Did my bass kill my computer?

[ddnidd1]

couldnt the magnetic driver of the bass speaker have corrupted the HDD?

The OP is not the first person to use an amp near a computer.

Troubleshoot the PC before going down the rabbit hole.

 

[AltGrendel]

Make sure your drivers are up to date.

Especially the audio one(s).

 

[rubendlr]

This is the wrong forum for this. You should post this in a tech forum. That asides, can you reproduce this issue? In other words, does the PC always reboot or crash every time you have both on? If not, then more than likely was not the amp or bass and what it could be is too numerous to even try to list, especially without running tests (on the PC). I say this both as a bassist/guitarist and a computer tech. Actually ALT-Grendel ( or is that ctrl-alt-del Grendel?) is right that usually the most like cause will be software. Drivers and maybe even malware (computer viruses and such). If it is hardware, the things to check for random crashes are the hard drive and the memory. Get a techie friend to check it out or take it in to a good tech place (NOT BEST BUY!!!).

 

[DavC]

I'd blame YouTube ...

or assign a little more virtual memory to the video processor ...

my older laptops that are still running Xp do that a lot ... my newer laptop w/ windows 7 is fine ...

I'm an old fart so I stayed away from windows 8 .. ! ha

 

[negativefx]

If you were playing loud enough the vibration could have shook a loose connection

By far the most logical answer here. Unplug, pop the case open and make sure all cards, ram, and connectors are seated properly. Don't do this while on carpet and/or wearing wool socks.

Those talking about drivers and youtube and windows and blah blah are barking up the wrong tree. *If* the bass playing had anything to do with the issues on the comp, it's vibration.

Anyone have issues with my response? I've a comp engineering degree and have worked in the field for over a decade.

 

[OOD]

I am indeed on windows.

Seeing your avatar and reading this post made me laugh.

 

[ggunn]

And how would this happen?

I would think that whatever blew the lightbulb also fried the audio device. A healthy voltage surge could do that.

 

[ThePoloHobo]

Magnetic field strength, as with most fields, drops off exponentially. That is, F = 1/(R^2), F being force and R being the distance between the source and the point of measurement. For example, if you have a magnet pulling at a force of 4 Newtons at a distance of a 1 ft, it would only be pulling .25 N at 4 ft (1/16th of the force at 4 times the distance). Inversely, it would be pulling 16 N at 3 inches.

That being said, vibration is probably the culprit here. I'm thinking the HDD connections or the RAM.

 

[ddnidd1]

I would think that whatever blew the lightbulb also fried the audio device. A healthy voltage surge could do that.

True. However, the statement was that the bass amp generated an electrical surge that blew up the PC. Laughable.

 

[Dana R Gregory]

If possible, get rid of that Windoze junker and get a mac. I plug my iMac into my practice amp along with a set of headphones and have never had any problems. I play along with YouTube videos as well as iTunes playlists. Windoze is full of bugs and is no where as stable as Mac OS. I used to work on both PC and Mac. IMO the Mac is a superior product and the OS is far superior and easier to work with than the Windoze OS, which is actually a poor copy of the Mac OS. Good luck.

 

[ddnidd1]

There's the solution. Before you know what the issue is, replace the entire machine.

 

[Bassbubble11]

Powerful vibrations caused near the computer, such as those caused by a subwoofer, may increase the risk of a head crash and of data corruption. Accordingly, such vibrations can be limited. One way to isolate low frequency vibrations is by supporting the speakers or the drive enclosure on spikes.

 

[ThePoloHobo]

If possible, get rid of that Windoze junker and get a mac. I plug my iMac into my practice amp along with a set of headphones and have never had any problems. I play along with YouTube videos as well as iTunes playlists. Windoze is full of bugs and is no where as stable as Mac OS. I used to work on both PC and Mac. IMO the Mac is a superior product and the OS is far superior and easier to work with than the Windoze OS, which is actually a poor copy of the Mac OS. Good luck.

I used to work in computer repair, we got in just as many mac's as we did PC's.. I can't attest to iMacs, but the main problem with macbooks is their logic board fries due to poor cooling.. and it's cheaper to replace the whole machine than fix it. As far as the O/S's are concerned, they're completely different beasts. I've been running 8.1 for well over a year now with no problems.. I built my machine. 3.6 GHz quad core, 8 GB RAM (2400 MHz), GTX 670 w/ 4 GB VRAM (for running three screens in panorama, amazing for gaming), 5 HDDs, Water cooling on the CPU and GPU.. dead quiet. $900 (+$300 for the screens). The CHEAPEST iMac is currently $1099 and my 2 year old machine blows it WAY out of the water.

 

[gln1955]

I repectfully request that this NOT turn into a MAC v. Windows crapstorm.

 

[tbz]

Hi everyone! I'm new here (I said hello last week on the "New Member Intros" forum), and just bought my very first amp tonight. As a newbie, I know close to nothing about equipment, so I apologize in advance if this is a silly question.

When I got the amp home, I immediately hooked it up and started playing (so exciting!!). Toward the end of my practice session, I put one of those play along tab videos on YouTube on my computer and fiddled around a bit. I was halfway through a song when my computer FLIPPED THE HECK OUT. The screen froze and the audio was an unintelligible mess. Then I got the blue screen of death. I thought perhaps that was a sign that it was time to put the guitar away, and tried to recover the computer.

I'm wondering if somehow my bass and amp being right near my computer created too strong an electromagnetic field and messed my computer up. Have any of you had this problem, or do any of you know if this can happen? With the plethora of play along tab videos out there, I'm assuming people really do play along with them--this system wouldn't work if everyone's computers wigged out every time. Thanks for your help!

NO. Literally 0 chance.

What version of Windows are you running BTW? I don't think I've seen a BSOD since XP.

 

[tbz]

If they were close together, I guess they were on the same power circuit within your house. It's possible (though not likely) that the amp generated a surge on the PC's power socket.

I've personally seen defective house wiring fry an effects pedal straight after a light bulb blew.

A power surge will NEVER cause a BSOD, sorry.

 

[gnarlyWarlock]

Poorly written apps that fail to clean up memory can also cause stop errors (BSOD)... Any newly installed / updated applications could be at fault. Check them out as well...

Now that you mention it, how many apps are written in C? AFAIK, most modern languages have automatic garbage collection built it (in fact the only exceptions I can think of are C[++]).

 

[Howlin' Hanson]

And which OS is best for metal?

<ducking>

 

[gnarlyWarlock]

I repectfully request that this NOT turn into a MAC v. Windows crapstorm.

or lets. ThePoloHobo made a great point - assemble your own comp, slap Windows on it and have a power rig that blows anything Apple makes (including that new overpriced cylinder) right out of the water.

Want a UNIX based OS? There are many Linux distros than ants in an anthill. I'm sure there are BSD-Unix distros out there besides OSX.

I'm sorry if I'm starting a flame war, but I need to vent my hatred towards their vastly overpriced products. Don't get me wrong, Apple products are nice, but their aluminum casing and completely-closed off OS' don't warrant the price tag.

 

[ggunn]

I repectfully request that this NOT turn into a MAC v. Windows crapstorm.

Second that. I have one of each sitting in front of me and they both have their uses and their failings.