Jun. 6, 2009
Passpack keeps all non-critical applications like the blog, help center and mail server on totally separate servers from the application. Yesterday this auxiliary server had DNS issues which resulted in difficulties posting comments, contacting the help center and a backlog of emails.
The application itself was not effected as it is sandboxed separately, however the numerous emails generated from yesterday’s secure password sending release where blocked in a queue.
The queeue is now being processed and any emails sent will arrive shortly to destination.
Thanks to everyone for writing in with error details – very helpful. If you encounter any other problems, please let us know.
2 Comments
Hello to everyone!!
I have a PC that is about 6 yrs. old and it’s a compaq .. I love this and use it when I’m home mostly in the evenings. But, yesterday it began making a clicking noise like hiccups…not constantly but occasionally. Not knowing what it was I put the computer to sleep for the night and decided I would check online today to find out if anyone knew what this was…
Thanks any help would be gratefully appreciated…but please keep advice simple .
While this blog, and this site may not be the most appropriate forum to answer this question, Joel, I will give it a try. I can only point you in the right direction.
First, do you own/posess/use an Iomega Zip or Jaz Drive?
If so, you may be experiencing the “Click of Death.”
The site below provides more information and solutions.
http://www.grc.com/tip/clickdeath.htm
If you do not have one of these drives, then the real question to answer is:
What things in a modern computer go CLICK:
1. Power supply? Possibly, but if it is clicking with any regularity, it has probably already failed. The cooling fan however may be obstructed.
2. Processor cooling fan? Cabling in your case may be loose and intermittently contacting the fan blades.
3. Floppy disk drive? Definitely possible. Look at the front panel light on the floppy disk drive. Is it on when you hear the clicking? Put your ear to the drive. Is it whirring and clicking? If so, you may have a hardware failure, BIOS misconfiguration, or driver problem.
4. Hard disk drive? You may have to open the case for this one. If you choose to open the case, shut down Windows and turn the CPU off at the power supply switch at back of the case. Remove the case panels in the appropriate fashion, and turn the power back on. Place your ear to the Hard Disk Drive and listen. Clicking?
That is often what is called “thermal recalibration.” Data has drifted from the pure concentric tracks it is written on due to heating and cooling of the platters in the hard disk. In many cases this resolves itself within a period of time.
Note that the common wisdom is that you should back up your data at this point. I would agree, with a caveat, which I will mention momentarily.
You have two choices to FIX the damage: The cheap way, and the safe way.
The cheap way is to run (in Windows NT/2000/XP/Vista ONLY) a program called “CHKDSK /V /F /R” from a CMD prompt window in Windows. This will check and repair your disk on reboot, but not necessarily preserve all preservable data.
The SAFE way, and for Windows 95/98/ME the ONLY way, is to purchase Gibson Research Corporation’s SpinRite 6 at:
http://www.grc.com
(not a plug, but the ONLY program available that does what it does) and run it on your Hard Drive. It should recover all recoverable data.
Backing up with data in an indeterminate state is a sure fire way to end up with an unrestorable backup. So backup before, and backup again after repair. Remember to “CHKDSK /V /F /R” and defragment the Hard Disk Drive AFTER the repair and before the second backup.
I assume no liability for this advice, as it is entirely possible your Hard Drive is one breath away from permanent death. I don’t mean to frighten you, but a timely repair may just save your bacon.
Andre S. Moreno, Microsoft Certified Professional