I have received a great many of questions from people who have asked me to work on their computer and have stated that the last person they talked to told them they need a new computer. In all actuality if your computer has at least a 1.6 Ghz processor and 1gb of Ram, unless you are a gamer or something like that, you really don't need to go buy a new computer. Largest part of the time you just need the computer cleaned up with a good OS and System maintenance program such as Advanced System Care from www.iobit.com.
I have cleaned up and worked on many systems that were getting slow and was said to have to many issues and the person was actually fixing to buy a new computer until they found out that it can actually be cleaned up and will at that point run like it did the day it was purchased. In all honesty you can also look at upgrade options such as possibly a faster processor, more ram, a larger hard drive, what ever you need. Many of these places tell you that you need a new computer because they are hoping to sell you a new system rather than fixing what you have in which fixing it is 100% possible.
I have seen to many cases in which a person has taken their computer to a shop, they were charged 100 bucks or more to be told their system can't be fixed, the place sells them a new computer, when in all actuality a clean up or a system restore was all that needed to be done to get the system back up in running the way it was when it was originally purchased new. Sure maybe it can use a minor upgrade but not a complete new system for $500+
If the computer is completely dead, will not power up and do anything and it isn't a laptop, then the computer is 100% fixable with only needing replace the component or software that went bad. Now the reason I say what I do about laptops is they are the major exception, if you have mother board failure in the laptop, finding a replacement mother board and getting it installed can be very expensive. Not always but it can be.
Always remember if you take your computer in to a shop and they tell you it has major issues and would be cheaper to buy a new system they are quite wrong because the parts really aren't that expensive and can be replaced again with the exception to some components of a laptop.
Monday, October 15, 2012
Sunday, September 23, 2012
PS3 Design Flaws
Well, my PS3 hit the inevitable yellow light of death or YLOD... for which I had to purchase a heat gun to repair my system and get it back up and running. After taking apart the PS3 I realized that the cooling system in the PS3 is massive and so far looks to be an efficient cooling system. It works really well. I discovered in turn however that they have made a couple of massive mistakes. One the entire motherboard is encased in steel. This is both good and bad. The good aspect of it is the fact that it keeps the board from flexing and bad in the fact that steel is a very good conductor of heat. Now the kicker is just like the Microsoft Xbox X-clamp system it has the graphical and central processors on one side of the motherboard (the bottom side) and a flex pressure steel plate on the other side that screw into the heat sink on the bottom to secure a pressure connection between the processors and the heat sink. Anyone who knows anything know that this setup is bound for destruction and with good cause... it is an engineered design flaw with purpose which I will not go into here.
With metal on both sides of the processor, it actually causes the processor to get really hot and the solder joints to the processor to get hot and can float the solder to the processor causing a bad connection. The easiest trick to fix this is with a heat gun like the one I purchased you will want to make sure it has a low (750 degree) setting to heat up the connections and re-float the solder to secure the connections again and get the system working.
I am not a big fan of the ribbon cables in the system because of how easy these cables are damaged and/or the contacts corrode but it is understandable why they used these super thin ribbon cables due to space constraints.
Repairing the system is easy and there are many videos on youtube to show you how to do it if you don't know already or you can let someone who knows how to fix it for you. I make and will have a HOW TO on the main site under the HOW TO section in which you can see what all you need to do to fix your own system if you wish to try and what you must do to fix it.
Keep in mind a heat gun will run you anywhere from $25 to around $120 depending on what brand and heat gun you buy.
There are many different types of heat sink compounds out there you can use and the best I have ever used and put on these processors is Arctic Silver heat sink compound which will usually cost around $3 to $5 per tube.
Below are the pictures of the unit as I was repairing it and assembling the system again and yes you will see the plates I was talking about and the flaws I pointed out.
With metal on both sides of the processor, it actually causes the processor to get really hot and the solder joints to the processor to get hot and can float the solder to the processor causing a bad connection. The easiest trick to fix this is with a heat gun like the one I purchased you will want to make sure it has a low (750 degree) setting to heat up the connections and re-float the solder to secure the connections again and get the system working.
I am not a big fan of the ribbon cables in the system because of how easy these cables are damaged and/or the contacts corrode but it is understandable why they used these super thin ribbon cables due to space constraints.
