If you’re going to be building computers, adding devices to your computer, altering BIOS settings, or just installing and deleting programs on your computer, then you’ll want to learn the basics of troubleshooting. You might notice that I didn’t say computer troubleshooting. That is because troubleshooting is an independent skill. I learned to troubleshoot as an electronic technician. And most of those same techniques work fine for troubleshooting computers.
Troubleshooting is really a kind of detective work. If you notice, the TV detectives spend a lot of time asking questions and thinking over the facts. And that is where a good troubleshooter starts, asking questions, not with tearing apart their computer, swapping components, or running diagnostics programs.
My intent here isn’t to give you heavy technical troubleshooting instructions, but to provide you with common sense techniques that will likely save you a lot of time and trouble if you follow them.
Take note: I am assuming a basic to intermediate knowledge on the part of the computer user for this article. In other words, that you either build computers or add components to it, like hard drives or CD drives. I also assume you have a basic understanding of the boot process. Finally, I assume you know basic electrical safety rules.
A Typical Scenario
Let’s say one evening you turn on your computer and it starts, seems to boot fine, but stops dead at the point it should start loading Windows. What now? You panic of course. Like most of us you haven’t saved copies of your most important documents for months. And since Windows isn’t loading from the hard drive, you “logically” assume there is a serious problem with the hard drive. It must be physically broken or the data is scrambled.
Since you’re in panic mode you tear the hard drive out of your other working computer and try to boot the first computer. The same thing happens, it stops at the point of loading Windows. What a relief, at least the problem isn’t with the hard drive, your data is safe - there is probably a fault with the motherboard in the first computer.
To make sure, you test the hard drive from your first computer (the one that wouldn’t load Windows) in your second computer, it works fine. That confirms it, there is a problem with the motherboard on the first computer. Probably the hard drive controller, you think, being the expert.
I can’t connect to the internet on my home computer. there’s a symbol at the bottom in the right, that when I click on it says cable unplugged I cant’ find this cable.
check your network cable …make sure cable is hooked into your network card or modem on rear of pc… and that other end is secured into a Modem or router or telephone jack…then reboot gl
I need help. I have dell vista desktop. my computer has some problem I couldnt solve it. it starts fine but when it comes to user logging and when i type my password,it sound like it will bring th screen but it just shows my background picture. it seems like nothing comes up. I test the entire system but it didnt find anything. I dont know what it could be.
Here’s a strange one.
Every time I power up my computer it takes two attempts. The first try runs at least through the blinking lights on the CD player. The power supply comes on, the CD is checked for boot, and then the whole thing just sits there - blank screen (no initialization whatsoever) with the PS fan quietly whirring.
Then,
I simply hit the reset (warm reboot) and it starts up normally - every time!
I haven’t a clue. If anyone out there can send me in the right direction I will become a one man walking marketing phenomena for this site.
Fully puzzled….
Hi,
I have a 3-4 year old gateway desktop with XP. Tried to start it this A.M. light come on and fan turns on inside CPU, but no sounds from the hard drive. Monitor shows nothing (like CPU never turned on) Any ideas ?
try opening pc and checking hard drive connector….or try a secondary hard drive..if it spins..then first hard drive could be bad…to prove this connect non spinning hard drive in a sec pc.. if it doesnt spin…well u know it,s bad
Everytime i install a program it works good while the pc is on, but when i turn it off and back on the next day the program that i installed is gone but windows xp works fine
after install verify that prog is added to programms on pc…and run a hard drive chkdsk…..
My internet pages won’t load sometimes. The circle at the top just keeps spinning. My Internet provider said everthing was working properly they said it was my computer but when my daughter hooks up her laptop same thing happens to her but when she’s on a diffrent network her computer runs fine. Does anyone think it’s my computer or is it my network?
network…sounds like firefox…lol..try using internet explorer to access online…i have that same problem too.
