Computers

On this page is content relevant to computers.

Troubleshooting

Software Tutorials

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Troubleshooting

Does my computer turn on?

Does my computer turn on but the BIOS doesn't display?

Does the BIOS appear but nothing else?

Is my computer stuck at my operating system's login page?

Why does my browser look different?

Why is there an unknown anti-virus asking me to do stuff?

Why do I have programs running in the background which shouldn't be running?

My computer is slow, how can I make it faster?

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Software Tutorials

Try Linux on a USB.

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Top | Home | Next topic Does my computer turn on? A simple diagnostic check to miss is the computer's power source. It does not matter if your computer is a laptop or desktop, a simple power test can begin your troubleshooting process. If you push the power button and nothing works: fans, lights, hard disk drives... then that is a good sign that your power supply or something within the motherboard is corrupt. This is something that few can fix (professionals) and not something this blog covers.

Top | Home | Next topic Does my computer turn on but the BIOS doesn't display? If your computer turns on and the BIOS screen appears but does not disappear or disappears but the operating system does not load, this could be an indication of two scenarios: Your RAM cards aren't seated properly or your operating system is inaccessible or otherwise corrupt. First thing that can be done is to re-seat the RAM cards. Make sure the computer is off, if necessary unplug the power source cable or remove the battery. Every computer is different, in most laptops the RAM tray is labeled similar to how the hard disk drive tray is labeled by three disks. What do I mean by re-seating? Well, when you open the tray or your desktop and locate the RAM cards, simply remove them and re-install them, making sure that they are properly aligned. Usually an audible 'click' can be heard when the RAM cards are seated properly Now you can power up your computer and try to reboot again.

Top | Home | Next topic Does the BIOS appear but nothing else? If you still do not see the operating system, it is possible that the master boot record (MBR) is corrupt or perhaps your hard drive has failed. Other scenarios are possible however this blog does not cover these alternate scenarios. In regards to a possible hard drive failure, use the BIOS to test the hard drive, at the very least make sure that the primary hard disk drive (usually you only have one) is recognized by the BIOS.

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Top | Home | Next topic Is my computer stuck at my operating system's login page? This is another subject which is not covered in very much depth by this blog. If your computer is able to start up, get past BIOS and then stop at the operating system page then it is possible that your operating system is corrupt. This is not really something that I can cover very much in great detail but I can get you started. One possible solution is to try a system restore. System restore will take your computer back to an earlier configuration which hopefully was when your operating system worked. This doesn't always work however. To get to system restore, you will need to get to the page which has many options such as: Safe mode, Safe mode with networking, etc... What I'm describing is for the Windows operating system. To get to this page, you will need to restart your computer and then you need to immediately start pressing the F8 key rapidly. The F8 key is not always the way to get to this page, every computer varies. Once you arrive at the page I described above with '...system restore with networking...', you simply look for and select something along the lines of 'System restore' and that is as far as I will cover.

Top | Home | Next topic Why does my browser look different? Sometimes a 'bug' can be picked up and this bug can change certain settings on your computer. One setting that can be changed without notice is the search engine. When you go to search for something on the web using your preferred browser, you may notice that instead of 'www.google.com/(what you searched)' you may instead find 'somethingrandom/www.google.com/(what you searched)' and by doing this, whatever you enter into the browser could be theoretically recorded. This is not good, you should only trust large browsers like Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google. I'm not saying small browsers are bad but when a random one changes your default browser, that's obviously not something you want. To fix this problem, you will need to figure out what the bug or hijacker is. Search something in a browser and look for the new term precedes what you searched, figure out what that term is and search for it in your computer. A good place to start is in your programs under your primary hard drive; that drive is commonly labeled as C:/ Once you find the file or program, delete or uninstall it. This brings up another solution, use add/remove programs to delete the file. If you are unable to find the file, simply go into your preferred browser's settings and revert back to defaults which will then re-enable the default search engines to take in your queries and display the results. I should also note that if you don't find the bug, it is most likely still in your computer. By changing the browser settings, you are only doing half of the work that needs to be done. You need to find that bug. It is possible to try and search for it by watching the processes which are running on your computer. Of course you need to know that the bug is currently running. For this, I won't go in much more depth except to say that if your case is as severe as random ads appearing continuously in isolated windows, then that is a good time to look at which case you would start the command prompt (start > run > cmd) and type in 'tasklist' to see what is running. Find what ever doesn't belong. Look for the file by that process name.

