Category: Windows Vista

How to repair a computer after a power surge

Paul

Dell Dimension 3000 Fried

Computer repair after power surge

Is that even possible?  There seems to be some questions about that with a few friends of mine.  We’ve been talking about this and I thought I’d would bring you along for the ride.   If you didn’t have a Uninterruptable Power supply(UPS)(Amazon Affiliate Link), then maybe it is time to buy one. See my affiliate link of all the possible UPS that Amazon has.  The problem with some computers is that they have so many things that could happen that you might not really know what could of been hit.  I’m going to walk through some possible areas where to look for burns and or shorts in the system to possible know what you might need to do to get your system back up.  Be advised this is only a way to tell what might be the problem and it may be worse than you can know just by looking and seeing.

Power Supply

The first place I always look is at the Power supply.  Since that is where electricity is designed to go to.  If you push the start button and the power supply doesn’t even turn on, than you might have a blown power supply.  You can however check the motherboard and memory but I usually check the PSU when I suspect the power supply might of gotten hit by lighting or a surge in the system.   The PSU does have a fuse inside it that might of blown.   That is usually something you will not be able to get at.   However if you have another PSU you can use to plug into the system than you might be able to know if the PSU is the issue in the first place.  Do you need a new PSU, why not check out my Amazon Affiliate link and see if you can find another one  for your needs.

Depending on your system setup

If you suspect that it was from your LAN(Local area network) network that you got the power surge, than I would start looking inside the computer around the LAN connection.   Some people use WIFI and it will not cause any problems but if you use a LAN cord to connect to the internet that is the next place to look at to make sure it’s not burned or any black areas around the connection.  If that’s the case the Motherboard will most like need to be replaced but that is if nothing else works.   You’ll probably need to buy a CPU and motherboard and depending on your setup the GPU.   If the GPU was close to the LAN, than that might need to be replaced too.  With the high prices of GPU’s this could get really expensive really fast.  However if the system turns on and still refuses to post without errors, you could  always try to problem solve the motherboard issue before you switch it out.    Even my Gigabyte b450m ds3h(Amazon Affiliate Link) motherboard wouldn’t be to hard to replace if I had to but I would have to buy another i9 LGA 1200 CPU which would cost a lot.

Motherboard powers on

If the motherboard powers on and you’ve done the problem solving for the motherboard.  The last thing I usually try is to remove everything possible besides the CPU and one stick of RAM to verify that there isn’t anything that might not be working.   If you do that and it boots then it’s either the RAM(Random Access Memory) or the GPU (Graphics Processing UNIT) if it has one in the first place.  If however you get the CMOS or CPU FAIL error than the motherboard or the CPU is bad and at that point the only good option is to replace the motherboard and everything else associated with it.   You can however try to use the CPU and memory on a new motherboard if you want to know if they are good but I usually just replace it completely because you never know when those other parts will fail and than you will still have repair and upgrade the system at the same time.   You probably won’t be able to find the same CPU again unless you buy it second hand.

Well these are the area’s I usually look at when I suspect either a power surge or a lightning strike has just happened and my system won’t boot or even start due it.   If it happened to you, I feel sorry for you but you should either invest in a UPS or a extension cord that has a circuit breaker to prevent you system from being fried.

Did it happen to you?  How did you handle it or was it worse than you thought?  I’d love to hear how you solved your issues and what it was like to have those issues.  Why not leave a comment and talk about it.   Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter and receive notifications when I post new content. 

The Pagefile.sys and the early years

Paul

technology, electronic device, computer hardware, computer component, electronics, motherboard, personal computer hardware, cpu, computer accessory, Free Images In PxHere

from PxHere

What is the Pagefile.sys

When Microsoft created Windows XP, it became quite apparent that Windows UI couldn’t handle all the desktop users needs. Since this was in the early 2000 when we were still working with a very limited system resources. The systems we had at the time were 16 bit or 32 bit systems. This is where it gets interesting because the maximum you can have on a 16 bit system was 64kb of ram which wasn’t much. However we started with the 32 bit systems that would allow up to 4 gigabytes of memory total. It was quite nice but it still required the system to use the file system to hold or run programs. It would become self evident that the system was so bogged down by processor speed and amount of ram that was available. All the while they were working on the Windows operating system they had to create a way to throw the unimportant programs or sometimes important programs into the background to be able to load other programs. It was really a pain and I should say this isn’t something we have to worry about now.

What does it do?

Well it basically put the program to a mini sleep and throws it onto the hard drive and keeps a record of where and what it had to know in order to start the program back up. It was a way to keep memory space used to a minimum and still be able to have a really nice experience with Windows XP. Microsoft in all it’s wisdom, decided to incorporate this little feature into the Windows vista and other operating systems. I still think it has a use in Windows 10 but I doubt it is being used like was in the early days since most people usually have enough ram to not need to put to sleep any programs in the background to run programs.