Repairing the system is easy and there are many videos on youtube to show you how to do it if you don't know already or you can let someone who knows how to fix it for you. I make and will have a HOW TO on the main site under the HOW TO section in which you can see what all you need to do to fix your own system if you wish to try and what you must do to fix it.
Keep in mind a heat gun will run you anywhere from $25 to around $120 depending on what brand and heat gun you buy.
There are many different types of heat sink compounds out there you can use and the best I have ever used and put on these processors is Arctic Silver heat sink compound which will usually cost around $3 to $5 per tube.
Below are the pictures of the unit as I was repairing it and assembling the system again and yes you will see the plates I was talking about and the flaws I pointed out.
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Self Trouble Shooting (Hardware)
Anyone who works on or with computers are all to familiar with the processes of trouble shooting. Most of your trouble shooting will be with software issues. I can tell you now software issues are a lot more difficult at times to troubleshoot than hardware so we will focus more trouble shooting hardware in this post.
When your computer is having issues you must first ask yourself what are the symptoms and what was the last things I was doing when my computer went down? Why is this important? Knowing what the symptoms were and what you were last doing can tell you a lot about what the issue may be.
Lets say your computer runs great for the first 15 to 30 minuets of the day when you first turn it on but gets slow and slow till it finally just shuts its self off... What do you think the issue is? Well honestly there are several possibilities but the most likely cause of this issue is the heat sink to the processor has a lot of dust build up in and on it where the processor cannot cool down properly.
Lets say you just installed a new hardware card (A PCI Express x16 video card) and your video worked fine before with the onboard video. Now you have no video at all. The first step is to pull the video card back out and try the onboard and the video works just fine. Put the new video card back in and no video. What could possibly be the issue? Well truth is many people forget that you must on PCI Express x16 cards there is a separate power cable off the power supply that must be connected before the card will work. It could also be possible that the socket on the board known as a PCI Express x16 Bus Slot could have a lot of dust in it. If the bus slot was clean and the card is connected properly then it is possible that the new card may be bad. All hardware in computers are shock sensitive and it is easy to buy hardware and accidentally ruin it if you are not grounded or you and the computer are at the same potential. You can hit the card with a 30,000 volt plus zap and not even realize it.
Lets say your computer was running find then suddenly goes to a blue screen lock up (In Windows) and you don't understand what is going on. Every time it says something about the memory when it goes into this lock up. Your memory chips may be having issues. Pulling them and re-seating them can often fix this issue along with making sure there is no dust on the chips or in the sockets they plug into. If all this doesn't work then pull one chip at a time to see if the computer suddenly works right. This can narrow down which chip is bad. If that still doesn't work try a different chip because all chips in the system could potentially be bad. It is less common that all chips go bad and more common that it is only one memory chip that went bad in the system.
The basic thing to remember when trouble shooting hardware is to actually check all the simple things first. Most of the time it may just be a corroded connector, a loose or disconnected cable, or possibly bad hardware. Checking cables can save you lots of money and with hardware chips or cards sometimes just pulling it out, dusting it, and re-seating the hardware can fix the issue. If the hardware is bad having another piece of hardware that is similar or identical to what was pulled can help you determine if it is actually the hardware that has gone bad.
So the secret is to keep yourself grounded and the computer case or to keep yourself at the same potential the case is when working with hardware, keep your system dust free because dust is a computers worst nightmare, check the simple things first such as cables and wires, clean and re-seat hardware, and try to test with other hardware if possible to determine that the hardware you have trouble with is bad and needs replaced.
When your computer is having issues you must first ask yourself what are the symptoms and what was the last things I was doing when my computer went down? Why is this important? Knowing what the symptoms were and what you were last doing can tell you a lot about what the issue may be.
Lets say your computer runs great for the first 15 to 30 minuets of the day when you first turn it on but gets slow and slow till it finally just shuts its self off... What do you think the issue is? Well honestly there are several possibilities but the most likely cause of this issue is the heat sink to the processor has a lot of dust build up in and on it where the processor cannot cool down properly.
Lets say you just installed a new hardware card (A PCI Express x16 video card) and your video worked fine before with the onboard video. Now you have no video at all. The first step is to pull the video card back out and try the onboard and the video works just fine. Put the new video card back in and no video. What could possibly be the issue? Well truth is many people forget that you must on PCI Express x16 cards there is a separate power cable off the power supply that must be connected before the card will work. It could also be possible that the socket on the board known as a PCI Express x16 Bus Slot could have a lot of dust in it. If the bus slot was clean and the card is connected properly then it is possible that the new card may be bad. All hardware in computers are shock sensitive and it is easy to buy hardware and accidentally ruin it if you are not grounded or you and the computer are at the same potential. You can hit the card with a 30,000 volt plus zap and not even realize it.
