Troubleshoot

Have a computer problem?  Of course you do!  Otherwise, you wouldn’t be here, right?  I won’t dive into specific problems on this page (for those, please visit my General Troubleshooting and Advanced Troubleshooting pages), but I will explain the method that many of us geeks use to solve problems with your computer.  Are you ready?  Comfy?  Good.

The first thing you need to do is determine if it is a hardware or software issue.  This page focuses on issues with Windows.

Error Message: If you get an error message, type the exact wording of the error dialog box into Google or Bing and 99 times out of 100 you will find someone else with the same problem.  It’s nice to know that you aren’t the only one suffering isn’t it?  Nah, it still sucks.  This almost always leads to a solution to your problem however.  Avoid going to websites where someone offers to “solve your problem” if you pay to join up.  Spend a little bit of time digging around, and you should be able to solve that problem on your own.  If you can’t, I encourage you to contact me using either the contact page, or through Twitter.  I can’t promise that I can help since I am incredibly busy, but if I can, I will gladly offer my advice.

Have a Virus? Download Microsoft’s Safety Scanner and run the program – performing a full scan.  In all seriousness, this should solve your issue more than 99 times out of 100.  The next thing you need to do is to update your antivirus and scan your whole computer using the full scan option.  If you aren’t using one of the antivirus programs that I recommend on my software to prevent problems page, then please uninstall the one you are using, and use one of those.  You can thank me later.  If that doesn’t work, then you have another option if you are using Windows Vista or Windows 7:  the Malicious Software Removal Tool.  Go to Start and type in MRT and press enter.  Do a full scan.  I’m going to be frank.  If those things haven’t solved your issue, then you have a real nasty piece of malware on your machine.  Don’t give up!  The first thing to do is to use Google or Bing to search for the exact name of the virus followed by the word removal and follow any directions on how to remove the virus manually if they are available.  You may have to get your hands dirty in the registry, but that is what geeks do.  Make a backup of your registry, follow the directions and you will be fine.  If you can’t find any help, and are determined to solve the problem, I encourage you to check out my advanced troubleshooting page.

Is your computer slow? If it is slow at startup, then go to Start –> Run –> and type in MSCONFIG.  Select the Startup tab and disable the programs that don’t need to start when your computer boots.  You didn’t know you had that many did you?  These build up over time and significantly slow down the time it takes for your computer to start up.

Is your computer still slow?  Has it been slow for awhile? Likely it has been gummed up by years of use.  Don’t get mad however, this happens to everyone.  Believe it or not, you can drastically speed up your old machine!  Prepare yourself however, as it takes a bit of work on your part.  You are going to want to back up your data.  Use your preferred method (the easiest is an external hard drive, but there are lots of options) and make sure to back up all of the data that you want to keep.  Make sure your Documents (My Documents in Windows XP) is fully backed up, make sure to back up your desktop files, your favorites, and any other information important to you is backed up.  Then you want to check to see that your backup was successful – that the data isn’t corrupted and you can view it successfully.  Is the data there?  All of it?  Does it work?  Good.  Now what you are going to want to do is grab your Windows DVD (or your recovery disk) and pop it into your DVD drive.  Restart your computer and choose to install Windows.  When asked, make sure to format the C: drive prior to installation (I recommend a full format) and follow through with the installation.  Once that is done, make sure to update Windows and then begin putting your data back onto your machine.

Can’t get into Windows? If you have a bad virus and you have tried the methods listed in my general troubleshooting page, then you may have a problem.  You can relax a bit however, we can get through this.  If you are sure that your computer is borked, then we can still get your data off of your hard drive.  As long as there isn’t a hardware failure, then you should be alright.  There are two things you can do at this point:  You can use Spinrite to scan your drive and repair it, and that should solve the issues with your drive.  Alternatively, you can go ahead and download Slax or Ubuntu or Linux Mint on a different computer and burn it to a DVD or put it on a jumpdrive.  Put the disc into your computer (this is easier than the jumpdrive method) and turn on your machine.  Your computer should boot into the Linux (whichever version you chose) desktop and allow you to access the files on your Windows hard drive.  Once you back up all of your data (as above), go ahead and re-install Windows (again, as above).