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GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING HELP
PC AUDIO AND MP3S
WIRELESS (WiFi) NETWORKING TROUBLESHOOTING
HARD DRIVE TROUBLESHOOTING
WINDOWS XP TROUBLESHOOTING
GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING HELP
Symptom: The system's fan is whining
loudly.
Solution: A loud fan can be the result of a number of minor problems.
The common cause is dirt. A dirty fan, clogged with dust, is highly
inefficient and works harder to handle its cooling duties. As the fan
struggles to cool the system, it produces the whirring sound. A quick
cleaning should do the trick. If the fan is new and you're still hearing a
loud whirring, your problem may be "ambient heat." You need to operate your
PC in a cool environment. Many PCs get louder as they get hotter, with the
fans spinning faster to keep the system cool. Be certain your PC is clean
and cool and you'll run trouble-free.
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Symptom: Your PC spontaneously reboots.
Solution: A long-standing mystery solved! If rebooting occurs in a PC
that you've just built, try re-seating your CPU's heat sink. Make sure
you're using the proper thermal gel and spread it evenly between the heat
sink and the processor. If inadequate amounts of gel have been applied or
low-quality gel has been used, the system will reboot as the CPU heats
up---and builds in the uneven "pockets" created by the uneven gel. Also:
check to see if you've removed the protective sticker on the bottom of the
heat sink (don't laugh---it happens!). And by all means, make sure your
motherboard supports the CPU you're installing. If these steps check out and
you're still experiencing spontaneous reboots, your problem may be one of
the following: Overclocking: I do not recommend
Overclocking. Memory
Timing: The fix? Go into your BIOS and set your memory on "Auto" or at a
more conservative setting and see if the reboot problem goes away. Out Dated
BIOS: Make sure you have the latest BIOS for your board. You can determine
if your CPU is supported by browsing the BIOS updates of the motherboard's
manufacturer. If you're running a Pentium 4 Extreme Edition and notice that
it's only supported with the latest BIOS updates, you may have located the
problem! Inadequate Power: If you've made significant component
upgrades---with the exception of the power supply---your power supply may be
overstressed or failing due to heat or age. Finally, if you've migrated your
OS and other files from machine to machine to machine, it may be time for a
clean install.
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Symptom: I have four pieces of RAM installed and I'm pretty sure that at
least one is bad. What's the best way to test RAM for errors?
Solution: Since you have four pieces of RAM, you can install just one
DIMM in your motherboard at a time and run the machine until it crashes.
This isn't a completely reliable way to test RAM, though. As an alternative,
download Memtest86 (www.memtest86.com) and create a bootable CD. Memtest86
does a fair job. It runs several test patterns through the RAM. If a piece
of RAM passes these tests, swap it with another DIMM and continue your
tests. Even better than Memtest86 is Ultra-X's RAM Stress Test Pro 2, which
is a self-booting diagnostic plug-in card. This card uses a comprehensive
set of test patterns to assess your memory, and we've found that it finds
bad pieces of RAM that other testers miss. Keep in mind that it may not
actually be a stick of RAM that's bad. The problem may in fact be a bad DIMM
slot. If all four pieces of RAM pass the test, you may have to rerun them in
each individual slot on your motherboard. Finally, your motherboard's BIOS
usually sets RAM timing by reading the SPD setting on the module. If the
SPDs are set too aggressively (we've seen this), it may cause problems. You
should consider going into the BIOS and manually tweaking settings such as
your CAS latency to a more conservative setting.
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Symptom: Sometimes when I play games for a
long time, my computer just randomly crashes to the desktop.