Top | Home | Next topic Why is there an unknown anti-virus asking me to do stuff? If you find a random anti-virus suddenly showing you error reports and asking you to take action now, this is a dead giveaway of a fake anti-virus. Especially if this anti-virus program isn't the one you currently use. First step is to determine the name of the program. Then, go into add or remove programs and see if it is there. Otherwise it may be necessary to use an anti-malware program. Malware-Bytes is a free program and it is very good at finding the latest bugs. Install Malware-Bytes and run a full scan. Do this when you don't need to use the computer so the scan can be the primary process working. If you find that the random anti-virus does not permit you to work with your computer, it is possible that you will need to enter safe mode or terminate the program manually. As mentioned in this question, repeatedly press F8 multiple times to enter safe mode. To terminate the program manually, start command prompt and type tasklist to see a list of processes running, figure out which of the processes doesn't belong. That can be done by cross-referencing 'unusual' looking process names...as an example, a process name that consists entirely of numbers may be a good place to start looking. I will go into more depth once I can replicate the problem myself and get screen shots (need windows os).

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Top | Home | Next topic Why do I have programs running in the background which shouldn't be running? If you find that your computer is running significantly slower due to excess un-needed applications or processes running in the background, you can find and turn them off if they are unwanted or you can chose to not permit the applications to start on their own upon restarting your computer. First you will need to determine what exactly it is you want to stop running. On the bottom right of your screen, you should see running applications. Those are the big applications not minor or normal processes which need to run for the operating system to function. Applications like MSN messenger or maybe AIM, etc... Applications which you don't need to be running all the time unless you choose to use them. We will start by looking at the start up programs. Go to start > run > msconfig. Then find the start up tab. In there you can de-select processes which run upon start up. Again I will go into more detail with screen shots to properly guide you in the future. If you need help now, post a comment, I'll respond to you. If it is a matter of a program running which you don't know where it came from and it always runs in the background, you can repeat the process described in this question.

Top | Home | Next topic My computer is slow, how can I make it faster? More than likely you either have a lot of temporary files stored on your computer or you have caught something. One step to free up temporary memory is to use the program 'CCleaner' it is free. Download it from a safe source like CNET and be sure to choose the correct version whether you have a 36bit or 64bit operating system. Install the program and choose to run the cleaner. This helps speed up your computer. Another method is to scan for bugs. Download the program 'Malware-Bytes' also free from a source like CNET and run a full scan. Ultimately it may simply be your computer being outdated and unable to keep up with today's demands. A very last solution which should only be attempted by people who have a thorough comprehension of computers is to reformat your hard drive and do a full re-install of your operating system. This requires backing up certain files, making sure your operating system has another key before trying this so that you can still legally use your operating system.

Top | Home Try Linux on USB! This entry won't really tell you much as the Pendrive Linux page does a very good job of that already. By running Linux on a USB, you don't need to create a new partition on your computer's hard drive. Still...there is the problem that none of your settings will save every time you use Linux on a flash drive. For what it is worth, installing Linux on a small partition in order to fully access the great tools like BlueFish, Kdenlive, Cinerella... Isn't a bad idea. It is entirely up to you however it should be noted that Linux uses a lot less resources to function, so if you take two identical computers and run Linux on one and a better known operating system on the other like Windows for instance, you may find that more memory is free to be used on the Linux computer. Currently I use a computer that runs on a Pentium 4 processor, single core @ 2.4GHz with two Gigabytes of DDR memory on a 20Gb hard drive. Yeah, Linux is pretty awesome.

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