Talk to me about Linux...

[nelsonfotodotcom]

Scott - if this is an older desktop with a floppy drive installed; power it down; open the case; disconnect the cabling from the back of the floppy, all of it--power supply connection & data transfer.

Reboot. See if that doesn't help.

If not, move on to disconnect any modems you have installed in slots. Still BSOD? Remove the network card. Still BSOD? Pull any soundcards you have installed. If you still have issues, my advice would be to continue by disconnecting any CD/DVD drives installed. If more than one, disco the slaved unit first, then the master.

If the computer is still blue-screening, your PSU might be flaking out, or the RAM. At this point, other than swapping RAM with known-good RAM modules, yer looking at 80 to 90 bucks for a replacement PSU.

My experience with BSOD on other computers has been hardware, specifically floppy drives and fragged modems. I had a customer with a brand new Dell desktop begin BSOD and flat-out refusing to boot...the damned, cheap-ass modem card was toast and causing the problem. As this was a networked office, I just went through all machines pulling the crap modem cards so I didn't have to deal with it again. No need for modem cards! Voila!

Good luck. I do have some spare towers around, so if you think you have an idea which part is bad, i.e. the PSU, let me know. I might have one to fit your machine. Yours for shipping cost only if so.

C.

[CantikFotos]

Besides GIMP, you can also run Bibble on Linux.

http://bibblelabs.com/products/bibble/specs.html

[Kuzano]

Scott - if this is an older desktop with a floppy drive installed; power it down; open the case; disconnect the cabling from the back of the floppy, all of it--power supply connection & data transfer.

Reboot. See if that doesn't help.

If not, move on to disconnect any modems you have installed in slots. Still BSOD? Remove the network card. Still BSOD? Pull any soundcards you have installed. If you still have issues, my advice would be to continue by disconnecting any CD/DVD drives installed. If more than one, disco the slaved unit first, then the master.

If the computer is still blue-screening, your PSU might be flaking out, or the RAM. At this point, other than swapping RAM with known-good RAM modules, yer looking at 80 to 90 bucks for a replacement PSU.

My experience with BSOD on other computers has been hardware, specifically floppy drives and fragged modems. I had a customer with a brand new Dell desktop begin BSOD and flat-out refusing to boot...the damned, cheap-ass modem card was toast and causing the problem. As this was a networked office, I just went through all machines pulling the crap modem cards so I didn't have to deal with it again. No need for modem cards! Voila!

Good luck. I do have some spare towers around, so if you think you have an idea which part is bad, i.e. the PSU, let me know. I might have one to fit your machine. Yours for shipping cost only if so.

C.

This is excellent procedure for isolating bad hardware. The only thing I would do differently is to take everything external to the MB/CPU/RAM out of the equation except the hard drive. Unhook and unpower all the drives and pull all USB devices except KB/Mouse if USB.

When you boot the basic computer, if you no longer have BSOD's, then start hooking necessary items back in until you find the one that generates the BSOD (one at a time). As C. notes, don't even bother to put pieces back in that you are never going to use. Floppy disk media is totally unreliable in this day and age, so don't even bother to hook that back up. When's the last time you used a modem? Leave it out or disable it if it's integrated to the Mother Board (In the MB settings).

If you still have the BSOD's with the computer stripped like this, the problem is in the base computer. Then check RAM/PS/etc.

Not trying to steal anyones thunder here. It's just a different approach. It gets me to the heart of the problem with a few less steps sometimes.

Tech'ing computers is NOT rocket science. It's a mastery of Trouble Shooting, and every tech person has his/her own methods. Surprising to many folks, we don't have any real solid diagnostic equipment or tools. The best tech's are masters at isolating sources of problems and replacing the offending parts.

The difference between these two posts is that one of us takes the machine down one part at a time until the problem goes away, and the other tears the machine all the way down and builds it back up until the problem manifests.

Either way works.

[nelsonfotodotcom]

Kuzano's method is a good one. I generally work in a bass-ackward routine.



But the point is to run the problem hardware out of Dodge, one way or another.

