Thanks and God bless, Tuffy

Dear Tuffy,

Based on your description, my best guess is that you have a small crack, probably somewhere in your motherboard, or possibly the hard drive circuitry.

My reason for this guess, based on the information you have provided is this, heat causes things to expand, and cold causes them to contract.

When your computer is cold, some connection is not being made. Without working on the computer myself, I can’t tell you which component is having the problem, I’m guessing the hard drive, but again, this is only a guess.

When you run the computer for a while, it heats up, and the warmed components expand, just enough to make that connection that was broken when it was cold.

If I had your computer here on my workbench, I might be able to diagnose which component was causing the problem, and fix it if the fix is cost effective.

If you live in the area, give me a call 676-9561 and I will take a look at it. If not, find a local computer shop and see what they charge for diagnostics.

Elizabeth

Twyla

__–__

Dear Twyla,

It sounds like you have a fan that is failing. The noise you are hearing is the worn out ball bearings making the fan off balance. I am more worried about the times when there is no noise at all. The fan is most likely not running during those times, and the computer could be overheating. Too much heat can damage the computer.

There are several fans inside the computer that could be making the noise. You need to figure out which fan it is, and replace it. You can either do that yourself, or take it to your local computer shop. Here are some commons fans that might need replacing.

1. Inside the power supply there is a fan. You should be able to see this fan on the back of your computer near the top. You need to get a new power supply to replace this fan. Don’t try taking the power supply apart, there are capacitors inside that can hold a charge even when unplugged that can hurt you.

2. Over the CPU is a fan also known as a processor fan. If this fan is the one giving you problems, you need to get it replaced as soon as possible. If the processor overheats, your computer will no longer work.

3. There might also be case fans inside your computer that either blow air in the front of the case, or out the back of the case. These are the least dangerous if they fail because they are not cooling the electrical system, or cpu.

As long as you get the failing fan replaced, your computer will be fine. If you let the fan stop working, the computer will overheat and damage will occur.

Elizabeth

Shahid

__–__

Dear Shahid,

Most computers beep once during a normal boot to signify that the power on self test (POST) was completed successfully.

Over the years, I have seen many computers that don’t beep at all, and I have seen an occasional computer or two that have a double beep to signify that the POST completed successfully.

Since your computer appears to be working normally, and there were no error messages on your screen when it was booting up, I would think that you have one that gives you a double beep.

You would know beyond a shadow of a doubt if the beeping was signifying a problem, because things would not be working correctly. The most common beep patterns are…

A series of long beeps usually means that your RAM didn’t pass the POST.

One long beep followed by several short beeps usually means that your video card did not pass the POST.

Elizabeth

Windows xp purchased in 2002 cybertron from tiger direct. Been having slow start up problems always get started but not easy latest problem computor said pri master hard drive disk s.m.a.r.t. status bad backup and replace. Also lots of error messages says program not responding.once said system has recovered from a serious error.
Wayne

Dear Wayne,

It sounds like the hard drive on your 8 year old computer is starting to fail.
There are several things in your description that lead me to this conclusion, and I will explain them to you.

1. Slow start up problems. One of the classic signs of impending hard drive failure is a drastic slow down in computer operations. Often a computer that used to take two or three minutes to start up when you turn it on, will take 20 minutes or more.

2. The SMART (which stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) is not working. This is software on the drive itself that monitors the drive for you and can give you advance warning of impending failure.

3. The age of your computer. The average computer today gets replaced every 5 years. Most computers experience some sort of failure between 5 and 10 years, and it is a rare few that continue to operate beyond 10 years of age.

What should you do? The first thing is to make sure your important files are all backed up. Don’t turn the computer on again until you are ready to back these files up.

Once you have saved your important files, you can look at your options. You can replace the hard drive. Did the manufacturer ship the computer with system recovery disks? Since any recovery files that were located on the hard drive are lost with the drive failure, you would need to reinstall from CDs or DVDs. If you have disks, you can probably get a replacement drive for under a hundred dollars, and run the recovery disk. This MIGHT give you a few more years of operation, but it won’t guarantee that other parts in the system won’t begin to fail.

If the system did not ship with any recovery CDs, you might have to contact the manufacturer and see if they will provide you with a set. Most companies keep masters on hand for a few years, but usually not 8 years.

Elizabeth

Dear Computer Lady,

I use Error checking and it helps my pc. Some people don’t even know where to find it in XP or why they should use it. I wish you would send some info on this in your newsletters. Everyone knew and used it in windows 98.

Thank you,  A

__–__

Dear A,

When you run the error checking command on your computer, you are actually running a program called Chkdsk.exe . This is a tool that checks your hard drive for problems, and then attempts to repair any problems that it might find. What kind of problems does it look for? Chkdsk looks for bad sectors on your hard drive, lost clusters, cross-linked files and directory errors. All these problems are related to storing files on the hard drive.

You can check for errors with Windows XP this way:

1. Click on “Start” then click on “My Computer”.
2. Right click on the hard drive you want to check, and click on “Properties” in the drop down menu.
3. Click on the “Tools” tab.
4. In the “Error-Checking” section, click “Check Now”.
5. In the dialog box that opens, click on “Start”.

You can check for errors with Windows Vista this way:

1. Click on “Start” then click on “Computer”.
2. Right click on the hard drive you want to check, and click on “Properties” in the drop down menu.
3. Click on the “Tools” tab.
4. In the “Error-Checking” section, click “Check Now”.
5. In the dialog box that opens, click on “Start”.

