Hey fellas (I just like to start like that because it sounds like something out of an old John Wayne file):
Have you heard of a computer symptom where the floppy drive (A drive) on many PC’s (I threw the ’ in for you Anthony) just keeps running and running with no floppy drive in it and no program running. At first I just thought it was that the ribbon cable was reversed, but then I saw it start on about 5 other systems at the same time.
Any ideas? And no, my employer is too chicken to check out Linux on the desktop at this time so that is not a viable solution right now.
Painfully putting up with windows, -Pat
Posted by Patrick Copland on Aug 29, 2003 | 6 replies Filed under: General
No, but seriously, I appreciate your implicit acknowledgment of my Plan to Save the Apostrophe from a Ruinous End. Even as I gouge my eyes out to avoid having to see what you typed.
There is a virus that causes constant floppy drive access, and I’d especially suspect that, since it suddenly started happening on 6 different PCs simultaneously. There’s also this but that seems like it’d apply more to an isolated case.
I am relieved you found the humor. Humor doesn’t come easily for me, so I am glad the effort was not wasted.
I could not find any virus symptoms like that. I think I figured out what happened and I am continuing testing today. We have a PC management product called Altiris Notification Server that does inventories and diagnotics on all of our desktops. I think the inventory went haywire and started inventories on everyone’s desktop computer. I disabled until I can get help with this product. The symptoms that match most closely are those found in a Microsoft SMS problem.
I think Apache/Perl/PHP could be considered such a move, though of course, in reality it’s the other way around: MS is the new kid on the block, and they’re trying (unsuccessfully) to stomp out the good guys.
But actually, the reasons those links are failing is because you’re putting slashes at the ends of them. Here and here are the same ones, sans slashes.