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Archive for June, 2010

Computer Failure – Tips On How To Avoid Computer Failure

A computer failure is something that none of us ever want to have to experience, but if you use computers on a regular basis you must be prepared because it will happen at one point or another.

One of the more common ways that will cause computer failure is a computer power supply is either going bad or is completely dead. The key to this is to make sure you are aware of the some of the more common computer power supply failure symptoms.

The voltage levels on a computer power supply have to remain consistently in the range of 12v. Most standard ATX computer power supplies are designed to meet this standard. If the unit starts to go bad and does not produce enough voltage, then you will start to experience problems.

One of the most common symptoms of a failing computer power supply is that when you turn your computer on, you may actually hear the fans start to spin and you may even see the computer lights on the front of the case light up, but you actually get no video display on your monitor at all.

This could be a case of your power supply not putting out enough voltage to power all of the hardware components in your computer which results in computer failure. If I come across a computer showing these symptoms, I will sometimes take the side of the case off and unplug the power connectors for all components not critical to powering the computer on. So I would unplug things such as: CD-ROMs, floppy drives, hard drives and any other components you may have installed. I would then turn the computer on just to see if I could then get video since there would be more voltage available to power the video card.

Although your computer won’t boot the whole way because you have your hard drive unplugged, you should be able to make the conclusion that if you do now have video that you have a bad power supply.

Super Expert Tips – You Won’t Find These Anywhere Else

  • If you have multiple computers or you are %100 sure that your computer power supply might be bad, then either go to your local computer store or go online and buy a computer power supply tester. This is by far the most accurate way to diagnose a bad power supply and also the cause of a potential computer failure.
  • Have you ever tried to turn your computer on and it just doesn’t want to boot or maybe it just starts to turn on and turns right back off? I see this a lot of times especially right after the power might go off abruptly for one reason or another. ATTENTION: One thing you can do to fix this is to unplug the power cable from the back of your computer and then hold in the power button for 15 to 20 seconds. Plug the power cable back in and turn on your computer! I have fixed many computers over the years by performing this little trick!

I hope that with these tips and advice that you will be able to properly diagnose a computer failure caused by a bad power supply. The key is to know what symptoms to look out for and how to properly troubleshoot them.

Simple Computer Troubleshooting Tips Everyone Must Know

Computer Troubleshooting

Computer Troubleshooting

In this post, I am going to go over some simple computer troubleshooting tips that everyone who owns a computer should know how to perform. By knowing how to do some basic troubleshooting on your computer, you may be able to save yourself a few hundred dollars because you won’t have to call for computer repair.

Problem: Your Are Dealing With A Slow Computer

The first question I ask someone who is saying their computer is slow is when was the last time they rebooted. I know, you think this is just some standard answer I throw out there. The truth is, is if you were to take a newer computer and leave it running for a month while using it heavily, it is going to perform much slower at the end of that month. However, if you were to reboot your computer at least once a week, that would help to maintain maximum performance.

If you would like to automate or have a program take care of making sure you are getting the best performance out of your computer, then I would recommend a program such as SpeedUpMyPC 2010 from Uniblue. This is by far the most reliable piece of software on the market. It will help with slow computer problems, slow startup and slow boot problems just to name a few. I highly recommend this software.

Problem: Your Computer Is Blue Screening

Another really common issue that computer users will experience is the blue screen of death. There is nothing worse than being in the middle of a big project and your computer freezes which leads to a blue screen of death which finally leads to a full on computer crash. Drivers can be the source of a lot of computer freezes and blue screen of death errors.

Let’s say your computer crashes as a result of Fallout 3 freezes right while your in the middle of playing it. Does your computer meet the minimum requirements of the game? Is this the first and only time this has ever happen, or does your computer crash and restart frequently when playing a particular game? You would need to first make sure that your video card and computer are powerful enough to handle the graphics of your particular game. If they meet the requirements, then you may want to think about updating the drivers for your video game. Drivers are constantly being updated and it can be hard to keep up with all of the latest releases.

If your not real familiar with making sure you have the most up to date drivers for your computer hardware, then I would recommend a program such as DriverScanner 2010. This program is also made by Uniblue and it literally makes keeping your drivers up to date a breeze. It even does some really cool things such as make backups of previous versions so you can roll them back at any time.

I know this is a lot to digest, but I hope you add these simple computer troubleshooting tips to your arsenal. There is no need to have to call for computer repair services every time your computer is having problems. Creative Commons License photo credit: Patrick Hoesly

Viruses Can Cause Computer Freezes – Protect Your Computer

One thing that everyone needs to understand in today’s world is that the internet is becoming more and more accessible by not only people who want to use it for good purposes, but it is also being used by those who wish to cause trouble for your computer. It sometimes seems like no matter how much protection you have on your computer, or no matter how careful you are when surfing the internet, you will still encounter a viscous virus from time to time.

I have seen some viruses such as Windows XP Antivirus 2010 slip by all of the big named anti virus protection such as Norton, Trend or AVG. This virus is one of the most viscous and harmful viruses that I have ever encountered and can cause computer freezes or lock ups almost instantly. If you do not perform the right steps to get rid of it, you may be in line for a full system restore. There have been times even when I have had no choice but to just wipe the hard drive and start fresh.

There tons of legitimate websites being infected with viruses every day. A few years ago, you really only had to watch out for those ‘suspect’ websites. Most of the time, you new you were surfing a site that you shouldn’t have been and the result was you computer getting a virus that caused you a major headache. This isn’t the case now days though. You could be on a totally legitimate website and all of a sudden your machine will instantly slow down, your hard drive will start humming and your computer will be rendered virtually unusable. Although not best practice, if you can recognize this soon enough, it is sometimes  best just to shut your machine off by holding the power button in. This may give you the opportunity to boot into safe mode and clean the virus out since it wasn’t able to fully infect your machine.

It is also best to use a malware/spyware removal software such as Malwarebytes along with your anti virus software. Even though anti virus software is updated daily, it still has problems detecting or removing some elements of more intense viruses. This is were a program such as Malwarebytes or Spybot will come in very handy.

Be sensible and very careful when surfing the web. Don’t ever click on something that you are not %100 sure of. Avoid computer freezes by having a good anti virus software installed, a good spyware/malware removal software and most important good judgment on your part.