Post by highcaliber on Apr 10, 2007 8:19:53 GMT -5
Welcome to the Computer Support section of the forums!
This is going to be a light-troubleshooting guide. Nothing really in-depth just some pointers on what you do before you make a thread.
Some of this information has been sourced from other web sites, there will be a list of them as well as some helpful sites at the bottom of this thread. However, most of this information is going to be kind of broad considering it's much easier to deal with the problems as they come and not try to predict and write about all of them.
This write-up will entail several different things as I will be editing it many times to add in helpful information pertaining to help with computers. I am open for suggestions to things I may leave out so send me a PM(Private Message) if you have any ideas. The first several issues that come to mind are Hardware Troubleshooting, Software Troubleshooting, and Spy ware/Malware Removal and Protection.
I work on computers all day long here at my job, I'm also going to college for a computer science degree. I just wanted to let you know that I'm not just a kid who only knows what other people have said to him. I'd have to say that the one thing you should do when troubleshooting any problem you may have is REBOOT the computer. I'd say out of the different problems I get consulted with here daily, 70% of them are cured by a REBOOT of the system.
So, now that you have hopefully rebooted your system. Let's move onto hardware installations. The first thing to do when messing around with a computer that has a hardware issue such as: Not Turning On or Unwarranted Shutdowns, is to check all the stupid things. Make sure all the plugs are plugged in and reseat all of the cards/memory. Other than that, there are several ways to troubleshoot and diagnose problems, if that small troubleshooting session did not fix your problem, make a thread and give us all the information that you possibly can.
Whether it's operating systems that don't boot, programs locking up, programs not working, or printers not printing. Software issues are always a pain to the user as well as the person trying to solve them. The foremost thing is to keep everything current make sure you're using current versions of all your programs. After rebooting(since that's always the first step), the next thing to try would be to uninstall the program you're having problems with, and then proceed to reinstall it. If you're getting errors from the OS then take a screen shot of them and post what you do to make the messages appear, and we will go from there.
There are tons of Spyware/Malware removal tools out there, honestly they probably add up into the thousands. Be careful in choosing some of your removal tools because some do the exact opposite of what you download them for. Virus protection is a must for this day and age, the two I recommend are either McAfee or Norton Antivirus. Both of these have great protection, whether it's protecting your computer from nasty web sites or making sure you don't get a keylogger installed on your computer. As for programs that are free, I like Adaware, some will argue with me, but I've ran it against several other programs out there and it finds more harmful items than the others. Another program I like to use is called "Fresh Diagnose", think of it as a super task manager. It can be found at www.freshdevices.com.
That sums up my light troubleshooting guide, now that you've read through the guide if you still have your problem feel free to make a thread about it with some pertaining information and our staff will do their best to help you out.
www.pchell.com/support/spyware.shtml
www.computerhope.com/basic.htm
www.everythingcomputers.com/
www.freshdevices.com/
www.adaware.com/
Thanks for the read!
-Joel
This is going to be a light-troubleshooting guide. Nothing really in-depth just some pointers on what you do before you make a thread.
Some of this information has been sourced from other web sites, there will be a list of them as well as some helpful sites at the bottom of this thread. However, most of this information is going to be kind of broad considering it's much easier to deal with the problems as they come and not try to predict and write about all of them.
This write-up will entail several different things as I will be editing it many times to add in helpful information pertaining to help with computers. I am open for suggestions to things I may leave out so send me a PM(Private Message) if you have any ideas. The first several issues that come to mind are Hardware Troubleshooting, Software Troubleshooting, and Spy ware/Malware Removal and Protection.
I work on computers all day long here at my job, I'm also going to college for a computer science degree. I just wanted to let you know that I'm not just a kid who only knows what other people have said to him. I'd have to say that the one thing you should do when troubleshooting any problem you may have is REBOOT the computer. I'd say out of the different problems I get consulted with here daily, 70% of them are cured by a REBOOT of the system.
So, now that you have hopefully rebooted your system. Let's move onto hardware installations. The first thing to do when messing around with a computer that has a hardware issue such as: Not Turning On or Unwarranted Shutdowns, is to check all the stupid things. Make sure all the plugs are plugged in and reseat all of the cards/memory. Other than that, there are several ways to troubleshoot and diagnose problems, if that small troubleshooting session did not fix your problem, make a thread and give us all the information that you possibly can.
Whether it's operating systems that don't boot, programs locking up, programs not working, or printers not printing. Software issues are always a pain to the user as well as the person trying to solve them. The foremost thing is to keep everything current make sure you're using current versions of all your programs. After rebooting(since that's always the first step), the next thing to try would be to uninstall the program you're having problems with, and then proceed to reinstall it. If you're getting errors from the OS then take a screen shot of them and post what you do to make the messages appear, and we will go from there.
There are tons of Spyware/Malware removal tools out there, honestly they probably add up into the thousands. Be careful in choosing some of your removal tools because some do the exact opposite of what you download them for. Virus protection is a must for this day and age, the two I recommend are either McAfee or Norton Antivirus. Both of these have great protection, whether it's protecting your computer from nasty web sites or making sure you don't get a keylogger installed on your computer. As for programs that are free, I like Adaware, some will argue with me, but I've ran it against several other programs out there and it finds more harmful items than the others. Another program I like to use is called "Fresh Diagnose", think of it as a super task manager. It can be found at www.freshdevices.com.
That sums up my light troubleshooting guide, now that you've read through the guide if you still have your problem feel free to make a thread about it with some pertaining information and our staff will do their best to help you out.
www.pchell.com/support/spyware.shtml
www.computerhope.com/basic.htm
www.everythingcomputers.com/
www.freshdevices.com/
www.adaware.com/
Thanks for the read!
-Joel
