Fixing A PC - Help For The Unsure & Beginner Tips

Overview

Want to learn the ABC's of fixing your PC? Congrats! You just stumbled upon one of the few tutorial sites that encourage you to GET THE FACTS before you begin to combat your troubles.

Features

This site contains a large number of helpful tips and guides for troubleshooting any PC problem you may have. There's no need to fork out loads of money for expensive pieces of software or pay a fee to have a repair company take a look at your system. Chances are we have the advice right here so that you can sort the problem out yourself and understand exactly why it occured, so you're able to stop it affecting your system in the future.

Check out our full Problem List page to locate your problem and the fix for it!! If you don't see the specific issue you are having listed then please visit our Submissions Page to enter it into our database. It shall then be posted onto the site for people to send replies to or just for you to share the issue for others to use if they come across the same problem as you.

Introduction Video

I have found it incredibly useful to see problems solved using videos to show people exactly what goes on when correcting an issue.

Please watch the below video made by me to explain what this site aims to give you.

Well ... I hope you found that useful. Following on from that quick video comes some quick tips for finding the fix to the troubles you may be having.

People spend so much time scouting around, browsing site after site, for the one particular problem solution they're after. In short, this is why I have created this site, dedicated solely to solving very annoying what I call "unwarranted interuptions" to their machine. Whether it be from simple pop-ups whilst browsing the Intenet right through to Blue Screen Of Death or system crash messages. Read below for my quick guide to understanding, diagnosing and correcting Easy, Moderate or Complicated problems like this.

Quick Troubleshooting Guide

1. Locate Your Problem

Ask yourself if the problem is related to Hardware, Software, or the Operating System (such as Windows XP or Windows Vista). Some common indicators that can help you decide the right answer can be displayed in strange error codes. If you're uncertain, don't worry. Just start at 'Point 2' and determine if your software is working, using the below Software errors section that follows. If the issue persists, proceed to 'Point 3', the Hardware trouble section and then to the System failure section.

2. Software Errors

If programs refuse to install, do not appear in your specified folder, can't seem to run without freezing, don't load at a decent speed or function properly, here's how to troubleshoot:

• Nowadays, keeping up to date with the latest Hardware parts is tough, mostly because I think the speed at which Hardware becomes outdated now could be measured in "mph", so it's important to ensure your PC meets the Minimum System Requirements to run the Software (especially games). Please also note that if your PC only just meets the Minimum requirents it may still struggle and slow to a crawl, when running it. You're best therefore to make sure your PC has the Hardware parts that are more than capable of running the Program. If you are using Windows Vista as you Operating System then it's always worth checking Microsoft's Compatibility Guide to see if the Software is compatible with it.
• Check your available Hard Drive Space, roughly 5 to 10 percent of your hard drive's total storage allotment should be left free to ensure you prevent crashes, and keep your Operating System running at top speed. To find out how to check your available space remaining, and increase the space if you need to, please click the quick videos below:

3. Uninstall Unwanted Programs

Increasing space on the Hard Disk by clearing Programs off can really help improve performance. Each time an install is done as well as the programs itself nowadays, files are installed alongside it that you can't see and don't know about. It's these files that can clog up your machine if you have a lot of different Programs installed. Going into Control Panel and removing them via the Programs and Features shortcut will help.

4. Defragmenting

If you have Installed or indeed Uninstalled a lot of your Programs, you may have the available space on your machine "scattered" around the Hard Disk. If you think of your Hard Disk as a Pie Chart split into lots of different sections, to increase you PC's performance you want all of the 'free' sections to be together and all of the 'sections' which contain data to also be together. Defragmenting does exactly this. It moves the contents of the Hard Disk to store the pieces of each file close together. It also attempts to create larger regions of free space on the drive, so your files don't get fragmented as much in the future.

5. Reboot Your PC Regularly

Rebooting does work! Whenever you install programs that are causing problems .... reboot, If it still won't load or work correctly, you may need to uninstall the software and then reinstall it from scratch and reboot again. Clearing the PC's 'memory' of the Program and when it failed can clear the error and force your PC to access the Program in the best way possible, to give it the best chance of loading.