COMMON SYMPTOMS

 
 Computer Beeps.

When starting ‘er up and it doesn’t seem normal, then beeps....with either a single or series of beeps these indicate a system malfunction that needs attention by a professional. There are several makes, models and specs for the motherboard, hardware and operating system. For example, Intel, AMD, Asus, Gigabyte and others manufacture mobo’s ( slang for motherboards).

There are industry standardized beep codes (ie. Phoenix, AMD) and depending on the series of beeps, as technicians, we can determine the region that is suffering - example: video, Master boot record, power supply, or components.

Clicking, Squealing Noises.

When you first start the computer you hear these; it’s a good general indicator that a hard drive is on it’s way to failing, or already has ! In order to preserve as much of your data as possible, it is reccommended that you get a repair professional to have a look at it, and possibly copy your data to discs and install a new hard drive.

I can’t stress often enough the importance of making system and data back-ups often and thoroughly.  With all the new technology - most folks  can make a good  rescue back-up with free  software I have listed in the Links section, and only use 5 to 7 DVD disks to store it on.  These can be your ‘hail mary’  if you find your machine having a terrible day and a crash or overhaul demands  wiping the hard drive and starting new.  

With all back-up software  they encourage you to make  one spare disk that ‘auto-boots’ and gives you the options to begin your rescue, with your rescue disks made by their program.   Saves about $100 at my time/cost to restore your system to yesterday’s  condition - without the problem left behind.   And you don’t realize all the stuff you do have stored until that fateful day you crash and lose it all.

Make Back-ups before a hard drive gets a chance to crash.

Machine will not boot.

First indicator here will be the power supply. By using a power indicator tool, we can rule out either total failure (replace the PS); or simply examine the wiring and check for faulty connections.

Second indicator will be the mobo itself. By opening the tower and examing the components, it can be determined if there is corrosion, breakage, or mis-placed connections. The mobo has it’s own set of safeguards, and on opening, if the active lights are not on, the motherboard itself is likely dead.

Third on the list, hard drive failure. This can mean a bad sector, cluster or partition. The Master boot record is vital for the PC to turn on and boot into Windows. If the Bios cannot find the boot sector, or it has become corrupted; it will be impossible to open Windows until the faulty sector is identified, , repaired, replaced, or re-installed . This is a touchy job that can or may leave you with lost data.

Odd as it may seem, Fourth on list is a Disk left behind in a tray in the machine and the  boot sequence is trying to boot your system from a  music cd or some other media that’s in the drawer from earlier use.
 

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CD/DVD won’t read, play or burn.

Often this is due to software issues. This can usually be remedied by seeking the manufacturer’s website and downloading the most recent ‘drivers’ for your specific make & model of device.

Slow Performance -

Here’s where I ask “what seems slow”? If your answer is page loading , then it may be just the page itself, as designed; or you could have a virus tampering with your system. By keeping your WindowsUpdates current and fresh you can usually avoid slow page loading since the updates carry the newest and freshest  browser  changes that the internet has started using.

If it is slow start up, then there’s likely a whole lot of applications trying to open when Windows starts, I would review your start menu and see what we can take away, and just load the main operating functions, and let the others be opened when needed from your program list. If it’s games that play slower than normal, you could need an upgrade to your video components.

Most slow performance issues can be singled out fairly easily. It’s never a bad idea to run a complete and thorough cleaning , full virus scan and reboot, before hitting the panic button. Always have pencil and paper nearby to make note of all errors as they display, with as specific as you can ‘word for word’ what it’s telling you. This makes pin-pointing the problem much easier.

Some slowness can be attributed to the amount of memory you are running. If you are still down around 128MB, then it may not be a bad idea to add some more. But that’s just a last measure, adding memory may or may not resolve slow performance. All the components require a small amount of memory each, but if one is on it’s way to becoming faulty, adding memory isn’t going to change anything. Everything has to be considered.

There can be hundreds of reasons for performance issues. What you notice,  what you were working on, what sites were involved and similar observations can make the mystery less difficult to solve when lots of info can be collected to single out the major problem and resolve it.

To be continued.