How to Fix Computer Problems?

Problems with computer are basically divided into two groups, i.e., hardware problems and software problems. The hardware problems are related to the peripheral parts of the computer like the CD drive, hard disk, monitor, keyboard, etc. You can read more in detail about computer hardware basic information related to computer hardware troubleshooting. The software problems are more complicated. These problems include problems like modem problems, Windows not starting, drivers not found, etc. The first step to fix computer problems is computer problems troubleshooting. Understand what is causing the glitch and follow the standard procedure to solve the problem. The following are a few common computer problems and solutions to help you overcome the technical snag. You can read more in detail regarding:

Computer Hardware Repair and Maintenance
Computer Hardware Troubleshooting Tips and Tools
Computer Repair

Computer Problem # 1 ~ Computer Problems after Power Outage

Today there are many sudden power outages, voltage problems and spikes that can damage computers. These damages cause many technical and software snags and interrupt your work. This leads to loss of data, damage to the hardware, etc. due to sudden power outage. This is a common computer problem and solution to this trouble is use of uninterruptible power supply (UPS). The UPS can provide a constant flow of energy to the computer, even if you encounter a sudden power outage. This will provide you with ample time to save your data and shut down your PC, if needed. You can get some more idea on computer power supply unit in the article titled how to buy a computer power supply.

Computer Problem # 2 ~ Computer Performance has Slowed Down

You may notice your computer has slowed down considerably and even a simple command execution takes ages. This is because your computer is loaded with unnecessary files, fragmented data, corrupted registry, spyware programs, services, software, etc. that makes your computer slow down. Thus, you need to manage your programs and delete unnecessary data and software that you do not use or need, clean your registry regularly to help boost at least 30% of your computer performance speed. You can understand more in detail about what is a computer virus.

Computer Problem # 3 ~ No Sound from Speakers

You are in the mood to listen to some groovy music on your PC, but you get no sound from speakers, the solution to is to check the back of the computer and see if all the connectors are properly connected. The speaker or single stereo speaker plug should be put into the socket on the soundcard that has a mark Audio Out.

Computer Problem # 4 ~ Computer Monitor Displays Fuzzy Images

A computer monitor is the display unit of the computer that is sensitive to electro-magnetic radiations. These electro-magnetic radiations are transmitted from the TV, radio, microwaves, dishwashers, washing machines, speakers, etc. Mobile phones transmit electro-magnetic radiations that is one of the main cause of monitor displaying fuzzy images. Thus, move away these disturbances away from the monitor and this problem with computer monitor will be fixed. You can read more detailed solutions in the article on computer display problems.

Computer Problem # 5 ~ Computer Freezes with Blue Screen Hijacking Your Display

There are many problems that can cause your computer screen to freeze and blue screen to appear. This may be due to a spyware or computer viruses that have affected your computer. You need to update your anti-spyware and scan your computer for any viruses. If your computer is free from any such malicious software, then you may need to update your hardware drive. A hardware drive that is not updated may cause the CPU to lock up and interrupt working of the computer. If you find the problem cropping up even after a hardware drive update, then you may need to increase computer RAM. When you increase the RAM, the computing power increases and you will also be able to avoid the computer freeze.

Computer Problem # 6 ~ Computer Reboots Itself Again and Again

Another one of the many common problems with computer. In order to fix computer problem of rebooting itself again and again, you will need to check the hardware. You may have a faulty power supply, defective or dirty cooling fan, etc., that may cause the computer to reboot again and again. The dust that accumulates on the fan, makes it heat up faster and in order to cool down the computer automatically switches off. Thus, clean the fan and check for power supply. Following these simple steps will help you to solve this problems with computer.

Computer Problem # 7 ~ Computer Makes Strange Noises

Noises and vibrations from your computer are basically a hardware problem. Many electronic parts can make high pitch noises. You need to switch off your computer and unplug it from the power supply. Now remove the case from the CPU and restart your computer. Locate the origin of noise and then switch off the computer and unplug it. It may be a faulty fan, loose wire or screw. This means you will need to call the computer technician to help you solve your problems with computer, regarding these type of problems.

