"If at first you don't succeed, look in the trash for the instructions."
Fix
Computer Help Tips Page #2
Tips
for a Trouble Free PC!
Page # 2
*
Computer Help Page # 1.
a
I
will give you some insight into troubleshooting, Repairing
and configuring your computer. Here are some tips on keeping
your computer hardware up and running great.
Diagnose
& Repair System Conflicts: By Raymond, Tracking
down the source of Hardware problems or General Protection
Fault errors can be as exasperating as looking for a needle
in a hay stack. If you restore a backup copy of you Registry,
That may do the trick if you're lucky. If that don't work,
the cause of your troubles may be one of a dozen of drivers
or configuration or maybe a combination of all.
Finding the culprit is often a tedious process
of ELIMINATION, First of you disable the suspect file,
then you reboot the PC and hope the problem has gone away.
Windows 98 System Configuration Utility:
by WebTechGeek.com, make the work of troubleshooting much
easier. To launch the System Configuration Utility by
Typing (msconfig) in the Start>Run Box or you
can by selecting it from the Tools menu in the System
Information utility (start>programs>accessories>system
tools).
Windows 98 System configuration utility
provides a simple interface that lets you easily control
which configuration file and which lines in each file
will run when your system boots. It can also provide advanced
troubleshooting setting for diagnosing a number of specific
common problems and lets you deselect and eliminate as
a problem source any software that automatically loads
at startup.
Launch the System Configuration Utility
by typing msconfig in the Start>Runbox. The view menu
provides a quick access to many other troubleshooting
tools such as control panel and device manager and display
setting. You may want to create a shortcut for easy launching.
To make a shortcut, go to start>programs.>Accessories>system
tools, and then right~drag the file icon to the desktop,
from the pop-up menu select Create Shortcut here!
Fix Computer Help Tips Page #2
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting your PC using System Configuration
Utility: by WebTechGeek.com, is basically a three step
process. The first two steps eliminate the four configuration
files as potential suspects, the last examines start~up
software and a few specific hardware issues.
But before you go looking for the cause
of the trouble. Back up your configuration files. Click
the Create Back up button on the General tab and autoexec.bat,
config.sys, system.ini and win.ini will automatically
be copied to the root directory and get the extension.pss.
If you make changes that cause more problems, you can
late restore these files by clicking the Restore Backup
button.
Also check each file's attributes. Right-click
the file's name in Explorer, select properties, and if
the file is marked (read-only), remove the restriction
by unchecking the Read-only check box.
Now, on the System Configuration Utility's
General Tab, change the Startup selection setting from
Normal to Selective startup, Each configuration file is
listed next to a check box. A checked box means that Windows
98 will load the file, an unchecked box means it will
be bypassed, If a box is grayed out with no check, that
file doesn't exist on your machine. For example, the file
winstart.bat a real-mode,network file it will be gray
on most computers. If you don't have autoexec.bat or config.sys,
don't worry. Windows 98 doesn't need them to run properly,
but it must have both system.ini and win.ini. Start testing
by unchecking the box for config.sys, clicking OK at the
bottom of the dialog box, now select yes when prompted
to restart the computer system.
If
the problem goes away, then the config.sys is the culprit.
If it doesn't, continue this process of
elimination for each of the three remaining files. If
you do isolate a configuration file as the cause of your
problem, the next step is to find which command line in
the file is at fault. Go to the System Configuration Utility's
tab for that file. Under the Tab, you'll see each of the
file's command lines or groups of lines listed with a
check box next to each. The checked box means the command
line will run when the file is processed, an unchecked
box means it won't.
Start with all the command lines unchecked
and continually reboot the system, checking one additional
line each time. If the file has many lines, Save yourself
some time and select four lines or group lines, and waiting
for the problem to reappear. If by doing so you happen
to cripple windows, your next boot-up will take you to
Safe Mode, in which case you'll be able to undo the damage
by restoring the setting you've just modified in the System
Configuration Utility to it's former healthy self.
If none of the configuration files seems
to be the cause of your headaches, restart your computer
without any of the software that automatically runs at
startup, and see if that eliminates your problem. Perform
this restart by unchecking the final check box, labeled
(load startup group items) on the General tab. But before
rebooting, open the startup tab and confirm that all the
programs are unchecked , programs loaded (run=) in win.ini
must be manually unchecked.
And finally, if none of the above works,
click the Advanced button at the bottom of the General
tab. Here you'll find a number of useful setting for troubleshooting,
The VGA 640 x 480 x 16: Checking this setting
replaces the current display driver with a plain VGA driver.
Having problems with the graphics driver is very common
and can cause everything from poor on screen image to
spontaneous system reboot. If this move alleviates your
problems, download an update driver from your graphic
card vendor's web site.
Memory Chips: by WebTechGeek.com, Bad or
flawed memory chips can cause errors! If you limit memory
to a low value, try 16MB will prevent Windows 98 from
accessing more RAM than that value. If this stratagem
makes your problem disappear, your memory chip may need
replacing. If you have more than one SIMM or DIMM, then
remove them all and then add them back one at a time and
restart until you've isolated the one with the bad chip,
you'll then need to replace the defective memory module
with a new one. Once done with this setting, and don't
forget to uncheck it so Windows 98 can access all of your
system's RAM.
If you check (EMM Exclude A000-FFFF) this
will prevent memory conflicts between adapter and system
ROMs and programs running in expanded memory (mostly games).
If you're not a gamer, you probably have nothing to worry
about, because only ancient DOS apps use the expanded
memory scheme. If checking this setting fixes your problem,
you can either leave it checked (that will take memory
away from non-windows apps), or try to identify the conflicting
memory range by first unchecking this box and adding the
line (EMMExclude=C400-C7FF E00-EFFF) to the (386 Enhanced)
section of system.ini. You can usually find existing conflicts
somewhere within these two ranges, but if can identify
all your ROM and shadow addresses, you'll know specifically
what ranges to exclude.
Some applications don't like windows 98's
fast shutdown capability and will cause your computer
system to hang. Using this setting implements the slower
Windows 95 procedure. By WebTechGeek.com.
Computer
Help Page # 1.
-