Solution: Random crashes in games can be the result of a few different
problems. Typically, it's a heat issue, a driver issue, or a problem with
the game. The first thing you should do is check for a patch for any of your
games that are crashing. It seems like common sense, but frequently we
receive complaints from people trying to run games that have been patched
three or four times. Once you've updated your games, you need to update your
videocard and chipset drivers. Get you videocard driver from the company
that manufactured your card's chipset, either ATI or nVidia. You should also
check for newer drivers for your motherboard's chipset whenever you update
your videocard drivers. Outdated motherboard chipset drivers are one of the
main causes of general system instability. If you've updated all your
hardware, but are still having problems, you may have a heat issue. Open
your case and look at your AGP card. Is there another card right below it?
If there is, you should consider moving that card to another slot. A card
directly below a high-end videocard can disrupt airflow enough to cause
overheating issues with today's top-of-the-line videocards. If freeing the
neighboring slot doesn't alleviate your problem, try adding a fan that fits
into one of your PCI slots and exhausts hot air from the bottom of your PC.
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Symptom: My new Athlon XP system is
telling me that my brand-new Athlon XP 3200+ is only any Athlon 2200+!
Solution: It sounds like your motherboard's bus speed is set
incorrectly. You see, you probably bought and Athlon XP 3200+ that runs on a
400MHz bus (which is actually a double-pumped 200Mhz bus). For the
motherboard to recognize the CPU as a 3200+, the CPU has to run at 2.2GHz,
or 2,200MHz. The CPU reaches that speed only if the motherboard is set to an
11 multiplier and with a 200MHz bus. So, 11x200=2200. If your motherboard's
frontside bus is set to run at 166MHz, the CPU would boot at 1833MHz. It's
no coincidence that this is the same speed at an Athlon XP 2200+. To correct
this, reboot your machine and go into the BIOS by hitting DEL or F2 during
boot. Look for the section that lets you change the bus speed. Hopefully
we're right and it's set for 166MHz. Increase it to 400MHz, save the
settings, reboot and you should have a 3200+
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Symptom: My optical drive has suddenly
slowed to a crawl reading discs, and it refuses to read some discs.
Solution: Optical drives usually don't expire gradually; most
simply stop working without so much as a death rattle. It's much more likely
you drive's lens has accumulated a layer of dust.
Get yourself a can of compressed air at the local computer store, and eject
the disc tray. Spray into the drive with quick, short bursts at an angle (so
the dust is more likely to be expelled from the drive). Do not spray
continuously or with the can upside down, because that could introduce
moisture into the drive. Give the dust a minute to settle, and spray the
innards again.
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Symptom: Your Optical Drive (CD or DVD)
Runs Slower and Slower....
Solution: Again, the villain may be dirt, since optical drives rarely
"slow down" on their own. Optical drives either work---or they don't, so a
mechanical problem is ruled out. What most likely has happened is that your
dive has accumulated a layer of dirt or dust. Here's the fix: You'll need a
can of "spray air" (available everywhere). Eject the disc tray and spray
into the drive with short bursts---and be sure to spray at an angle so the
dust will be expelled out of the drive. Do not spray continuously or turn
the spray can upside down (doing so could introduce moisture into the drive.
Repeat this process a few times, then try test the drive.
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Symptom: I just bought a new PC, and
now my PocketPC refuses to connect via the USB port.
Solution: This is a common issue. This problem occurs if you plug your PocketPC in
before installing ActiveSync. Check the Device Manager by right-clicking My
Computer, selecting Properties, clicking the Hardware tab, and then
selecting Device Manager. If you see an Unknown Device entry, delete it by
right-clicking it and selecting Uninstall. Restart you PC, install your
PocketPCs drivers from the manufacturer's disc, and plug it in again.
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PC AUDIO AND MP3S
Symptom: I'm only getting sound out of
one speaker.
Solution: This usually happens when the mini-jack coming out of your
speakers us not fully plugged into the soundcard input slot. Reversed
polarity of a speaker can cause some of the weirdness as well, so make sure
the positive terminal on the actual speaker is connected to the positive
terminal on the subwoofer (or wherever the speakers connect to the
amplifier), and vice versa for the negative terminals. One final
possibility: Pet owners should routinely check speaker cables for teeth
marks and replace the cables when the outer
layer is damaged.
