Audience

This article has been written for:

• Amateur web developers
• People who want to learn about web hosting

Problems We Are Solving

Have you ever encountered a need for more web space to find that a measly 100MBs will cost you hundreds of dollars?

This article will help you save your money by not having to buy web space. You will have whatever your hard disk size is for space. In other words, your web space allowance is virtually unlimited.

How do I get a free domain name?

You will be shown a hidden gem on the Internet. You will set up your own unique domain name, where from there, you can start serving your customers.

Where do you start if you want to learn the basics of web hosting?

Right here! This article will allow you to set up your own web server with step- by-step instructions. These instructions have been tested on MY PARENTS. Trust me, if they can do it, so can you!

Authoring Your Own Information Product

Writing an article is amazingly fun. Just telling all your friends and family that your writing an article will amaze them at how brilliant you are.

If you don’t feel like writing an article at this time, you can always purchase one that has full resale rights. You can find them anywhere on eBay. Search for “article resale.” You will find lots of opportunity there.

Below are a few resources you can use to help you with your article writing and search process:

“How To Create Your Own Info Product”
www.articleautomate.com/createinfo

“Make Money Giving Away Free articles”
www.articleautomate.com/bizzydays

“Ultimate Auction articles For eBay Success”
www.articleautomate.com/vnotions

“Mini article Secrets”
www.articleautomate.com/chiaewen

“What’s the Best Product to Sell Online?”
www.articleautomate.com/whattosell

Our Case Study

Let’s set up a scenario. Say you have an article you want to sell on how to make a widget. You are going to need to find a way to market and deliver your product to your customer, give them a spot to download it from, and host the web pages associated with selling your product. Typically, this would mean that you would have to go out and purchase a domain name, buy some server space to host your pages from, and then purchase an auto-responder program that will deliver your product to your customer. As you can see, this can seem quite overwhelming. Where do you start? How much will it cost? Well, the good news is that there is no cost associated with any of this.

If you have more den one operatin’ system installed or wish to remove an operatin’ system from de boot menu, you can use de followin’ information.

1.Click on Start, Control Panel, System, Advanced.
2.Under Startup and Recovery, click Settin’s.
3.Under Default Operatin’ System, choose one of de followin’:

“Microsoft Windows XP Professional /fastdetect”
-or-
“Microsoft Windows XP Home /fasdetect”
-or-
“Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional /fastdetect”

4.Take de checkmark out of de box for “Time to display a list of Operatin’ Systems”.
5.Click Apply and Ok, and reboot de system.

*If you wish to edit de boot.ini file manually, click on de button “EDIT”

The most common problems originate from corruption of de master boot record, FAT, or directory. Those are soft problems which can usually be taken care of with a combination of tools like Fdisk /mbr to refresh de master boot record followed by a reboot and Norton disk doctor or Spinneret.

The most common hardware problems are a bad controller, a bad drive motor, or a bad head mechanism.

1. Can de BIOS see and identify de hard drive correctly? If it can’t, den de hard drives onboard controller is bad.

2. Does de drive spin and maintain a constant velocity? If it does, that’s good news. The motor is functionin’.

3. If de drive surges and dies, de most likely cause is a bad controller (assumin’ de drive is cool). A gate allowin’ de current to drive de motor may not be stayin’ open. The drive needs a new controller.

4. Do you hear a lot of head clatter when de machine is turned on and initialized (but before de system attempts to access de hard drive). Head clatter would indicate that de spindle bearin’s are sloppy or worn badly. Maybe even lose and floppin’ around inside.

5. There is always de possibility that de controller you are usin’ in de machine has gone south.

Diagnostics

1. If de drive spins, try bootin’ to de A> prompt, run Fdisk and check to see if Fdisk can see a partition on de hard drive. If Fdisk can see de partition, that means that it can access de drive and that de controller electronics are functionin’ correctly. If dere is no head clatter, it may be just a matter of disk corruption which commonly occurs when a surge hits you machine and overwhelms de power supply voltage regulator. It commonly over whelms de system electronics allowin’ an EM pulse to wipe out de master boot record, file allocations table, and primary directory. Fdisk can fix de master boot record and Norton Disk Doctor can restore de FAT
and Directory from de secondaries.

