PC Troubleshooting Guide

Video Card Errors – Part 2

Conrad — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:33:19 +0000

Look for the video card and check if it hasn�t popped out of it�s slot (remember the monitor, the card to which it is connected to is the video card), if so re-seat and try booting up. If the video card is embedded (meaning it is part of the motherboard) it may have failed (sorry, replacement is the only option for this form of motherboard) or if you have a slot for third-party video cards you may purchase one and disable the one embedded within the system.

Note: It is normal for Video Cards to pop out of their slots (AGP or PCI) due to some manufacturers making them with teeny-tiny edges where the contacts are located that fail to seat firmly into the board. They tend to jump out by themselves especially if the PC is used heavily or there is a source of vibration nearby say in an office. The short edges, instead of being grabbed by the connector on the motherboard, sits just above the clamping part which acts as a spring hence the jumping part.

Computer Basics : Essential for troubleshooting Part-2

Conrad — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:18:27 +0000

If this is your first time, get hold of a can of compressed air specifically developed for cleaning computers and not from your garage compressor. Canned air is moisture free to avoid contaminating the electronics. Hold the Power supply for a few minutes while you take a look inside to admire the parts (this discharges any static electricity from you) Check all vents for the internal fans along with the one for the power supply. If they are dirty try to blow air through them to remove all dust and debris from all visible parts. If the said computer is visually dusty, you might want to do this outside the house. Also pay close attention to the CPU and blow air onto the fan and heat sink. Once you are satisfied and all visible dust and fido hairs are gone, you can reverse the process and take the camera shots to re-connect all the cables and chords that you took out and boot up. A clean computer runs cooler and more efficiently, besides too much dust on any of the internal components can lead to parts failure due to the insulating properties of dust.

How to Recover From a Virus Attack on your PC

Conrad — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 08:46:46 +0000

Disconnect and isolate, if you suspect one of your computers has suffered a virus attack, immediately quarantine the computer by physically disconnecting it, as infected machines pose a danger to all other computers connected to the network.

If you suspect other computers may be infected, treat them like they are. It’s counter-productive to clean one machine while an infected computer is still connected to network.

Blue Screen of Death – Part 2

Conrad — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:28:57 +0000

The �blue screen� as it is more commonly called can be a simple sign that your computer is overheating and more ventilation is needed. This can be addresses with a couple of extra cooling fans or that the existing fans might be dirty and chock full of dust and grime. This can even be a sign of memory module failure which can also be attributed to overheating ( some memory modules literally cook on the boards giving off the nasty smell of burned plastic). Cooling improvements and replacement can remedy the situation granted that no other motherboard components have been cooked to a crisp.

Blue Screen of Death – Part 1

Conrad — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:28:02 +0000

Many of us have experienced it many times over, the dreaded �Blue Screen of Death� when using personal computers or just about any computer as a matter of fact. Mostly associated with windows errors, this is called a memory dump which signifies that windows in it�s many versions has encountered an unrecoverable error and has ceased to function. This is a signal to panic for the term paper or presentation you�ve just spent the whole week making and refining has turned to dust hopefully which you might have had a back-up file on some other form of medium.

Things to Do if Your PDA gets wet!

Conrad — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:37:17 +0000

Lets face it, children and adult gadgets does not mix. Even grownups do stupid things like placing a softdrink right next to the keyboard, then all of a sudden, you knock it over and it pours onto the keyboard. It’s not limited to the keyboard, but pretty much any electronic gadget with spaces in between in it that liquids can seep into like remote controls, notebook/laptop computers, PDAs and mobile phones.

If by any chance one of your gadgets was spilled with liquids, switch off the device and remove the batteries if necessary, then take it apart as fast as you can. Particles in many liquids are conductive, especially softdrinks and milk. If the liquid shorts circuit something inside, then the device might be permanently damaged and you should bring it to its service center for proper diagnosis.

PC does not Boot Up

Conrad — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:36:55 +0000

You are getting ready to work so you turn on your PC and, for some reason, it won’t boot into its operating system. One of the most scary scenarios is when you press the power button and nothing happens. Lights wont turn on, fans wont turn on, and you don’t hear the sound of the hard discs. It’s like theres no electricity at all. This situation happened many times in the past and i am pretty sure that the solution to this dilemma is very simple. This may seem like a stupid suggestion but you have to see the electrical outlet first because you may have forgotten to plug the computer.

Fire Up that Firewall (Windows Vista – Part 2)

editor — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:55:04 +0000

“Microsoft and the Windows team have done something a little different with the Vista firewall. They have separated the firewall in to two different interfaces. The default interface is the basic one. At first glance, it looks identical to the Windows XP SP2 firewall. This basic interface is ON by default and loads basic settings for normal user protection. In most cases, this basic setting should work fine. Then they added an Advanced interface for the more security savvy individuals. This Advanced interface gives a greater flexibility over the firewalls settings.”

Don’t get too discouraged by rumors, read the facts first and you might just find out how untrue what they are saying about Windows Vista Firewall. You are going to find it useful after all.

Fire Up that Firewall (Windows Vista – Part 1)

editor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:54:31 +0000

Windows Vista owners have often said that the Windows Vista Firewall….. is a dud. Yes, they say that Windows Vista firewall is usless. It may be just the Vista users having tantrums or it may true, nevertheless, this can have a tremendous effect on Window’s credibility on future products so here are the facts from http://www.toejumper.net/
“No third party software can lay claim to the fact that the Windows Firewall starts its protection once the computer is turned on. Is that important you ask? Absolutely. If a capable malware program could turn itself on at the same time that the computer starts to boot, common sense would dictate the danger of this. Now, knowing the fact that the Vista firewall ‘does’ start at boot, we need to confidently know that it is going to protect from boot.”

Hard Drive not Found

Conrad — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:16:46 +0000

This is a very serious situation for it may be an indicator that the hard drive has crashed and without properly scheduled back-up, you may have just lost all your data. This normally sends you into fits of rage but without a proper back-up strategy to keep you safe from such incidents, you will feel utmost loss due to all the spreadsheets, documents, music files and other data that may have been stored on your hard drive. One of the easiest ways to back-up information is to use the facility provided in your Windows setup that saves files onto other media such as tape drives or optical drives.
For me, I prefer selective backup using dvd’s and cd’s which I perform once every few months, if you have a heavily used desktop or laptop at home that everybody uses, then a more frequent strategy would be required. One way to go around this would be to opt for NAS hard drives that are connected to the home network. One weakness of this would be that all the information you all share and save would still be stored onto a hard drive which can also fail.
One of the newest products being offered over the internet is online backup for which you subscribe to a service for a so and so amount of data space on remote servers from which you can download your important files should you have a local hard drive crash. There may never be a truly bullet-proof way to safeguard your data locally for failure is a very real situation for such precision gadgets as computers, whichever backup strategy you may choose, just have one, so your data is safe and you lessen the risk of losing more hair than you should in case your hard drive fail unexpectedly.