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Symptom: The remote control for my PC
speakers suddenly stopped working the other day. I installed new batteries
but it still won't work. Is it dead?
Solution: Probably not. It sounds more like a sleeping remote. To
wake it up, simply remove the batteries and press every button on the remote
in a sequential order. Then just replace the batteries and your remote
should work again.
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Symptom: Sometimes I'll rip a worn CD,
only to find later that some tracks have skips in them.
Solution: This is a common problem, and can be easily fixed. Go to
www.exactaudiocopy.de (the site is in English). When Exact Audio Copy rips
audio it double-checks that data for accuracy, and if it detects any
discrepancies between the original and the rip, it will extract the data
again and again until it has determined that the result precisely matches
what's on the disc. If the error correction is unable to compensate for a
flaw in the disc and the data is irretrievable, Exact Audio Copy will let
you know, sparing you from unpleasant surprises later. Oh, and did we
mention Exact Audio Copy is free? Life is good.
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Symptom: My Creative Labs Jukebox Zen
Xtra keeps crashing.
Solution: If a single bit in an MP3 file is out of place or errant
for any reason, it can make many MP3 players lock up or crash. You'll know
this is the case if your player crashes on the same track every time. If so,
you'll have to remove or re-encode the track. If an errant track is not the
problem-you'll know this is the case because it won't crash on the same
song/s-you may be able to rehabilitate your player be reformatting the
drive. You'll find instructions at the Creative Labs web site. Go to
Support, click Portable Audio, and select "Troubleshooting the Nomad Jukebox
3 as a Standalone Unit" (also known as Solution ID #7392).
Reformatting will
delete the contents of your player, of course, so
make sure you have all
your music backed up before you go for it.
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Symptom: I can burn audio CDs and
listen to them on my PC, but my portable CD player and car stereo can't
recognize them.
Solution: Commercial CDs are literally stamped from extruded
masters, creating pits and lands that CD players have been designed to read.
Burned CD, however, create darkened areas that mimic the pits and lands of
commercial CDs. As you've noticed, not all players-especially older ones-can
deal with these kinds of discs. But all is not lost. Your best bet is to
burn at a slower speed, 4x or below. This creates slightly more prominent
differences between the burned and non-burned areas. If you have a Plextor
burner, though, you have an even better option. The bundled Plex Tools
includes VariRec, which allows you to subtly alter the burning strength of
your optical drives laser. By experimenting with various discs and burning
strengths, you will almost certainly find the right combination for your CD
player. VariRec is supported by both Nero and Easy CD Creator. We've used it
to make audio CDs playable on otherwise uncooperative boom boxes.
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WIRELESS (WiFi) NETWORKING TROUBLESHOOTING
Symptom: My wireless
laptop will not connect to my wireless router.
Solution: Usually Wi-Fi connection problems are the result of
configuration errors, incompatible firmware, or interference with another
router. It's easy to fix firmware issues-all you need to do is download the
latest firmware for your wireless router manufacturer's web site. If you've
installed the firmware update and still can't connect, your next step is to
temporarily disable WEP or WPA. If you can connect to the router when
security is disabled, check all your WEP settings. You need to use exactly
the same key on your router and any machines that connect to it wirelessly.
Also make sure the Authentication Type on each of the PCs matches the
setting on the router. Troubleshooting interference issues is more complex.
First, you should move your router off of the default channel. Most routers
shipped today are set at channel 6 be default, and the sheer traffic can
create a lot of interference. You should also uncheck the field that says,
"Automatically connect to non-preferred networks"-there is no advantage to
the feature and it can cause your computer to behave erratically if you're
in the proximity of the other networks. If you're still having problems
connecting, there may be a hardware problem on your laptop. Check Device
Manager and make sure there isn't an exclamation point beside your Wi-Fi
card. You should also try connection to another router that you know works
properly. Finally, try connecting to your network using the same settings,
but a different brand of Wi-Fi card.