Computer Problem # 8 ~ Windows Having Problems in Shutting Down Properly

You may have come across the message 'Windows Shutting Down' instead of 'It is now safe to switch off you computer'. This is because a program has not unloaded itself properly that makes the computer insist to run a scandisk the next time you switch on. You need to close all the programs before your shut down your PC and if it is not done, the computer waits for the program to close. It may happen you get the message 'Do you want to shut this program down or wait' or you may not. When you don't get such a message it results in what we call the hanging of the operating system. The solution is not to install Direct X whenever you install a game. Most games have their version of Direct X that makes the files out of sync. Thus, install the latest version of Direct X and not the games version. You may need to also check USB devices, task schedulers, virus scanners, etc. and reinstall them if necessary. This will lead to correct installation and the problems with computer may reduce.

These were just a few common computer problems and solutions that you may encounter. You can avoid these problems if you are aware of the various steps needed for computer maintenance. You should read the manual given with computer before you begin using it. Yes, the manual may sound Greek to you, but its always better to know the simple precautions to be taken. Computer problems troubleshooting is not a easy task. You should be able to diagnose the problem to be able to correctly fix computer problem. If you do not understand anything or are still apprehensive about computer problem troubleshooting, then it is a better idea to consult a computer technician. You have many articles on the Internet that help you find solutions to various problems with computer. You do not need to be genius to diagnose and troubleshoot a simple computer problem. Many times a little bit of presence of mind and common sense will help you overcome obstacles of the technical world.

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Common Problems and Their Solution.

Task manager disabled

There are 2 ways to Solve This Problem Either you can use Regedit(registry editor) or Gpedit.msc(Group
Policy Editor)
Regedit Method
Step 1 Go to Start Open Run Window
Step 2 Type regedit Or regedit32
Step 3 Move to Hkey_Current_user\Software\Microsoft\Windows\current Version\Policies\System
Step 4 If It Doesn't Exist create it Click On Key and Create a new dword value called Disable Task manager With Value 0
Step Run the File Taskman.exe From C:\windows

Gpedit.msc Method
Step 1 Open Run Type gpedit.msc
step 2 in the Group Policy Setting window Select User Configuration
Step 3 Select Administrative Templates then Select System
Step 4 then Select ctrl+alt+delete Option
Step 5 Select Remove Task Manager
Step 6 Try Both option first Disable if It Works then okay either enable it
.

Windows Corrupted

It's a very common thing that happened many times after you Restart your pc or you start it Sometime it Show NTLDR Missing Or pc Unable To Boot Properly It get restarted
So what You Can do Is use Recovery Console by Which you can be able to Repair your Booting Problems
Recovery Console
Recover Console is the Feature of Windows200,xp,2003 Operating System. it Provides a mean for administrators to Perform some Cmd Lines,It is used to Repair Booting problems
You Can use Recovery console by two ways either Install It or use It from Xp disc

Installing Recovery Console

Step 1 Insert the Xp cd
Step 2 Click On start Then click On Run
Step 3 type X:i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

Here X refer to cd drive Volume name
Then Complete the wizard
now You dont need To insert disc For recovery console
but Sometime It Got Corrupted Then You Can use Xp Cd

2nd Way to use Recovery Console
you Can press R after /window Finished Loading files

Next Thing What Are The Commands Which you Can Use to Repair booting problems

Repairing NTLDR error

Copy X:\i386\NTLDRC C:
then type Copy X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

Repairing Boot Problems
These 4 Cmds Will do your Work
Step 1 Type Chkdsk /p
step 2 Then type Fixmbr
Step 3 Then type Fixboot
Step 4 Then type bootcfg rebuild


DISK ERRORS

sometime When You enter Your drive it show an error like d: drive cannot be accessed
so to fix this error just follow these steps
step 1 open run
step 2 type cmd
step 3 in cmd windows type chkdsk /f /r /x
and let it do it wok after this you willbe able to access that drive
SECURITY DATABASE GET CORRUPTED

cause:hardware or software problem
rty this cmd ,first open cmd prompt using run and then type esentutl /r or esentutl /p

