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PC
Problems? Try These Quick Fixes
- by Jim Edwards
(c) Jim Edwards – All Rights reserved
Have you ever had your
computer make you want to commit
an act of violence, such as throwing it out the window?
No, not you.
Computer problems only happen to other people – NOT!
Nothing frustrates me more than having a deadline or
important task interrupted by my computer losing its mind.
The next time your computer acts up, try these tips and
see if you can’t solve the problem before you give in to
temptation and heave a brick through your monitor.
** Computer Locked-Up? **
Computers usually lock-up because a program becomes
unstable or performs an illegal function.
Regardless of why your computer stopped responding, the
following sequence should help you avoid damaging your
software while trying to get going again.
The first step after you lock up is to press the
Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys at the same time. A dialog box
should appear showing which programs are running.
Look for a program that has “Not Responding” or a similar
message next to the program name.
If your mouse still works, click on the program and then
click “End Task” or “End Process”. If this unlocks the
computer, exit Windows and shutdown properly. Restart in
15 seconds.
If your mouse doesn’t work, but your keyboard still
functions, press Alt+F4 to start closing down programs,
including Windows.
If your mouse and keyboard don’t respond at all, none of
the above steps work, and you can’t shut down properly,
turn your computer off or hold in the power button for 4-6
seconds until the computer shuts down.
Restart in 15 seconds.
** Computer Won’t Boot Up? **
Make sure you don’t have any floppy disks in the disk
drive.
A floppy in the drive will prevent the computer from
starting properly and can cause no end of embarrassment
if you’ve already called tech support for help.
** Hard Drive Making Noises? **
Now that’s a cause for serious panic!
If your hard drive starts making strange noises, you need
to act quickly. Drastic changes in the usual “beeps and
burps” of your computer can represent anything from a loose
screw to the imminent and catastrophic loss of all your
data.
Log on to http://support.wdc.com/dlg/ and you can test
the
health of your hard drive and spot problems before they get
really bad. This free service offered by Western Digital,
one of the world’s largest hard drive manufacturers, gets a
very high endorsement from Smart Computing magazine.
** “Blue
Screen of Death” **
The ultimate cause for panic… at least for me.
Who hasn’t gotten that blue screen in Microsoft Windows
telling you a fatal error has occurred and directing you to
”press any key to continue” or “hold down the
Ctrl+Alt+Delete keys to restart your computer?”
Needless to say, most people either get scared or annoyed
upon seeing the screen, but usually do as they’re told.
The same thing happens when error messages pop up telling
them a program has performed an “illegal operation.” Most
people just click “continue” without ever checking out the
details.
Everyone experiences computer errors occasionally, but
those errors can also signal a deeper computer or software
problem.
To save time and money on technical support, users should
do the following every time an error message appears: WRITE
it down!
Record the error message, time, date, and the circumstances
under which the error occurred.
With a blue screen message, write down the entire error
message.
When an illegal operation occurs, click the “details”
button and write down everything that appears beginning
with and ending with the words in CAPITAL letters.
Write down any other error messages as well.
Recording this information will aid your computer
technician or software technical support in spotting any
trends and it will definitely save you time when explaining
what happened.
The more quickly the tech understands the problem, the
faster your computer gets fixed!
The moral of the story: don’t let small problems get big!
If you repeatedly experience an error or a problem, get it
fixed. You might pay a computer tech for an hour of their
time now, but it sure beats spending several hundred
dollars (or worse) later on down the road.
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Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the
co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how
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