How to Clean Your Computer Registry – RegistryFix Cleaner and Optimizer Review

As an avid computer user and former PC tech I can not stress the importance of keeping a clean registry. A clean registry literally is the difference between life and death of your computer. Having a clean registry means your computer will run faster and smoother. This will also keep those dreaded error messages and computer crashes from happening. The best way to keep your computer up and running is to clean your registry on a regular basis. I clean mine every couple months, doing this will prevent problems from occurring.

The problem with cleaning your computer registry is it’s often very complicated and can be a risky process to undertake. One takes the risk of damaging files which are vital to the proper functioning of the pc.

While I prefer to manually clean mine I do realize the average lay person may not know how so, I sat out to find a good registry cleaner. I looked at some from Norton and other big name companies but I found the best one to date is called RegistryFix cleaner and optimizer.. When looking for a good registry cleaner I searched for a program with an easy to use interface, inexpensive and prompt technical support.

RegistryFix Cleaner and Optimizer provides a simple to use interface while quickly cleaning the registry. What I liked even more is they provided a free registry scan before I purchased the product. This feature is especially good because if your registry does not need cleaning then your money will not be wasted. What I also liked about Registryfix is the professionalism and promptness in their technical support department. One should always investigate this before committing to buy a product. I contacted them with a rather complex question and they had my question answered within 24 hours via email. The solution they game me was in very easy to understand terms and was very in-depth. They also followed prompty to follow up questions and I was even able to reach support via telephone. I will be honest the person I spoke with on the phone was a little hard to understand but did succeed in answering my inquiries. I prefer their email support option due to the fact the answer is in writing which I can refer back to at any time..

RegistryFix cleaner and optimizer’s price was also much more affordable than anything else currently on the market and equally important the great customer support and money back guarantee. Registryfix cleaner and optimizer’s support staff goes the extra mile to make sure their customers are 100% satisfied. They are genuinely interested in any type of product feeder back consumers have regarding their product.

Ease of use, inexpensive price and high performance lends way to RegisteryFix Cleaner and Optimizer getting a solid 9 out of 10. The only reason I did not rate this product higher is because as a PC tech I hoped for some more advanced features, but for the price it’s a great bargain.

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR SPECIAL OFFER

Pamela Arsena

http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/how-to-clean-your-computer-registry-registryfix-cleaner-and-optimizer-review-1027836.html

Windows PC Performance Troubleshooting

 

 

Is your computer running slow?

Do you think it is time to upgrade or get a new computer? Maybe not… read on and find ways to perform computer maintenance that may just speed up your computer performance and help you avoid an expensive upgrade.

Times are Uncertain -

Do you really need that upgrade or new PC?

Our customers and prospective customers at frequently come to us and ask that we suggest either upgrades or whole new PC’s that will solve their current non-performance nightmare with an aging PC. It’s quite amazing how sometimes as the conversation and understanding of requirements and problems experienced proceeds,we discover that actually the PC they already have may just still have a few laps around the circuit left in its tired chassis. In this article we will explain how you can diagnose your performance woes, streamline and tune them up. You’d be surprised just how much more you can get out of what you have.

Tip! Before making any serious system changes such as some of these are its wise to take a backup or restore point of your system before each change. Then should you subsequently find something is ‘broken’ you can restore back to a previous working configuration.

Analyse the problem before implementing the solution...

                                   

Use monitoring tools regularly – get in the habit of watching Task Manager and lookout for tasks and processes that are hogging your system memory or CPU. Task manager displays both in the process view as you can see below, you can also sort by clicking on the column headings. Even if you only use the Internet and eMail both these applications are renowned for memory leaks and processor bound loops (see an explanation of these problems in the next section).

