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Archive for March, 2010

Computer Freezes Frequently – Forget the Geek Squad And Fix It Yourself. Learn Here.

March 28th, 2010 No Comments

Fix Your Own Computer

There is nothing more frustrating to deal with than when your computer freezes frequently. This common problem can be very frustrating to the end user and can also be quite hard for a computer professional to fix. The reason why is because there are so many things that could cause a computer to freeze. The key is being able to narrow down the things it could be by doing some smart troubleshooting.

You can basically group computer freezes into the two categories of software related and hardware related. Let’s take a look at each and some ways you can quickly identify which you are experiencing and how to fix it.

Software Related Computer Freezes

In most cases, if your computer blue screens or your screen freezes and it is non-responsive then you can make a pretty good bet that your issue is software/driver related. A screen freeze can be caused by anything from playing a movie online to using too many programs at the same time.

If your PC freezes and then blue screens, I would almost bet that it is a driver issue or an OS issue. This can be caused by installing a invalid driver or could even be caused by a windows update. An operating system file could become corrupt by having a virus, spyware or installing a program that overwrote that file and put an invalid file in its place.

Quick Fixes

Utilize System Restore. Use it, it works.
Run a Windows Repair – fixes most corrupt OS file issues
Use a Driver Checker software
Clean your Computer Registry

Hardware Related Computer Freezes

A hardware related computer freeze is usually detected when your computer freezes and then reboots or shuts down immediately after freezing. In most cases this is points to a problem with hardware. Then comes the hard part of know which piece of hardware could be faulty or causing the PC to freeze. Let’s go through some quick hitters that will allow you to quickly identify why your computer freezes frequently.

Quick Fixes

First and foremost, make sure all fans are working properly and that your computer case is free of dust and dirt. This is one of the top causes of computer freezes.
Unplug all necessary hardware such as CD-ROM, Floppy, network cards, audio cards. Only leave the video card and hard drive plugged in. If the computer boots successfully, then add one component back at a time.
Re-seat the processor and the RAM.

These tips and troubleshooting steps will help you stop the problem when your computer freezes frequently.
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Posted in Computer Freezes

Tags: blue screen of death, Computer Freezes, corrupt files, windows vista, windows xp

Wireless Internet Freezes My Computer – Tips To Help You Fix This Computer Problem

March 22nd, 2010 No Comments

Wireless Internet

Having wireless internet in your house is more a reality rather than just a pipe dream today. It seems that just about every installation of high-speed internet comes with some sort of wireless router and every new computer has built-in wireless capabilities.

Some of the big players in the wireless industry are Linksys, D-Link and NetGear. Most manufacturers are making wireless routers that support IEEE 802.11n. This basically means these units have some pretty wicked wireless speeds.

One of the big problems that people have been asking me to fix lately is why the wireless internet freezes my computer? There really are several factors that could go into diagnosing this problem and figuring out exactly what may be causing your PC to freeze.

The follow are some quick tips and troubleshooting steps you should look at if you are having this problem.

Drivers up to date: The first thing I would check is to see if the drivers I had installed for the wireless network card were the latest version released by the manufacturer. This really wouldn’t be an issue if you had a nifty program such as Uniblue’s Driver Checker to do this for you. Very nice tool to use.

Make/Model and Internal/External: If your wireless card is an internal card attached to the motherboard, then you are a bit restricted in what you can try. I would first check to make sure the card supports the speed (B, G or N) at which your wireless router is transferring. I have seen a lot of wireless cards that just don’t work with certain models of wireless routers. If you have an external card that hooks up either by a slot in the motherboard or via USB, then you have a bit more flexibility. Important Tip: If your going out to buy a wireless router and some wireless adapters for your computers, try to get the same brand for everything. Meaning, if you buy a Linksys router, then try to buy Linksys wireless adapters. You will have a lot less issues in the end.

Test the adapter: When trying to fix an issue such as why the wireless internet freezes my computer, you can spend a ton of time just wasting time. Some key things to think about that will really help speed up troubleshooting times are:

Do you have more than one computer? If so, is the wireless working for all of them? If not, then you may be looking and an issue with your wireless router.
If you have more than one computer, then you could take the card that isn’t working and test it in a computer that you know has wireless access already. This could eliminate either the wireless card or the computer as being the issue.

Hope you found these quick tips helpful and I hope that you were able to find an answer as to why the wireless internet freezes my computer.

Cheers. Read more about Computer Freezes.

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Posted in Computer Freezes

Tags: Computer Freezes, internet explorer, windows vista, windows xp

Know How To Use System Restore In Your Fight To Stop Computer Freezing

March 16th, 2010 No Comments

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Fight Computer Freezes

It was not until about 3 years ago that I started to really appreciate the power that the System Restore function within windows could provide. Over the course of these past 3 years, system restore has saved my butt several times when it comes to fixing computer crashes, computer freezes or the dreaded blue screen of death.

System restore can be access normally by one of two ways:

For Windows XP: Go to Start > Help and Support. From there, you should have an option to ‘Undo Changes to your computer with System Restore ‘.
For Window Vista: Right-click on the My Computer icon and select properties. This will bring up the ‘Basic computer information page’. From here you will click on the link that says ‘Advanced System Settings which will open the system properties window. Select the System Protection tab and the click on the System Restore button to launch it.