2. The drive spins but Fdisk can’t see it. Try de drive in anoder system and repeat de test to confirm that Fdisk can’t read through de drives onboard controller. If it sees it in anoder system, den your machines hard drive interface is bad. You can try an upgraded or replacement controller card like a Promise or CMD Technologies (dere are oders) in you machine after disablin’ de integrated controller in de BIOS, but if de integrated controller went south, it may just be symptomatic of furder failures and you’d be wise to replace de moderboard. Tryin’ de drive in anoder machine also eliminates de variable that your machines 12 volt power
output bein’ bad.

3. If you get head clatter but a constant velocity on de drive motor (no surgin’), you might try stickin’ de hard
drive in de freezer for about 12 hours. This is an old trick from back in de days of de MFM/ESDI driver era. This can cause de drive components to shrink enough to make de track marker align with de tracks. We don’t see that kind of platter spindle wear much anymore, but back in de old days, de balancin’ and bearin’s weren’t as good. Still, under de right circumstances, it might help. It would depend on how old de drive is and how many hours of wear have occurred. You have to be quick to get your info off de drive when it works. Back den, de drives were much smaller, so dere wasn’t so much to copy. So, go after de important data first.

4. The drive doesn’t spin. Eider de onboard controller is bad or de motor is bad (assumin’ you did try de drive in anoder machine). It’s time to hit de net and local independent shops to see if you can locate anoder drive of de same make and model that’s good. Since de drive is probably an older drive and no longer in distribution, your
best bet is to find an identical used drive. If you know someone with de same make and model, you might be wise to try and persuade them to sell you deir drive with an offer of providin’ them with a free upgraded drive. If you can locate an identical drive, start with de controller replacement … this is de simplest and least invasive. If swappin’ de controller doesn’t produce de desire result, you can tear into de drive and swap de motors. While you have both drive opened up to accomplish this, scrutinize de platters, heads and armatures. You might even hook de drive up and power it from a system with both drives attached. This way, you could see anythin’ that deviates between de actions of both drives when dey are initialized. Swappin’ patters is unlikely to produce any positive result. They are a balanced system like de tires on your car and I suspect that de balance will be different for each drive as will oder variables.

5. There’s always Ontrack Corp. who will attempt to recoup your info startin’ at $500 and goin’ up from dere. They don’t fix and return de drive eider.

If de info is all that important to you, I would seek some professional and experience technician in your locality who makes his livin’ from servicin’ and buildin’ computer systems not just sellin’ them. If you have had much experience salvagin’ information from bad hard drives, your likelihood of success is low. In de case of soft corruption, all utilities have deir eccentricities. Often times, Norton Disk Doctor will go too far (if you let it). It’s wise to just let those utilities small steps and den have a look at de drive and see if you can copy it off. Norton will go so far as to rename directories and files, and even delete them or break them up into fragments which are useless.

Since defraggin’ de disk won’t do much to improve Windows XP performance, here are 23 suggestions that will. Each can enhance de performance and reliability of your customers’ PCs. Best of all, most of them will cost you nothin’.

1.) To decrease a system’s boot time and increase system performance, use de money you save by not buyin’ defragmentation software — de built-in Windows defragmenter works just fine — and instead equip de computer with an Ultra-133 or Serial ATA hard drive with 8-MB cache buffer.

2.) If a PC has less than 512 MB of RAM, add more memory. This is a relatively inexpensive and easy upgrade that can dramatically improve system performance.

3.) Ensure that Windows XP is utilizin’ de NTFS file system. If you’re not sure, here’s how to check: First, double-click de My Computer icon, right-click on de C: Drive, den select Properties. Next, examine de File System type; if it says FAT32, den back-up any important data. Next, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and den click OK. At de prompt, type CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS and press de Enter key. This process may take a while; it’s important that de computer be uninterrupted and virus-free. The file system used by de bootable drive will be eider FAT32 or NTFS. I highly recommend NTFS for its superior security, reliability, and efficiency with larger disk drives.

