Wiley Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 3rd Edition
Contents
1. s easy to overlook that you downloaded some corny animation from the Internet yesterday Yet that lone change was enough to alter the system Yes if you had one computer for every program you would probably live a relatively crash free high tech existence But I don t recommend spending your money that way 1 Try to keep track of the times that you add update or change the hardware and software in your computer system 1 If possible do research to determine the new stuff s compatibility with your existing computer system Do that before you install Heck do it before you buy The manufacturer s or developer s Web page lists known technical issues Chapter 1 Dealing with Disaster While Keeping Your Sanity 13 1 recommend that you get used to checking Windows logs which keep track of any change to your computer system whether you made the change or Windows did so behind your back See Chapter 23 for more information about using the Event Viewer 1 These types of new hardware and software installations are why utilities such as System Restore are so popular For more information see the section in Chapter 4 about using System Restore Vou were bad and deleted files you shouldn t have deleted Delete only those files you created yourself It s when people go on file hunt ing expeditions that they can get into trouble In fact deleting a swath of files is typically the only reason I recommend reinstal2. if the computer could hear you but you at least you shift the blame from yourself to the device My personal variation is Come on you pig for when the computer is stubbornly slow Please Please Please Pleading with the com puter is very emotional but it really doesn t help Most users typically follow the pleading with Oh you sorry son of a female dog What the A natural and common response to an unexpected situation Can be followed by Frack or the true English language swear word You stupid amp piece of Very def initely getting it out of your system this satisfy ing phrase just feels good to say Note how blame is placed entirely on the computer That s keeping the proper perspective Good Other ways to remove files you didn t create yourself ANG RS The main complaint I get with my Delete only those files you created yourself maxim is that people find on the computer other files that they re just itching to delete themselves These files include Internet cookies 1 Temporary files especially temporary Internet files Wallpapers and extra media files Programs that are unwanted or no longer used 1 Pieces of Windows they want to get rid of 1 Teaser programs that come free with a new computer 1 Stuff I can t think of right now Avoid the temptation to manually delete these files It gets you into trouble But Dan you whine A frie
3. ing state Naturally nothing on the computer actually crashes or even makes noise There s no tearing of metal or popping and tinkling of broken glass nor does anything explode I hope The crash is merely on a computer that suddenly stops operation or it may even continue but in a sluggish manner or while exhibiting odd behavior freeze See hang glitch Whenever the computer does something strange or unexpected or behaves in a manner inconsistent with normal operation that s a glitch Glitches happen to everyone Often you fail to notice a glitch unless it does something that directly affects what you re doing For example you don t notice a sound glitch until you try to make your computer squawk The sound may have not been working for weeks but you notice it missing only when you other wise would expect it Such is the agony of the glitch hang A totally unresponsive computer is said to be hung or hanged You could also use the term frozen though hang is the accepted term used by computer nerds for generations infinite loop Also called stuck in a loop the infi nite loop is a bug where a program devises a sit uation that the computer cannot calculate its way out of The result is a hang Often times recovery is possible by killing off the stuck program Chapter 1 Dealing with Disaster While Keeping Your Sanity Why do computers have bugs In the real world bugs or more accurate
4. positive attitude allows you to better fix the problem rather than futilely fix the blame Part l What the amp Computers shouldn t crash of course They re not designed to Really But they do for two reasons neither of which is really your responsibility 1 The software has bugs in it 1 There is an utter lack of cooperation Most of all the main reason that things go wrong in a computer is because Something has changed Dealing with that change and its consequences is the topic of this entire book The Jargon File When the PC Screws Up BSOD the Blue Screen of Death The BSOD is specifically a Microsoft Windows issue Even today when Windows walks off a cliff the com puter reverts to a text screen mode and dis plays a cryptic error message Whatever Don t bother reading the message the computer is dead and resuscitation is out of the question bug A bug is an error in a computer program Despite the efforts of the best programmers most computer software is riddled with bugs Bugs cause computers to do the unexpected Bad bugs can cause a computer to hang or crash Note that most of the worst bugs happen when you mix two programs together and they interact in some new and unexpected way The term comes from the early days of computing when a real bug a moth got stuck in the circuitry crash Crash is a spectacular term describing how a computer surprisingly enters a nonwork
