The Perfect PC

What is the Perfect PC? Can there be such a thing? Is it the most powerful and expensive PC?

The answers are: Yes, Yes, and NO.

Maybe a Little Too Much ...

Just a Little Too Old...

So what would be just right?

Your Perfect PC is the best PC for your needs configured  properly. One for which very good choices have been made. One that waits for you, and not one for which you are always waiting. The Perfect PC has the right Operating System, Security Software, Application Software. The Perfect PC is backed up regularly and reliably to rock-solid, bootable, instant-restore media.

OK. You get the idea.

Why do I go on and on about this?

Because many people who could own their Perfect PC -- it's financially within their grasp -- don't.

And they end up paying for it in some other way:

By losing all of their data at some point, or every day, by waiting around for a badly configured or underpowered computer to do what it is asked, or by getting infected and having to pay, sometimes hundreds of dollars, to get it cleaned up.

Many people own an Almost Perfect PC, that is so close to being perfect and then ... they don't complete it.

Don't be one of those people.

Your Perfect PC will not let you down, because it has been set up to keep you safe and sound.

It is backed up to bootable media. Also check out "Bring In The Clones."

It is protected by powerful security software.

It is clean and kept in a well ventilated area.

It has a modern multi-core processor that can keep up with internet and graphical demands. Item 8)

It has 4 GB or more memory. See above

It's not more than 5 or 6 years old.

It is owned by someone who has plans for disaster -- what will you do if the hard drive fails, if it is infected with a virus, or if the motherboard fries?

Can you answer those questions?

What will you do if you main system hard drive fails? How will you get back up and running? How long will it take you?

Who will disinfect your system if you pick up a virus or a worm? Can you do it yourself? What will it cost for someone else to do it?

What is the plan if the motherboard goes up in smoke? Will you replace the computer or just the board?

Let's answer these questions ahead of time so we aren't spinning our wheels when the bad stuff happens.

By the way, a whole lot of my time is spent fixing problems for people who Have Not answered these questions ahead of time ...

Cheers!

~Ted


Photo Credits:  Google Various

Top Ten Computer Problems Out There in the Jungle -- Part 2

Take Out The Tears!

But 5 problems are not enough! We need more! Well, we actually have more -- more that I see a lot of anyway, and to round out the Top 10 Computer Problems, or another way of putting it, the Most Common Situations people face, here are my next 5 in the Top Ten Computer Problems Users Face Out There In The Jungle.

6) Status: How Do I Know If My Computer Is OK? There are lots of things going on in your computer, including hardware, software, and maintenance issues. How do you know if there is anything wrong? Assuming you have a fairly late model computer running Windows XP, Vista, or 7, and you have kept your Internet Security Software up to date, your computer will tell you if there is a problem, and, you can help it do so by adding some monitoring devices in software to your computer's Desktop to display hardware parameters, such as Temperature of the CPU and its Cores, various subsystem temps, how hard the CPU is working, how much memory you have left unused, which programs and processes are running and taking up the most CPU time and so on. It's easy in Vista; you just add them as Sidebar Gadgets, and in Windows 7 you add them as plain old Gadgets. In XP it's a little harder -- you have to use Google Gadgets. You may not know what temperature your computer should be, but if you have the stats up there on the screen to see all the time, you WILL NOTICE when they move way up or down. Check out Is My Computer OK, a later post.

7) Upgrade to a New Computer (or OS): How do I get all of my Files, Photos, Documents, Programs and Settings (Logins, Passwords, etc.) to my new Machine?

Microsoft supplies a very nice program called Windows Easy Transfer, or ... WET, that comes with Vista and Windows 7 and is downloadable for XP that allows you to move all of you files, and settings for programs, BUT NOT THE PROGRAMS THEMSELVES, to a new machine, over your local network, or over a special USB cable, and it does a very good job of that indeed. You then have to install your programs, e.g., Microsoft Office, Turbo Tax, or whatever, BUT, when you do, all of you settings and presets are already there and initialized from WET. Wonderful. Still, you do have to reinstall the programs. With Laplink's various PC Mover products, however, you do not. It WILL move the programs as well as the files. You can even upgrade from the boot drive of a DEAD computer!   !!!