If all else fails, contact your router manufacturer's tech support line. You
may actually have a faulty router.
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Symptom: I can't see the other
computers on my home network from my laptop. What can I do to make it work
right?
Solution: First, you need to make sure that each computer you want
to connect to belongs to the same workgroup. Open the Start Menu and
right-click My Computer. Go to Properties, then Computer Name. If your
workgroup name doesn't match, you can change it by clicking the Change
button. Some versions of Windows only show the computers that actually have
shared folders or printers, so make sure you have at least one folder shared
on every computer you're trying to connect to. The next step is to disable
your firewall. By default, most firewalls block the ports used by Windows
networking, keeping even legitimate users-like you-from connecting to your
machine. If all your machines use the same workgroup and your firewalls are
disabled, and you're using a wireless router, your problem could be the
router. If your wired machines can all see each other, but a wired machine
can't see a wireless machine, it's almost certainly the router's fault.
Barring a firmware update that fixes the problem, there's no easy way top
connect your machines if this is the case. Check with your router
manufacturer for a newer version of the firmware. If that doesn't work, you
may need to get newer hardware. Here's one last tip: You can try to connect
to your computer's specific IP address instead of its name. To find the IP
address, go to the Network Connections control panel, right-click your
network card, and select Status. The IP address is on the Support tab. Once
you have the IP, you can go back to your other computer and put //IP.address.here/
into Explorer. If you have shared folders on the PC you're trying to connect
to, they should pop up immediately.
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Symptom: My broadband connection feels
like it's downloading really slow.
Solution: Unfortunately there isn't much you can do to improve your
broadband connection's performance without spending more money to upgrade
your existing service. Sure, there are a whole lot of products out there
that claim to "improve your broadband speed" but we don't know of anything
that actually works.
If your performance is significantly slower than the advertised claims of
your provider, you should complain to your ISP. For services advertised as
full-speed, we expect a minimum of 50kB/s download speeds and prefer to see
our speeds top out over 100kBs. If you are paying for a high-speed broadband
connection, but are seeing less than 50kB/s downloads, you should switch
ISPs!
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HARD DRIVE TROUBLESHOOTING
Symptom: I just got a new Serial ATA
hard drive, but when I try to load the image of my current drive onto it,
the drive-imaging software doesn't recognize my new hard drive.
Solution: This is a problem that has vexed us as well, and it
comes down to the fact that most drive-imaging software programs don't
recognize Serial ATA controllers and therefore won't let you image the
drives connected to it. We've tested practically every imaging program on
the market in the Lab, and the only one that successfully moved an image to
a SATA drive and made it bootable was Symantec's (formerly Powerquest) Drive
Image 2002.
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Symptom: I just plugged in a brand-new
hard drive but it's not showing up in Windows XP.
Solution: All brand-new hard drives are sold unformatted and thus
don't show up in Windows until they've gone through the formatting process.
To get up and running, connect the drive, boot your PC, and at the Windows
desktop right-click the My Computer icon and select Manage. Click Disk
Management in the left-hand tree, and every drive connected to your system
will show up. Simply right-click your new drive and select New Partition.
Then follow the steps to get your drive up and running.
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Symptom: My system crashed, and when I
rebooted, my RAID array was no longer working properly.
Solution: RAID arrays can stop functioning for several reasons,
but it's usually a case of a cable coming loose or something in the BIOS
being reset. Serial ATA cables easily come out of their drives, so check
them first. If everything is connected properly, you should also check to
make sure that the ports your array is plugged into are set to "RAID" rather
then "IDE." Because these ports often double as either standard IDE ports or
RAID ports, they must be set in the BIOS to one or the other. Be sure to
check here first if your array suddenly disappears.
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WINDOWS XP TROUBLESHOOTING
Symptom: My computer is acting odd.
Loads of windows open all the time, and I'm getting a bunch of popup windows
that don't look like Internet Explorer windows.