5. their lifespans The boost in productivity from the new models alone is worth the expense 1 In government or in public schools demand to replace computers every two years Other people s money is so much easier to spend 1 For the home keep your PC as long as you can If it still works great Even if you do buy a new system you can still use the old system for the kids to do homework or play games 1 I havea bone yard full of old computer pieces and parts It s not all junk either recently I used parts from several old computers to create a file server for my network I call him Franken server vv The main problem with older computers parts I have an older PC that can only see 8GB of hard drive storage yet the smallest hard drive I Rs can find for sale is 20GB Oops S O 1 The first things to fail on any old PC are the things that move the most such as disk drives mice and keyboards 1 A failing hard drive is typically the sign of a PC entering its twilight years You will notice that the disk drive takes longer to access files and that Check Disk or a similar disk utility begins to report more disk errors and bad sectors See Part IV for information on what to do next 6 Part I What the amp 1 Mice can fail long before the rest of the computer This problem may not be a portent of the PC s ultimate demise see Chapter 13 for more mouse information 1 When your PC dies
6. Chapter 1 Dealing with Disaster While Keeping Your Sanity In This Chapter Discovering whether it s your fault Investigating what causes PC problems Emotionally dealing with a crash Ur you notice that something is wrong with your computer my guess is that the first thing you do is to blame yourself Don t It s natural for any human to think What did I do any time that the computer goes wacky Unlike the car which people refer to as a stupid thing when it refuses to start or does something else unexpected the computer seems to stare back at you innocently when trouble looms With a sad face and an angelic disposition the PC seems to sob Look what you did to me And the human feels the instant pang of guilt Yet in over 20 years of dealing with a computer I ve discovered that only a few odd times have I either intentionally or accidentally caused my computer ill In fact I recommend that you adopt the same attitude I have when it comes to dealing with those inevitable computer boo boos It helps to know and recite my PC troubleshooting mantra Oh my The computer is behaving in a random and unexpected manner I suppose that I shall have to look into this to see what can be done to remedy the situation In only 32 words and 32 is a Holy Number in computerdom because it s twice the Holy Number 16 the mantra lets you profess a neutral observation about the computer s sickly state Accepting this
7. bid it adieu Salvage what you can no point in tossing out the monitor mouse keyboard modem or other pieces parts that could work on another computer Properly dispose of the rest of the computer according to the PC disposal laws of your locality What Vou Can Do about It Whether a computer glitch is your fault or not it s your job to do something about it This book is your best tool for helping you find a solution so the next step is to continue reading Before you do be aware that you go through certain emotional phases as you experience and deal with your computer s often irrational behavior I have categorized these phases in chronological order 1 Guilt Despite what you know or have read about computers just about everyone feels guilty when the thing fouls up Is it my fault What did I do Even after years of troubleshooting other people s computers I still blame myself It must be a human gene or an instinct we have probably proof that mankind was created by robots from Dimension IX in 70 000 BC 1 Anger Yeah hit the monitor Get it out of your system Stupid PC Stupid PC Why do you always crash when I m doing something important Arghghgh Yes you have a right to expect obedience from your personal electronics Too bad the drones in the manufacturer s Human Usability Labs don t express their anger so readily 1 Fear or depression This dumb thing will never work Wro
8. ling Windows After all if you surgically remove a great portion of your operating system reinstalling is the only way to get it back For all other problems you generally have a solution other than reinstalling Windows Here is what s okay to delete Files icons folders subfolders and any files in those subfolders that exist in the Account Profile folder the main folder where you save stuff 1 Shortcut files on the desktop 1 Files folders and subfolders that you created in the Public folder 1 Compressed Zip files you have downloaded and installed That s it Never ever delete any other files anywhere else on your computer or on the computer network I know that you may want to The urge may be irresistible You may go on a cleaning binge and yearn to mow down files like some crazed gardener with a multispeed weed whacker Don t v You can also delete items from the Start menu but I recommend doing that only for organizational purposes 1 No I don t ever recommend reinstalling Windows See Chapter 21 for the reasons Part l What the amp Things to say when the computer crashes Frack A wonderful forceful yet completely G rated term Sounds like you know what but utterly non offensive Bonus It meets the qual ifications for a genuine English language swear word tmust be a single syllable t could be German 1 It s easy to say when intoxicated Oh come on As
