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PC Info and PC Repair Guide: How Best to Fix PC/Computer Problems, Buy, Upgrade, Build, Recover, Restore, Repair and Protect Desktop and Laptop PCsPC Buyer Beware! is a comprehensive PC guide covering desktop and laptop/notebook PCs that provides the knowledge required to make sensible buying, building, upgrading, recovering, repairing and computer-security decisions and helps users to solve hardware and software problems via articles and questions and answers (Q&As). You can access the main sections of this website by making use of the orange navigation bar on the left or by making use of the Search This Site feature below.
WINDOWS 7Windows 7 - The latest versions of WindowsClick the link to read the article on this website on Windows 7, the latest versions of Windows: Install, Use, Restore, Recover and Repair Windows 7 - Win7: How It Differs from Windows XP and Vista. Computer diagnostics: How to solve or fix common desktop and laptop PC problemsTo diagnose and troubleshoot specific and general problems with Microsoft's software (Windows 95, 98, Me, XP, Vista, Internet Explorer, and Outlook Express) using the MS Knowledge Base, visit the Diagnostics page on this site. Click a relevant link below to visit the information it describes on this website: 1. - Recovering and repairing Windows XP when a computer crashes or fails to boot 2. - Recovering and repairing Windows Vista when a computer crashes or fails to boot 3. - Windows Vista problems: How to fix problems with Windows Vista 4. - Recover, restore and repair Windows 7 (Win7) when a computer crashes or fails to boot 5. - Windows 7 problems: How to diagnose and fix problems with Windows 7 6. - Windows XP: How to troubleshoot and fix shutdown, restart (reboot), and startup problems 7. - Typical DLL (Dynamic Link Library) device driver problems 8. - Software problems: How to fix problems with Windows, programs, and utilities Also visit the Software pages on this site for more information on specific software-related information and problems. 10. - RAM memory problems: How to fix problems with the Random Access Memory 11. - Hard disk drive problems: How to fix computer hard disk drive (HDD) problems 12. - CD/DVD drive problems: How to fix problems with CD and DVD drives and discs 13. - Processor problems: How fix common processor (CPU) problems 14. - Video/graphics card problems: How fix common computer video and graphics problems 15. - USB and FireWire problems: - How to fix common USB and FireWire problems 16. - Network problems: How to fix common wired and wireless networking and internet problems 17. - Laptop/notebook problems: How to address or fix the most common laptop/notebook problems
How to fix problems with device drivers in Windows XP and Windows Vista and Windows 7Although the information on the following page is specific to Windows XP, much of the advice is relevant to the earlier versions of Windows. Click here! to read Troubleshoot Device Driver Problems. Click here! to go to Tips for fixing common driver problems in Windows Vista. Those tips should also be applicable to Windows 7. **** Visit the Build a PC page for information on how to build a desktop PC and solve self-build problems, and visit the other pages, such as the Video/Graphics, Sound, Motherboards, and Monitors pages for more problem-solving information, all of which can be accessed via the menu items and jump menu on the orange navigation bar, or via the site search engine at the top of each of the main pages. The Tips & Tricks pages of this site contain additional useful tips, tricks, and problem-solving advice.
