Does Your Email Etiquette Suck? – Part Five

Use Email Responsibly: A couple of years back, a business associate came to me with a deal he and a friend were working on. They wanted my help in setting them up with an online web server or a web host who would let them send out unlimited “unsolicited emails” to a list of small businesses they had just bought. Read the rest of this entry »

Does Your Email Etiquette Suck? – Part Four

Stop falling for the “We Holding Your Money in Dubai” scams and other Phishing Stories: Nope. You have not won the lottery. You do not have a large sum of cash sitting and waiting for you in a bank in Dubai, Nigeria, Kenya or LA (Lower Asheville, NC). Read the rest of this entry »

Does Your Email Etiquette Suck? – Part Three

Set Aside an Email Address For Online Use: Create and use an email address just to use online when you sign up for email lists, chat rooms, websites and online registrations, etc. Keep your other email addresses for direct-to-direct contact with customers and business associates. Read the rest of this entry »

Does Your Email Etiquette Suck? – Part Two

Stop Chain mail, Bad Jokes and E-Mail Hoaxes: Now about off-color jokes, chain e-mails and hoaxes. I got two words for you: STOP IT! Read the rest of this entry »

Does Your Email Etiquette Suck? – Part One

Like those other famous siblings the Hilton sisters, (Paris and Nicky), Spam and Email are both in the headlines a lot. Read the rest of this entry »

Desktops are from Chrysler™ & Laptops are from Refrigadare™ – Part Two

Now you can “fix” all of the above problems by buying after-market parts like keyboards, mice and monitors but you did get this thing to be mobile, right?

Laptop replacement parts for the average “do-it-yourself” Joe are expensive, hard to come by and tough to work with. Trust me on this one. Imagine lots of itty-bitty screws and tiny plastic parts and that’s just opening the case. Read the rest of this entry »

Desktops are from Chrysler™ & Laptops are from Refrigadare™

Should You Buy a Desktop or a Laptop?

So why would I compare a car manufacturer to an appliance maker? And what the heck does any of that have to do with your computer? Read the rest of this entry »

How to Get Started

Now that you have determined that this website is right for you we can move on.

How this Website Works

One of the hardest parts of repairing computers is learning where to begin. Non-technical people get all tangled up in the “hardware vs. software” thing and waste hours searching online trying to piece together odd-n-end bits of information and figure out went wrong with their machine.

And then more importantly, waste their hard-earned bucks on junk, when they do finally know which part has gone bad.

To eliminate this merry-go-round of misinformation, wasted money and lost hours, the meat of this website has been broken down into sections.  I will go over each section in detail and explain how it can help you with your computer issues.

Computer Components
Under the Hood – The Ten “Moving” Parts: An illustrated summary of the main components inside a standard computer, their names and what they do.

Computer Processes
What Happens When You Start’er Up? – The Power-On-Self-Test (POST): explains in plain English the processes that a computer must complete before it becomes ready for use. This section also explains some the error codes and messages your computer sends to you when something goes wrong.

Computer Troubleshooting Made Easy
You don’t have to be smart or take lots of time to learn how to quickly determine which part of a computer is causing a problem.

A Growing Library of Free Computer Problem Tips and How-To Articles

Now the next area you should visit is my general computer problem solving or “Free Tips” section. These are basically my free gifts to you. 

Here I share with you all the knowledge and experience I have collected in my 18+ years of messing with and working on personal computers. You will get solid, practical instruction on personal technology via my articles, video tutorials (coming soon) and tech tip cheatsheets.

Take time to read the ones that interest you now and bookmark the rest, so you can come back and browse later when you need to.

Specific Repair Mini-Guides
Theses are my growing library of “how-to-do-it-right” mini guides. Each mini guide is designed to solve one special set of problems and nothing else. Every guide is crammed full of “by-the-numbers” detailed instructions and full color illustrations for those tricky bits words just can’t describe properly.

How to Use This Website…

Have you ever had any of these problems?

You have a strange problem with your hard drive…

You are not sure what is wrong but when you boot up your hard drive simply takes forever to bring Windows up. You keep hearing funny sounds but you don’t know what to do.

Your computer is so slow…

The darn thing is running slower than molasses in Alaska. Every time you boot up it seems to take forever and it keeps getting worst. Now you are getting Window “Blue Screen of Deaths” error messages.

Your computer will not turn on…

It was acting funny yesterday but you just didn’t have time to fool with it but now the darn time won’t even turn on.

Your computer is full of viruses and spyware…

You have “porn-pops” every time you go online now and you notice that files keep disappearing. You have done everything the “gamer guy” at work told you to do but things keep getting worst.

Your computer keeps restarting…

You just simply cut if off because it would work for a little while then just cut off and restart all by itself…over and over again.