Can I delete it?

Like many other experts, I say you shouldn’t even think about it. In the early days, when it was deleted or corrupted you couldn’t even boot your system. There were even cases of BSOD(Blue Screen of Death) and thus it is never recommended to delete or modify your pagefile.sys without fully backing up your system and then maybe. There are several ways you can do it but I won’t talk about that. I however will link to them and let you decide for yourself if you should do it or not.

Does it slow my system down?

In the early days, it would most likely slow it down but since we have so much more system resources than before we shouldn’t need to worry about. I honestly have 32 gigabytes of ram in my system and see no noticeable speed difference than when I had 16 gigabytes. Pagefile.sys shouldn’t be doing anything now but it might if you are using a really big program or game that requires massive amount of memory and if you didn’t have the memory requirements for it but still was able to run it. Then you might be using pagefile.sys to do swapping of programs and free up space for that game or big program that you are trying to run.

Other than when you put your Windows system to sleep, it is what is used to throw everything you have loaded up in your laptop or desktop on to the HDD to save for quick retrieval of the programs to start the laptop or desktop where you left off.   This is the only place that I know of that it is currently still be used but I am sure it is still be used on old systems.

In the long run, the pagefile.sys is still used today and probably for a while. It’s uses can be small at times but it was designed to help you with your computer memory and thus should not be tampered with unless you know what you are doing.

How computer viruses use word of mouth to infect systems!

Paul

Social Networks Hype Cycle (Photo credit: fredcavazza)

Social Network is Culprit!

I remember some very interesting Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites used in the past to get people to click on an infected link.  This is one of the oldest techniques.   The virus post something on your twitter account or your Facebook account about something really interesting.   Even if you trust your friend, sometimes the friend or twitter account that you know aren’t really in control of what they post.   This is the first line of trust that the virus makers use to spread their viruses until other computers and systems.   You should never click any link unless you know where it is going.  Although this is becoming less and less troublesome, I am sure it isn’t going away but just biding it’s time to come out and strike another day.

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Cricket Wireless Releases the EC1705 Datacard

Paul


The Cricket EC1705 Datacard


The Cricket EC1705 modem is a feature-rich modem in a compact size and light weight.  It connects your or desktop computer to the Cricket high-speed wireless network.  You can send and receive text messages, and use it in all Cricket Broadband coverage areas.  The USB extension cable offers additional flexibility to connect to different USB locations in your PC.  The Cricket EC1705 modem offers you convenience, speed and power, all of which you’re sure to appreciate.

Supported operating systems:

  • Windows Vista (SP1) or higher

  • Windows XP (SP2) or higher

  • Windows 2000 (SP4)

  • Mac OS X (10.4.11+) and (10.5+)

To install the modem and the software, these minimum system resources are required:

  • Port: Type A USB port

  • Processor: 300MHz or faster

  • Memory: 512 MB

  • Free disk space: 30 MB

  • Screen Resolution: 800×600, 256 colors

This was released this week, the EC1705 Datacard, is EVDO capable and will be using the Tri-band. I haven’t had a chance to test this modem out but it does look kinda cool! If you have this leave a message about how you like it!! I’d love to test this out but right now I can’t afford it, maybe later on this year!!

 

List of Fake Antivirus Sites for Aug 5, 2009

Paul

Internet Antivirus Pro

Today has been really busy for the malware authors out there and I intend to update you on all the sites that are what I call scareware sites.

[intlink id=”4217″ type=”post”]Internet Antivirus Pro Scareware[/intlink] sites: [ad]

  • alectr.info

  • cality.info

  • diffus.info

  • dictor.info

  • upwize.info

[intlink id=”4403″ type=”post”]Personal Antivirus — Download SUPERAntiSpyware[/intlink] (Database Version 4047 or later):

  • bestscanantispywarev3.com

  • best-virus-scanner6.com

  • clean-all-spyware07.com

[intlink id=”1837″ type=”post”]Antivirus System Pro Scareware Sites[/intlink]:

(SuperAntiSpyware removes it with Database Version 4053 or later)

  • osawarepro.com

[intlink id=”3977″ type=”post”]Rogue Antivirus scareware sites[/intlink]:

  • antivirus-xp.awardspace.us

  • vrenutredo.com

  • hustlerscanner.com (fake Scanner Page)

  • go-scansystem.com

  • ultrapc-scan.com (Fake Scanner page)

  • scanonline-protect.net

  • checkvirus-zone.net

  • scantoolsite.com

  • scan-secure.net

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