Microsoft denies the fact that their new and upcoming version of the popular Windows OS is a derivative of Vista which is set to go on sale this coming year. They have not been discreet about the whole thing yet have been secretive about pricing and any final details. The beta edition is already out and is undergoing testing by many industry experts who have managed to get hold of copies through the internet. Of the facts that have surfaced, one thing is for sure, they will come in the same flavors as Vista did and it may include upgrade options for XP users. (more…)
Continued from previous post………………
Re-boot and use the CD as boot disk, formatting the hard drive (you can chose the type of file system as you do so, Fat32 or NTFS). Make sure you check or select make disk bootable in the format menu. After the format (a few hours if you have a large hard drive) run the fdisk utility that allows you to partition your hard drive into several small ones or you can simply select the hole drive as the primary partition from which you will be booting from. (more…)
Hit two birds with one stone – use the Disk Cleanup utility to clean up your system trash and speed up your computer.
Disk Cleanup is probably one of the most basic tasks people fail to run regularly. System trash and loads of temporary and temporary internet files gradually build up with normal use, and consume vital disk space as well as slows the computer down.
To run Disk Cleanup, go to Start Menu > Program Files > Accessories > System tools. Then select you boot drive – C: – as the drive you want to clean up (you can also do this with other drives that you have) and then select the sections you want cleared up. The process doesn’t take too long – about 30-45 minutes at most for really big boot disks.
If the blue screen appears yet again, power down and remove your memory modules (if you have many, mostly four) connect them one by one till you get the lot installed. Any defective modules would make themselves apparent with the blue screen soon after. If you have to get new memory modules, be sure to check the specifications of your older ones for there are compatibility issues. If you cannot get hold of the same specification memory modules, you can consider upgrading to a better and newer lot. You may get better performance and extend the life of your PC for a tad bit longer (new ones come out at a rate of every few months)
Use the canned air to blow out the dust bunnies that are visible (if you see a thick layer of dust, relocate outdoors so you don’t get people sneezing uncontrollably as you spray on) paying close attention to the CPU itself and the heat sink. A vacuum cleaner would also be good but use it with caution for it is mostly made of plastic and it can damage the computer. It can also be too powerful that it sucks some jumpers and other small parts into oblivion. Check for corroded pins on the connectors and use the contact cleaner (others use an eraser which not only removes the gold plating on the contacts but abrades them to the point they thin out).
This process is for medium to advanced PC users only for not understanding what to do can send your CPU six feet under so be sure you have enough technical skills to do the following before you start. Disconnect all power cords and peripheral cables from the connectors on the back of the PC, this is not only for safety but it also prevents everything from crashing down as you pull the CPU out. Open the casing (usually with a cross-head screwdriver) and remove the cover to expose the internal organs of the CPU. Find the power supply and touch it with your hand for a few minutes to dissipate any static charge that you may have stored in you (good idea to get a static wrist-strap that you strap around your wrist and clip onto the metal casing to prevent static build-up), all the internal components of your computer is made of static sensitive electronics that would get trashed should stray static electricity get into them. Best to remove all the internal wires and connectors from the hard drives, floppy drives (if you still have and use them), CD drives, power connectors to the CPU and other cards attached or installed within the CPU.
SAFETY FIRST:
If you know what you are about to do, by all means continue. If not, take the CPU to the computer store for them to clean (better safe than sorry). If you don’t know what to do but am bold enough to try, some tips. DISCONNECT all power connections to the CPU before handling. Some ungrounded computers have current leaking all over and touching the metal case would send a jolt of electricity through you (IT HURTS BELEIVE ME!!!). There are a lot of wires and connectors inside and outside of the computer system so use labels if you deem them to be necessary or if you have the manual with you that would be the best. You can also get your digital camera to snap a few pictures of the outside wires (especially the ones inside, a wrong connection can destroy components). Most computers have color coded connectors but some after market accessories don’t, so if you’re not sure ask questions just to be safe. The tools you would need are: can of air (store bought that is void of moisture), contact cleaner, possibly a vacuum cleaner (so you don’t send dust flying all over) a set of screwdrivers, sometimes a pair of pliers and some containers to store screws.
An overheating processor may also mean that you failed to clean the internal parts of your CPU for the past year or so. Dust that accumulates on the several hundred if not thousands of chips inside the metal box some call the CPU acts as a very good insulator keeping the heat in and preventing the fans from venting it out of the casing. It can also fry the chips (literally, burnt odor from your CPU casing would be a good indicator of that) in their own juice, victim to long ours of playing online RPG games. Cleaning of your CPU and the other innards of your computer should be done at least once a year but if you happen to live or use the computer in a very dusty environment, the more frequent the better. A can of air (the type you get from the electronics store that is void of moisture) can easily blow out all stubborn debris and dust bunnies that have been growing in your PC. Also consider getting a can of contact cleaner that cleans the contacts of the various components of the CPU safely taking away the corrosion and other grime.
Back to the problem, it may be a software problem that has resulted in a fatal windows error that may be too hard for it to handle, but based on my several years experience in managing and maintaining PC’s its most probably an indicator of a bad bank of memory modules or an overheating microprocessor (more commonly known to the rest of us as the CPU). Overclockers would know what to do with this (their ability to do such means they have an intimate knowledge of the things they have done) for they tend to do a lot of tinkering with the settings in the BIOS that sometimes it kinda’ messes all things up.
Everybody who has been using windows for quite sometime may have encountered the blue screen of death but more often in Windows NT or newer versions of operating systems based on it. The blue screen is a memory stack overflow error that has resulted from an illegal operation that in other words means you’re in deep trouble. If you just happened to be doing your term paper and you failed to set the auto-save function to a shorter interval or do an actual hard save (or back-up) and this happens when the application or document is open, pray. For office users, you might get some luck with auto recover information that sometimes results from such operations.