Monitor Free Disk Space -

To ensure you have at least 20% disk space, preferably 30% or more should be free. If you don’t the file system struggles to operate as it needs some space in order to allocate and deallocate files the operating system and applications require while in use. Imagine walking into a hall full of boxes and you need to order them all by colour, in a room 70% full you’ve got 30% free space to temporarily put things in while you move other stuff around, in a room 99% full you may have no room at all to use as a temporary store. Use our earlier tip for reducing disk space consumption by eliminating unused installed programs or disk space is cheap these days with 1TB at under 100, upgrade your disk.

New Software invariably uses more Memory -

Finally, if you need an upgrade the one that makes the biggest difference in 80% of cases is simply adding more memory. RAM is now fairly cheap and you should consider 2GB to be the minimum of practical RAM to have installed. Every time you upgrade it try to double it or you’re unlikely to really notice the difference. On 32-bit systems there is little advantage to having more than 3GB of memory but usually it makes sense to upgrade to 4GB due to the size of memory kits available. If you need more than 4GB you will also need to upgrade to a 64-bit operating system. You can see your memory utilisation by consulting the Task Manager, ctrl-alt-del presents you an option to start the task manager.

                                   

 In a typical example 2GB of physical memory is installed, of which roughly 1GB is available, although windows is misleading us a bit here as it will always make sure some memory remains available or it will simply cease to function. So don’t look for 0 available free memory as an indicator that you need more, it never will be allowed to reach 0 as windows will swap a process out into the page file to free more memory up. There is 1.11GB of memory currently consumed (in the page file ‘PF Usage’, Commit Charge – Total). The page file is actually virtual memory on disk as tasks become active and inactive they may be swapped into and out of memory into the page file, hence that pause sometimes when you switch to another task as the disk is accessed to bring it back out of the page file.

Activity in the page file and virtual memory is complex and I won’t go into any more of that here as it doesn’t help you with performance issues. The key point to remember is if Windows is swapping memory out to the page file on disk then your system will be going a lot slower as you can be sure however fast your disk is it’s an awful lot slower than physical memory.

What we care most about is activity in real physical memory and the point at which we might run out of it and the page file becomes more active hence slowing down the system. Crucially the Commit Charge Peak should balance the physical memory available otherwise it means an awful lot of page file swapping is going on (known as ‘Page Faults’). If it was the yellow line in Page File Usage history would be bouncing around, or worse just steadily increasing.

Adjust Total Page File size -

Following on from the point above if your system page file size is too small your system will slow down or even fail to start tasks (usually with a system message to tell you the computer is out of memory). You can check this by looking at the Page File Total versus Peak size. If they are close to each other then you need to increase your page file size. With most windows default configurations this will happen automatically.

The exotic world of Deadlocks

Infinite Loops and Cartesian products – are all programming jargon that essentially describe bugs (though not always). The programmer of an application or product you’re using (and that includes the ones you take for granted like Windows and Device drivers) has likely made an error in designing or implementing the code such that logically it can never get past a certain point in its execution.

The consequence of this poorly designed code can be that the processor cycles used in this ‘loop’ consume all the available resources of your PC (check your task manager, which process is using 99-100% of the processor!? Or just ‘not responding’). You will notice this as your machine will suddenly lock-up, go dead slow, or the application in question will just hang. Thankfully with multi-core PC’s hanging is less of a problem as the other free cores can be used to KILL the task off and bring your PC back to life…

Run concurrently as few tasks as you need – each time you open up a task remember each one is using up a little more memory. If your memory or processing power is limited try to keep open only what you regularly need and close what you don’t it doesn’t take so long to reopen, and if it does it probably means you have too many open already!

Also bear in mind just because you can’t see an application doesn’t mean it’s not using up any processing cycles, it will be. All applications process events which might be system activity, emails being sent/received, diary alarms going off, keyboard or mouse movements, activity from external devices like printers and USB drives. They also monitor activity in the background even when you aren’t doing anything with them. This consumes more of those valuable clock cycles…

Typical solutions to try or consider

De-install and delete any unused software – take a look at your control panel Add/Remove Software icon and go through the list of installed applications line by line. If you don’t need or use it remove it. It may be taking up valuable space or cycles on your machine.

