PC Troubleshooting Guide

Video Card Errors – Part 2

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

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.

Blue Screen of Death – Part 2

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

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!

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

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.

Hard Drive not Found

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. Read the rest…

Hot Computer – System Shutdown

This may have resulted from the computer’s self-monitoring hardware and software, detecting an abnormally high-temperature situation that can damage the system resulting in a system’s shutdown. It may also be time to get the innards of your computer dusted out for too much dust reduces the efficiency of fans and heat sinks, dust being a very good insulator. The cooling system of the computer normally requires ample heat sinks to properly dissipate heat, clogged with dust, it can result in an over-temperature situation which modern motherboards are designed to protect itself from. Read the rest…

CD/DVD Drive Ate your Disk?

Many have experienced the situation, an optical drive that eats your media unwilling to spit it out. may it be an important document archive you need for work of your expensive operating system installer, you have to get it out, how? Most techies know that these optical drives come with a mechanical fail safe to allow ejection of the drive should the tray become stuck inside or a mechanical belt become broken (older drives). The motor on the ejection tray can also get stuck due to a paperclip or sheet of paper your toddler stuck in the drive when you weren’t looking. Read the rest…

System Won’t ShutDown

This may be an indicator that a hidden application may have hung up, preventing the shutdown code from executing. This can result in a non-shutdown scenario so press, CTRL-ALT-DEL to get at the task manager to see which erring application has stopped responding so you could shut it down manually. Should you fail to find it or the system may have stopped responding all together, you may have to do a reboot through the reset button on your front panel but allow the system to restart and complete the diagnostic phase. After the system has restored proper boot-up, then you can shut down and leave it be. If the condition recurs, then something else may be wrong, say a hard drive that is about to fail or a weak BIOS battery may be resetting the bios settings while you are using it so get it checked to be sure. Read the rest…