Do you have to repair your computer but don’t have the money and time it takes to be a professional? That’s alright—this can help you fix the seven most common problems for free using the resources that are already available at your home.
1—Run the Anti-Virus
A large number of the problems exist in the modern computers that are caused by viruses slow performance, stalled downloads, and strange errors are all symptoms of the modern computing.
If you already have an anti-virus program installed, it is not guaranteed that it will catch each and every virus before it infects your system. Just like virus in the real world, sometimes computer viruses build enough resistance to get past your defenses.
However, the manufactures of anti-virus software are updating their software to find latest virus constantly, if you run a full disk scan using the anti-virus software, you may find some any active infections.
2—Clean Your Registry
This piece of advice applies especially to the old versions of Windows and computers which had seen a lot of change over the last year.
Each and every time you make an important change in your computer, Windows will update the Registry such as Installing programs, Uninstalling programs, modifying major settings, and a few more things will add information to the Windows Registry without even cleaning it.
As your Registry gets full, it stops to perform well. It slows down the computer, it also gets confused and also even causes conflicts, and it can even crash and take your computer down.
Cleaning the Registry is an easy task and there are plenty of freeware programs available which help you.
3—Safe Mode
Most of the people I’ve talked on this subject seem to have no idea what a safe mode is for. Do you know it? The solution is to fixing major problems with Windows by shutting down some default / primary actions.
Suppose for Instance:
• It prevents programs from starting up automatically, if the problem exists in one of them, you will get to know it immediately.
• It also won’t load any drivers for the most non-essential hardware, if the problem exists in hardware, you will get to know it immediately.
• It can also help you discover the damage caused by the virus, I hope your anti-virus software is well equipped to deal with them.
To enable safe mode, press and hold the F8 key when your computer starts to boot.
4—Blame Windows
Most often the problem with your computer is the operating system, Windows. It does not mean Microsoft has messed it up—it could be that a virus had deleted an important file.
Diagnosing a problem in Windows from within Windows can be challenging task. What you will need is an outside authority—such as Linux.
You can also download it from “Live” Linux CD which will not install anything on your computer but will boot the Linux from the CD (or DVD) which is in your disc drive. I suggest you to use Ubuntu:
Go to the Ubuntu website using a computer, download the current CD or DVD, whatever you prefer (DVDs have more tools but take longer to download), burn the CD or DVD, and insert it in your computer. Reboot your computer and check if it works.
If Linux can get your computer working, then there is nothing wrong with your hardware—then there is something wrong with your Windows, then try the next step.
5—Reinstall Windows
In Windows 95 and 98 days, we usually used to reinstall Windows once a year to keep things going smoothly. The great thing about Windows XP was that it was stable for much longer periods. If a problem occurs in Windows which you cannot be fixed by any way, reinstalling Windows was the best option.
It is necessary to backup all of your important data before you start reinstalling the Windows. If the computer does not boot Windows, use the Linux method specified above to access your data and copy them to an external HDD, or remove the hard drive out of the computer and use an external HDD adapter to copy the data to another computer.
After backing up the data start the reinstallation of windows by inserting the disk in the disk drive and follow the instructions to reinstall windows.
6—Blowing Your Problems Away
If the problem exists with the computer hardware and not the software, there is not much we can do. Most of the modern electronic equipment’s are non-serviceable, so if it’s broke it is just a piece of junk. But there is one way is to bring them back to life is to blow them away.
Blow them away means is to blow the dust of the equipment. Dust is one of the powerful insulators similar to that of wood which is used to retain heat inside the home by not letting the cold into the home in winter season.
When dust holds the heat inside the equipment in turn it makes the equipment’s to malfunction and eventually fail. Most of the modern equipment’s are designed to work only up to 35 Celsius or 110 Fahrenheit before automatically shuts off to prevent fire or severe damage.
Getting rid of the dust will help the parts to function properly. But the parts that have severely damaged due to heat will eventually fail, so don’t expect miracles to happen by blowing the dust away.
To get rid of the is to cover your eyes with a handkerchief and blow air to get rid of the dust without spitting but if you have a vacuum cleaner at home put the cleaner into blow mode and blow the dust away.
Alternatively, you can also buy cans which have compressed air to blow off the dust of the equipment’s.
7—Your Last Resort
If any of the above mentioned advices helped you then it is necessary that you call the manufacturer. Most of the manufactures have a toll free number and it would not cost you a penny for the call. Feel free to call them and get the help of the technical support and even after that the problem persists then they can service your computer for free.