Disable Windows Defender -

For Vista users there are a number of new Windows ‘features’ that if you are an experienced PC User who understands how to roam the internet or email and download files safely you do not need. Windows Defender and Firewall are such services, if you have a third party or router firewall you more than likely just don’t need this services enabled. To disable windows defender, go to control panel->administrative tools -> services -> windows defender and stop the service, setting it to disabled or manual so that it does not restart on reboot.

Disable UAC (User Access Control) -

To experienced Windows XP users this feature has won a thousand polls as the most annoying new feature. Whenever you execute anything which affects system configuration or the filesystem (which is just about everything you might want to do that’s useful!), a modal popup asks whether you want the operation to proceed. Again use your judgement on your experience and competency with Windows, inexperienced users should probably leave it as is otherwise you will want to disable it. To disable user access control, go to control panel->user account->turn user account control off. You can also disable it using the msconfig.exe utility on the Tools tab, or directly in the registry.

Optmise the Windows GUI -

Windows Vista Premium and above has by default the Aero user interface enabled, this uses the 3D capabilities of your graphics card and will use up some precious CPU cycles. Unless you love the new look interface feel free to reduce load on your processor and memory and turn it off. To optimise system configuration for maximum performance, go to control panel->performance information and tools-> advanced tools-> adjust the appearance and performance of windows-> Select Adjust for best performance radio button and hit Apply.

Remove Startup programs -

A lot of applications helpfully install themselves on your machine to startup and drop into the System Tools tray as your machine boots or, or as you log in depending on how they are configured. Almost none of these programs will actually be required and they are only installed this way to save on the time taken for their first execution (as they are already in memory, in theory). Our recommendations are you remove all programs to reduce startup time, reduce memory overhead and to improve overall system performance. You can change startup programs using msconfig.exe or directly in the registry with the regedit command (alter the registry with caution!).

Our recommendation is that you use msconfig.exe (pictured below, Windows XP version) and scroll through the list of startup programs unchecking anything you know you don’t use or need to startup on boot/login. In the registry find the startup programs under Computer-> HKEY_CURRENT_USER->Software-> Microsoft-> Windows-> CurrentVersion-> Run. In Windows XP you can safely remove ALL startup programs without it being terminal, you need to be a bit more careful with Vista.

AntiVirus (AV) -

Programs are notorious for reducing system performance and increasing hard disk load. Take a long and careful look at the configuration of your AV product and turn off any scanning or intervention that is unnecessary, turning off any supplementary tools, and any duplication of tools such as double spam checking etc. Typically you should treat AV as your second line of defense behind the firewall. You are only really likely to get a virus from outside the secure zone that is ‘Your PC’, unless you’re in the habit of writing your own.

So a viral attack is only likely to come from a software download, a rogue floppy or CD install, or a malicious Browser add on from the Internet. Some scare mongers have led us to believe that the viruses crawl down the wires and install themselves on your PC, they don’t, they only get installed from outside and only then if you allow it.

For this protection all you need virus scanned is inbound email, inbound software installs from removable media (CD, DVD, USB, eSATA, Firewire, Blu-Ray, Floppy etc.). We recommend turning off automated and scheduled scans, these are real system hogs and should be totally unnecessary if all inbound scans are working as they should be. I

nstead manually choose for yourself when you would like a total system scan just in case something was missed as it came in. We like minimalist AV tools that just do the simple jobs well and no more. A good AntiVirus should be like good children, nice to know you have it, but invisible and unobtrusive.

Disable unnecessary services -

Your system might have a lot of services which you may not need. But identifying them may not be very easy. Open up control panel-> administrative tools-> services and stop/disable services. Some of the services which should be disabled are Windows Search, Windows Defender, Windows Cardspace, and usually a number of third party tools such as HP print managers, Adobe tools, Real player, MSN, Google toolbar, Antivirus control panels etc.

