| Sometimes, however, there's nothing you can do to fix whatever ails your PC. When your computer problems exceed your troubleshooting abilities, it's time to call in a professional. That's right you sometimes have to take your PC into the shop for repairs. Your first challenge in this situation is to find a competent and reliable service facility. One approach is to call your computer's manufacturer and have them recommend a repair center in your area. (They might also have quick factory service via Federal Express, UPS, or overnight mail.) You should also ask your friends (or the tech support guy where you work) where they get their computers repaired. It's worth your peace of mind (and your PC's ongoing health) to do some homework before you entrust your computer to a stranger. "Mike Sez"  | If you're a dedicated do-it-yourselfer, you can find lots of useful technical resources on the Internet. Check out Active-Hardware (www.active-hardware.com), CNET (www.cnet.com), Computing.Net (www.computing.net), Karbosguide (www.karbosguide.com), TechTV (www.techtv.com), and Tom's Hardware Guide (www.tomshardware.com). |
After you find a repair center, you need to do a little work before you hand over your PC to them. If your PC is still running, think about removing any sensitive files you have on your hard disk, such as online banking data, confidential documents, and dirty pictures you downloaded from the Internet. And if you think your hard disk might need replacing, back it up before you ship it off (if you can); most repair centers won't bother to transfer data from one hard disk to another unless it's a specific request. THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM The remaining chapters in this book detail the probable causes and solutions behind specific types of PC problems. Use the specific instructions in this and previous chapters to help you follow the troubleshooting advice in the future chapters. With that in mind, here are the most important points you need to remember: Most computer problems are caused by user error, bad information, broken or poorly connected cables, incorrect system configurations, or computer viruses. It's also possible that your software or hardware actually is bug-infested; check with the manufacturer to see what problems they already know about. If your system doesn't work after an upgrade, it's probably the fault of the new component or the upgrade process in general. You can generally get your system working again by uninstalling the new component. Windows includes several built-in utilities you can use to track down and fix common problems; these utilities include Troubleshooters, the Device Manager, and System Information. If you think a problem was caused by something that you recently installed, you can use the System Restore utility to restore your system to the state it was in before the installation; it's a good idea to use System Restore to set a manual restore point any time you install a new piece of hardware or software. If you need to make key changes to your system's underlying configuration, use the Registry Editor to edit values in the Windows Registry. An almost-universal fix for Windows-related problems is to upgrade to Windows XP and make sure you have the latest service pack installed. If you can't fix it yourself, don't hesitate to call in professional help and have your system prepared by a competent and reliable service facility.
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