9. ly insects are a necessary part of the ecosys tem In a computer system bugs are evil and entirely unnecessary Yet they exist A bug is an error in a computer program It s an accident caused by an oversight on the part of the programmer sloppy programming or a lack of anticipation For example a programmer may not anticipate that a user may have a last name that s more than 25 characters long and that when you type the 26th character the program waltzes off into La La Land Or the programmer may type variable_AM1 when he really meant to type variable_AMm2 or something similar No programmer creates bugs on purpose In fact most programming involves removing bugs as opposed to writing new code So a program mer types a set of instructions runs them fixes them runs them fixes them and back and forth until all the bugs are hopefully worked out Programmers even invite others beta testers to check their programs for bugs After all the pro grammers can t possibly figure out every possi ble way their software will be used The objectis to make the final product as bug free as possible When you discover a bug which is the case with most PC trouble you should report it to the soft ware developers They re the ones not you responsible for fixing the bug Why It s Not Vour Fault The only way a computer hardware or software problem could ever be your fault is when you built the hardware
10. nd said that it s okay to manually delete my Internet cookies Well there are proper ways to delete the cookies rid yourself of temporary files clean and scour unwanted programs and remove things you don t need Chapter 1 Dealing with Disaster While Keeping Your Sanity 15 Use those proper ways Do not attempt to manually delete things yourself You will get into trouble if you do 1 See Chapter 18 for information on dealing with cookies 1 Also see Chapter 25 for information on properly removing unwanted eE files from your computer amp 1 It s not your fault that the computer crashes especially if you follow my advice in this section How old is your PC The older your computer is the more likely it is to crash I have no idea why Systems that run stable for years may suddenly experience a growing number of glitches It happens so often that I refer to it as tired RAM And alas no electronic equivalent of Geritol is available for your PC s tired RAM When your PC gets old you have to prepare for inevitable quirkiness from it You can try replacing the parts piece by piece but eventually you wind up spending more on parts than you would for an entirely new system No matter how much you love your computer when it comes time for it to go let it go 1 The average computer lives between four and six years 1 If you re in business plan on replacing your PCs at or near the end of
11. ng This book helps you eliminate your fear and get over the depression phase Y Acceptance Hey it s a computer It crashes It could be your fault but chances are that it s something else You must deal with the problem Be stronger and wiser than the computer Confidence I have Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies I can solve any problem This book lists many solutions to many common glitches but also helps you to troubleshoot just about any problem And I have rarely met a PC problem that cannot be solved some by simply restarting your computer 1 Success Your computer is back to normal and everything is right with the universe World peace is just around the corner It s raining money And bluebirds will help you get dressed in the morning Let s all sing
12. or wrote the software yourself In fact if you ever bother to read the software license that comes with any program you ll discover that it s your fault that there are bugs in the software because you the human are actually running the program That s weird but so is our legal system I rest my case And I reopen the case Consider that when you re running a program you re using your computer You stumble across a bug Thunk The program crashes and your data is gone and you attempt seppuku with a USB flash drive Did you cause the error No You were the trigger but the fault isn t your own Put that flash drive away In addition to bugs is the lack of cooperation issue Software and hardware vendors test their products to ensure that things run properly But they just cannot test every possible PC configuration Chances are very good that somehow you will stumble across some software hardware combination that wreaks havoc in the computer Is that your fault Technically no because the manufacturer should build reliable stuff So there you have it The computer is a device that s not designed to crash but through the odd chance of a software bug or some weird software hardware mixture it does crash and crash often Yes I would quite agree that the reason it happens is not your fault 11 2 Part I What the amp How It Possibly Could Be Vour Fault You re not off the hook Rarely in my travels ha
13. ve I found someone who has somehow influenced the computer to go wacky In fact only a few things have been known to be directly related to human problems These causes are covered in this section Vou did something new to the computer Computers are very conservative they don t like change The most stable computer I have in my office has only Microsoft Word installed on it Nothing else is used on that computer not the Internet no games no nothing The computer still crashes but not as often as other systems I use The key to having a more stable computer is not to install new software or hardware Unfortunately this advice is nearly impossible to follow It s not that the mere act of installing something new causes the computer to crash No it s just that installing something new introduces another combination into the system a new potion into the elixir so to speak and an incom patibility or conflict may come from that It s what I call the it was working yesterday syndrome For example one of my readers writes in and says The sound is gone from my computer I had sound yesterday but today it s all gone The first thing I ask is whether the person installed any new hardware or software The answer is generally Yes and that s what prompted the problem Sometimes you can forget that you have installed new stuff which makes the problem seem random After all the computer is acting goofy and it
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