I really need help. My computer has been giving me crap for forever. Its a Windows XP laptop. I start it up, and it takes forever to load, then when I think it loads, and click on somthing it just freezes, so I have to try to restart it a million times, it does chkdsk, and everything, but it still does that. So I do the goback thing, and it works fine, but a couple days later, same thing. I keep loosing my important files, and its really stressing me out. please help. thanks
u have a trojan please download microsoft virus removal tool it,s a free trial…..GL
My 2 year old, wellcared fo Acer Notebok 5100 has been running slowly so I transfered all my info onto an exterior harddrive, then I inserted the disk that came with the computer for reformatting (I’m not that computer savvy but I think you know the disks I mean that redo everything that came with you computer when you bought it.
It only will get to 5% completed until it goes dark again. I have tried taking the battery out and putting it back in as someone told me that sometimes helps. I have it plugged into wall socket,cords seem fine. Any suggestions? If it is motherboard problem, how do I know which one to get? I’ve tried putting AMD turion64 MK36 into various parts searches and no results.
clean and retry cd or try another os cd and ….gl
Thanks for your reply. I ended up deciding that it might be overheating so I put it in the freezer for 15 minutes, then left it in the freezer while I ran the restore disk. Worked like a charm. It installed all the way, but then I had to wonder why it was overheating if the fan was working. I took that back plate off……and yikes the fan was FULL of fuzz. (I don’t even put my lap top on my lap!) I carefully cleaned the fuzz out, had enough to make myself a poodle. I then covered the workings of the computer with a piece of paper and taped it so no dust could get in. I blew the fan area clean with an aerosal air blower. My computer has never worked so GOOD !
hmmmmmm thats risky in the freezer..happy u didnt ruin a circuit….mines heat up too a 4 month old Acer….i,ll check now regular the fans air vent…but no freezer…that can ruin the poor thing…ty for the reply
Didn’t leave it in there like a rump roast…just long enough to cool it and then to see if it would load up the disk (15 minutes) which told me the problem actually was overheating. The relative humidity is probably high in the freezer but probably no higher than some gulf coast states like Texas. So in that small amount of time I doubt it got below 40 degrees which is the temperature around here outside the freezer every morning.
After booting up my system works normal for the first 10 minutes and then shuts down on its own. I have to reboot the system and then it works fine the rest of the day. This has happened every day for 3 weeks. Any ideas.
i would advise a system restore…hit start button to accessories….then click on system tools and find restore….back it up about a month…..and it will reboot….gl
i was wondering would anyone have any advice
i have a problem with one of my desktops
when you turn it on, same mode comes up
whether you click ’start windows normally’ or leave it
it then restarts itself and loads windows xp
once windows xp loaded, a quick blue screen of death is flashed for a quick second
and it then restarts itself and loads windows xp and samething happens itself
over and over again
any ideas whats wrong or how to fix it?
Your Computer cant load win xp…damaged some how…hate to say it but u need to reinstall windows..u also said it flashes the blue screen of death….thats definitly a sign of a crashed hard drive….u can try resoring with a windows boot cd….but reinstall is more perfered a reinstall will also let u know if u have bad sectors on Hard Drive GL
oh ok thanks… so if resintalling doesnt work, would the hard drive be changed?
yes…………….The constant blue screen means something with the OS Programm cant be loaded…try reinstall if u get errors there then sounds like bad hard drive …………….gl
hi
i’ve tried reinstalling xp
which did work by the way
when i came to set up the wireless internet
it didnt see the wireless card
i installed the driver for the wireless card, it didnt pick up the the router
so i uninstalled it and reinstalled the driver again
and it still doesnt detect the router
theres nothing wrong with the modem or router
because so far i’ve got 2 laptops already set up on the same router
any ideas?
I have a laptop (IBM ThinkPad), running windows XP Pro service pak 3. Every time I try to download software the computer shuts down, ie., roxio, belkin wireless, adobe.