The Latest Computer-Related News...Microsoft's Security Bulletin for July 2010July 6, 2010. - Today is Microsoft's Patch Tuesday. There are only 4 security updates this month - 2 for Windows both rated Critical and 2 for Microsoft Office, one rated Critical and one rated Important. A Critical and an Important update often patches code that allows remote-code execution, which allows unauthorised access to a computer or network from the Internet. However, even an update rated as Moderate can allow remote-code execution. Microsoft Security Response Center Security Bulletin Severity Rating System (Revised, November 2002) - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/rating.mspx Microsoft Security Bulletin Summary for July 2010 - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms10-jul.mspx If you have Automatic Updates (Windows XP), and Windows Update (Windows Vista and Windows 7) enabled in the Control Panel to install the updates, or inform you of their availability so that you can choose when to download and install them, you need take no other action to install them. However, there might be a delay between the announcement today and when they are made available for automatic download. If that is the case and you want to install them immediately, Microsoft Update - http://update.microsoft.com/ - will examine your PC and provide you with a list of missing updates, which you can elect to install selectively or entirely. Choose the Custom install to choose which updates to install. This is useful if, say, you don't want to install a large update such as a service pack or new version of Internet Explorer. Many users cannot install Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) successfully, which is installed automatically along with other updates if the default option is enabled. All they have to do is choose the option to make Microsoft Update forget about installing that particular update. The technical details of every released security update to date can be found on this page: Microsoft Security Bulletin Search - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.aspx Visit the following page if an update refuses to install and keeps being announced as being available to install. You can download and install any particular update manually from there. Scroll down the page for the update links. Windows service packs & updates for Windows 7, Windows Vista, Server 2008 and Windows XP - http://www.softwarepatch.com/windows/index.html When run, the Belarc Advisor, under FREE DOWNLOAD on http://www.belarc.com/, tells you if your computer has all of the available updates installed. It also provides a System Security Status report that gives your computer a security rating out of 10, created by the benchmark tests of the Center for Internet Security (CIS), which is at http://www.cisecurity.org/ (available for Windows XP Professional, not Windows XP Home). Intel releases new Intel Core Ultra-Low Voltage ULV processors for ultra-thin laptopsJune 11, 2010. - Intel has released its latest generation of its Core Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) processors, which were designed for users that require all-day battery life and increased performance. The new Core ULV mobile processors have the same performance-enhancing features as the full-sized laptop and desktop-PC equivalents - Turbo Boost that provides an overclocked incremental speed boost when it is required and Hyper-Threading Technology that effectively doubles the number of cores (processing chips) that the processor has, providing enhanced multitasking abilities. However, as might have been expected, with better all-round performance on offer, the Intel Core ULV laptop chips cost more than the less optimised equivalent Intel Core processors. Intel Expands 2010 Intel Core Processor Family to Stylish Ultra-Thin Laptops - http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/2010/20100524comp.htm Intel announces new Core ULV processors for ultra-portable laptops - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/processors/278710/... Foxit PDF Reader update provides a 'safe mode' that defeats malware hacking attacksMay 6, 2010. - Foxit Software is the developer of the main free PDF viewer that rivals the free Adobe Reader. It has released an update for its Foxit Reader that blocks some attacks with a 'safe mode' that is enabled by default. Foxit Reader 3.3 for Windows includes what its developer calls Trust Manager, which blocks any commands in a PDF document that enable hidden access to the web of the kind that allows hackers to take over a computer by remote access. The hackers send specially-doctored PDF files as attachments in emails that unwitting users open, or place them on websites that open automatically when the page is accessed. According to Foxit Software: "The Foxit Reader 3.3 enables users to allow or deny unauthorized actions and data transmission, including URL connection, attachment PDF actions, and JavaScript functions." The Adobe Reader is a troublesome piece of work, is an extremely large piece of bloatware (takes up a lot of hard-disk space), is slow to load and includes many features most users don't use. The Foxit Reader 3.3 is a small fast program. If you can use the Adobe Reader you won't have any problem using Foxit. Moreover, it provides some useful features, such as multimedia support and a content-sharing option. It is advisable to uninstall the Adobe Reader and install Foxit. To uninstall the Adobe Reader click the Start button, click All Programs and look for the program's listing. It should provide an uninstall option. Alternatively, to remove it, open the Start => Control Panel and use Add or Remove Programs (Windows XP), Programs and Features (Windows Vista) and Programs (Windows 7). To install Foxit, just double-click the mouse with its pointer on the downloaded file. Download the latest version of the Foxit Reader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/downloads/index.php Microsoft's new Fix It Center beta troubleshooting softwareApril 20, 2010. - Microsoft has made available beta (test) troubleshooting software called Fix It Center that works on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7. You can download it as a file and then install it, or use the Run option (to install it directly) that presents itself after you click on the Try it now button on the download webpage provided below. In Windows XP, you are provided with five troubleshooting options, but there are many more troubleshooting options with Windows Vista and Windows 7. You are provided with an option to create an online Fix It Center account that puts you in touch with Microsoft's support personnel for additional help. The following webpage provides the download or direct installation option plus information on the new software. - http://fixitcenter.support.microsoft.com/ It remains to be seen how good Fix It Center is or becomes. How to remove web-tracking flash cookies created by the Adobe Flash PlayerNovember 24, 2009. - The Adobe Flash Player, used by most browsers to display web content such as video, can record 100Kb (kilobytes) of data, much more than the 4Kb that standard cookies use. The flash cookies are stored silently on our computers by more than half of the top 100 websites, and are not