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Computer Basics
 12 - On Your Own:
Trouble? |
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Unfortuntately, things don't always go well in the kingdom of
 . What can you, as a ruling monarch, do when your supposedly loyal hardware and software rebel?
Remember that as "Ruler of All" you must remain CALM! Perhaps things aren't as serious as they seem. There are a number of measures you can take, ranging from common sense to high tech desperation.
Comfort in Trouble
There will be times when you seem to have more trouble getting your "loyal
royal subjects" to work well together than at others. Whether this is pure luck (bad!), personal magnetic fields, mind-over-matter, or visitations from beyond is more than I can tell. But it can be immensely frustrating when it happens to you. And it will!
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Comfort 1 - Computer troubles happen to everyone! Even to the most experienced and skilled computer professionals. Truly, they do! |
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Comfort 2 - Most things can be fixed, especially if you made some common sense preparations. |
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Comfort 3 - When things are really, truly broken and can't be fixed and you weren't prepared, keep your perspective. It's still not a heart attack (though it might give you one if you forget to remain calm!) |
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Preparations
Since it is inevitable that computer troubles will strike, what can you do to be prepared?
| Backup | Make regular backup copies of all important data. This means anything that would be difficult or time-consuming to reproduce. Make multiple copies if it is REALLY important! |
| Install Disks | Keep handy the installation disks for all your current software. Keep disks for old software if you bought an upgrade version to replace it that asks for the old disks to verify that you can upgrade. |
| Manuals | Keep the original warranties, receipts, user manuals, and installation guides for both hardware and software. |
| Codes | Keep a list of all the ID and registration codes needed for installing software. |
| Configuration | Keep a list of changes you make to hardware and software settings. Especially record hardware changes when it was hard to get everything set up right. You don't want to go through it again! If you have to reinstall software, it would be very nice to know how to get it back to the way you had customized it.
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| Solutions | Keep a file of solutions to problems you have solved (and solutions you've read about or been told). You may see that problem again, only to realize that you remember solving it but not HOW you solved it! You can also help others if you have the details close at hand. (Didn't know you were starting a career as tech support, did you?!) |
Symptoms
 How do you know that something is wrong with your computer? Sometimes it is as obvious as "It won't come on." But there are some subtle symptoms, too. Take a good scientific approach to defining the problem. The more you can do to describe what causes the problem to occur, the more likely someone can help you solve it.
A gradually developing problem, like a creeping decline in speed or degrading video, might be missed for quite awhile. I noticed my monitor was showing streaks to the right of text boxes and some other objects. The effect gradually increased in length and
the amount of color change. It took awhile though for me to decide it was a real change from before. The monitor manufacturer confirmed that the effect was a sign that the monitor was going bad. Sigh. No fix, just replace.
A lot of problems go unnoticed because you don't often get in the situation to see them. I found a conflict between PaintShopPro (graphics program) and After Dark (screen saver) only when I selected the Fill tool, then Linear Gradient, and then tried to set the Options. Crashed the program! I checked at the PaintShopPro web site and found that this was a known problem. It was fixed in the next release.
Other problems show up apparently randomly because they are not related to what you are doing but to what the computer is doing. For example, you might experience a program or system crash when a certain section of memory used. If that section is rarely used because you have a lot of memory, you will not have the problem often. Fluctuations in power can cause errors and crashes without causing
trouble for other devices like clocks or TVs.
After a while, you may notice a relationship between what you are doing and the problem, but not be able to duplicate it all the time. I had a problem with WordPro 96 locking up while I was scrolling in tables. It didn't happen all the time, just sometimes. I finally noticed the same effect in some other programs. So my conclusion was that it was not a WordPro problem so much as a video driver problem. When I happened to add more memory to the video card, the scrolling table problem vanished! A nice side-effect!
Unfortunately, just like a fever or a headache, most signs of computer trouble do not tell you exactly what the cause is. Trouble can strike at any point in the computing process. A good troubleshooting book runs several hundred pages. So diagnosing the problem can be just a hard as diagnosing a human illness. Worse, the computer may not talk to you by giving error messages to help out.
Remedies
 Here are some actions that are often prescribed when trying to solve a computer problem.
| Reboot | It is amazing how often simply starting the computer up again can clear up a very odd situation. When memory gets really crowded, very peculiar errors occur. Rebooting cleans out memory and all is well again. It's a kind of exhaustion that is fixed with a short nap!
Win95/98 is especially good at straightening itself out after a reboot or two or three. In particular when installing new software or hardware, you may need a couple of reboots to get everything cleaned up.
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| Undo Changes | Did you just install new hardware or software? Did you make changes to system files or the BIOS? The first step is to undo what you just did! If that works, then you know what the problem is! There may still be a way around it. Reread the manuals to look for known conflicts and how you might resolve them.
You may need to change some settings in the new program to fit your own
situation.
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| Reinstall | Installing your problem software afresh can be an amazingly easy cure to a lot of problems. Sometimes files get corrupted or overwritten by other software. Reinstalling gets you back to a fresh set of files. You probably should uninstall first, reboot, and then install the software again. If the problem was an overwritten file, you may find that a different program won't run right now! You may just have to choose which one to keep.
Some advocate starting fresh every so often, including formatting the hard disk and reinstalling the operating system. This would mean losing everything that you don't have a backup for! So be sure this is what you need to do and that you are prepared. If you are fully prepared though, it can be faster to start all over than to diagnose what the problem is!
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| Don't Do That | Can you reproduce the glitch? That is, does the same thing happen every time you do certain things? If so, don't do that! No, seriously, you actually could ignore a problem that occurs only when you do a certain sequence of actions and you don't NEED to do them. But if it is a problem that you need to solve, you'll need to check with the hardware or software creators. It may be a known bug. There may already be a fix available. Or you could be the first to report it! You can check on the company's web site or call the technical support number.
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| Replace It | Sometimes the parts are broken. You just have to get new ones. Here are some situations that cause programs to crash or lockup or even cause the whole system to crash or lockup. These sometimes require you to get new parts.
| Cause of Crash | Solution |
| High memory usage at the time | Don't run so many programs at one time.
Get more memory. |
| Low free disk space for the virtual memory | Increase space assigned to virtual memory and/or get larger hard drive |
| Bad spots in memory chips | Get new chips. |
| Bad spots on the hard disk | Run ScanDisk to avoid those spots.
May need new drive shortly. |
| Memory chips too slow | Get new memory. |
| Cross-linked files on the hard disk | Run ScanDisk to fix. If these occur often, your drive may be failing. |
| Sloppy programming in the software | Send bug report to the company.
Get new version or new software. |
| Wrong or outdated video drivers | Download newest drivers. |
| Wrong motherboard jumper settings | Read manual and fix. |
| Wrong BIOS settings | Read manual and fix if you can interpret the manual! |
And there are more! You may well need help to diagnose and fix problems that aren't reproducible. It will be a process of elimination. Where to get help is discussed in Hands On! - Help! |
   
~~ 1 Cor. 10:31 ...whatever you do, do it all for the
glory of God. ~~
Last updated:
22 Jan 2008 |
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