Re: [libreoffice-users] opening powerpoint files restart the computer

Hi Demétrio

As I suspected, I've been in IT since 1976, so a lot of experience helps 
with a good gut feel. Yes an old system, but as you say it suffices for 
your current needs. I would suspect you system is using DDR2 memory 
applicable for hardware at the time.

What you could do, as a cheap and helpful upgrade is see if you can get 
your hands on another stick of 1GB RAM, it should not break the bank, as 
DDR2 RAM is still avialable. As you indicated, you have 1.5MB of RAM, so 
I can deduce from that that you have a 1GB stick, and a 500GB stick, the 
latter is all you need to replace, to use your motherboards maximum 
capability of 2GB RAM.

The other issue I can see and I am sure I will be right, now that you 
have furnished more info, is that using too many USB ports are causing a 
problem too. This indicates that you current power supply unit (PSU) in 
the chassis, is at it's limits (i.e. could be a 200watt or 250watt unit, 
or aged (2003!!!) so the components (mainly those called capacitors), 
are burnt and leaking), thus causing the hard shutdown when you plug a 
device into the USB ports, or run an intense program with a data file. 
And yes the power demand does increase, from an idle state, when 
programs are opened and manage a data file. This power demand is then 
compounded when you use an external device, especially one that demands 
power from the USB port, and not from an external PSU.

Again a little money spent on a new PSU will probably fix all of your 
issues and return your USB ports back to full functionality, along with 
a stable old PC.

Regards

Andrew Brown

On 22/07/2013 01:48 AM, Demétrio Soares wrote:
> Hi and thanks for the prompt responses,
>
>
> reboot is "hard" (instant black screen) using 2 usb 2.0, yeah Andrew 
> must be right: old machine low resources, after i installed windows 7 
> i could no
>
> longer use my external disc on the 2 front usb ports 1.1, instant hard 
> reboot aswell, struggling and avoiding buying a new pc since
>
>  i can still do almost everything in this one, not a gamer...normally 
> all usb ports work and system is ok, just isn't a racer.
>
> Max ram this Motherboard accepts is 2GB... Asrock K8Upgrade bought 2003 ~
>
> The powerpoint files open fine on an Asus 10" running XP, 32bits, 1GB 
> ram, with Office 2007 portable...
>
> On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 5:52 PM, Andrew Brown <andrewbr@icon.co.za 
> <mailto:andrewbr@icon.co.za>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Gabriel
>
>     I agree, you make some valid points, but the MS hive (collection
>     of the boot code plus apps running in memory in one big monolith
>     file, unlike the Linux kernel with separate "clients" commucating
>     with the kernel, all separate), is not as robust as we would like
>     to believe, even in Windows 7 and 8. So as you covered in your
>     reply, any bad data files forcing it's host app, as in this case
>     LO with a presentation data file, to exceed it's memory
>     boundaries, will cause the processor and microcode to force a
>     reboot intentionally or accidentally, due to creating instability
>     with the rest of the memory content, the hive. This is the
>     weakness of the MS way of doing things.
>
>     As to my coverage of malware in the data files, it could cause a
>     system crash and reboot, if the malware code is written badly or
>     incomplete.
>
>     I also noticed that Demétrio Soares is running Windows 7 32 bit on
>     only 1.5MB of RAM, this in itself could be the problem. Although
>     Windows 7  can run on  1.5GB of RAM, it is recommended to run it
>     on at least 2GB, and even better with 3 or 4GB. The 4GB will be a
>     bit of a waste as a 32bit system can only see a physical max of
>     3.2GB, so installing 4GB would not see or use the last 800MB (as
>     layman terms as I can explain it). With only 1.5GB of RAM, the O/S
>     is using at least 1GB of this RAM leaving 500MB for apps and data
>     file, so I would also expect a system crash if the data file was a
>     large one. As an example I am using Windows 7 64bit with 6GB of
>     RAM, and I am consuming 35% (2GB) of this RAM right now as I type
>     this email, Thunderbird open, Firefox open, and not much else
>     except some system resources running.
>
>     Regards
>
>     Andrew Brown
>
>     On 21/07/2013 06:25 PM, Gabriel Risterucci wrote:
> >     While it's totally true that malicious code might be embedded in
> >     anything (especially ms formats... but we won't talk about this
> >     :)), I doubt it would trigger a reaction as bad as a reboot,
> >     especially under recent OS.
> >     Crashing a user program is very unlikely to cause a system
> >     reboot, except if it call some regular reboot code, that would
> >     trigger a "clean" reboot, windows closing and stuff. Most likely
> >     output is simply the program crashing/getting in an unstable state.
> >
> >     As I said, it's not completely ruling out the possibility of a
> >     catastrophic crash caused by some code issue, but it's fearly
> >     reasonnable to suppose that loading this file make LO expand to
> >     use more memory than usual, touching a faulty area. If the
> >     computer usually work without issue, maybe the ppt file is very
> >     large, or very complex, or the LO loading routine doesn't handle
> >     it nicely and cause the memory cost to increase.
> >
> >     It would be interesting to know wether the reboot is "hard"
> >     (instant black screen) or soft (windows closing down normally).
> >     Also, if the ppt file isn't sensitive, it would be useful to put
> >     it on some kind of file sharing site for people to try loading it.
> >
> >     -- 
> >     Cley Faye
> >     http://cleyfaye.net
> >
> >
> >     2013/7/21 Andrew Brown <andrewbr@icon.co.za
> >     <mailto:andrewbr@icon.co.za>>
> >
> >         Hello
> >
> >         My two cents worth would rather be to focus on the actual
> >         Powerpoint data file that is the source of the problem, when
> >         attempted to being opened. If it has any corruption in it, or
> >         possibly a piece of malware made to disguise and represent
> >         itself as a Powerpoint presentation, then I would accept it
> >         crashing and forcing a reboot of the PC, especially if there
> >         is no malware protection in place, on a Windows system
> >         especially. Virus writers can easily embed bad and malicious
> >         code into documents, presentations and spreadsheets.
> >
> >         Try another known working presentation data file, and see if
> >         this also causes the crash with LO and the PC, if not, then
> >         you know where your source of your problem is.
> >
> >         Cheers
> >
> >         Andrew Brown
> >
> >
> >         On 21/07/2013 05:20 PM, Gabriel Risterucci wrote:
> >
> >             There is not much stuff (if any) in LO that could cause a
> >             reboot of a
> >             computer. Although it's not possible to completely rule
> >             out a LO issue, I'd
> >             suggest you run some memory testing program (like
> >             memtest86+), as it's much
> >             more likely that your issue is related to faulty
> >             memory/hardware.


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