8) When should I Upgrade to a New Computer: How do I know when my old computer should be replaced? In many cases your older computer will simply die or fail in some way, but otherwise, most computers beyond the age of 4 or 5 years become very sluggish and fail to respond to keyboard input and "surfing the web" becomes a long wait for web pages to load and screens to display. This is partly due to the lack of horsepower in older, single core CPUs, and also lack of enough memory to run large modern programs like web browsers and office suites. The average modern computer ships with a dual core processor, many ship with quad core CPUs, and 4 GB of RAM, whereas 4 year old and older computers may have 1 GB or less. That simply is not enough to get a speedy response from you machine. You can extend the life of computers with 1 GB or less memory, that is, systems in the 4 to 7 year old range, by adding readily available memory to the computer, up to the usual maximum for such machines of about 4 GB. That may give you another year or 2 before even that won't be enough. Do make sure your computer's sluggishness isn't due to INFECTION!

9) What new computer should I buy? That depends on whether you are buying a toy, for games and surfing, or a tool for work and document storage. In the first case, buy whatever strikes your fancy limited only by the constraints of money and equipment lust. In the second, well, I always recommend that people buy a machine that will be easy to repair by authorized factory technicians within 1 to 2 days of a problem. That means a PC from a major make such as Dell or HP or another top tier brand with a nationwide service program, 24 hour response, and extended warranties. All of your important stuff is on that computer and you need it, right? That said, very well equipped and powerful systems with 4 or 6 CPU cores, 8 GB of memory, a 1000 GB hard disk, and 3 or 4 year onsite warranties are available for well under $1000. Check out the Dell Studio XPS 7100, just such a 6 core AMD based system, and also the HP Pavilion Elite HPE-360z series.

10) I've deleted stuff from my Computer and I want it back! Whether you get it back or not depends on how you deleted it, and, to some degree, on how much you REALLY WANT IT BACK. Simple deletion on modern systems just requires that you double left-click on the Wastebasket Icon (Recycle Bin), which will show you a Windows Explorer directory of deleted files, and which you can then easily restore just by right-clicking on the file or files you want to restore -- you will be given a menu option to do just that. Now if you do not have the deleted file option to save them in the Recycle Bin enabled, or if you have deleted huge numbers of files, larger the the space available to the Recycle Bin, you will need special pro help with special software to recover the files. If your drive has failed, and you have no backup (How did that happen???) you will need special software and hardware and pro help and be prepared to pay the big bucks to a file recovery service that can charge into the several thousands of dollars for that recovery. Yikes! If that doesn't scare you, check out Ontrack Data Recovery. Last time one of our customers needed data from a dead drive, it took $3400 and a week to get their drive image. Still, they got it.

OK, that's my Top Ten List of stuff I get asked about and have to deal with on a daily basis from users out there in the Computer Jungle. Many of these things are fairly easy to deal with, prevent, or plan for. Some are very painful, especially if you had a chance to CYA, but Did Not Take It!

LTBAWTY.

Let That Be A Warning To You!

Oh, and ... do as I say, and not as I do. :)

~Ted

Top Ten Computer Problems Out There in the Jungle

People have all kinds of issues with their personal computers, but most of them are the same problems over and over again, even for the same person! I guess that means many of us don't learn from our mistakes! Today I'm going to run down a list of the most common computer problem, ones I see again and again, and how to keep them from (almost) ever coming up. You need preventive maintenance for your PC.

It's not hard. Whether it's fun or not depends on your point of view! At worst, it's no worse than brushing your teeth -- hey, you gotta do it. Right? At best, you learn something about your computer and gain some confidence in your dealings with the mysterious box.

1) Back Up: Unless you only web surf, you HAVE to back up your computer. One of the greatest unhappy-making events I see is the near-irretrievable loss of pictures and documents from unbacked up computers. There isn't really any excuse, either. It's cheap and easy. You can back up your whole computer for just the cost of a large external disk and some disk cloning (mirroring) software. For a 1000 GB disk and the software, that's $150. Your system will be automatically cloned once a week, once a day, or whenever you choose, at night, or whatever. You can boot from the cloned disk in case of internal drive failure. See articles about elsewhere in this blog, Bring In the Clones, and also on free on-line backup (up to 2 GB), useful for critical system ID information and documents.

2) Internet Security: You might be surprised how many systems I encounter that do not have any Anti-Virus or Anti-Malware software installed on them, or have expired subscriptions for commercial AV or IS software that isn't doing much protecting. There is plenty of free AV and security software from reputable firms, and there is not need to either do without, or pay for a commercial product. See the articles on free antivirus programs, "Free Microsoft Anti-Virus ...", and "Free Anti-Virus Software".

