In Trouble
Oh dear, it has stopped working. First of all, what did you do last? Now
try to undo it. If you are using XP, try the 'rollback' feature from the control panel. Here are a few quick troubleshooting suggestions.
| Deleted something important | Explore recycle bin, highlight files, right-click mouse to restore it. Be more careful. |
| Got a BSOD * after taking a disc out? | Put it back in and try again. Reboot if necessary. Don't rely on floppy discs - they are definitely unreliable. Get a USB memory stick. |
| Website opened windows you can't close | Three finger salute * and close down browser. Delete the bookmark & don't go back. Opera and Firefox browsers can be set to prevent pop-up windows from your dodgy surfing. The Google search bar for IE does the same. Also IE7. |
| Program crashes every so often | I had this a few times with a program autosave enabled (Paintshop Pro). Check that the autosave path is still valid. Make a directory C:\temp and point autosave there. Disable it if that fails. |
| Computer slowing down | Do disc cleanup and defragmentation. Probably something trying to run in the background. Get rid of spyware if you've installed 'free' programs from the internet. Dump Realplayer and screensavers. Get more RAM. |
| Shut-down hangs | One of your hardware drivers is duff. Update what you can or re-install drivers. |
| Can't use numbers keypad | Number lock not on. |
| Everything suddenly very slow | Memory hogging - shut down some programs and reboot. Use Rambooster. Buy more RAM. Limit number or Mb size of program 'undos', if possible. Check for viruses. Download Stinger from McAfee. |
| Headache after a while | You've been reading Microsoft help/troubleshooting files. The monitor flicker rate ('refresh rate') might be too slow in Display Properties > Settings. Too much brightness/contrast. Too many hours at the computer, give it a rest. Get LCD monitor. |
| Nothing works after moving the computer. | Check all external plugs, if necessary the internal ones and memory cards too (if you know what you are doing). Be aware of safety considerations and unplug the mains supply first. Check that the monitor plug pins are not damaged. |
| Faulty floppies (drive OK) |
You are taking them out too soon, before the 'busy' light has gone out. Run scandisk to retrieve some of your work. Get new ones or, better still, a USB memory stick. |
| Printer always slow | Disable print spooling. Use draft mode for unimportant text. |
| Scanner slow | Using too high a resolution for the job, the PC might be running out of RAM and using its swap file. More memory helps. |
| Mouse not moving the cursor | Mank inside the mouse workings. It fell on floor and ball fell out. Rat ate cable. Plug tugged out. Get optical mouse (< £10) |
| Can't run software that you installed as 'administrator' | NT, Win 200 and XP. Lots of possibilities but try giving yourself administrator rights first. Check file paths don't go to a particular user's profile - set them all to c:\temp (paths can have permissions). |
| Strange noise when mouse moved | IRQ conflict, usually with modem (see below about shutdowns). Needs an expert. Trying to move a real mouse? Get a USB mouse. |
| Hard drive no longer available. | Unplug from mains, wait a few seconds and then try again (Fuji HDD?). If this happens again, the HDD might be faulty, burn a backup CD of anything important. |
| Keyboard does not respond | Ignore daft warning message: 'Keyboard not found, Press any key to continue'. Plug is most likely tugged out. Orange juice, cat, coffee, etc. Not worth trying to repair as new ones are cheap everywhere except big-name computer stores. |
Nothing doing? OK, running 'scandisk' can sort out some file allocation problems. Always Reboot. Sometimes 'Regclean' registry cleanup (from Microsoft) can get you out of trouble.
If the PC has become very poorly and it isn't a virus or faulty hardware and you've tried a 'rollback' (XP), you might need to get your hands on an SP2 disc and re-install it. It should not upset any documents, pictures or saved files. You will need to get new windows updates afterwards.
Shutdown problems? There are some bugfix downloads from Microsoft but the trouble is usually a hardware conflict or driver problem. Press 'windows' and 'pause' buttons together to see the hardware device manager. If there is a yellow triangle somewhere, it means trouble and you might have to re-install or remove whatever it is. Sometimes you can fix an interrupt conflict by refitting the card in another slot to let Windows re-establish it.
If you need to re-install a modem, you will probably have to make a new connection for the ISP. Make a note of all the settings before doing anything drastic. Double-click My Computer > dial-up Networking > make new connection. Copy all details from the old one. Make sure that 'WINS' is disabled (Win 95/98)
Neat Recovery Plan
With a new installation, put all of your favourite software on, delete any dross
and fine-tune everything. Obtain PowerQuest DriveImage and run it to make a complete
backup copy of your PC's C:drive to an 'image' file, preferably on a second hard
drive or burn to a DVD. Make sure that you have a DOS boot disk and PQDI on another
floppy disk. If disaster strikes, you can boot from floppy, run PQDI and recover
the entire contents of the PC as it was when you saved it and you are back to
a fully functional PC.
