Stuff I’ve Learned

It’s been a few years now since the 9xx versions of Windows. A lot of the folk wisdom we picked up back in the days of thrice-daily reboots has not been passed on to the folks who cut their teeth on XP. Herewith, Uncle Bill’s 7 things to remember when you’re messing around with computers.

Strange noises are not good. It’s quite possible that they mean nothing at all, but if you’ve never heard them before, check them out before you become so accustomed to them that you ignore them automatically. Odd noises often precede the demise of fans, hard drives, and other expensive things. If you haven’t been backing up your files, they sometimes die with the equipment. I learned that the hard way - once. Take my word for it. Check out the strange whirrs, thumps and click-click-clicks, or have someone else do it.

Smells: see above.

Reboot your computer occasionally. It’s not unusual for some XP and 2000 installations to run for many days without having to be rebooted, but a reboot every two or three days gives your computer a chance to take care of some digital housekeeping that, left undone, will slow your system and could eventually lead to other problems. (I’m one of the folks who hold that you should shut down - or at least hibernate - a machine that will be left unattended for long periods. There are all sorts of arguments for and against that. I know that hard drives seldom fail from extended operation. Fans do, however, and drives and motherboards usually follow them quickly. Your choice.)

Any piece of electronic equipment that is misbehaving should be “cold-booted” before doing anything else to it. You accomplish this by saving any work (if you can), shutting it completely down in whatever manner is appropriate (if you can), and then completely unplugging it or removing the battery for two minutes. Restore the power, and restart the equipment. You will be absolutely amazed how often this will cure the problem. This applies not only to computers, but also to phones, microwaves, CD and DVD players - anything with microchips and software. If a 1 or 0 gets scrambled it can easily cause weird behavior that can often be corrected by removing all power, allowing any residual charge to dissipate, then powering back up.

Read the bloody instructions! Life is full of distractions, and little things change in equipment and software. The installation isn’t necessarily the same as the one you did last month. I wasted quite a lot of time on a modem installation once because I didn’t need to do that stuff. If I had, I would have discovered the unplugged phone line much, much sooner. (Yeah, I know…you’d never do something dumb like that. I wouldn’t have either.)

Never, never, under any circumstances, should you even consider uninstalling any software before you are absolutely certain it has been shut down completely. No exceptions. This is one of those no-nos that you can get away with for a long time - until you don’t. Try it with Zone Alarm, for example, and you’ll never do it again. Trust me on that.

Keep the area around your computer and its power cords clean. A piece of paper that falls behind the computer case and partially blocks a fan intake or exhaust can cost you a lot of money and grief. A collection of dust that catches a spark from an electrical connection can cost you your whole house - maybe your life.

Like all preventive maintenance, you’ll never know if these steps have saved you a world of grief, or just burned a few minutes of your oh-so-valuable time. Take it from those of us who have learned the hard way - it’s worth the trouble.

[tags]troubleshooting,compter problem,bill’s seven things to remember when messing with computers,electronic equipment[/tags]