Basic PC Troubleshooting

• Knowing Basic Troubleshooting Concepts

  05May
  Categories: Information, PC Tips, PC Troubleshooting Tips Comments: 0

  

  Having a computer at home allows easy connection all over the world. This helps to get the latest news and interact with family and friends that are miles away. However, owning a personal computer requires basic knowledge in troubleshooting. This will help users to easily detect a problem once the computer starts to malfunction. It saves time from calling a computer technician to assess a simple problem. It can also save PC owners money from having to pay for easy repairs. For instance, if the computer does not power up when turned on, the first thing to consider is loosened cables. It might be that the computer has not been properly plugged or some wires did not properly connect. Dust is also another consideration as these can accumulate fast and block CPU air vents. This will prevent the computer from booting up faster and can create serious damage in the long run.

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• Booting Problems?

  26Apr
  Categories: PC Troubleshooting Tips Comments: 0

  So, you’ve turned your PC on, and are just about ready to settle down to either catch up on your favorite series, update your blog, see what your friends are up to on your social media of choice, or even to just get some work done. You start planning your tasks in order making mental list while waiting for the screen to boot and load up the Windows logo. You wait… and wait… and wait some more. Past the two-minute mark, you realize that the computer not showing any visual progress is probably a bad sign.

  In cases like these, you have a few options to consider. One, is your external hard disk attached to your PC? In some cases, this prevents your PC from booting completely, although often this shouldn’t be the case. Try disconnecting your external hard drive first, booting your PC, then attaching your HD. Two, is your CPU rather dusty? Dust bunnies may seem harmless, but accumulated, they can cause serious blockage to your air vents, causing the inside of your CPU to get really hot and preventing it from booting up altogether. Clean up with a vacuum cleaner on a low to medium setting first, the try booting your PC.

  photo credit: reiven via photopin cc

  Tags: booting, dust, external hard drive

• The Proper Care of Cables

  20Feb
  Categories: PC Maintenance Tips Comments: 0

  

  Cables are an important part of your computer, as well as it’s other accessories and add-ons. Come on, I didn’t need to tell you that! You need cable to connect your monitor to your CPU, your CPU to the power strip, and so on. You have cables for your printer, cables for your iPod, cables for your audio system… You sometimes even have cables for your cables!

  Now, cables usually don’t come cheap. Okay, well, some of them do, but it’s still important to take good care of them to keep them serviceable for a long time.

  To unplug your cables correctly, pull at the source – not at any point on the cable itself. Pulling at the base will ensure the delicate filaments inside stay safe and undamaged. If you must store your cables, roll them up in an even circle and wind loosely. It also pays to keep your cables clean and orderly, and avoid creating a jumbled mess of a tangle.

  photo credit: e-magic via photopin cc

  Tags: cables, care for cables, tangles

• Hard Drive Health

  27Jan
  Categories: Hardware Comments: 0

  Thumb drives may be great for mobility and ease in file transfer and storage, portable hard drives are now dominating the tech scene for storage. Portable hard drives come in an array of drive capacities, ranging from 250 Gigabyte to a whopping one Terrabyte, and are now becoming staples for any media lover out there. Massive file swapping is now easier than ever with these babies, and you’re assured to always have your movies, music, comic scans, and work materials with you at all times.

  As your hard drive keeps all your files safe and handy, so it is wise to make sure it is in good working condition.

  Make sure to go over the contents of your hard drive every now and then and delete files you don’t need anymore. With your hard drive’s massive memory capacity, it can be easy to forget the things that go in there. Make sure to not let the files pile up, and your drive will thank you for it. Better yet, run a scan for viruses and defragmenting on a regular basis to keep your hard drive running well.

  photo credit: RyanRoberts via photopin cc

  Tags: hard drive, portable hard drive, tips

• No, Kitty, You Are Not From Tech Support

  27Dec
  Categories: PC Maintenance Tips Comments: 0

  

  You’ve been chipping away at a Level 79 Boss with your party, swords blazing, spells flaring, and resurrects a-firing, and at last, the gargantuan beast collapses into a large heap on the dungeon floor. Pwnage! Victory is yours! You and your party begin dividing the loot and congratulating each other for a job well done, a game well played. In the real world, you feel your CPU and are alarmed at how hot it’s gotten. You bid your party mates goodbye as you log off, switch your computer off, unplug it from the wall socket, and open the CPU casing to help it cool.

  In saunters your cat, curious as to what’s happening between you and that clunky metallic box. It also notices that it’s (1) full of wires and whatsits, and (2) those wires and whatsits are becoming rather … attractive to play with. It gingerly approaches, sniffs at the CPU contents, and begins to paw at the motherboard. Aaaw, you think to yourself, is it cute, Kitty wants to play tech support.

  Adorable as it may seem, this is where you will definitely want to move Kitty out of the way — better yet, out of the room — to prevent potential disasters.

  Image Source

  Tags: cat, cooling, kitten

• Clearing the CMOS

  10Dec
  Categories: PC Tips, PC Troubleshooting Tips Comments: 0

  

  This is often the solution, and it’s frustrating because it’s incredibly simple. All you have to do is find out from the motherboard manual where the CMOS jumper is. Make sure the system has no source of power (meaning the power supply is unplugged and the battery is removed). Then, move the CMOS jumper over the pins that clear it. After a few moments, put the jumper back, plug the power and battery back in, and try it.

  If it works, you’re done! Congratulations on being extremely lucky! Karma will probably come around later and bite you in the ass.

  If not, continue on. You may have a long road in front of you.

  Source

• Hard Drive First Aid!

