PC Fixes

Multiple monitors on 1 computer

theworldissicksoami — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:42:58 +0000

I wanted to run multiple monitors on my laptop.

Wondering wether I should buy a new laptop or go to my desktop for this task, I had a look in the Screen Properties.

Low and behold my laptop supports dual monitors! So, it’s worth checking to see if your graphics card supports this. I can also run 1280×800 on the internal LCD and 1680 x 1050 on the external screen.

A good tip, before you rush out there and buy a dedicated machine/graphics card.

Windows slows down

theworldissicksoami — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:57:06 +0000

- clear your cache. Make sure your C drive has plenty of space. 10Gig free space is a good number.

- run Spybot Search and destroy + Adaware

- run a virus killer

- defrag your hard drive.

Write error when copying file across network – then hard disk disappears!

theworldissicksoami — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:49:34 +0000

I was copying a file across the network.

I got ‘windows has detected a write error on drive D’

The the hard drive D, disappeared!

So I rebooted…but it still did not appear.

In a panic I thought I had a crash.

But then I tried to reboot again and it came back.

Maybe windows removes it to protect the disk from further failure.

But anyway two reboots should do the trick.

Flashing cursor on laptop bootup

theworldissicksoami — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 11:56:53 +0000

This happened the other day – black screen on bootup, flashing cursor.

I wondered if it could be battery, motherboard, cmos or hard drive failure.

Turned out I had a memory card reader in the USB with an older style Sony memory stick in it – removal allowed the laptop to boot.

Simple fix, for what gave me quite a worried moment!

PC Crashes….

theworldissicksoami — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 15:07:51 +0000

If your PC crashes intermittently, and you’ve ran spyware….first thing to do is

- remove one memory stick and reboot and test. Then remove the other memory stick, reinsert first stick and reboot.

- remove PCI cards 1 at a time and test. Sometimes SCSI or PCI card clashes cause the PC to crash.

- re-install windows.

If this doesn’t work, then

- backup hard drive or insert new hard drive. Install windows.

If this still doesn’t work you have a major hardware problem such as motherboard or graphics card.

Swop both until you find the offending part.

Why my web browser is so slow / internet is so slow???

theworldissicksoami — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:37:33 +0000

OK, here’s it simply, the things that can slow down your browsing, assuming you have broadband and it’s running OK.

- virus software such as Norton, firewalls etc.

UNINSTALL Norton. It’s just rubbish, it slows your PC down dramatically. I recommend AVG Free (which is free of course) and just use the firewall built into Windows XP.

- spyware

Remove spyware with a VARIETY of programs – Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy are the main two. And they’re free. Also delete your cookies in Internet Explorer

- tool bars

Remove google toolbar etc. They just slow things down.

- less than 2Gig of free hard drive space on drive C

Small cache means the PC will run crap in general – make sure you have at least 2gigabytes free.