Overcoming Problems
After my recent experience of viruses, changing host and updating some essential software or maybe better put as, “IT Failure” I thought that it would be a good idea to write a post on what steps I took and just how I managed to survive.
The first thing that people are most likely to do when something goes wrong is panic and think, “oh shit”! A few words of advice, don’t panic! It may seem like a bad terrible thing has happened to you and that your world has come to an end and things will never again be the same as they once where. Not true. All problems have a solution. Be they short and sweet or long and arduous.
Fixing the PC.
When I first encountered the problem with PC, the first thing that I did was a reboot. 9 out of 10 times that is all that you need to do. You might have left something on the keyboard that was pressing the button or a disk left in the disk drive. Just clear all debris from around your PC, remove any disks and simply restart your PC. Sometimes just restarting for a few seconds may not be enough, leave it for five minutes then come back to it as some things take time to reset.
Failing this read what error is being displayed on the screen. This is the computers way of telling you what is wrong. Not always will you get an error message, but when you do, read it and see if there is any thing in the message that makes sense to you. The message that I received was “X300 SE 128MB BIOS P/N 113-A33406-100″. That may look like double Dutch to you, and indeed it did to me. But if you see something in it that you may have seen somewhere before or recognize some or the terms used, you are half way there. The parts that I recognized were X300, 128Mb and Bios. Some parts are specific to each computer and may appear different on your error message. Below I have outlined what parts I recognized and how they helped my to solve the problem. You could follow the same method.
X300
This part I recognized from my graphics card. This is part of the model number of my graphics card. This was one avenue that I could have explored but thankfully I didn’t have to as it could have been expensive. You may not see X300, if your graphics card has a different part number.
128Mb
This made me think that it could be my RAM. My PC has 512 Mb of RAM and each stick of RAM has 128Mb. It turned out to be my RAM, which is not too bad as my PC can still function without the stick of RAM, although at a slower pace. I explain more later on how I discovered that it was the RAM
BIOS
As far as I’m concerned it is never good to see BIOS in an error message, as for me I don’t have a great lot of experience with the BIOS and this could have gotten messy.
Trouble Shooting.
One thing I always do before I work on any PC is to try and see if there is anywhere online that can help me. I agree with Tesco’s “Every little helps”. If you can find somewhere on the net, or even in a book, that somebody has experienced the same issue or similar before, you could follow their steps. I usually go to forums.techguy.org and can find an answer there. If not, I post a thread outlining my problem. This I did do and it helped me solve the problem. I both, posted a thread and found another thread where someone had a similar issue.
The Solution.
In these threads it was highlighted that it was my RAM or my graphics card that was the issue. I decided that I would trouble shoot the RAM first as this was probably the easier option to go with and I didn’t have another graphics card to use as a replacement. I took out each stick of RAM at a time and tried to reboot the PC. I removed the first stick and left the other three there and rebooted. The PC started. I though that I had the problem solved. I reinserted the first stick and removed the 2nd stick and left the others where they were. The PC started each time I removed one. I decided that I would remove all the sticks of RAM and only have one in at a time. The first 2 worked fine, the third one came to a grinding halt! I had sorted the problem. Reinserted the rest of the sticks of RAM and the PC works perfectly now. I didn’t have to go down the graphics card route.
What it all boils down to is to keeping a cool head and don’t panic. Sit back, have a good think and look at the problem. Sometimes just opening the case can really help, you may see a cable or a card has come loose, problem solved. If you can’t find the solution, don’t be afraid to look for help. There is plenty out there. Now I know some of you may not have the luxury of a back up such as laptop. Pay for an hour or so in an internet café or find a friend that is willing to let you use theirs. There is always a way.
I think that I have gone on enough here about the PC and I was hoping to cover the virus, software issues and the changing hosting with you also but I think that I will post on them another day. I want to outline to you what software you could use and how to prevent an attack from hackers, viruses, spy ware, malware and any other un-wantables. In another post I will probably go through the steps need to change hosting.
Mike
Overcoming Problems
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