always mentioned explicitly in privacy policies. The flash cookies track online activity and therefore are a threat to your privacy. Online sources state that these cookies are used to target users with adverts, and to capture private data that can then be sold. Flash cookies are capable of re-creating regular web cookies after they have been deleted, so even after you have deleted regular cookies, they will reappear. They are shared between browsers and can't be managed via or deleted by your browser. Flash cookies can't usually be managed or deleted using a program on your computer. CCleaner removes many of them but not all. Macromedia.com used to develop the Flash Player before Adobe took that company over. That is why the flash cookies are stored in a folder called macromedia.com. To get rid of them, use Windows Explorer to locate the following end folders within the macromedia.com folder and delete the files in them: In Windows XP, find C:\Documents and Settings\Username\ Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\ #SharedObjects\RandomFolderName and C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash Player\macromedia.com\. For Windows Vista and Windows 7, use C:\users\username\AppData\roaming. The AppData folder in Windows Vista and Windows 7 will be hidden unless you open Appearance and Personalization, open Folder Options, click on the View tab and enable Show hidden files, folders, drives. You should leave the Settings.sol file because it contains the Global Settings that you create using the Flash Settings Manager on the following webpage. You have to go to that page to set the settings of Flash Player being used by your computer, because there is no local control panel for the Flash Player. The reason for this is obvious - Adobe doesn't want users to be able to choose the settings easily from within their own computers that prevent tracking data and information capture. Flash Settings Manager - http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/... You should make sure that the amount of disk space is set to zero on the Global Setting Storage page and that a check mark is placed in the Never Ask Again box. Note that when the Flash Player is updated, the settings are set back to the default settings, so you'll have to visit the link above to reset them manually every time you install an update. The player usually asks you if you want to install an update, but you can also check the settings by right clicking with the mouse on the player's screen. The BBC iPlayer at http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer uses the Flash Player, so unless you change the default settings on the page provided above, it can collect data from your PC and even access its microphone and camera if it has them, which most recently-purchased laptops do. You won't be able to view it unless you have the Flash Player installed as an add-on to your browser. To find out what its settings are on your computer, choose a programme to watch, right-click with the mouse pointer on the video screen and select Settings. The settings should be the global settings that you set on the Flash Settings Manager webpage. About the PC Buyer Beware! website...The comprehensive PC Buyer Beware! PC guide is devoted to providing useful and enlightening information on every aspect of personal computers, which include desktop PCs, laptop/notebook/netbook PCs, and Media Center PCs. To get an idea of the coverage, look at the links to the main pages in the orange navigation bar on the left. Extensive information is provided on all of the internal components of a PC - processors, motherboards, hard disk drives, CD and DVD optical drives/writers, CRT and LCD monitors, video/graphics cards and sound cards, dial-up modems, wired and wireless networking adapters, computer cases, power supply units, and RAM memory. Information is also provided on external peripheral devices - printers, USB and FireWire devices and adapters, wireless network Access Points and routers. The Software and Diagnostics pages provide information of the various versions of Windows used by home-computer users (including Windows Vista) and software applications, and the Linux pages are devoted to that ever-improving much cheaper alternative to Windows. The Problems & Solutions pages are devoted to answering the most common kind of problems that desktop and laptop/notebook PC users experience. Security issues are of paramount importance. Extensive information on the subject is provided on the Security section of this site. Other pages on this site well worth reading are: Using Windows Vista, Warranties, Networking, and the Build Your Own PC pages. Make no mistake about it, buying a personal desktop or laptop/notebook computer, or the components to build a desktop PC, can be an unnecessarily involved or costly minefield. This PC guide has been designed to provide you - directly or indirectly in the form of links to other sites - with all of the information you need to know about PCs in order banish your ignorance and protect yourself from the spyware, adware, scams, and rip-offs of the vendors and the snoopers out on the web eager for personal marketing information, and from the hackers looking for prey. Because of the modular design of a desktop PC, there should be no reason why anyone who can use a Philips screwdriver could not easily build one from its components. - Components that you can choose yourself to suit your computing needs instead of any need of vendors to profit from your ignorance. The safest way to upgrade RAM memory: Use the UK and US Crucial Memory AdvisorsPaul Mullen, who was the highly-respected computer guru of the Helpfile at ComputerShopper.co.uk - "I have recently been buying my memory only from Crucial Technology. I would rather pay the extra cost than waste time trying to track down the obscure program faults that bad memory can cause." The best way to choose RAM memory for a brand-name desktop or laptop computer, or memory for a particular make/model of PC motherboard is to make use of the Crucial Memory Advisors (provided under the brief guideline on the minimum memory requirements for Windws XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7). If the Crucial memory you receive does not work, you are guaranteed a refund and standard shipping is free. The memory requirements of the versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7Most of the versions of Windows Vista require more RAM memory to run optimally on a computer that doesn't use memory-hungry applications than Windows XP. A video-editing application is an example of memory-intensive software. Only Windows Vista Home Basic has a recommended minimum amount of memory of 512MB, which is the same amount recommended for Windows XP. Windows Vista Home Premium, the most popular version, and Windows Vista Ultimate require a recommended minimum of 1GB (1024MB) of memory, which is twice the amount of minimum memory recommended to run Windows XP. Note that if you are using a 64-bit version of Windows, up to 4.0GB, it requires twice the amount of memory as a 32-bit version, which can only use a maximum of about 3.5GB. For more information on computer memory, read the RAM pages of this site, which includes information on the lower memory requirements of Windows 7.