DRIVE IS WRITE PROTECTED

Sometime we see that when we insert memory card or pen drive we see this error

solution::
Step 1 open regedit
step 2 open Hkey_local_machine\system\current version\service\usbstor
after locating it on right hand side panel you will see a dword value start
then modify the dword value
to disable enter this dword value 00000003
done now after reinserting the drive you will see write protection got removed

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99 ways to make your computer blazingly fast

Over the last several years working in IT for various companies as a Systems Administrator, Network Administrator, and Help Desk professional, I’ve written and learned about many ways to increase the performance of not only my PC, but also of the many PCs on my networks ranging from Windows 98 to Windows Vista.

In this article, I hope to compile a complete list of all the different methods and tricks that I’ve used to get the last bit of juice out of a slow PC. Whether you are using an old PC or the latest and greatest in hardware, you can still use some of these to make your PC run faster.

Note that since I write two blogs, Help Desk Geek and Online Tech Tips, I have previously written about many performance tips already which I will link back to throughout. If I have not written about it, I’ve throw in a link to a relevant article from some of my other favorite sites. This list is in no particular order, just written in the order that I could think of them.

There are probably a lot of great tweaks and performance hacks that I’ve missed here, so feel free to chime in with comments! Enjoy!

1. Defragment your computer hard disk using free tools like SmartDefrag.

2. You should also defragment your Windows pagefile and registry.

3. Clean up hard drive disk space being taken up by temporary files, the recycle bin, hibernation and more. You can also use a tool like TreeSize to determine what is taking up space on your hard drive.

4. Load up Windows faster by using Startup Delayer, a free program that will speed up the boot time of Windows by delaying the startup of programs.

5. Speaking of startup programs, many of them are useless and can be turned off. Use the MSCONFIG utility to disable startup programs.

6. By default, the size of the paging file is controlled by Windows, which can cause defragmentation. Also, the paging file should be on a different hard drive or partition than the boot partition. Read here on the rules for best paging file performance.

7. In Windows XP and Vista, the Windows Search indexing service is turned on for all local hard drives. Turning off indexing is a simple way to increase performance.

8. If you don’t care about all the fancy visual effects in Windows, you can turn them off by going to Performance Options.

9. You can optimize the Windows boot time using a free program called Bootvis from Microsoft.

10. Clean your registry by removing broken shortcuts, missing shared DLLs, invalid paths, invalid installer references and more. Read about the 10 best and free registry cleaners.

11. One of the main reasons why PC’s are slow is because of spyware. There are many programs to remove spyware including Ad-Aware, Giant Antispyware, SUPERAntiSpyware, and more.

12. If you have a deeper spyware infection that is very hard to remove, you can use HijackThis to remove spyware.

13. Remove unwanted pre-installed software (aka junk software) from your new PC using PC Decrapifier.

14. Disable unnecessary Windows services, settings, and programs that slow down your computer.

15. Tweak Windows XP and tweak Windows Vista settings using free programs

16. Disable UAC (User Account Control) in Windows Vista

17. Tweak your mouse settings so that you can copy and paste faster, scroll faster, navigate quickly while browsing and more. Read here to learn how to tweak your mouse.

18. Delete temporary and unused files on your computer using a free program like CCleaner. It can also fix issues with your registry.

19. Delete your Internet browsing history, temporary Internet files, cookies to free up disk space.

20. Clean out the Windows prefetch folder to improve performance.

21. Disable the XP boot logo to speed up Windows boot time.

22. Reduce the number of fonts that your computer has to load up on startup.

23. Force Windows to unload DLLs from memory to free up RAM.

24. Run DOS programs in separate memory spaces for better performance.

25. Turn off system restore only if you regularly backup your Windows machine using third party software.

26. Move or change the location of your My Documents folder so that it is on a separate partition or hard drive.

27. Turn off default disk performance monitors on Windows XP to increase performance.

28. Speed up boot time by disabling unused ports on your Windows machine.

29. Use Process Lasso to speed up your computer by allowing it to make sure that no one process can completely overtake the CPU.