Windows Search Indexing -

A tricky one as it sometimes speeds things up, but at other times can slow things down. In theory it only runs when your machine is idle, but we’ve found that is not always the case and it can also consume shared network bandwidth. We suggest you disable Windows Search indexing as it may improve performance substantially, especially if you have a new system as it will expend a considerable amount of system resources building indexes.

However, once the indexes are built it will reduce the time to find files with a file search (if you do that much?) considerably. So, if this something you do a lot you should turn it off while you are using the PC then turn it on again when you’re done and just leave it running. Windows Search will then just happily build indexes in the background while the PC is idle. Eventually you will have a fully populated index and you can just leave it on so that the index is automatically maintained.

Defragment hard drive -

Perhaps one of the oldest tricks in the book. As you install, deinstall, and move files around on your PC clusters of files and parts of files get distributed all over the disks surface. Over time this gets worse and worse, more and more fragmented. Every time you read a file of the disk the disk head has to reposition to pickup all these different fragments which slows down file access radically. The ideal scenario is to have all files contiguous, no fragmentation, and have the most frequently used files around the center of the disk to minimize average head movement time (seek time).

The defragmentation tool analyses and then defragments the disk for you and is available on the tools tab of the disk properties option (right click on your disk, select properties). You need to defragment roughly every two to three months, more often if you install and reinstall a lot of programs and files. It’s a good idea to run Error Check (also on the tools tab) and close all tasks and as many services as you can before defragmenting. Files currently open or in use cannot be moved…

Check for BIOS updates

For an experienced overclocker BIOS updates are a no brainer as they usually fix performance holes or issues with the motherboard. For most users we recommend if you have no known BIOS issues then do not update it. Either way close all programs before flashing an update to the BIOS, should the BIOS flash fail, be interrupted, or get corrupted (and you would be surprised how easily this can happen!) then your PC will be dead and you will need a new BIOS chip.

                             

 Check for chipset and operating system updates – Often new drivers or windows updates can speed things up a little or a lot. Windows Update is a blessing and a curse. With Vista you are now able to do ALL updates with the Windows update tool, including many third party drivers. Our usual recommendation is to leave it on Automatic, however, sometimes a new update can introduce instability or worse. If this happens revert to the last Restore point. If you are an experienced power user we recommend you manually run Windows Update and carefully select updates you know are comfortable with or know you need.

Easy performance boost -

Vista’s ReadyBoost feature allows you to plug in a USB flash drive or a flash memory card and use its available capacity to cache frequently used files, augmenting the system file cache in main memory. Though slower than main memory Flash memory is an awful lot faster than the hard disk and will speed up general file access markedly. Even quite large Flash drives are now very inexpensive.

Restart regularly -

Even large Enterprises and Government datacentres have a regular restart regime to clear down processes that have been executing memory for some time and refresh the operating systems own memory and programming state. Any problems with stale resources or processes is compounded by possible memory leaks and memory fragmentation occurring over time (which happens in the same way as disks can get fragmented). If you find your PC is getting slower the longer its left on you probably have some runaway process or processes eating up memory or cycles and you can either kill the processes or restart the whole machine. If you are monitoring your process and memory utilisation as we discussed earlier you will have noticed this happening. If it’s a problem deep in Windows that’s causing a performance problem over time then it’s unlikely you will be able to diagnose it and only a restart will fix it.

Generally you should be looking to restart your PC at least once a week. We restart non critical desktops and servers daily, our long term benchmark tests can run for up to a month non-stop without a restart. In the latter case we use a stripped down Windows build that we have tested as stable for at least a month. Remember Hibernate or Standy shutdowns are NOT a reboot, only Shutdown or Restart. Preferably do a cold reboot by shutting down and switching off completely and leaving for 10 minutes before powering on. This will also reinitialise your BIOS and all PC hardware. 

