Snow Crash of the Living Dead

[libertango]

Minimax just did a snow crash again.

Not the standard one, though. This time it happened while running Front Row as I was doing the dishes. The screen had gone completely blank, as if the system was trying to run the screensaver. OTOH, I thought the whole point of the album cover flips in Front Row was to inhibit the screensaver -- perhaps I'm wrong.

So, with the screen dark, I pressed Shift to get out of the saver... And then saw snow. As I was sitting there thinking, "Oh, no. Not this again. Now what?" the audio continued to play. Then suddenly, the snow cleared, and I had Front Row's normal screen again. It's the first time I've seen a snow crash clear of its own accord.

AKICOLJ: I ask again, "Now what?" Go ahead and take it back to Apple? Grit my teeth and bear it?

EDITED TO ADD: I just went into Energy Saver in System Preferences, and set both Computer Sleep and Display Sleep to "Never." I also unchecked the "hard disk(s) to sleep when possible" option. ADDING TO THE ADDITION: OK, I've dialed it back a bit from there, but by as little as I can -- 3 hours before sleep.

Comments

[off_coloratura]

I did the turning off sleep and hard disk sleep. I meant it only to be temporary. A month or two later, my hard drive died. I did it again a few years later, and it killed that hard drive too. I don't have absolute proof that that was what caused it, but I feel pretty strongly that you shouldn't leave it on "never sleep," indefinitely, even if you close it occasionally.

[hal-obrien.livejournal.com]

OK, thanks. HDD checked again, computer and display sleep set to 3 hrs (the max that's not "Never").

Still. My current working theory is this is somehow power/energy/sleep related. This may reduce how frequently I see things, but... {shrug}

We'll see. And thanks again for the warning.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Never sleep isn't a problem for hard drives - in server applications they run for years on end, and some sources claim that each time they stop, each bearing gets a tiny flat spot where it rests that never completely goes away.

I personally leave my drives on sleep after 30 minutes, because I sleep in the same room where the PC is always on in case I get texted with a hot contract lead.