Lets say your computer was running find then suddenly goes to a blue screen lock up (In Windows) and you don't understand what is going on. Every time it says something about the memory when it goes into this lock up. Your memory chips may be having issues. Pulling them and re-seating them can often fix this issue along with making sure there is no dust on the chips or in the sockets they plug into. If all this doesn't work then pull one chip at a time to see if the computer suddenly works right. This can narrow down which chip is bad. If that still doesn't work try a different chip because all chips in the system could potentially be bad. It is less common that all chips go bad and more common that it is only one memory chip that went bad in the system.
The basic thing to remember when trouble shooting hardware is to actually check all the simple things first. Most of the time it may just be a corroded connector, a loose or disconnected cable, or possibly bad hardware. Checking cables can save you lots of money and with hardware chips or cards sometimes just pulling it out, dusting it, and re-seating the hardware can fix the issue. If the hardware is bad having another piece of hardware that is similar or identical to what was pulled can help you determine if it is actually the hardware that has gone bad.
So the secret is to keep yourself grounded and the computer case or to keep yourself at the same potential the case is when working with hardware, keep your system dust free because dust is a computers worst nightmare, check the simple things first such as cables and wires, clean and re-seat hardware, and try to test with other hardware if possible to determine that the hardware you have trouble with is bad and needs replaced.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
FBI Scam Virus
If you see this page pop up on your computer, you have a couple of viruses on your system. It is a Win 32 and Trojan virus with a java script and JSP loader. It will lock your computer down where you cannot do anything with it. All you have to do is disable your internet connection and reboot your PC with no internet connection then run your antivirus on a thorough scan. One of the files you will find is wsbsbsbsbsbsbsbsb.exe in your temporary files. It will find the Win32 and Trojan as well. If you antivirus does not find it, AVAST Free will catch it and kill it. It is a scam because the fake FBI website with poor English and incorrect legal terminology crosses the terms of incarceration and dollar amounts of the fine and the FBI wont take a 200 dollar payment to get out of a potential $100,000 fine. Also it only asks for a Money Pack which isn't a method of payment the FBI would ask for on a fine. It is a scam.
I was hit by this virus myself and was able to recover my system without having to perform a complete format and clean install.
I was hit by this virus myself and was able to recover my system without having to perform a complete format and clean install.
Monday, August 27, 2012
When To Shutdown Or Reboot
I have been asked many times when is it best to shut down my computer. In all honesty this really depends on the type of system you have be it a desktop, server, or laptop and the Operating System you have on your computer.
Laptops - It is best to shut down a laptop any time it is not going to be used. Laptops are designed to be mobile and to be used as needed when needed and do not like running long periods of time however heed this warning. The Microsoft Windows operating system does not like being shut down and started up all the time and make sure you use windows to shut down your system properly or you will corrupt the operating system. You can reboot the system any time you need to and if it has been running for a while and is getting slow a reboot will usually help this issue.
Desktops - Most desktop system do not like being turned on and off all the time and are designed to set and run. When you shut down the system and start it back up it actually sends a surge through the components to fire up all the hardware and the system does not like doing this all the time. It is best to leave your system on all day and only shut it completely down when you are going to bed and the system will not be used again for many hours. If you can leave it running I would recommend leaving it on and running as long as possible rather then shutting it down. I turn my system off 1 day every month just to give it a bit of a rest but not surge it all the time starting it up. That one day is also when I break it down the clean out the dust. As for reboots, if the system is lagging or running slow it is fine to reboot the system any time needed as it does not power down. Heed this warning the Microsoft Windows operating system does not like running for extremely long time spans so a reboot when needed or a couple of times a week will not hurt a thing.
Servers - Servers are designed to run continuous and should unless maintenance is being performed. Again even the Microsoft Server Operating System does not like running super long periods of time and will cause services or socket errors on the server. You will have to reboot it from time to time to get all the services back up and keep the system running optimal.