30. Make icons appear faster while browsing in My Computer by disabling search for network files and printers.

31. Speed up browsing of pictures and videos in Windows Vista by disabling the Vista thumbnails cache.

32. Edit the right-click context menu in Windows XP and Vista and remove unnecessary items to increase display speed.

33. Use the Windows Performance Toolkit and the trace logs to speed up Windows boot time.

34. Speed up your Internet browsing by using an external DNS server such as OpenDNS.

35. Improve Vista performance by using ReadyBoost, a new feature whereby Vista can use the free space on your USB drive as a caching mechanism.

36. If you have a slow Internet connection, you can browse web pages faster using a service called Finch, which converts it into simple text.

37. Use Vista Services Optimizer to disable unnecessary services in Vista safely.

38. Also, check out my list of web accelerators, which are programs that try to prefetch and cache the sites you are going to visit.

39. Speed up Mozilla Firefox by tweaking the configuration settings and by installing an add-on called FasterFox.

40. Learn how to build your own computer with the fastest parts and best hardware.

41. Use a program called TeraCopy to speed up file copying in Windows XP and Vista.

42. Disable automatic Last Access Timestamp to speed up Windows XP.

43. Speed up the Start Menu in Vista by hacking the MenuShowDelay key in the registry.

44. Increase the FileSystem memory cache in Vista to utilize a system with a large amount of RAM.

45. Install more RAM if you are running XP with less than 512 MB or Vista with less than 1 GB of RAM.

46. Shut down XP faster by reducing the wait time to kill hung applications.

47. Make sure that you have selected “Adjust for best performance” on the Performance tab in System Properties.

48. If you are reinstalling Windows, make sure that you partition your hard drives correctly to maximize performance.

49. Use Altiris software virtualization to install all of your programs into a virtual layer that does not affect the registry or system files.

50. Create and install virtual machines for free and install junk program, games, etc into the virtual machines instead of the host operating system. Check out Sun openxVM.

51. Do not clear your paging file during shutdown unless it is needed for security purposes. Clearing the paging file slows down shutdown.

52. If your XP or Vista computer is not using NFTS, make sure you convert your FAT disk to the NTFS file system.

53. Update all of your drivers in Windows, including chipset and motherboard drivers to their latest versions.

54. Every once in a while run the built-in Windows Disk Cleanup utility.

55. Enable DMA mode in Windows XP for IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers in Device Manager.

56. Remove unnecessary or old programs from the Add/Remove dialog of the Control Panel.

57. Use a program click memtest86 or Prime95 to check for bad memory on your PC.

58. Determine your BIOS version and check the manufactures website to see if you need to update your BIOS.

59. Every once in a while, clean your mouse, keyboard and computer fans of dust and other buildup.

60. Replace a slow hard drive with a faster 7200 RPM drive, SATA drive, or SAS drive.

61. Changing from Master/Slave to Cable Select on your hard drive configuration can significantly decrease your boot time.

62. Perform a virus scan on your computer regularly. If you don’t want to install virus protection, use some of the free online virus scanners.

63. Remove extra toolbars from your Windows taskbar and from your Internet browser.

64. Disable the Windows Vista Sidebar if you’re not really using it for anything important. All those gadgets take up memory and processing power.

65. If you have a SATA drive and you’re running Windows Vista, you can speed up your PC by enabling the advanced write caching features.

66. Learn how to use keyboard shortcuts for Windows, Microsoft Word, Outlook, or create your own keyboard shortcuts.

67. Turn off the Aero visual effects in Windows Vista to increase computer performance.

68. If you are technically savvy and don’t mind taking a few risks, you can try to overclock your processor.

69. Speed up the Send To menu in Explorer by typing “sendto” in the Run dialog box and deleting unnecessary items.

70. Make sure to download all the latest Windows Updates, Service Packs, and hot fixes as they “normally” help your computer work better.

