System emergencies
Lockups, bad start ups and lost passwords Etc


System lock up
Lockups come without warning and don’t give you a message why it locked up in the first place listed below are some situations that would cause the lockup

Over stressing the system
Your computer has a limited amount of memory and processing power and any attempt to push it beyond it’s limits and it will most likely result in a system lockup this happens when you try to run several resource intensive programs as a example don’t burn mp3's to a CD-R disk when downloading other mp3 files doing one task at a time will minimize the chances of a system lockup.

Install one program per day
While people are buying bigger harddrives and doing reinstalls of their Operating system they reinstall other software programs one right after another. The fact that every software install is very crucial for the program that you are installing works when you want to use it. For best results close down any open applications that you have open before doing the install and pay special attention to the options dialog box that may come up during the install and think before making a choice.

Installing too many programs
Any software installation makes changes to the entire computer system by adding a large body of code to the hardrive and modifications to the systems registry ,startup group and various system files. So being selective when choosing what programs to install will lessen the chances of a lockup. And use extra caution if you use software that comes from the internet and friends especially if it is free.

Failure to detect a virus infection
Written to create havoc on your computer system a good chuck of that instability is caused by changes to system files ,device drivers and program files the best way to minimize the chances of getting a virus is to limit the amount of programs and files that come into your system and only download those files that are necessary and that are from trusted sites and only accepting file attachments from senders that you know and expect to receive a file from.

Boot failure
Turning on a computer is the easy part but when a boot failure occurs that is when the trouble shooting starts.
First thing to check is the power cable to the back of the case and make sure it is pushed in as far as it can go. Then the next thing is to check the power switch on the power strip and see if it was turned off and if there are any light switches in the room make sure that they are all on. Next thing to try is changing the power cord to the case and see if that solves the problem. This list is no where complete when trouble shooting power problems

Checking the floppy drive
This happends to everyone at some point before pressing the power button on your computer( if you leave your system on 24/7 you don’t need to worry about this) check the floppy slot (if it has one) for a floppy that was being used the last time you were using the computer
if you don’t you will be greeted with the following message “Nonsystems disk or disk error” and the computer will go no further.

Fighting corruption
One piece of missing, corrupt or incorrect data can prevent the computer from booting up. Such problems show themselves as a blinking cursor or a message where windows should be. Resolving these matters is pretty much trial and error troubleshooting
First thing to check is the MBR(Master Boot Record) this is a record of how data is organized on your harddrive if your computer used a floppy the day before or on that day. A boot sector virus prevents the BIOS(basic input out system) from accessing the system files and settings responsible for starting the Operating system

Missing passwords
Passwords are everywhere you look they are on your online bank account your email User and admin accounts. Online passwords are easy to recover if you forget them most sites require you to submit a valid email address and a answer a secret question to have them send you your password via e-mail now if you forget the password to access some of your windows files you have a option to use a third party password cracker that will sniff the code on your machine a free program for windows 9X/WinMe is called 123 wasp from www.iopus.com/wasp this utility isolates the .PWL (the password list) which contains a encrypted list of your microsoft related passwords. other programs include
Elcomsoft www.elcomsoft.com
lastbit software www.lastbit.com.
L0phtCrack http://www.atstake.com/products/lc/
John the Ripper http://www.openwall.com/john/

The black screen of death
There are two types of display problems no display and the unreadable display
Lack of power assuming the computer is running you can either see the lights are on the pc face a totally dead screen usually indicates a power problem related to the monitor check all power cables and strips that are connected to the monitor to see if one has come lose and check to see if the connector is secure to the video card in your case. Sometimes the video card itself comes lose so open up the case and press down on it to be sure it is seated firmly in the slot. Next thing to try is adjusting the contrast and brightness controls on the monitor. If that doesn’t work then it is most likely that the monitor has a blown fuse burned out picture tube or other hardware problem with the monitor.

White out
The monitor is showing one color white the signal isn’t transmitting properly between the videocard and the monitor look at the connector and see if there are any bent pins

Wobbly image
When wavy lines seriously distort the display magnetic buildup in your crt monitor is most likely the cause some solutions are move the speakers printer and other peripherals away from your monitor and static electricity build up this is when degauss comes in handy

Display flickers
The refresh rate is set too low, the video card is lose or there is too much magnetic buildup on the monitor

Harddrive crash
A actual harddrive crash occurs when one of the drives read/write heads makes contact with the platters and starts making a clicking and grinding noise and starts failing to save and boot your system normally the heads float above the platters surface. If your harddrive is giving you trouble as a example you are getting drive and error messages if your applications can’t find the drive or if your computer won’t boot up but not making any noise then your drive has not crashed and you maybe able to resolve problems quickly with out losing any data.

Run scan disk or checkdisk
If you get the following error messages such as Data error reading Drive C:\ Or I/O error there is a good chance that part of your drives data storage has been corrupted or damaged you can most likely fix it with windows tools for detecting and repairing harddrive problems

Windows 9X/ME/2000
Double click my computer right click on the drive and choose properties and click on the tools tab of the dialog box then click on check now in the scan disk dialog box check the box that says Automatically fix errors and click on start

Windows Xp
Double click my computer right click on the drive and choose properties and click on the tools tab of the dialog box then click on check now in the scan disk dialog box check the box that says Automatically fix file system errors and Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors then click on start
if either of these tools asks you to run them next time you reboot your computer select yes.

Cd drive that won't work
Check all connections on the drive and motherboard to be sure they are seated firmly. do a update to be sure you are using the latest driver for your Cdrw/DVD drive and check the device manager for any conflicts or problems

Update your Operating system
If you have winxp and can't record to CD-R\RW media it maybe because your Cd-R\RW drive doesn't support Winxp's Aspi (advanced SCSI programming) Layer which provides base level generic support for these drives to solve the problem go to Http://support.microsoft.com and in the search the knowledge base field type 320174 and click the green arrow and follow the instructions in the technote to download and install the update.
you may also find that WinXp won't let you copy files to your CD-R/RW drive by using the drag and drop method that is because WinXp can't format the CD-R/RW's for drag and drop copying by itself you will need a third party disc buring program such as Roxio easy Cd creator www.roxio.com or Nero burning rom www.nero.com

Thanks for reading this