless.
What do you think?
Make your arguments!
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