If you want Chkdsk to automatically repair problems that it finds with files and folders, you can select, “Automatically fix file system errors”. If you do not select this option, the program will report any problems it finds, but not fix them.

If you select, “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”, a more thorough scan will be done, during which physical errors on the hard disk itself will be located and Chkdsk will attempt to fix. This option will result in a much longer scan.

Elizabeth

Before my question, I must say when my brother sent me your newsletter many years ago he did me one of the greatest services a big brother can!

May I ask how I can check the amount of RAM on my Dell laptop? It is only a couple years old, but things seem to run much slower and from your past newsletters I know it must have to do with the RAM.
Thanks so much for your answer. A Happy and Blessed New Year to you and those you love, Grace in NY

__–__

Dear Grace,

Thank you for the wonderful compliment!

You did not tell me what version of Windows you are using, but most computers that are only a couple of years old are running Vista, so I will give you directions for Vista first.

1. Click on the “Start” orb

2. Right click on “Computer” in the start menu.

3. Click on “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

4. In the window that opens, look in the “System” section and find the line that says, Memory (RAM):

5. The amount of RAM on your system will be listed there.

If you are using Windows XP, the directions are similar.

1. Click on the “Start” button

2. Right click on “My Computer” in the start menu.

3. Click on “Properties” in the context menu that appears.

4. In the System Properties window that opens, find the section that says “Computer”.

5. The amount of RAM will be listed in the Computer section.

Once you know how much RAM you have, you will need to find out how much RAM your laptop supports. You can either find out by contacting the laptop manufacturer, in your case a quick phone call to Dell would work, or you can try an online RAM upgrade website.

The online sites will ask you a few questions about your computer, and then tell you how much RAM it originally came with, how much RAM it will be able to use, and give you some good prices on RAM that you can order directly from them.

One online site that I like to use is 4 All Memory at:
http://tinyurl.com/4allmemory

Elizabeth

Dear Computer Lady,

Is there a way I can resize the displayed webpages so I don’t have to use the scrolling from side to side, basically I want to know how to see the entire webpage left to right without scrolling side to side.

Thanks for any help, Angela

Dear Angela,

While there is no way to change the width of individual web pages, if you are having this problem on most websites, chances are your computer is set to a low resolution.

One of the display settings on your computer is something called the resolution. Resolution is measured in pixels, the higher the number of pixels, the more information you can display on your screen and the smaller items appear. Lower screen resolution makes items appear larger and can benefit people with vision impairments. 

This is how you can adjust the screen resolution on your computer:

1. Right click on a blank spot on your desktop, and click “Properties” on the menu that appears.

2. In the “Display Properties” window, click on the “Settings” tab.

3. In the section labeled “Screen resolution” slide the little tab to the right until the resolution is 800 X 600 or greater.

4. Click the “OK” button to save your changes.

Elizabeth 

Dear Computer Lady,

How do you change your color under properties from 16 colors to 256 and more. I have tried and it said it will happen if I restart the computer but nothing never happens.

Will

Dear Will,

You can change the colors displayed in the display properties. 

1. Right click on a blank spot on your desktop and then click on “Properties”
2. In the “Display Properties” window, click on the “Settings” tab all the way over on the right.
3. On the Settings page, you can select the number of colors you want displayed. Anything higher than 256 colors will look good on your screen. If you have tons of memory and a fast processor, you can select the highest color setting available, but if you want to speed things up, select a lower setting.

Since it sounds like you have done this already, and re-booting brings you right back to 16 colors then you have a problem with either your video drivers, or the video card itself.

Try re-loading the video drivers. You should be able to find updated drivers on the computer manufacturers website, or you can take the computer to a local shop to have that done.

If the problem still persists after you have loaded video drivers and re-booted then the problem is probably with the video hardware. You will have to get a new video card. 

If you want to try it yourself and need help with that kind of project, the folks at www.FreePCTech.com would be glad to help you. Just join the PCBUILD list and ask for help.

Elizabeth

For the past 2 months or so, I’ve been getting these text-only pop up messages, even when I don’t actually have a web browser open.  I have a cable internet connection, not dial up so I’m always connected to the internet.  Some of the messages that pop up say that my computer is wide open to the internet.  Is this true? And if so am I at risk for viruses/hackers? These particular ones are trying to sell me software to stop these unwanted messages, but they state that this is something that Microsoft had programmed into the software to allow this and it seems to me that there should be some kind of setting that I could change without actually spending money on some software. 

There are also others trying to sell different products and the majority of them are from different porn websites.  They always show the IP address they are coming from and I cannot continue working on what I was doing until I close the window.  It is very annoying and frustrating, but this is my computer and I don’t feel I should have to pay someone to get this to stop.  Any suggestions???

Thank you, Jessica

Dear Jessica,

If you are getting these messages, not only is it annoying, but it also means that your computer is open to hackers! To test this, go to http://www.grc.com and run the “Shields Up” test.

The best and simplest way to stop this and protect yourself is to get a hardware firewall. I use a Linksys router, and I have NEVER gotten one of those messenger advertisements. The router goes between your cable modem and your computer, in fact, it will allow you to hook more than one computer up to your cable connection if you get a 4 port or 8 port model.

Yes, you will have to spend some money to protect yourself. In today’s world, that is a fact of life. We all have to install antivirus software to protect ourselves from viruses, this is the same type of thing.

It is also a good idea to install all of your Windows updates, if you have Windows XP, this will automatically turn on the built in firewall.

Elizabeth