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Troubleshooting
Your PC
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
2ND EDITION
by Dan Gookin
Troubleshooting
Your PC
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
2ND EDITION
by Dan Gookin
Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
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About the Author
Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has con-
tributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than
90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books
that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than
14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that
his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published
in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time
moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller
(although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT
best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books,
which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; C All-in-One
Desk Reference For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; Buying a
Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He also
publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” full
of tips, how-tos, and computer news. He also maintains the vast and helpful
Web page www.wambooli.com.
Dan holds a degree in communications and visual arts from the University
of California, San Diego. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he enjoys
spending time with his four boys in the gentle woods of Idaho.
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Contents at a Glance
Introduction .................................................................1
Part I: What the @#$%&*!? ........................................7
Chapter 1: It’s Not Your Fault! Well, It Might Be Your Fault
(How to Tell Whether It’s Your Fault)............................................................................9
Chapter 2: Stuff to Try First ............................................................................................19
Chapter 3: Telling a Hardware Problem from a Software Problem ............................27
Chapter 4: The “R” Chapter (Reinstall, Restore, Recycle, Recovery)........................37
Chapter 5: Your Last Resort: Tech Support ..................................................................51
Part II: Troubleshooting Minor Irks and Quirks..............65
Chapter 6: “This Just Bugs Me!” .....................................................................................67
Chapter 7: “Gosh! This Is Embarrassing!” .....................................................................87
Chapter 8: Startup Problems ..........................................................................................99
Chapter 9: Finding Lost Files and Things ....................................................................121
Chapter 10: Sounds Like Trouble .................................................................................135
Chapter 11: The Mystery of System Resources (and Memory Leaks) ....................145
Chapter 12: The Slow PC ...............................................................................................155
Chapter 13: Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor Dilemmas.............................................163
Chapter 14: Printer Problems .......................................................................................175
Chapter 15: Dealing with Disk Disaster .......................................................................191
Chapter 16: Correcting Graphics Disgrace..................................................................203
Chapter 17: Internet Connection Mayhem ..................................................................217
Chapter 18: Web Weirdness with Internet Explorer...................................................235
Chapter 19: E-Mail Calamities with Outlook Express.................................................251
Chapter 20: General Windows Disruption (Or, “Is This PC Possessed?”) ...............267
Chapter 21: Windows Can Be Your Friend ..................................................................283
Chapter 22: Shutdown Constipation ............................................................................295
Part III: Preventive Maintenance ...............................357
Chapter 23: Maintaining Your Disk Drives ..................................................................309
Chapter 24: Useful Tools and Weapons .......................................................................327
Chapter 25: The Benefits of Backup.............................................................................347
vi Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Part IV: The Part of Tens ...........................................357
Chapter 26: The Ten Rules of Tech Support ...............................................................359
Chapter 27: Ten Dumb Error Messages .......................................................................363
Chapter 28: Ten Things You Should Never or Always Do .........................................369
Appendix: Windows Startup Program Reference ..........373
Index .......................................................................375
Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................1
About This Book...............................................................................................1
How This Book Works......................................................................................2
What You’re Not to Read.................................................................................3
Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................4
How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................4
Part I: What the @#$%&*!?.....................................................................4
Part II: Troubleshooting Minor Irks and Quirks .................................5
Part III: Preventive Maintenance ..........................................................5
Part IV: The Part of Tens........................................................................5
Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................5
Where to Go from Here....................................................................................6
Part I: What the @#$%&*!? .........................................7
Chapter 1: It’s Not Your Fault! Well, It Might Be Your Fault
(How to Tell Whether It’s Your Fault) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Why It’s Not Your Fault..................................................................................10
How It Possibly Could Be Your Fault ...........................................................11
You did something new to the computer ..........................................12
You were bad and deleted files you shouldn’t have deleted ..........12
Other ways to remove files you didn’t create yourself ...................14
How old is your PC? .............................................................................15
What You Can Do about It .............................................................................16
Chapter 2: Stuff to Try First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Some Quick Keyboard Things You Can Do .................................................19