     

                   CLICK HERE FOR YOUR SPECIAL OFFER

 

Author: Alan M Johnson

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alan_M_Johnson

 

 

Troubleshooting Computer Freeze (Lockup) Problems

 

How often does the following happen?

Your computer was working fine, but then suddenly started locking up (aka hanging or freezing), rebooting itself (crashing) or shutting down spontaneously? Performing the simple steps below can fix the majority of lockup cases.

1. Check for recently installed software or hardware. If the lockups started to happen after you installed a new peace of hardware, new software program, or new drivers, uninstall it and see if the problem goes away.

2. Run your antivirus program. One of the first things to do in the case of sudden lockups is to run your antivirus program. Check your antivirus manufacturer’s website for updates and latest virus definition files. If you don’t have antivirus software installed – or if updates are unavailable – run one of the web-based antivirus scans that some major antivirus vendors like Trend Micro are offering for free.

3. Run some good spyware removal tool. If your machine is not infected with any viruses, it is still possible that it has some harmful adware or spyware is present. Download and run some good spyware removal tool such as AdAware or Microsoft AntiSpyware.

4. Check for free hard drive space. When no viruses are found, check out free hard drive space on drive C:. Make sure there is more than 20% of free space available; low disk space can lead to random lockups.

5. Check for overheating. Overheating is another known cause of lockups. It can be caused by problems with fans inside the case, dust buildup, or other cooling problems. Make sure the power supply fan and CPU fan are running and free of dust buildup. You can check the temperatures inside the case by running Motherboard monitor. Make sure the temperatures are within the preset limits. Be very careful while cleaning inside the computer case (use plastic vacuum crevice tool) and NEVER OPEN THE POWER SUPPLY CASE as it contains high voltage.

6. Check the hard disk. Check the hard disk – it is possible that its logical structure is corrupted. To check the disk for errors, right-click on the disk C: icon in "My Computer", select the "Tools" tab, check all check boxes in the "Check disk options" field, and press the "Check now" button. It should ask whether you want to schedule the check next time you restart your computer – answer "Yes" and restart your PC. The check will be performed automatically after startup; it can take a while, so be patient. The program will attempt to fix some problems automatically – however, if the hard disk is failing physically, it will need to be replaced. It is also a good idea to run Disk Defragmenter (located in Start Menu > Programs > Accessories > System Tools) to optimize data placement on the hard disk for increased performance and reliability.

7. Check the memory. Sometimes random lockups can be attributed to the computer memory (RAM) starting to fail. You can test the memory by running Windows Memory Diagnostic. If memory problems are found, try re-seating the RAM (pull it out and plug it back in). If it doesn’t work, replace the defective RAM.

8. Check for other hardware problems (advanced users). More hardware-related problems can be diagnosed by running hardware tests from the Ultimate Boot CD. However, you should only use it if you know what are you doing – some programs on that CD can be dangerous when used inappropriately (for example, some of them can wipe the contents of your hard disk).

9. Update Windows and drivers. Some lockups can be caused by outdated software components – update your windows and drives by running a windows update. The above steps will help diagnose and eliminate the most common causes of lockups. Hundreds more of other possible scenarios need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, as it all goes down to your particular computer configuration.

 

                CLICK HERE FOR YOUR SPECIAL OFFER

Author: Michael Woodford rticle Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Woodford

Time Saving PC Troubleshooting Do’s And Don’ts

 

Troubleshooting Do’s & Dont’s

Troubleshooting Do’s are extremely important to remember since they will save you money as you follow these steps to prevent damage and save you grief should you ignore any of these which may result in a problem showing up.

Take the time to go over these troubleshooting Do’s first and pay close attention to removing any and all static buildup from yourself.Troubleshooting Do’s consist of the following procedures.

DO you make sure your hardware device drivers are up to date with any patches downloaded and installed.Take the time to visit your video card,sound card,motherboard, and other hardware manufacturer web sites to see if you have the most up to date device drivers.

