If your PC gets caught in a flood, you might imagine it is impossible to retrieve the motherboard anymore. But luckily, once floods occur, an automatic power outage ensues, so there is hope you can still save your PC.
The immediate solution here, upon salvaging your desktop PC from the water, is to remove the CMOS battery immediately. Next, guided by the motherboard manual, open the apparatus and expose the inner part then with a clean dry rag, wipe off the water and dirt. Rinse the components using distilled water and dab them dry with soft cloth. Leave to dry for several hours or until you are sure everything is dry. You can then reassemble the device, install a new battery and proceed to test.
First thing you need to check is your network cable. There are cases where twisted or kink-laden cables (caused by office wear and tear) cause PCs to self-reboot. The simple solution is to replace the cable. I’m sure the supplies personnel in your office would not begrudge you of such a simple request. Or if you’re the one shouldering the cost, I assure you that your wallet won’t feel the loss.
If it isn’t the cable, then it must be the network card. Experts from Answers that Work suggest the 3com network card for servers. Just ask form your technician regarding this.
Cause number 3 is a faulty Uninterruptible Power Supply or UPS. This usually happens when the PC’s UPS has outlived its two year warranty. This happened to me years ago when I was working on my undergraduate thesis. My PC would self-reboot at the most inopportune times. The cause of my agony was a simple faulty battery. The best solution to this problem is to replace the UPS when it turns 18 months old. This will prevent having your work interrupted by a sudden reboot only to find out that you had not saved any of your data for the last hour.
Source: Answers that Work
Prevent your computer from crashing by regular maintenance. One thing you can do to clear disk space is to run the disk cleanup option .
Just follow these easy steps!
Open My Computer.
Right-click on the hard disk drive that you want to recover disk space. Let’s use the C: drive as an example, since it’s the most “abused” drive anyway.
Next, click properties. You will the General tab/ Just click the button that says Disk Cleanup. It is next to the pie chart. Windows will now scan the computer for all files available to clean up.
Last, when already in the Disk Cleanup window, check all of the boxes that are taking disk space EXCEPT “compress old files“.
Click Ok and then Yes if you wish to proceed.
One thing to remember when performing a disk cleanup, there is an option to compress old files in your hard drive. It is strongly recommended that you don’t. Besides, Windows 2000 and Windows XP keep the files that are necessary to uninstall the updates (which could accumulate up to 1 gig of wasted disk space) that have been installed on your computer.
So the electrical connection is not the problem. Let’s move on to the Power Supply Unit or PSU (unless your PC utilizes a UPS instead. This will be covered in the next post). The PSU is the most common cause of self-rebooting. The best way to troubleshoot this is to replace the PSU (TIP: When replacing a motherboard, also replace the PSU). There are good quality PSU out there and they come in relatively cheap prices. Do not attempt to replace it yourself if you have no idea on how to do it. Better take your PC to a repair shop.
Source: Answers that Work
Once in a while, we experience connectivity problem — say, we cannot connect through the web or sending and receiving email takes time. We assume that this problem is because of system’s connection to the Internet has somehow failed. When this occurs, you can usually determine the exact nature or location of the problem with a series of ping tests.
So what do you do when the following happen?
Scenario 1:
You excitedly turn the machine on so you can start downloading a missed episode of your favorite TV show (let’s say, House M.D.). Then as the screen lights up, a message appears:
Non-System disk or disk error
Replace and strike any key when ready
Don’t get annoyed just yet because you’ll still be able to watch House and Cuddy sizzle on screen. You just need to remove a diskette on you’re A: drive.
Scenario 2:
You boot your computer the morning after a very hard and late computer work-out the night before (whatever that means). Suddenly, a message appears:
Windows was not properly shut down. One or more of your disk drives may have errors on it. Press any key to run ScanDisk on these drives.
Press the enter key and let it scan. It just means that it was not properly shut down. If it has lost clusters to repair, click OK and it will automatically repair itself.