Test the keyboard.................................................................................19
Use Ctrl+Z for immediate file relief ....................................................20
Escape! Escape!.....................................................................................21
The Drastic Measure of Restarting Windows (Yet It Works) ....................22
Restarting Windows .............................................................................22
Restarting Windows when the mouse is dead
but the keyboard is alive .................................................................24
Restarting when everything is dead ..................................................24
What to do about “restart guilt”.........................................................25
viii Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Chapter 3: Telling a Hardware Problem
from a Software Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Whose Problem Is It? .....................................................................................27
Is it a hardware problem?....................................................................28
How hardware fails...............................................................................28
Is it a software problem? .....................................................................29
Some good questions to ask yourself ................................................30
Hardware Things to Check When You Smell Trouble................................31
Listen!.....................................................................................................31
Touch! ....................................................................................................32
Check the monitor................................................................................33
Other hardware tricks to try...............................................................33
Using Software to Check for Hardware Problems ......................................34
The Device Manager ............................................................................34
Diagnostic tools ....................................................................................35
Chapter 4: The “R” Chapter (Reinstall,
Restore, Recycle, Recovery) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Restoring from the Recycle Bin....................................................................37
Restoring a file you deleted recently .................................................39
Restoring a deleted file when you know its name............................39
Restoring a deleted file when you know which
application created it (by file type)................................................39
Using System Restore ....................................................................................40
Knowing when to set restore points ..................................................40
Setting a restore point .........................................................................40
Restoring the system ...........................................................................41
Undoing a System Restore ..................................................................42
Restoring Files from a Backup......................................................................43
Restoring a single file, folder, or folders............................................44
Restoring an application .....................................................................46
Restoring the entire hard drive ..........................................................46
Reinstalling Stuff.............................................................................................47
Reinstalling applications .....................................................................48
Bringing back bits of Windows ...........................................................49
Chapter 5: Your Last Resort: Tech Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
When to Use Tech Support ...........................................................................52
Boring tech-support history that you don’t have to read...............52
Before you call tech support ..............................................................53
Finding your version of Windows.......................................................54
Finding the version number in an application program..................55
Making the call......................................................................................55
Tech Support on the Web (Better than You Think) ...................................56
Finding the manufacturer’s Web site .................................................56
Using the Microsoft Knowledge Base ................................................57
Downloading a new driver ..................................................................58
Table of Contents ix
Windows XP and Remote Assistance ..........................................................59
Setting up your system for remote assistance .................................59
Getting someone to help you..............................................................60
Performing remote assistance on another system ..........................62
Part II: Troubleshooting Minor Irks and Quirks ..............65
Chapter 6: “This Just Bugs Me!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Funny Startup Noises ....................................................................................67
In the presence of unwanted noises ..................................................68
In the presence of unwelcome silence...............................................69
The Display Is Stuck in “Dumb” Mode.........................................................70
Checking the screen resolution ..........................................................70
Updating your graphics device driver...............................................72
Annoying Programs in the System Tray/Notification Area.......................74
“So what the heck are those icons, anyway?” ..................................75
Required icons for the system tray/notification area......................75
Killing off teensy icons in the system tray/notification area ..........75
Sleep Mode Poops Out, Hibernate Poops Out, We All Poop Out Now ....78
The PC can’t recover from Sleep mode .............................................78
“The Hibernation button is missing!” ................................................78
Fixing the power-management software ...........................................79
Oh, That Annoying Logon Dialog Box!.........................................................80
You Can’t Open a File, or the Open With Fiasco ........................................81
That Wicked File Is Read-Only......................................................................83
Full-Screen DOS Prompt ................................................................................84
Chapter 7: “Gosh! This Is Embarrassing!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Deleting Recent Documents from the My Recent Documents Menu.......88
Historically Speaking .....................................................................................89
Clearing places from the history ........................................................89
