Tips & Techniques - Troubleshooting Tips GENERAL
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1. click your new drive and select New Partition Then follow the steps to get your drive up and running Symptom My system crashed and when 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 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 servic2. 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 HARD DRIVE TROUBLESHOOTING Symptom just got a new Serial ATA hard drive but when 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 Symptom 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
3. be gone forever Symptom get a ton of spam every day Solution There are a couple of really good free anti spam utilities available today SpamPal www spampal org and Popfile popfile sourceforge net They use slightly different approaches but each can reduce your spam intake by up to 99 percent SoamPal 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 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 http www tigerdirect com
4. 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 Symptom 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 C
5. out and you re still experiencing spontaneous reboots your problem may be one of the following Overclocking We 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 Oudated 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 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 c
6. than 50kB s downloads you should switch ISPs Symptom can t see the other computers on my home network from my laptop What can 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
7. Tips amp Techniques Troubleshooting Tips Compiled By Our Editors http www tigerdirect com GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING 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 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
8. as your CAS latency to a more conservative setting Symptom Sometimes when 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 bot
9. e is different from Windows Messenger You can disable this service and still receive instant messages 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 amp Destroy and Ad Aware You can download Spybot from www safer networking org and get Ad Aware from www lavasoft de Both applications scan your hard drive for potential spyware and will hep you reomove 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 Symptom My e mail frequently stops working it often stalls when receiving and sending And no matter how many times change the e mail settings it reverts to localhost Solution There s an outside change 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
10. erboard and ATX case should be exactly the same dimensions there are still small variances that can create problems when transplanting your hardware into a new environment It s fairly common for the videocard to not quite fit and when this happens the solution is to simply bend the end of the metal slot cover away from the board ever so slightly This will afford it the extra millimeter or so of clearance the card needs to fit all the way down into the slot But be careful WIRELESS WiFi NETWORKING TROUBLESHOOTING Symptom My wireless laptop will not connect to my wireless router It can t even see it 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 t
11. he 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 Symptom My broadband connection feels like it s downloading really slow Solution Sadly 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
12. 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 Symptom 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 Symptom 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
13. ive 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 Symptom just bought a new PC and now my PocketPC refuses to connect via the USB port Solution This is a common issue You ll have to buy a new PocketPC Just kidding 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 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 Mr Bigglesworth eats through the outer layer Symptom The remote control for my PC speakers suddenly stopped
14. ontinuously 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 Symptom 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
15. reator We ve used it to make audio CDs playable on otherwise uncooperative boom boxes PC BUILDING TROUBLESHOOTING Symptom just built a new machine and am experiencing totally random crashes What are the possible culprits Solution Random crashes are always hard to diagnose so let s cover all the bases The first area to check is your drivers Make sure you have the latest drivers for all your hardware especially the motherboard chipset drivers You should also make sure you ve downloaded all Windows Updates Next consider your power supply If you re running a midsize 300 watt PSU and upgraded to a late model Pentium 4 CPU or Athlon FX or are just running several hard drives and PCI add in cards you should upgrade your power supply to a 400 watt or thereabouts model Inadequate power to your components can cause the entire system to lock up at worst or just cause certain components to malfunction or stop working The final consideration is cooling Ideally you should have a decent size fan in the lower front of your case sucking in cool air from the ouside and a large exhaust fan above your AGP card pull air out of the case Symptom I m building a new PC and have the motherboard mounted inside the case When push the AGP card all the way down in the slot the end of the metal tab on the slot cover hits the bottom of the case preventing me from inserting the AGP edge connector all the way Solution Even though every ATX moth
16. tom of your PC 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 166MHZz Increase it to 400MHz save the settings reboot and you should have a 3200 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 geek emporium 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 dr
17. working the other day 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 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 don t worry the site is in English We ve brayed about Exact Audio Copy before and here s why 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 Symptom My Creative Labs Jukebox Zen Xtra keeps crashing Is it broken 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
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