How to Use the Crucial Memory AdvisorFor example, if your computer has an Asus motherboard, open the menu, scroll down to ASUS, and click GO. If, say, you have a Dell computer, scroll down to DELL, and do likewise. You will be taken to the relevant information on Crucial's website. If you don't know the make and model of the motherboard installed in your computer, here is a good free utility - Belarc Advisor - that creates an analysis of the hardware and software on a personal computer. Look under FREE DOWNLOAD - http://www.belarc.com/. Another utility that also provides detailed information on the memory itself is CPU-Z. Desktop PCs and laptop/notebook computersIf you need to get a good idea of the components that are used in current desktop PCs and laptop/notebook computers, all you need to do is read the reviews of the latest machines on the market. Then you can read the detailed information provided about those components on this site. Here are links to review pages and pages on this site on desktop and laptop PCs to get you started: Reviews of desktop PCs - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/pcs Visit the Desktop PCs page on this site for information on desktop computers. Reviews of laptop/notebook PCs - http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/laptops Visit the Laptop PCs section of this site for information on laptop/notebook computers. Using Windows Vista and Windows 7Click here! to go to the page on this site that deals with Windows Vista, Microsoft's replacement for Windows XP. Click here! to go to the page on this site that deals with Windows 7, Microsoft's replacement for Windows Vista. COMPUTER SECURITYFor PC security information visit the main Security section of this site, or make use of the site search engine at the top of each of the main pages to search for references to specific information on, say, viruses, firewalls, spyware, adware, etc. DISCLAIMERWhile every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained on this site, the author assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. Link to this websiteClick here! to tell a friend about the PC Buyer Beware! website... If you think that PC Buyer Beware! is a good site that the visitors to your website might profit from visiting, you can place a banner to it on your site by copying and pasting one of the animated GIF files, below, to a suitable space on it. If you link to my website, let me know using the contact form below and I will add a link to your website on a suitable page.
Here is an example of HTML code that links the top GIF file to my site: <a href="http://www.pcbuyerbeware.co.uk/"><img src="PCBuyerBeware.gif" width="100" height="50" border="0" alt="PC Buyer Beware! - Forewarned is forearmed"></a> Shared Birthday: sharedbirthday.co.ukI have created an experimental, interactive site called Shared Birthday that is devoted to finding out if the claims made by astrology have any validity whatsoever. To achieve this, I need volunteers to fill in a completely anonymous form on the site that can provide me with the kind of information that could determine for sure if people who share the same birthday (and usually, but not always, the same astrological sun sign) have as much in common as the astrologers, many of whom make a very lucrative living from belief in astrology, claim that they do... http://www.sharedbirthday.co.uk/ Support this site by making a small donationIf you found the information on this site useful, you might feel inclined to help support it by making a donation via PayPal. Contact meClick here! to go to a form that you can fill in if you want to send me a message concerning the PC Buyer Beware! website. Include your e-mail address if you want a reply, because it is an anonymous form, the use of which also prevents spam coming my way. PC Buyer Beware! Copyright © Eric Legge 2004-2010. All rights reserved. | |||||||
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