8 Oct
2011
8 Oct
'11
1:11 a.m.
On Thursday 06 October 2011 22:23:11 Lisi wrote:
Bonkers is the best description I can come up with.
Applications that were
working fine are suddenly not. (In particular Konqueror, but not only
Konqeror.) Settings change randomly. The latest, a few minutes ago, was
my desktop settings, which have disappeared and the same random KDE one
"set up" for all the desktops (4 - and until just now they all had
different backgrounds). When I went to check what "configure desktop"
showed, I found that my screensaver had been turned off.
I ran memtest overnight from Thursday to Friday. No errors. It was only 6
passes, so is not definitive, but it is a good indication that the memory is
OK.
I have looked at the log as suggested by Nik. I can see nothing, but then I
don't know what I am looking for.
And last night I ran (from a Live CD, so outside the system): first smartctl,
which found some errors, and then badblocks, which didn't.
So I imagine that I should start looking for a new hard drive? :-( I do worry
a bit in case it is something more major. And I may change the CMOS battery
first.
smartctl is obviously warning me: the drive is on its way out, so do something
about it. I shall try to limp to next Tuesday, since it will mean a lot of
sorting out. (Acquire the HDD, install Squeeze/Trinity, try to use my
present /home and all the data on it etc.)
That would also, of course, sort out the software. Provided that I don't go
and restore some faulty configurations. I shall anyhow try the viable part
of Kate's suggestion. Kate - I realised that the fault is too intermittent
to show up in a hurry. We are talking days, not hours. And I, as me, need
to access my data etc.
I am still open to suggestions!!
Thanks all for your invaluable help.
Lisi