  27Nov
  Categories: Hardware Comments: 0
  

  You’re at your computer, working hard at your Big Thing. Your Big Thing could be anything – a web site design, a thesis, a digital painting, a novel, etc. Your PC suddenly freezes, crashes, and suddenly flashes you the ultimate terror of PC owners – the Blue Screen of Death! In a fit of panic, you shut your PC down right there and then, make a slow count to ten, reboot your PC, and hang on for sheer luck. Your PC does start – that’s good –, but it fails to recognize your hard drive.

  Your heart quickens, and you start to panic. “But what about my pictures? My files? My documents?” You also realize you haven’t been able to back any of them up in a long, long time. You begin to scream internally.

  First, breathe deeply. There is something that can still be done to retrieve your files out of a dying hard drive. You can actually double-bag your hard drive in two sturdy zip-loc bags, freeze it for 12 hours, re-install it, and start retrieving your most important files. Remember that this is merely a means of saving your files – think of it as saving passengers from The Titanic.

  Oh, and please do remember to back up your files. Alright?

  photo credit: Sim75 (Simon Lane Photography) via photopin cc

  Tags: freeze, hard drive, HD first aid

• Clean Your Computer!

  22Oct
  Categories: Information Comments: 0

  

   

  Here’s a common thing most people overlook, cleaning their computers. It could be out of sheer laziness but one of the worst things you can do to your computer is overload it with dirt. What you need to remember is simple: Your computer can fry if you do not clean it. Dust can clog the cooling vents which can then cause your CPU to heat up. Regular cleaning can can save your computer. Cleaning is easy and you can do it yourself. Here are the steps to easy-cleaning. Remember that your computer needs to be turned off and disconnected from all power sources. For laptops, set it upside down on your table. Remove the battery and locate the vents. Remove the screws. Keep your fingers away from cards and cords. Pick out carefully the dust with tweezers of cotton buds. Blow air into the power supply box and into the fans. Do all these carefully. If feeling not confident about the whole process, getting it cleaned professionally is another option and it’s quite cheap to have done.

• Stripping down your Computer

  10Oct
  Categories: PC Maintenance Tips, PC Tips, PC Troubleshooting Tips Comments: 0

  

  The first thing you should do is remove the system from the case, place it on a non-conductive surface, and disconnect all components from the motherboard with these exceptions

  • CPU (and heatsink/fan)
  • A single stick of memory
  • Video
  • Power supply
  • Power button

  This means no drives, no peripherals, no extra ports, nothing. This tests two problems at once. They are the possibility of some peripheral preventing the system from powering up and the possibility of the motherboard shorting onto the case somehow (aka, a standoff that should not be there).

  To do a quick elimination (only if the system is completely failing to give any power at all), find where the power button connects and short those two pins for a moment with anything conductive that you have on hand. A screwdriver, knife, coin, or anything metal will work. If the system spins up, you need a new power button. (If your system was already spinning up, you can skip this step.)

  If the system fails to power up outside the case, here are two things you need to do. First, do a visual inspection of all the capacitors on the motherboard. These are the little battery-looking things. What you’ll be looking for is any fluid leaking out of the top or bottom, any “gook” anywhere on them, or if they are bulging out the top or sides.

  While you’re poking around for bad capacitors, take a look at the ATX power connector; make sure it doesn’t have any scorch marks or look melted. If anything shows any of these characteristics, your motherboard is almost definitely your problem. If they all look ok, test repeatedly, with each stick of memory individually in each slot (this means nine tests for three sticks of memory on a board with three slots!).

  If the system eventually powers up, you’ve found good memory — probably your only problem — and you’re probably done. Put the stripped-down version back into the case and secure it. If it powers up again, skip to step 9.

  If not, you need to remove it again and investigate the setup of your motherboard standoffs and make sure nothing is touching the motherboard where it should not be touched. After this is done and all is well with the basics inside the case, skip to step 9.

  If it fails to power up with any memory configuration out of the case, we know it must be either the CPU, the memory, the video, the motherboard, or the power supply, or any combination thereof.

  Source

• PC Tips : Cooling A hot PC

  10Aug
  Categories: PC Tips Comments: 0

  
  

  Nowadays every PC that come of the market are hot.. not hot in good way, but hot that is hot enough to fry an egg. Without proper cooling your PC can produce heat up to 350 C, as hot as an oven.

  Now to PC user this may seem fine, but in the hands of modders and over clockers that squeeze every ounce of performance power out of their PCs this may cause a problem as you modify your PCs factory setting you tend to increase it’s power output thus generating more heat. The traditional heatsink is will do for most PC users, but for serious PC afficionados this will never do, so they use cooling fans, and a much more tricky approach which is water-cooling.

  Heatsinks - these are chunks of high thermal conducting metal such as aluminum, copper, etc. As electric warms up the components it dissipates through the heatsink, that’s why heatsinks are more like fins as the heat spreads over the surface it dissipates through the fins which are surrounded by cooler air.

  Cooling Fans – these work like heatsinks but well they use fans to suck out the hot air and blow cooler air. Now the more cooling fans you add to your rig the more cooler it gets, but the more fans you add the noisier your Rig gets, so over clockers look for other cooling solution such as Liquid Cooling.

  Liquid Cooling – the best but hardest way to cool your PC, a liquid cooled PC moves fluid over hot components transferring the heat from those components to the liquid, then the hot liquid goes to its cooling block the cycle back again, a liquid cooled PC maybe the best solution but also think of the maintenance and the cost of leaked, or clogged tube which could damage the PC electrical component in an instant. Now there are liquid coolants out in the market that works better in cooling your PC such as distilled water and add them up with anti-corrosion liquids and non-toxic fluid additives to care for the environment, yourself and your PC. Maintenance of these liquid cooling system must be checked at least once a month, and the liquid coolant itself must be change annually to prevent algae buildup in your cooling tubes.

  via [PCExtreme]