What exactly the System Restore do to your computer?

System restore runs in the background using very little of your computer’s resources. It is constantly monitoring the ‘state’ of your computer. By state, I mean thing like the registry, system files, programs that have been installed and windows updates that have been installed. Typically, every 24 hours, the system restore creates whats called a checkpoint. This checkpoint contains all of the information gathered from the previous day and allows these changes to be undone if so desired.

One of the most asked questions regarding system restore is: Will I lose the Microsoft Office documents I have created or the pictures I have downloaded to my computer if I run a store? The answer is No!

Here are some typical scenarios that would warrant running a system restore.

Scenario I

Let’s say you checked for the latest windows updates and found that you had 10 or 20 missing updates so you decide to download and install them. After a reboot, you find that your machine is not working correctly and maybe you even got a blue screen of death error. In this case, I would boot into safe mode and perform a system restore to the previous day.

Scenario II

While surfing the web, you got infected with a really bad trojan virus that made your computer freeze and you had to manually shut it down. The first line of defense for me in this situation is to again, startup in save mode and preform a system restore. In most cases, this will not totally rid you of the virus, but will make your machine at the least bootable. Once you gain access back to your desktop you can run a virus scan to remove the remnants of trojan.

As a recap, don’t be afraid to utilize the System Restore function. It is a great tool and one that every computer user should know how to use. Why pay a geek a hundred bucks to do the same thing when you can easily run it yourself.
photo credit: accent on eclectic

Posted in Computer Freezes

Tags: blue screen of death, Computer Freezes, corrupt files, trojan horse removal

Computer Freezes – Some Expert Tips On What You Should Do If Your Computer Locks Up

March 13th, 2010 No Comments

Step Up Computer Performance

There is nothing more frustrating than when your computer freezes, especially when it decides that it is just going to do it at random times with now warning whatsoever. What even makes it worse is trying to figure out why the computer keeps locking up on you.

Ultimately, you have quite a bit of control over the things you can be doing to stop computer freezes. If you use your computer for surfing the internet, creating documents or playing games without doing some regular maintenance, then you are cooking up a very good recipe to for computer freezes.

Let’s go over some quick maintenance tips that you can do once or twice every month that will really keep your computer running in tip-top shape and shed some light on why a computer locks up.

Uninstall Unused Programs: Every new computer today whether it be a Dell, HP or Sony come with so many programs you will never even think of using that it is almost ridiculous. I would recommend that if you have a new machine to use it for a week or so and see which programs you are going to actually use. After that, go into the Add/Remove Programs inside the control panel and start uninstalling every program that is unfamiliar or you know you don’t use. If you uninstall a good number of programs, I would recommend running a Disk Defrag and cleaning up the registry with a good registry cleaner. These are a must if your computer locks up on you for no apparent reason.

Clean Up Those Files: I know, hard drives today are enormous and one has to work really hard to use up all of the space. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be maintaining and keeping your files cleaned up. Quick Tip: Don’t clutter your desktop with so many files that you can’t see the desktop wall paper. This is a big culprit when it comes to computer performance. Utilize the My Documents folder to store all of the files you create. Running Disk Cleanup is also a really good utility. It takes all of the guess work out of ‘what files should I delete’. You can access Disk Cleanup by going to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. If you take these things into consideration, you will not only speed your computer up, but you will be doing omen’s work at preventing computer freezes.

By doing these simple suggestions, you will not only make your computer perform better, but you will be preventing computer freezes and and computer lock ups.
Read more tips on what to do if your computer locks up.

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Posted in Computer Freezes

Tags: Computer Freezes, computer locks up, computer performance

Laptop Keeps Freezing – The 3 Most Likely Causes And How To Fix Them

March 7th, 2010 1 Comment

Laptop Keeps Freezing

Wondering why your laptop keeps freezing? If so, then read this post to find great tips to diagnose why.

Laptops are a great tool, especially if you have one for the right reasons. By that I mean if you are a person who requires portability then I am sure you are getting the most out of your laptop.

Due to the fact that laptops are portable, means they take a bigger beating and are used in many different types of environments. This can be the source of why your laptop keeps freezing.

There are several factors that need to be considered if your laptop keeps freezing. A few that come to mind are:

Age of the laptop
How badly had it been ‘abused’
Overheating
Operating System files
Hardware drivers

Let’s take a closer look at the reasons I think are most common for causing a laptop to keep freezing.