Solution: Your problem is most likely caused be incoming Messenger
service messages. In a networked corporate environment, Messenger is used to
send time sensitive messages about server outages, and software updates, but
there's really no reason to leave Messenger running at home. To disable it,
go to Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, and then Services. Scroll
down to Messenger, right-click it, and select Properties. Change the Setup
Type to Disabled and then press OK.
Note that this Messenger service is different from Windows Messenger. You
can disable this service and still receive instant messages!
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Symptom: A couple of days ago, my
computer began behaving very oddly. The disk runs a lot, even when I'm not
using the computer, and my browser home page is reset to a site I've never
been to before.
Solution: This sounds like a classic case of spyware infection.
There are two apps we recommend for combating spyware: Spybot Search &
Destroy and Ad-Aware. You can download Spybot
and Ad-Aware from our
FREE Downloads Page. Both applications scan your hard
drive for potential spyware and will help you remove it if detected. We
recommend using both apps, because sometimes one application will detect a
new spyware program that the other won't. If one of the applications detects
spyware on your PC, it will either automatically remove it, or give you
instructions that allow you to remove it.
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Symptom: My e-mail frequently stops
working-it often stalls when receiving and sending. And no matter how many
times I change the e-mail settings, it reverts to "localhost."
Solution: There's an outside chance the problem could be a virus,
but the most likely culprit is your antivirus program or your spam filtering
program. These apps work by situating themselves between your mail program
and your e-mail server, then taking a look at every piece of mail you
receive. But if one of these programs crashes or needs input from you, it
will hold up the e-mail download and your mail program will think the
connection has died. If this happens, just restart your antivirus program
and spam filtering program and try downloading messages again.
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Symptom: I keep losing menu options in
Microsoft Word.
Solution: Our bet is that you really like to use em-dashes. The
default keyboard shortcut for an em-dash is Ctrl+Alt+the numpad Dash, but
people often mistakenly press Ctrl+Alt+ the Dash on the primary keyboard,
which is the default keyboard shortcut for "Remove item from the menu."
After you call up that shortcut, your cursor will change to bold minus sign
and the next menu or shortcut you click will disappear from Word. The
solution? Don't use so many em-dashes! Alternately, you can remap the em-dash
shortcut to something a little more convenient. Go to Tools, Customize,
Commands, and then click the Keyboard button. Then, under Categories, scroll
down to Common Symbols and click Em-dash in the right pane. Change the
hotkey to whatever you'd like. We like Ctrl+M. To get back the menu items
that you've lost, go to Tools, Customize, Commands, and drag the elusive
commands back into place.
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Symptom: I keep accidentally e-mailing
my friend at her old address because the program created a shortcut for me.
Solution: This is an easy fix. When you're typing the name into
your To: field, scroll up and down until you get to the one you want to
delete. When it's highlighted press the Delete key and it will be gone
forever!
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Symptom: I get loaded
with spam every day.
Solution: There are three really good, free anti-spam
utilities available today-SpamPal, (www.spampal.org) Popfile and
SpamBayes (popfile.sourceforge.net).
You can download one or all of them from our FREE
Downloads Page. They use slightly different approaches, but each can reduce your spam intake
by up to 99 percent. SpamPal analyzes every e-mail you receive and compares
the path it took across the Internet with the servers and IP addresses of
known spammers. It's very effective right out of the box, but if you
frequently receive e-mail from countries where spam is known to originate,
such as China, Russia, and Taiwan, or from webmail services like Yahoo,
which are frequently abused by spammers, you may see a lot of false
positives.
On the other hand, Popfile and SpamBayes uses a technique called Bayesian filtering to
determine which letters are spam based on the content of your e-mails. Every
time you mark a message as spam, the contents of the message are added to
the database. This is highly effective once the filters are fully trained,
but it can take several weeks of flagging each incoming message as spam
before you start seeing greater than 90 percent accuracy.
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