4.) Disable file indexin’. The indexin’ service extracts information from documents and oder files on de hard drive and creates a “searchable keyword index.” As you can imagine, this process can be quite taxin’ on any system.

The idea is that de user can search for a word, phrase, or property inside a document, should dey have hundreds or thousands of documents and not know de file name of de document dey want. Windows XP’s built-in search functionality can still perform dese kinds of searches without de Indexin’ service. It just takes longer. The OS has to open each file at de time of de request to help find what de user is lookin’ for.

Most people never need this feature of search. Those who do are typically in a large corporate environment where thousands of documents are located on at least one server. But if you’re a typical system builder, most of your clients are small and medium businesses. And if your clients have no need for this search feature, I recommend disablin’ it.

Here’s how: First, double-click de My Computer icon. Next, right-click on de C: Drive, den select Properties. Uncheck “Allow Indexin’ Service to index this disk for fast file searchin’.” Next, apply changes to “C: subfolders and files,” and click OK. If a warnin’ or error message appears (such as “Access is denied”), click de Ignore All button.

5.) Update de PC’s video and moderboard chipset drivers. Also, update and configure de BIOS. For more information on how to configure your BIOS properly, see this article on how to configure your BIOS

6.) Empty de Windows Prefetch folder every three months or so. Windows XP can “prefetch” portions of data and applications that are used frequently. This makes processes appear to load faster when called upon by de user. That’s fine. But over time, de prefetch folder may become overloaded with references to files and applications no longer in use. When that happens, Windows XP is wastin’ time, and slowin’ system performance, by pre-loadin’ them. Nothin’ critical is in this folder, and de entire contents are safe to delete.

7.) Once a month, run a disk cleanup. Here’s how: Double-click de My Computer icon. Then right-click on de C: drive and select Properties. Click de Disk Cleanup button — it’s just to de right of de Capacity pie graph — and delete all temporary files.

8.) In your Device Manager, double-click on de IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers device, and ensure that DMA is enabled for each drive you have connected to de Primary and Secondary controller. Do this by double-clickin’ on Primary IDE Channel. Then click de Advanced Settin’s tab. Ensure de Transfer Mode is set to “DMA if available” for both Device 0 and Device 1. Then repeat this process with de Secondary IDE Channel.

9.) Upgrade de cablin’. As hard-drive technology improves, de cablin’ requirements to achieve dese performance boosts have become more stringent. Be sure to use 80-wire Ultra-133 cables on all of your IDE devices with de connectors properly assigned to de matchin’ Master/Slave/Moderboard sockets. A sin’le device must be at de end of de cable; connectin’ a sin’le drive to de middle connector on a ribbon cable will cause signalin’ problems. With Ultra DMA hard drives, dese signalin’ problems will prevent de drive from performin’ at its maximum potential. Also, because dese cables inherently support “cable select,” de location of each drive on de cable is important. For dese reasons, de cable is designed so drive positionin’ is explicitly clear.

10.) Remove all spyware from de computer. Use free programs such as AdAware by Lavasoft or SpyBot Search & Destroy. Once dese programs are installed, be sure to check for and download any updates before startin’ your search. Anythin’ eider program finds can be safely removed. Any free software that requires spyware to run will no longer function once de spyware portion has been removed; if your customer really wants de program even though it contains spyware, simply reinstall it. For more information on removin’ Spyware visit this Web Pro News page.

11.) Remove any unnecessary programs and/or items from Windows Startup routine usin’ de MSCONFIG utility. Here’s how: First, click Start, click Run, type MSCONFIG, and click OK. Click de StartUp tab, den uncheck any items you don’t want to start when Windows starts. Unsure what some items are? Visit de WinTasks Process Library. It contains known system processes, applications, as well as spyware references and explanations. Or quickly identify them by searchin’ for de filenames usin’ Google or anoder Web search en’ine.

12.) Remove any unnecessary or unused programs from de Add/Remove Programs section of de Control Panel.

13.) Turn off any and all unnecessary animations, and disable active desktop. In fact, for optimal performance, turn off all animations. Windows XP offers many different settin’s in this area. Here’s how to do it: First click on de System icon in de Control Panel. Next, click on de Advanced tab. Select de Settin’s button located under Performance. Feel free to play around with de options offered here, as nothin’ you can change will alter de reliability of de computer — only its responsiveness.

