Why PCs Crash U Must Know

Fatal error: The system has become unstable or is busy, "he says." Enter to return to Windows or press Ctrl-Alt-Del to restart the computer. If you do this, you will lose any unsaved data in all open programs. "

You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone using Windows MCFT will be familiar with it. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent this?

1 is a hardware conflict

The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates with other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). Is assumed to be unique for each device.

For example, usually a printer connected internally on IRQ seventh The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ sixth Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

If you have a lot of material, or if they are not installed properly, two of which may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When a user attempts to use both devices at the same time, crashes can happen. Way to check if the computer is a hardware conflict, through the following route:

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.

Often if a device has a problem with a yellow "!" next to its description in the Device Manager. PC highlight (in Device Manager) and click Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by the computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices can be used.

Sometimes a device can share an IRQ something described as' IRQ Holder for PCI Steering ". This can be overridden. The best way to solve this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may need to find newer drivers on the Internet to operate the device properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a sound card or a modem, it can often be solved by moving to another location on the motherboard (be careful opening your computer, you can void the warranty.)

When working in a computer, you must turn it off, unplug the power cable and touch a metal surface to dissipate static electricity.

MCFT To be honest, the problem is an IRQ number is not it. It 'a problem with the first IBM PC back to the drawings with the chip 8086. At first it was only eight IRQs. Today, IRQ 16 is a PC. It 'easy to run out of them. The plan is to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

Two bad memory

RAM (Random Access Memory) problems might bring on the Blue Screen of Death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes this may mean a part is damaged and needs replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram can be caused by an imbalance of chips. For example, a mixture of 70 nanoseconds (70ns) Ram Ram 60ns often force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the RAM wait state. This may make it more stable. Another way to solve a problem is suspected Ram rearrange the RAM chips on the motherboard, or take a few. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the accident. When handling Ram try not to touch the connections as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern RAM chips are parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, it can be a cause of problems.

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

3 BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied range of chipset settings for the terminal at the factory. A common way to use these settings is to press F2 or Delete key during the first few seconds of startup.

Once in the BIOS, great care must be taken. It's a good idea to write on a sheet of paper all the options that appear on the screen. Thus, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what adjustments to return a.

A common mistake BIOS on the CAS latency. This is the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of the third New SDRAM has a CAS latency of a second adjustment of the figure wrong can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer display.

MCFT Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible, bring the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is set to 'yes' to allow Windows to do so.).

4 hard drives

After a few weeks starting on a hard drive to become piecemeal or fragmented. It's a good idea to defragment your hard disk every week or two, to prevent the disk causing a screen freeze. Go to

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

This will start the procedure. You will not be able to write data to disk (to save), while the disk is defragmenting, so it's a good idea to plan the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons at the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some of the blocks and the screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the optimization continues to read. This can be adjusted by going to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel icon in system performance file system hard disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Home on the hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. To delete the contents (not the folder) can free up a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard drives must be analyzed every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools, ScanDisk

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to do this at night when the computer is idle.

5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors

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

These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video screen. Go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display settings

Here you should slide the bar to the left of the screen. Discover the color settings on the left side of that window. For most desktops, high color 16 bit depth is adequate.

If your screen freezes or system crashes could be due to the graphics card. Make sure there is a hardware conflict. Go

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here the selection screen + next. A line of text describing your video card to appear. Select it (to blue) and press Properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says: no conflicts.

If you have hardware conflicts on the video card, you will see that. Be careful on this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

How to resolve a hardware conflict is to turn off the Use Automatic Settings and click Change settings. Looking for a piece that will display a message without conflict.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware acceleration slider to the left. As always, the most common cause of problems related to graphics driver is old or defective (a driver is a small piece of software to use your computer to communicate with the device).

Search on the Internet of the video card manufacturer and find the latest drivers.

6 virus

Often the first sign of an infection of the instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector on a hard drive, making it impossible to start. That's why it's a good idea to create a Windows startup disk. Go to

* Start-Settings control programs Panel-Add/Remove

Here you find the 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 the virus. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly manufacturer's website of your antivirus software.

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

7 Printers

Operation of the document sent to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.

Printers have only a small amount of memory, called buffer. This is easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a lot of processing power. This slows down the performance of your computer.

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognized, and can lock the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the default printer and you may be able to continue.

8 Software

A common cause of computer crash is faulty or incorrectly installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and reinstall. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system correctly. This will also remove references to the program in the system registry and opens the way for a new copy.

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

Read the instructions carefully and use them in order not to cause permanent damage to the registry. If the registry is damaged, you need to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained www.jv16.org

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during startup. When you see the message "Starting Windows" press F4. This must be in safe mode.

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

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you continue to receive error messages SUWIN (Windows installation) when installing Windows, then try entering the BIOS and disable the CPU internal cache. Try disabling the L2 cache (L2) if it does not work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings of its previous value after installation.

9 Overheating

Central Processing Unit (CPU) are usually equipped with fans to keep them fresh. If the fan fails or if the CPU starts to get old, can overheat and cause a certain type of error is called the core of the error. This is a common problem in chips that are overclocked to operate at higher speeds than is supposed.

One way is to get a wider range of better and install it on top of the processor. Specialist fans / heatsinks are available from www.computernerd.com or www.coolit.com

CPU problems can often be resolved by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but should also be more stable.

10 Power supply problems

With all the new buildings under construction around the country a stable supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can block a computer as easily as a power failure.

If this was a nuisance for you, consider buying an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is power, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of power failure.

It is a good investment if your data is essential because a power failure causes any unsaved data is lost.