3) Dirty Computers: Your computer is a Vacuum Cleaner and the delicate internal electronics are the bag. Sounds good, huh? The sad truth is that many people DO NOT clean out the dust and dirt that accumulates over time and settles onto the electricity conducting parts and blocks the free passage of cooling air exhaust. I see a lot of very dirty machines and some that fail to function properly because of internal shorts, and/or power supply failure, due to dust build-up. Just vacuum out the interior of the machine once every 6 months or so, and if the dust bunnies have gotten really aggressive, reverse the vacuum hose to the exhaust and blow out the machine. Do remember to take the computer outside for this! See this article on Filthy Computers.

4) Slow Computer: Nobody likes a slow computer, especially one that seemed to be faster only a short time ago, but now seems to crawl. Slowness can be caused by a number of things; it's a symptom, not the disease. The disease can be infection by malware of some kind, perhaps a virus, many viruses, a trojan, you get the idea! (see #5 below), or it can be too much junk software installed on your computer, that slows it down. All those little icons down there on the right of your Taskbar represent busy little programs using up precious system resources. Do you really need all of them? Maybe not. Get rid of the ones you don't. Or, it may be that the computer you feel as if you just bought a year or two ago, is really now 5 years old, and just does not have enough memory to deal with the demands of modern software, graphics intensive browsers, and high internet speeds. See "Keeping an Older, Slower Computer Going ...". If your computer is 7 or 8 years old, however, the likelihood is that you need a new computer, since your CPU itself is probably too slow to keep up.

5) Infection!: OK, this is the scary one. What now? Your computer is behaving erratically, popping up all kinds of dire messages, asking you for credit card info to download bogus for-pay solutions to problems, preventing you from using the internet, and generally making you miserable. Well, however you got here, there is a way out, or ways out. Starting with the easiest, least effort solutions, you need to see if you can install some malware removal software, or boot from that Symantec Norton Internet Security CD, or download a free bootable CD image to boot from (one good one is available from AVG), and then let the software see if it can't isolate and remove the Bad Stuff. If that fails you may need to remove the hard drive and attach it to a known good virus-free system with good security software and scan the drive form that system. Haven't yet seen a system where these 2 methods will not eventually work. Take a look at the following articles: 4 Articles on Virus Removal.

Also, I do have to say, this is one area where you may need pro help, since wasting time while failing to eradicate the infection just allows the problem to get worse.

OK, that's enough for now. I'll continue this article in a couple of days and finish of the Top Ten PC Problems and How to Prevent or Deal with Them.

~Ted

http://www.kinneloncomputers.com/2009/12/dont-send-your-computer-to-dust-bunny.html

Don't Send Your Computer to Dust Bunny Heaven!

Beware of Dust Bunnies: they will send your computer to heaven!

It's that time of year. Time to ... clean out your computer! No, not all that bloatware you've installed in the past 12 months, although getting rid of that stuff would be nice, but rather ... the actual dust and dirt that builds up inside the PC itself.

It never fails to amaze us how invisible the actual machine becomes once it's installed. Except for popping in a CD or downloading a photo to it, who actually looks at the box? Not too many people. But all those little fans inside are spinning away, sucking dust bunnies into the case to the point where -- they can cause problems and FAILURE, sometimes spectacular failure.

Dust is conductive, and can get into the open expansion slots and eventually short a connection causing a crash, or it can fill a power supply so that heat cannot be exhausted and so it dies, or, as in one exciting and memorable case, it can catch on fire from the spark in a short.

You need to blow out the dust. A hair dryer on cold setting works well, and a vacuum cleaner with the hose reversed into the exhaust does, too.

Or you can use a lot of expensive canned air, but the blow dryer is cheaper and just as good.

Be especially careful to blow out all of the empty expansion slots, and any empty memory slots, as well as the power supply, heat sinks, fan blades, and cd/dvd or floppy openings.

It could take a good 10 minutes to get all of that dust out of a machine that hasn't been cleaned in a year. After about a year and a half, or sooner, depending on the sticky stuff in your air, the dust will get a bit oily and hard to remove. Then you have a bigger job, that may take a lot of hand wiping.

We see a lot of machines whose owners say, "I don't know what happened to it. It just died." Often, pun intended, they've Bit The Dust.

Hey, cleaning the computer is necessary. You know, like changing the oil on your car. What??? Yes, you have to do that, too.

~Ted

Image courtesy of Tech Republic. Take a look at all of their other dust catchers!

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