As for board-level diagnostics... testing for bad caps, etc., well, just always seemed pointless to me, even more so in these times when a new mainboard will cost less than 2 hours of tech to "diagnose" that one needs a new MB.



Scott - let us know how it goes, eh?

Craig

[Scott --]

Everyone - thanks for all the input. Going to take a little while to absorb. Craig, thanks for the offer. Will let you know.

Progress report forthcoming...

[timparkin]

Scott,

Your CS2 will run just fine. I'm a windows developer and have also worked with Unix for twenty years. I use Ubuntu at home, on two machines. I have an Epson scanner connected via FireWire (USB will work to) driven by VueScan for Linux. It works great. For graphics you can use The Gimp, but I prefer Photoshop CS2. It's robust and fast on Ubuntu.

Ted

Don't expect Photoshop to work correctly on Linux - This will not happen for some time (and when it does happen, it will be geekville to setup correctly).

I work with Macs, Windows and Linux on a daily basis..

1) My personal computers are Mac's (a MacPro and a MacBookPro).. Nothing runs Adobe stuff better.

2) My work machines are all Ubuntu which is fine for browsing, email, office work and development. When I want to do software/web development on the mac, I install VMWare Fusion and run Ubuntu on the Mac

3) I run windows when I have to test that websites/software runs on it. I also use wndows for my Mapping software, Tide Previewer, GPS upload tool, etc. I run windows under VMWare Fusion on my MacBookPro.

One thing that might be of interest is that there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that Windows suffers from entropy. That is, over time a system will get slower and more unstable. Take a computer that has had windows on it for 2 years and then reinstall to a clean operating system and you will see things running a lot faster and a lot more stable..

Conclusion

Buy a macbookpro and get VMWare Fusion. Install Windows on VMWare Fusion.

Install Ubuntu on your old PC and also install windows on it (install windows first and then install Ubuntu). Boot to Ubuntu for most of your web browsing, email, documents, etc.

Buy a Wii!!

Tim

[tmastran]

Don't expect Photoshop to work correctly on Linux - This will not happen for some time (and when it does happen, it will be geekville to setup correctly).

I work with Macs, Windows and Linux on a daily basis..

1) My personal computers are Mac's (a MacPro and a MacBookPro).. Nothing runs Adobe stuff better.

2) My work machines are all Ubuntu which is fine for browsing, email, office work and development. When I want to do software/web development on the mac, I install VMWare Fusion and run Ubuntu on the Mac

3) I run windows when I have to test that websites/software runs on it. I also use wndows for my Mapping software, Tide Previewer, GPS upload tool, etc. I run windows under VMWare Fusion on my MacBookPro.

One thing that might be of interest is that there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that Windows suffers from entropy. That is, over time a system will get slower and more unstable. Take a computer that has had windows on it for 2 years and then reinstall to a clean operating system and you will see things running a lot faster and a lot more stable..

Conclusion

Buy a macbookpro and get VMWare Fusion. Install Windows on VMWare Fusion.

Install Ubuntu on your old PC and also install windows on it (install windows first and then install Ubuntu). Boot to Ubuntu for most of your web browsing, email, documents, etc.

Buy a Wii!!

Tim

My mistake. I running CS not CS2. And it does work perfectly.

[Huib]

Hi,

Some tid-bits to add:

- afaik no screen calibration solution supporting linux is available.
- Gimp in linux is only 8-bit, limited colormanagement (if)
- Linux drivers for your printer?
- Linux support for your scanner (if you don't like vuescan).
- running windows/photoshop inside linux: Virtualization is probably a better way to do this then using wine.
- dedicate hardware for your imageprocessing, no messing around with hardware, software and the internet after initial install/setup, this will even keep XP away from BSOD's, use another system for wordprocessing and surfing and all other stuff.
- get the kids a game console.

[Ken Lee]

See this article: Using Linux for Photography, Where We Stand

[NiallPhoto]

I suggest you consider Mac before jumping in to Linux. It seems to me that the learning curve for Linux is not worth the effort. But it depends on how you want to use the computer. In my experience Linux requires a dedication that I'm not willing to invest.