71. Make sure that there are no bad sectors or other errors on your hard drive by using the ScanDisk orchkdsk utility.

72. If you are not using some of the hardware on your computer, i.e. floppy drive, CD-ROM drive, USB ports, IR ports, Firewire, etc, then go into your BIOS and disable them so that they do not use any power and do not have to be loaded during boot up.

73. If you have never used the Recent Documents feature in Windows, then disable it completely as a long list can affect PC performance.

74. One basic tweak that can help in performance is to disable error reporting in Windows XP

75. If you don’t care about a pretty interface, you should use the Windows Classic theme under Display Properties.

76. Disable short filenames if you are using NTFS by running the following command: fsutil behavior set disable8dot3 1. It will speed up the file creation process.

77. If you have lots of files in a single folder, it can slow down Explorer. It’s best to create multiple folders and spread out the files between the folders.

78. If you have files that are generally large, you might want to consider increasing the cluster size on NTFS to 16K or even 32K instead of 4K. This will help speed up opening of files.

79. If you have more than one disk in your PC, you can increase performance by moving your paging file to the second drive and formatting the volume using FAT32 instead of NTFS.

80. Turn off unnecessary features in Vista by going to Control Panel, choosing Uninstall a program, and then clicking on Turn Windows features on and off. You can turn off Remote Differential Compression, Tablet PC components, DFS replication service, Windows Fax & Scan, Windows Meeting Space, and lots more.

81. Install a free or commercial anti-virus program to help protect against viruses, etc. Make sure to use an anti-virus program that does not hog up all of your computer resources.

82. Completely uninstall programs and applications using a program like Revo Uninstaller. It will get rid of remnants left behind by normal uninstalls.

83. If you know what you are doing, you can install several hard drives into your machine and set them up in RAID 0, RAID 5, or other RAID configurations.

84. If you are using USB 1.0 ports, upgrade to 2.0. If you have a Firewire port, try to use that instead of a USB port since Firewire is faster than USB right now.

85. Remove the drivers for all old devices that may be hidden in Device Manager that you no longer use.

86. A more extreme option is to choose a faster operating system. If you find Vista to be slow, go with Windows XP. Switching to Mac or Linux is also an option.

87. One of the easiest ways to speed up your PC is to simply reformat it. Of course, you want to backup your data, but it is the best way to get your computer back to peak performance.

88. Speed up Internet browsing in IE by increasing the number of max connections per server in the registry.

89. If you use uTorrent to download torrents, you can increase the download speeds by tweaking the settings.

90. If you have a desktop background, make sure it’s a small and simple bitmap image rather than a fancy picture off the Internet. The best is to find a really small texture and to tile it.

91. For the Virtual Memory setting in Windows (right-click on My Computer, Properties, Advanced, Performance Settings, Advanced, Virtual Memory), make sure the MIN and MAX are both the same number.

92. If you search on Google a lot or Wikipedia, you can do it much faster on Vista by adding them to the Vista Start Menu Instant Search box.

93. If you have a custom built computer or a PC that was previously used, make sure to check the BIOS for optimal settings such as enabled CPU caches, correctly set IDE/SATA data transfer modes, memory timings, etc. You can also enable Fast/Quick boot if you have that option.

94. If you have a SCSI drive, make sure the write cache is enabled. You can do so by opening the properties of the SCSI drive in Windows.

95. If you have a machine with an older network card, make sure to enable the onboard processor for the network card, which will offload tasks from the CPU.

96. If you are using Windows Vista, you can disable the Welcome Center splash screen that always pops up.

97. If you already have anti-spyware software installed, turn off Windows Defender protection.

98. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows and have 4GB of RAM or more, you can force Windows to see and use all of the RAM by enabling PAE.

99. Buy a new computer!!! ;) Pretty easy eh?

I’m sure I have missed out on lots of performance tweaks, tips, hacks, etc, so feel free to post comments to add to the list! Enjoy!

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