Computer problems? Relax, all that means is that you have and use a computer. With some general troubleshooting skills, you can get your computer up and running in no time. I will focus on the Windows side in this article, but a Mac (yeah, you can lower your noses Macheads) and Linux version is forthcoming.

The number one tip that I can give you is that if you get an error dialog box, enter the exact wording into Google and 9/10 times, you will find a fix. With that said, lets examine how to diagnose and fix some standard Windows issues. The following are some common symptoms and the error that they are likely to cause:

Bad drivers....................Blue Screen of Death or your computer will reboot randomly
Hard Disk Failing.............Blue Screen of Death or your applications will crash or missing data
Overheating...................System will freeze or reboot randomly
Bad RAM........................System will freeze or you may get corrupt file messages
Bad Power.....................Under/Over/Dirty voltage can cause system reboots or other system errors
Overclocking.................Blue Screen of Death or your system may freeze. You may also notice artifacts
Virus Infection...............Your computer may become slow/unresponsive or do unexpected things
Spyware Infection..........Your computer may become slow/unresponsive as well as your internet

If Windows crashes on you, guess what? It almost certainly isn't a Windows issue. The most common cause of the dreaded BSOD (blue screen of death) is a bad driver. This usually tends to be a video driver in most people's systems, but it can be anything, even your lowly printer driver. The other most likely cause of the BSOD in my experience has been overheating. This is easy to diagnose, simply turn off your machine and let it sit for awhile. Come back later and try again. If it works, problem solved, if not then the crash may have been a driver error. How do you tell?
You are going to want to check out the Event Log.
Go to START-->RUN-->type in EVENTVWR
You will see all kinds of information here, but it should help you figure out what happened. Pay special attention to the Application, System, and Security logs. You will see a bunch of error codes that won't mean anything to you. What you want to do is go to:
Eventid.net
Microsoft Technet
Windows Networking Troubleshooting Event Logs

Are you having a hard drive issue? I have good news and bad news for you. If you are hearing any sort of strange sounds coming from your hard drive, then your top priority is to back up your data and wait for the drive to die. Its coming, trust me. If you are experiencing strange errors, then there is hope for you. A program called Spinright can fix any hard drive issue sort of physical failure. It is a great program that not only fixes your drive errors, but it will also help you recover data from a bad drive. Because it works on such a granular level, be warned that the process can take hours, or days depending on the size of the drive.

Are you infected? Get to the hospital! Is your computer infected? Then I can help. The first thing to do is update your antivirus definitions and scan your whole computer. Make sure to scan the entire computer. If it finds a virus/trojan/etc. make note of it. Go ahead and have your antivirus get rid of it. Now you are going to want to go to Google and type in the name of the virus and removal (ex. "name of virus removal"). Viruses attach themselves to critical system files nowadays which makes removing them nearly impossible for antivirus software to do without screwing up your computer. You are going to want to follow the steps outlined in your Google search to make sure that all traces of it are gone. Follow the same procedure for spyware. If you are unsure about what programs to use, visit my page on software to prevent problems.

And lastly, I cannot state this plainly enough: hook your computer up to a surge protector. Do you live in an older home? Then make sure to get a battery backed up device as it is likely to provide line conditioning as well. Computers are very sensitive to voltage fluctuations and a slight dip or surge could wreak havoc on your data or your system. I recommend APC because they are durable, reliable, and have a great insurance policy. I consistently encounter people who lose a printer or modem through a surge. Make sure that your peripherals are plugged into a decent surge protector as well as your phone and cable lines. Too often people lose equipment through those lines.

The base method for troubleshooting for me is the following:

Gather as much information as possible.
With your information, go after the most likely suspects first
Be logical. Think about what is happening and what is consistent with the problem occuring.
Don't change too many things at once.
Make note of your steps