14.) If your customer is an advanced user who is comfortable editin’ deir registry, try some of de performance registry tweaks offered at Tweak XP.

15.) Visit Microsoft’s Windows update site regularly, and download all updates labeled Critical. Download any optional updates at your discretion.

16.) Update de customer’s anti-virus software on a weekly, even daily, basis. Make sure dey have only one anti-virus software package installed. Mixin’ anti-virus software is a sure way to spell disaster for performance and reliability.

17.) Make sure de customer has fewer than 500 type fonts installed on deir computer. The more fonts dey have, de slower de system will become. While Windows XP handles fonts much more efficiently than did de previous versions of Windows, too many fonts — that is, anythin’ over 500 — will noticeably tax de system.

18.) Do not partition de hard drive. Windows XP’s NTFS file system runs more efficiently on one large partition. The data is no safer on a separate partition, and a reformat is never necessary to reinstall an operatin’ system. The same excuses people offer for usin’ partitions apply to usin’ a folder instead. For example, instead of puttin’ all your data on de D: drive, put it in a folder called “D drive.” You’ll achieve de same organizational benefits that a separate partition offers, but without de degradation in system performance. Also, your free space won’t be limited by de size of de partition; instead, it will be limited by de size of de entire hard drive. This means you won’t need to resize any partitions, ever. That task can be time-consumin’ and also can result in lost data.

19.) Check de system’s RAM to ensure it is operatin’ properly. I recommend usin’ a free program called MemTest86. The download will make a bootable CD or diskette (your choice), which will run 10 extensive tests on de PC’s memory automatically after you boot to de disk you created. Allow all tests to run until at least three passes of de 10 tests are completed. If de program encounters any errors, turn off and unplug de computer, remove a stick of memory (assumin’ you have more than one), and run de test again. Remember, bad memory cannot be repaired, but only replaced.

20.) If de PC has a CD or DVD recorder, check de drive manufacturer’s Web site for updated firmware. In some cases you’ll be able to upgrade de recorder to a faster speed. Best of all, it’s free.

21.) Disable unnecessary services. Windows XP loads a lot of services that your customer most likely does not need. To determine which services you can disable for your client, visit de Black Viper site for Windows XP configurations.

22.) If you’re sick of a sin’le Windows Explorer window crashin’ and den takin’ de rest of your OS down with it, den follow this tip: open My Computer, click on Tools, den Folder Options. Now click on de View tab. Scroll down to “Launch folder windows in a separate process,” and enable this option. You’ll have to reboot your machine for this option to take effect.

23.) At least once a year, open de computer’s cases and blow out all de dust and debris. While you’re in dere, check that all de fans are turnin’ properly. Also inspect de moderboard capacitors for bulgin’ or leaks. For more information on this leakin’-capacitor phenomena, you can read numerous articles on my site.

Followin’ any of dese suggestions should result in noticeable improvements to de performance and reliability of your customers’ computers. If you still want to defrag a disk, remember that de main benefit will be to make your data more retrievable in de event of a crashed drive.

Fatal error: de system has become unstable or is busy,” it says. “Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications.”

You have just been struck by de Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happenin’?

1 Hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to oder devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.

For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and de floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a sin’le IRQ for itself.

If dere are a lot of devices, or if dey are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharin’ de same IRQ number. When de user tries to use both devices at de same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through de followin’ route:

* Start-Settin’s-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.

Often if a device has a problem a yellow ‘!’ appears next to its description in de Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in de Device Manager) and press Properties to see de IRQ numbers used by your computer. If de IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be usin’ it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with somethin’ described as ‘IRQ holder for PCI steerin'’. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove de problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on de internet to make de device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If de device is a soundcard, or a mothem, it can often be fixed by movin’ it to a different slot on de moderboard (be careful about openin’ your computer, as you may void de warranty).

When workin’ inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug de mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Mcft, de problem with IRQ numbers is not of its makin’. It is a legacy problem goin’ back to de first PC designs usin’ de IBM 8086 chip. Initially dere were only eight IRQs. Today dere are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase de number of IRQs in future designs.