DO you check that all connections of the pc are seated firmly and properly in their sockets.This is a must check as these connections do tend to work themselves loose over time and cause problems you may blame on software.

If you have been working in your system unit recently and you noticed a fault manifesting itself, you want to go back and take a look at all connections you were near.Look to be sure your fingers did not press against other connections and causing then to work loose.

DO you perform preventive maintenance on your computer and keep it clean regularly?Its a good idea to open up the system unit and remove all dust that have accumulated on the motherboard as well as all other boards.

Dirt and dust conducts heat and will cause the computer to run at higher temperatures than it normally would.Take a look at the vents in the back of the case and remove dust that have accumulated.

The best way to remove dust from all circuit boards in the system unit is by a can of compressed air, available at any computer store and now, most retail stores.

DO you make absolutely sure you have removed any and all electrical static buildup from yourself before working inside your computer and before touching any new circuit cards and chips?

Please don’t overlook this troubleshoot tip.It would be a tragedy to purchase new memory only to short circuit them either before you installed them or you do so the process.

RAM, short for Random Access Memory chips are very vulnerable for this.So to rid yourself of Electrical Static Charge you may consider purchasing a Wrist Strap. This tool is especially designed for this.If you don’t want to go this route, you can simply touch the case’s mental chassis.

Troubleshooting Don’ts are just as important to remember and follow as those troubleshooting Do’s and they will include the following.

Don’t allow your computer to run hot.Each device you install in the system will generate heat.Be sure your system is well ventilated.If you install more than two extra devices, you should consider installing an extra cooling fan.

Cooling fans are easy to install and will be well worth the effort.They come will instructions that are easy to follow. It may be best to simply keep the extra devices in your system down to two or three at the most.

Do not use a brush when you decide to clean the circuit cards and motherboard in your computer.They create static electricity that will render them useless.If you don’t have a can of compressed air, wait until you can get one.

Do not download and install files from the Internet without scanning them for viruses first.This as particularly true for any applications or files you download from file-sharing networks.

Do not plug in your mouse, keyboard, or any peripheral while the computer is on.Switch the computer off before disconnecting or connecting anything from it.

About the only device you can connect to, disconnect from your computer while it is running are USB devices.USB stands for Universal Serial Bus and now come in the new version 2.0

You may have escape that one time when you turn on your computer and something went wrong.But it will happen at one time or another.Don’t add to the problem by failing to Do such tasks as removing static buildup.

Learn to troubleshoot your computer with great care and you’ll be richly rewarded by the fact that you were able to diagnose the problem and were safe in the process.

 

                      CLICK HERE FOR YOUR SPECIAL OFFER

 

 

Author: Otis Cooper

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Otis_Cooper

 

Troubleshoot Your PC

Computer repair is a name given to a wide gamut of support services which are fast picking up and becoming the preferred choice of computer users searching for computer repair. These online computer repair technician can help you with most of your PC problems through a remote session via the Internet or over the telephone control.

As the title signifies, s can be easily located through a simple search on the Internet. You will find numerous support resources to cater your personal computer support requirement. When you narrow down on any particular website, you are asked to subscribe to avail their services. Next, you are attended by a technician who asks you about your preferences to avail support over phone or online.

As far as online computer support is concerned, you meet an expert technician over the Internet. The remote computer repair technician watches everything on your PC screen while working on your PC problem. Technology has advanced so much that you can even assume control anytime, just in case you feel any security concern. In certain cases, the instructions are given from a remote location and you follow these instructions to repair your computer.

Most of the remote computer repairers disconnect the connection program, until and unless you want to reinstall the program for future use. Although the entire method of online or remote computer support is popular, it is always suggested to have good references from the remote support resources. This will help you to verify their credentials better and ensure the safety of your data.