If you have had any problem similar to these then I can help you. You are here because your computer is about to drive your crazy. You are sick and tired of dealing with computer headaches. You just want to find a way to fix the issues and get things back to normal. Everyone says you should take your machine into the computer shop but times are hard right now and you just don’t have that kind of cash anymore.

But “Damnit Jim”, you’re an ordinary person, not a computer guy! So what should you do?

What the computer repair guy doesn’t want you to know is…

You don’t have to be a certified support tech to repair your home computer. In fact, it’s fairly simple to learn how to fix common PC problems yourself and save money.

Hey, basic computer maintenance and repair isn’t rocket science. I know, I have been messing around with computers for over 18 years now and my friends can tell you, I’m not all that smart!

Anyone with a decent set of hand tools, some technical know-how (which you will pick up if you keep reading this website) and an hour or two; can learn to troubleshoot and repair their Windows-based PC.

Fix Computer Problems Guide was developed to help non-technical people to learn how-to:

• Find out what is really wrong with their computers
• Decide if they want to fix or repair the problem themselves
• Gain the technical information they need to made the proper repairs quickly
• And locate affordable computer hardware and software they may need

In order to get the most out of Fix Computer Problems Guide, you should:

Be comfortable with Windows-based computers While I have taken every effort to make sure this website is as simple and straight forward as I can, this is NOT a beginner’s resource. If all you can really do is check your email then this is not the place for you. Sorry. But if you consider yourself to be an “intermediate” computer user and enjoy learning new things we can work together.

Be capable of installing software programs A good many of the how-to articles on this site involve downloading, installing and running hardware utilities or other diagnostic programs. If you have installed as least one or two programs on your own then you can easily learn how to use the utility programs I recommend.

Be willing to open your computer case! Yes, often the hardware mini-guides do require that you pop the case on your computer. If just the idea of working inside your computer makes you queasy then you are better off taking your computer to a repair shop. But if you can use a screwdriver, and are not afraid of taking an up a challenge, then I can show you how to fix your own computer and save you some money.

While this is not an advanced, for “geeks-only” website by no means, Fix Computer Problems Guide is designed to be a how-to resource for intermediate or “power” computer users.

Now if you haven’t been frightened off, I invite you to explore this website and learn how to fix common computer problems the simple and easy way. Click on “Getting Started” if you want to get going now. But if you are still not sure about doing your own computer repairs, please read “Why Do It Yourself”…

How to spring clean your computer _ Part 2

PC Clean Up and Maintenance Techniques

Delete all old programs

Go to “Start > Programs” and use the “uninstall” tools on any old applications that you or your family no longer needs.

If a program doesn’t have an uninstall program, then go to “Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs”. Remove any programs here in the dropdown menu. But be careful…”when in doubt…leave it the heck alone.” If you are not sure what a program does, look it up online.

Run Microsoft’s Disk Cleanup

Your computer routinely creates little files that are either unnecessary or temporary. Often applications leave these orphan files just lying around taking up valuable disk space and hogging resources. . It’s your job, as a computer power user to clean out those cyber “cobwebs” in the corners of your system.

You can regain your lost disk space my using a Windows utility called Disk Cleanup. The program Disk Cleanup comes with the Win98/Me/2000/XP/Vista operating systems. It was designed to remove unnecessary files from your system.

Use Scandisk to detect potential hard drive errors.

Scandisk is one of the built in Windows utilities that can help you maintain a tidy hard drive. Scandisk detects and repairs minor hard disk errors. To use Scandisk click on “START/Accessories/System Tools/Scan Disk.

Use Disk Defragmenter to Get Organized Internally

Disk defragmenter (Defrag) is another Windows utility. The Defrag’s job is to rearrange and reorganize your hard disk by putting all files together in contiguous sectors. When a program is installed, your operating system plops the resulting files into the first empty sectors (pre-sized spaces) it finds on your disk. Some files are stored close together while others are not.

Defragging a hard drive forces the operating system collect all the relevant files together and lay them down in adjacent sectors. This makes for faster file storage and retrieval.

Update Your Antivirus and or Firewall software.

Make sure that your have installed the latest updates. Trying to get updated AFTER you’ve been attacked is often too little too late.

Update Your Operating system and Applications

Install the latest service packs, patches and updates. Security patches for Windows can be found online at Windows update support page. Or better yet turn on the Auto Update tool in the Control Panel..

Update your device drivers

Check online for any updated device drivers for your printers, monitor etc. Update if needed but be careful because installing new drivers can often cause as many problems as they cure. Is this new driver a more secure and stable application or just the latest “bignew” thing?

This whole monthly PM check should take no more than 1 – 3 hours in one day. And since you will automate it using Task Scheduler you won’t even know its working until You notice your computer humming right along.

To read the rest of this series, click