Laptops - It is best to shut down a laptop any time it is not going to be used. Laptops are designed to be mobile and to be used as needed when needed and do not like running long periods of time however heed this warning. The Microsoft Windows operating system does not like being shut down and started up all the time and make sure you use windows to shut down your system properly or you will corrupt the operating system. You can reboot the system any time you need to and if it has been running for a while and is getting slow a reboot will usually help this issue.
Desktops - Most desktop system do not like being turned on and off all the time and are designed to set and run. When you shut down the system and start it back up it actually sends a surge through the components to fire up all the hardware and the system does not like doing this all the time. It is best to leave your system on all day and only shut it completely down when you are going to bed and the system will not be used again for many hours. If you can leave it running I would recommend leaving it on and running as long as possible rather then shutting it down. I turn my system off 1 day every month just to give it a bit of a rest but not surge it all the time starting it up. That one day is also when I break it down the clean out the dust. As for reboots, if the system is lagging or running slow it is fine to reboot the system any time needed as it does not power down. Heed this warning the Microsoft Windows operating system does not like running for extremely long time spans so a reboot when needed or a couple of times a week will not hurt a thing.
Servers - Servers are designed to run continuous and should unless maintenance is being performed. Again even the Microsoft Server Operating System does not like running super long periods of time and will cause services or socket errors on the server. You will have to reboot it from time to time to get all the services back up and keep the system running optimal.
The Best Thing For Your PC
Many people wonder what the best thing they can do for their PC is. Honestly to keep your computer running well and continually running well for as long as possible you have to do maintenance on the PC just as you would any other machine. Your computer's worst enemy is Dust and air born contaminants as they are sucked into the system and drawn to it on a daily basis. Your computer's internal components run entirely on DC voltage that is converted by the Power Supply in the system. All these components including the power supply can will and do attract dust. The dust will short across components and can cause the component to fry. Also your heat sinks for the processor, chip sets, and RAM all will build up dust as well restricting air flow. I highly recommend that you get a can of compressed air (Duster) or if you have a compressor that has a way to not build up internal moisture and blow out the entire system making sure to blow all the dust off all electronic boards, heat sinks, and even the inside of the power supply. You really want to make sure the system is off and unplugged for this as well.
Your operating system and file system which controls everything to the computer requires maintenance and protection as well. The system has files that track configuration settings and file locations of everything on the system call the system REGISTRY. This file will end up cluttered over time due to install and removal of programs and files. The Registry needs cleaned with special software from time to time. Also just from being turned on and ran files can become fragmented on the hard drive. A fragmented file is a file that parts and pieces are scattered all over various portions of the hard drive and causes the hard drive with mechanical heads to have to scan back and forth over much more of the drive. Defragmenting the file system forces the drive to put all the pieces of the file in order where all the data it must read is right there.
For protection you just need a good antivirus, AntiMalware/AntiSpyware software, and probably a firewall.
It is recommended that you clean the dust from your system once a month or one sever two months and you maintain your operating system at least once a month for optimal performance and longest life of your system.
Sadly computers are electronic devices like light bulbs and just like light bulbs any time your PC can just quite be it a component went out on the system or something inevitably failed. Maintenance helps as much as possible to prolong the life of these components but will not stop failure.
Your operating system and file system which controls everything to the computer requires maintenance and protection as well. The system has files that track configuration settings and file locations of everything on the system call the system REGISTRY. This file will end up cluttered over time due to install and removal of programs and files. The Registry needs cleaned with special software from time to time. Also just from being turned on and ran files can become fragmented on the hard drive. A fragmented file is a file that parts and pieces are scattered all over various portions of the hard drive and causes the hard drive with mechanical heads to have to scan back and forth over much more of the drive. Defragmenting the file system forces the drive to put all the pieces of the file in order where all the data it must read is right there.
For protection you just need a good antivirus, AntiMalware/AntiSpyware software, and probably a firewall.
It is recommended that you clean the dust from your system once a month or one sever two months and you maintain your operating system at least once a month for optimal performance and longest life of your system.
Sadly computers are electronic devices like light bulbs and just like light bulbs any time your PC can just quite be it a component went out on the system or something inevitably failed. Maintenance helps as much as possible to prolong the life of these components but will not stop failure.
Friday, August 24, 2012
Official Brownell's It Solutions Blog
We officially have a Tech Blog where we will post our opinions and advice for PC users about various IT topics.
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