Overheating: If you have a laptop that is a few years old and has been through the grind, there is a good chance that it may be experience overheating problems. You need to understand that because they need to be portable, their hardware components will tend to fail quicker than a desktop computer. If your laptop is freezing after 20 to 30 minutes after turning it on, it could very well be related to overheating. Take a moment to locate the vent where the fan blow air out of your laptop and put your hand in front of it to see if there is any kind of air at all coming out. You may also find that there is a good amount of dust build up on this vent. Don’t be afraid to take some canned air and blow all of the dust out. AWESOME TROUBLESHOOTING TIP: One sure-fire way to pin point overheating as the reason your laptop keeps freezing, is to boot your computer and enter the system setup. This can be done usually by hitting F2 or delete. (This varies depending on the brand of laptop you have) Once you have entered the System Setup, just let your laptop sit there and run. If it eventually freezes up, then I will bet you have overheating issues.
Drivers: Over the years, I have found that laptops are more picky about having drivers that are specifically made for the exact make and model you have. All of the major brands such as HP, Dell, Acer and Sony all have drivers made or designed specifically for their laptops. Not having these specific drivers installed could be a reason why your laptop keeps freezing. The driver I would be most concerned about is your video card driver. So if you have a Dell laptop, then visit their website and download the latest video driver they have for your specific model. It may sometimes be a few years old, but I recommend that you continue to use it because if there was a change that needed to be made to the driver, then they would have updated it.
Operating System: If you have done your troubleshooting and have found that your laptop is not overheating and the drives are up to date with the manufactures recommended drivers, then you need to consider that you may have corrupted operating system files. This could be the reason your laptop keeps freezing. One thing that I can never stress too much is when you purchase a laptop, keep everything that comes with it. By that I mean, keep all of the disks. Too many times, when a person is having problems with their laptop and they need to perform a system repair or reinstall the OS, they never have the CD’s that came with the laptop. Don’t let that person be you! If you laptop is blue-screening on you, or if it is locking up hard but not rebooting, then you most likely have an OS issue. I would recommend doing a Windows Repair on your system. Take note, you do not want to do a whole system restore because if you do this, you will lose all of your data. (That last sentence will be the topic of another whole post).

So to recap, if your laptop keeps freezing, then I would first look at overheating as being the source especially if your laptop is more than 2 years old. Next, take a look at the drivers. Make sure you have the manufacturers recommended drivers installed. If these two things check out, then you may be having some problems with the Operating System files. I would recommend doing a Windows Repair. This takes about 30 minutes to do and you will not lose any of your data or programs.

Learn more on how to prevent computer freezes.

Cheers

photo credit: Scrambled_Egg

Posted in Computer Freezes

Tags: Computer Freezes, laptop, laptop freezing

A 99% Effective Method To Remove Spyware And Malware For Free

March 3rd, 2010 No Comments

The internet and specifically Google is a place where almost any question can be answered. Google is a huge resource and a big part of why I can do my job well, but one has to be constantly aware that there are websites out there just waiting to install a trojan horse and cause computer freezes.

It seems that I am dealing with computers that have been infected by a trojan at least twice a week. It really doesn’t matter how well your computer is protected or what kind of computer security software you are using, there are still flavors of these trojans that can be installed and bring a computer to its knees.

I have found over the last few years that the best piece of software for trojan horse removal is by far Malwarebytes. I can remember when Spybot was the talk of the town, but in my opinion, Malwarebytes blows it out of the water. I don’t want to give Spybot a bad image because it still is a great program but it seems to take forever to scan a machine with it. Malwarebytes is lightweight and a scan usually takes no more than 5 minutes.

I digress. The real reason you are reading this post is to find out my proven method to get rid of spyware and malware 99% of the time.

I use this method when a machine has been severely infected and pretty much is unusable.

I am not going to go into great detail, so if you have a question, just leave a comment and I can elaborate.

My Proven Technique

Shutdown your computer completely.
Boot your computer into Safe Mode with Networking. Do this by hitting F8 as soon as you boot your computer. Select Safe Mode with Networking.
As soon as your desktop loads, go to Start > Run and type msconfig then hit enter. This will load the System Configuration window. Select the Startup Tab and click the Disable all button. Click OK a few times and restart your machine when prompted.
Access Safe Mode with Networking again by hitting F8 as soon as your machine reboots.
When the desktop loads, you should proceed to do a System Restore. Just pick a day far enough back when you know your computer wasn’t having issues. System Restore can be accessed by going to Start > Help and Support.
System Restore will reboot your machine. More than likely, you can just let your machine boot into normal mode and it should work well enough to do the rest of our tasks, but if not, reboot again into Safe Mode with Networking.
Download and install Malwarebytes. Be sure on the last screen to have it launch and update the program.
Run a Quick Scan with Malwarebytes and remove everything it finds. It will probably ask you to reboot your machine. Go ahead and do that. After it reboots, your machine should be running pretty well, and should be free of computer freezes and spyware/malware. However, I usually do a few additional things.
Delete all files at this location: c:\windows\prefetch. You may need to unhide system files in order to see this folder.
Download and install Spybot. Be sure to update it first before running it. Remove everything it finds.
After Spybot is done running, go ahead and go back to Start > Run and type msconfig.
Go to the Startup Tab and only put a check next to the programs you know you want to run at startup.
Click OK and reboot when prompted.

This method works for me about 99% of the time. There have been a few cases though where a machine is just too infected and needs to be completely rebuilt. Always remember that with a program like Malwarebytes or Spybot to always update it before running it.

~Cheers

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Posted in Windows Tips

Tags: clean computer, remove malware, remove spyware, trojan horse removal