Online computer repair can be of great help for spyware removal, spyware scan, troubleshooting virus problems, software installation, up gradation, disk cleaning, PC optimization and Internet optimization. Needless to say, the success rate is also pretty high when it comes to online computer repair. Another advantage with online PC repair lies in the fact that it saves you money in the long run, since computer repair technician work from their own location. And you are simply getting the things done in the convenience of your own premises. Moreover, these resources are available for 24×7, a factor which eliminates any need for you to haul your PC to any outside resource.

If you suspect your computer problem involves something hardware-related, such as with your network card, modem, mouse, keyboard or sound card, you should even go one step further, before calling your computer consulting experts.

Daisy is a technical specialist associated with numerous tech firms including iYogi. iYogi is synergistic ally aligned to offer computer repair, computer help, tech support, hp support, microsoft support,antispyware, adware removal, spyware blockers and online computer support to its clients in Australia, US, UK and Canada by Microsoft certified technician. As the title signifies, computer repair services can be easily located through a simple search on the Internet. You will find numerous support resources to cater your personal computer support requirement. When you narrow down on any particular website, you are asked to subscribe to avail their services. Next, you are attended by a technician who asks you about your preferences to avail support over phone or online

As far as online computer support is concerned, you meet an expert technician over the Internet. The remote computer repair technician check everything on your PC screen while working on your PC problem. Technology has advanced so much that you can even assume control anytime, just in case you feel any security concern. In certain cases, the instructions are given from a remote location and you follow these instructions for your computer repair and in this way you make your life happier

 

 

               CLICK HERE FOR YOUR SPECIAL OFFER HERE

 

 

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daisy_Williams

Author: Daisy Williams

PC Troubleshooting Advice

Most computer problems can be easily taken care of before you end up calling a computer technician.  Sometimes a simple reboot is all it takes to fix a slow pc or other computer problems.

While most small businesses really do need to find a good local computer consulting business to take care of their computer problems, there are some computer problems that are simple enough for even a technophobe to handle. At Computer Consulting 101, we’ve found there’s one very simple piece of advice that often doesn’t get communicated to non-technical small business end users: When in doubt, reboot first.

Seriously, while it may sound tremendously simple, end users often overlook it during typical computer panic attacks.

Anytime you’re about to consider an issue a real IT support problem and call your computer consulting vendor, always reboot first.

First, exit out of whatever files and programs that you’re working on. Then, run through a Shutdown and Restart sequence to reboot your computer.

If you suspect your computer problem involves something hardware-related, such as with your network card, modem, mouse, keyboard or sound card, you should even go one step further, before calling your computer consulting experts.

Go to your Start menu. Next, shutdown your PC. Then turn the power off for a minute or so… if you’re computer didn’t power itself off on its own. Then finally power your PC back up again and see if the problem resolved itself on its own. Many times a simple reboot is all it takes.

The Bottom Line

While this advice probably sounds very basic, at Computer Consulting 101 we’ve found that a substantial percentage (as many as 10-20% of problems) of trouble calls for IT support become unnecessary after a reboot. And of course, because you probably pay every single time you pick up the phone, why not conserve your IT budget for those projects that can help your company drive more revenue, improve productivity, reduce overhead, and boost your bottom line. Remember, before you call a computer consulting professional, reboot first…. so you can conserve your computer consulting budget for those problems that really require expert assistance.

Copyright MMI-MMV, Computer-Consulting-101.com, All Worldwide Rights Reserved.

Author: Joshua Feinberg

Joshua Feinberg, co-founder of Computer Consulting 101, is a 15-year veteran of small business computer consulting and an internationally recognized expert on small business computer consulting. He has appeared in dozens of business and IT trade publications including CRN, VARBusiness, Microsoft Direct Access, TechRepublic, American Express OPEN Platinum Ventures, Entrepreneur, Inc, SCORE, Small Business Computing, and USA Today. To get immediate online access to Joshua’s proven sales and marketing strategies for growing your computer consulting company’s profits, sign up now for the free one-hour Computer Consulting 101 training recording at

http://www.computer-consulting-101.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joshua_Feinberg