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Rule Number One: Keeping Windows Behaved.

There are three steps to keeping your computer well mannered, these are presented in order of importance.

Step One: Anytime your system locks up, or reboots suddenly, or is not shut down properly by clicking START, SHUT DOWN, SHUT DOWN, run SCANDISK. If you suspect your system is having problems, run SCANDISK. If you think about it, and haven't run it in a while, run SCANDISK.

Why?? Let's examine what scandisk does. The principal function of scandisk is to scan the hard drive for lost clusters. What are lost clusters? Everything on your hard drive is stored in groups of information called clusters. A cluster may be anywhere from 4000 characters to 32000 characters, depending on what version of Windows you have, and how large your hard drive is. A very small file will occupy 4000 characters. A very large file may comprise many clusters. Suffice to say if the computer is not shut down properly, the operating system may not have an accurate count of the exact number of clusters a file SHOULD occupy, and some clusters may get LOST. Once this gets started, it can have a snowball effect, causing more files to have lost clusters. The advanced case of lost clusters causes different files to think they actually occupy the same space - these are called cross-linked files. SCANDISK will find lost clusters and report them back to you - in 99.9% of the cases, these files are worthless and should be DELETED. CROSS-LINKED files, should you be unlucky enough to ever have any, should be given copies of the same information. Remember, when in doubt, run SCANDISK!

Step Two: Temporary file cleanup. In the old days of desktop computers, and software we used had to fit in the small amount of memory (RAM) we had available. Today's modern computer uses both RAM and hard disk space to run our software. When hard disk space is used, temporary files are created for this, usually in the \WINDOWS\TEMP folder. If you shut down your computer properly, the temporary files are removed. If not, they remain, and worse can have lost clusters. (See above) Periodically, you should check the \WINDOWS\TEMP folder for temporary files, and remove them.

The easiest way to remove files in Windows 98 or later versions is to start by opening MY COMPUTER (find the MY COMPUTER icon on your desktop and double click on the icon.) Move your mouse cursor over the icon for the “C” drive, then using the right button of your mouse, right click on the “C” drive icon. This should open a menu. The last item on the menu should be “PROPERTIES”, left click on “PROPERTIES”. Look in the lower right hand section of the window that pops up, you should see a button “Disk Cleanup”. Click this button. You will see a list of various files that can be removed, and how much space (MB) those files occupy. Be sure that each box is checked if there are files. The click the OK button to remove the files.

This will help, but will not remove all of the temporary files!

This is best done from a DOS prompt, in the following steps:

1) Click on START, PROGRAMS, DOS PROMPT This should get you to a black screen with a C:> prompt, or perhaps some folder. Don't panic!!!

2) Type the following: CD\WINDOWS\TEMP and press the enter key. You should see the prompt change to C:\WINDOWS\TEMP > Then type the command DEL *.TMP and press the enter key. This will remove all the temp files! Then type the word EXIT and press the enter key, and you will return to Windows again. Simple, huh!!

Step Three: Keeping our files "organized". Without going into a lot of detail, as we use our computer, files that we use on a daily basis can become fragmented, or broken up into parts. It is a natural process of the Windows operating system and cannot be avoided. When a file gets broken into parts, sometimes the computer has to hunt all over the hard drive to find all the parts of a file, and that can become a rather tedious process, right? (It's like looking all over the house for that thingy you just set down a minute ago!) There is a program designed to find all those parts, and assemble them back into one piece, so the computer has an easier time of finding them when you need them! It's called DEFRAG, and it is found by clicking on START, ACCESSORIES, SYSTEM TOOLS, DEFRAG. If defrag has not been run in some time, it may take hours to complete its task, but the overall result is a computer that will run a little faster for you, and will not have to work as hard!

TIP: Sometimes you may receive an error message to the effect of “Windows has restarted this program 10 times…” and SCANDISK, or DEFRAG never seem to complete. This is usually due to services running in the background that are writing to your hard drive while it is being scanned or defragged. These could include firewalls, anti-virus, screen savers, etc. You might need to start Windows in what is called “Safe Mode”. Safe Mode is a very simple mode of Windows, used for some “debugging” purposes. Your screen will look funny, and you won’t have access to peripherals, such as printers, modems, CDROM drives, etc. But you WILL be able to complete Scandisk or Defrag!

To start your computer in “Safe Mode”, you will need to either: (1) Repeatedly tap the Function Key labeled F8 when you first start to see text appear on the screen (if you see a graphic image, such as “Starting Windows…” you are too late – retstart and try again) or, (2) Try holding down the CTRL (Control) key while the system starts up. In either case, you should get a Start-up Menu, and you can then select “Safe Mode” from this menu. Once you have finished Scandisk and/or Defrag you can restart your computer normally. [top]

VIDEO PROBLEMS:

Nothing on the screen:

1) Is the computer on? (Really, not kidding here) and seem to boot up properly?

2) Do you have a power light on the monitor?

3) Check the cable that leads from the monitor to the computer and reseat it if necessary

4) Do you hear a series of beeps when you turn on the computer? The video card may be loose inside the system. Open the case and reseat the card.

5) If you have access to another system, swap parts and see if the failed item stays failed.

6) Bring the box/monitor in for check out.

Wavy stuff on the screen, screen parts are repeated in other places on the screen, usually caused by your video card's refresh rate is too high for your monitor.

1) Boot the system in safe mode (Win 95, F8 key, Win98, Control key)

2) Click START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL, DISPLAY, PROPERTIES

3) Goto settings, and advanced. Somewhere in there (depends on display driver) will be a section on refresh, set that to DEFAULT and OK your way out

4) Reboot to normal mode. [top]

HARD DRIVE PROBLEMS:

If the system won't boot

1) Check for a "ticking noise" you turn on the computer - this may indicate hard drive FAILURE

2) Check to see if you left a floppy in the floppy drive, remove it and reboot.

3) Bring the system in for check out. [top]