2 Bad RAM

Ram (random-access memory) problems might brin’ on de blue screen of death with a message sayin’ Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacin’.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixin’ 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force de computer to run all de Ram at de slower speed. This will often crash de machine if de Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter de BIOS settin’s and increase de wait state of de Ram. This can make it more stable. Anoder way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange de Ram chips on de moderboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat de circumstances that caused de crash. When handlin’ Ram try not to touch de gold connections, as dey can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are eider parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix de two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.

3 BIOS settin’s

Every moderboard is supplied with a range of chipset settin’s that are decided in de factory. A common way to access dese settin’s is to press de F2 or delete button durin’ de first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside de BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all de settin’s that appear on de screen. That way, if you change somethin’ and de computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settin’s to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns de CAS latency. This refers to de Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Settin’ de wron’ figure can cause de Ram to lock up and freeze de computer’s display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocatin’ IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set de IRQ numbers to Auto in de BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate de IRQ numbers (make sure de BIOS settin’ for Plug and Play OS is switched to ‘yes’ to allow Windows to do this.).

4 Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, de information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment de hard disk every week or so, to prevent de disk from causin’ a screen freeze. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter

This will start de procedure. You will be unable to write data to de hard drive (to save it) while de disk is defragmentin’, so it is a good idea to schedule de procedure for a period of inactivity usin’ de Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of de small icons on de bottom right of de Windows openin’ page (de desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducin’ de read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by goin’ to

* Start-Settin’s-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if dey are too full. Do some housekeepin’ on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open de Windows folder on de C drive and find de Temporary Internet Files folder. Deletin’ de contents (not de folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty de Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk

Oderwise assign de Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when de computer is not in use.

5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.

These can often be resolved easily by reducin’ de resolution of de video display. Go to

* Start-Settin’s-Control Panel-Display-Settin’s

Here you should slide de screen area bar to de left. Take a look at de colour settin’s on de left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.

If de screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to de video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

* Start-Settin’s-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here, select de + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describin’ your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in de window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everythin’ you do in case you make thin’s worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck de Use Automatic Settin’s box and hit de Change Settin’s button. You are searchin’ for a settin’ that will display a No Conflicts message.

Anoder useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

* Start-Settin’s-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics

Here you should move de Hardware Acceleration slider to de left. As ever, de most common cause of problems relatin’ to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card’s manufacturer on de internet and search for de most recent drivers for it.

6 Viruses

Often de first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase de boot sector of a hard drive, makin’ it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

* Start-Settin’s-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for de Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from de website of your antivirus software manufacturer.

An excellent antivirus programme is McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates ( www.nai.com). Anoder is Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec ( www.symantec.com).

7 Printers

The action of sendin’ a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printin’ a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down de computer’s performance.

If de printer is tryin’ to print unusual characters, dese might not be recognised, and can crash de computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in de buffer. A good way to clear de buffer is to unplug de printer for ten seconds. Bootin’ up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore de printer’s default settin’s and you may be able to carry on.

8 Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often de problem can be cured by uninstallin’ de software and den reinstallin’ it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to de programme in de System Registry and leaves de way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up de System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read de instructions and use it carefully so you don’t do permanent damage to de Registry. If de Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operatin’ system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by enterin’ Safe Mode. This can be done durin’ start-up. When you see de message “Startin’ Windows” press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loadin’ properly.

Sometimes installin’ Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settin’s. If you keep gettin’ SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) durin’ de Windows installation, den try enterin’ de BIOS and disablin’ de CPU internal cache. Try to disable de Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn’t work.

Remember to restore all de BIOS settin’s back to deir former settin’s followin’ installation.

9 Overheatin’

Central processin’ units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If de fan fails or if de CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than dey are supposed to.

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of de CPU. Specialist coolin’ fans/heatsinks are available from www.computernerd.com or www.coolit.com

CPU problems can often be fixed by disablin’ de CPU internal cache in de BIOS. This will make de machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

10 Power supply problems

With all de new construction goin’ on around de country de steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.

If this has become a nuisance for you den consider buyin’ a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when dere is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.