Direct MP3 Download: Podnutz Episode 13: Symptoms and Solutions
- Mike Petro joins us again for a great discussion about common computer symptoms and their respective solutions!
- How to handle boot problems
- More ways to handle spyware
- Troubleshooting hardware malfunctions.
Show Notes:
Symptom: Computer does not power on – no lights or indication of power.
Solution: Power Supply or power button.
Symptom: Computer powers on, fans spin, no video or bios.
Solution: Motherboard is bad. Common that a power surge can take out both power supply and motherboard at the same time. Test motherboard with video conneted only to see if it posts.
Symptom: Computer powers on and see boot screen, but immediately get error: “Boot disk error, etc..”
Solution: Hard drive problem. Check if BIOS recognizes that the drive is there. Also check hard drive ports on motherboard, or HDD cable. Check jumpers on HDD – make sure settings are correct. Could also be software problem, corrupted Windows OS, or bad boot sector.
Try Western Digital tools or Seagate HDD tools to diagnose drive. Or try FIXBOOT or CHKDSK /R from Windows recovery console to fix bad sectors.
Darik’s Boot N’ Nuke to do a thorough format
KNOPPIX – great tool for reading files on a crashed OS installation.
Symptom: Blue screen of death
Solution: First make sure “automatic restart” is disabled so you can read the blue screen by selecting it in F8 boot menu. Then Google the error to find solution, but if no Stop Number use Mike’s process of elimination.
Symptom: Computer won’t connect to internet.
Solution: Possibly bad ethernet jack; Winsock layer problem. Hijack this will tell you this(winsockfix will fix); Modem problem; Router problem; Bad ethernet cable: Bad drivers (Uninstall and reinsstall); Make sure LAN is enabled in BIOS; Internet Explorer faulty (return to factory settings)
Symptom: Computer boots VERY slowly
Solution: Use Msconfig to see what’s booting. Turn off what you don’t need or what is causing the problems. If slow boot at Windows screen – could be hard drive problem. Also doing a Windows Repair on a SP2 install with a SP1 install disk may cause long boot times until SP2 is reinstalled.
Symptom: Computer tells you you’re infected with spyware.
Solution: See Episode 2 for basic groundwork. Smitfraudfix is a great tool for killing tough spyware. Then run Avast or AVG for Anti-Virus. Also run CCleaner orCleanup to delete possible infected files. More good tools: HijackThis, ComboFix,Dial-a-fix.
Get rid of Virtual Mundy with Vundofix
Symptom: Computer gets halfway through boot process and then reboots itself
Solution: Use F8 to turn off automatic reboot. Try FIXBOOT or CHKDSK /R from your Windows CD, or handle the specific error the blue screen is displaying.
Symptom: CD not reading disk, or not opening.
Soultion: Make sure cables are connected. If yes and still problem, buy new drive
Symptom: Windows updates keep installing.
Solution: Hijack this could be reporting a false file, couldbe corrupt or missing Windows files, look at KB number computer is having a problem with and and Google it to find solution. Also give Dial-a-fix a try.
Symptom: System32 errors on startup
Solution: Registry is corrupted. Follow Microsoft Article KB307545
Symptom: Computer shuts down while using.
Solution: Overheating. Check fans and heat sink. Blow the dust out. Also stay alert for thermal paste that has overheated, hardened, and needs to be reapplied. Arctic Silver 5 is good paste.
Same with laptops: find vent where the fan in on bottom of machine and blow air into the fan and also into side where the heatsink is. Be careful chunks of dust don’t clog and stop the fan.