Clearing all the history ........................................................................90
Disabling history altogether ...............................................................91
Undoing the AutoComplete Nightmare .......................................................92
Turning off AutoComplete...................................................................92
Removing an MRU list..........................................................................94
Dealing with Nasty Wallpaper!......................................................................97
Hiding Something on the Screen ..................................................................98
Chapter 8: Startup Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
How the Computer Starts..............................................................................99
Immediate Trouble.......................................................................................101
“I see nothing — just a blinking prompt!” .......................................102
The nefarious Non-System Disk error message..............................103
The dreaded Missing Operating System message .........................103
The computer stupidly starts from another drive.........................105
x Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Dealing with the Boot Menu .......................................................................105
Getting at the Windows Advanced Options Menu (Startup Menu) .......107
Hunting Down Mystery Startup Messages................................................110
For some reason, Selective Startup is on ........................................110
The missing DLL or VxD file mystery ..............................................111
Stopping Things from Automatically Starting ..........................................113
Deleting a program from the Startup folder....................................114
Creating a NotStartup folder.............................................................115
Where else do startup programs lurk? ............................................116
Mystery startup programs from beyond.........................................118
Disabling a window that appears every time
you start the computer ..................................................................119
“My PC Annoyingly Phones the Internet Every Time It Starts!”.............120
Chapter 9: Finding Lost Files and Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Finding and Searching .................................................................................121
Why do your files get up and go? .....................................................122
The quick Search command..............................................................122
Searching for something you created or
downloaded today or yesterday...................................................123
Searching for something when you
know only the file’s contents.........................................................125
How to find a found file’s folder .......................................................126
“Wow! This Search command is awesome!
Is there anything it cannot find?” .................................................127
Recovering Other Lost Things....................................................................127
“The shortcut points to nowhere!” ..................................................127
“The whatever-submenu on the Start menu is missing!” ..............129
Forgotten Passwords ...................................................................................130
Missing Internet passwords ..............................................................131
Missing Web page passwords ...........................................................131
Using password recovery in Windows ............................................132
The administrator’s passwords........................................................134
Chapter 10: Sounds Like Trouble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
It Is the Sound of Silence .............................................................................136
Checking the speakers.......................................................................136
Checking the master volume control...............................................138
Last stop: The Device Manager ........................................................139
Anything else to check as far as sound goes? ................................141
Sounds to Scheme Over ..............................................................................141
Other Sound Weirdness...............................................................................142
“Sound gets suddenly loud!” .............................................................143
The microphone gets muted.............................................................143
Annoying MIDI files play on Web pages or in e-mail ......................143
That stuttering sound ........................................................................144
Table of Contents xi
Chapter 11: The Mystery of System Resources
(and Memory Leaks) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
What Are System Resources? .....................................................................145
Monitoring resources.........................................................................146
Perusing performance .......................................................................148
Leaky Memory ..............................................................................................150
What’s a memory leak?......................................................................150
Tracking down a memory leak .........................................................150
Things You Can Do to Improve Resources................................................152
Your system will never have 100 percent free resources..............152
Number-one strategy: Add more RAM!............................................152
Remove excess fonts..........................................................................152
Disable unneeded background programs .......................................154
Mind what you install; uninstall what you don’t use.....................154
Chapter 12: The Slow PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Slow Is Relative.............................................................................................155
Why things can get slow (and what you can do about it).............156
Any way to speed things up? ............................................................157
Some Slow Q&A ............................................................................................158
Chapter 13: Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor Dilemmas . . . . . . . . . . .163
The Best Way to Tell Whose Fault It Is ......................................................164
Keyboard Kraziness .....................................................................................165
The keyboard’s Control Panel home................................................165
The language problem .......................................................................166
Mouse Mayhem ............................................................................................167
Give me mouse control! .....................................................................167
Common mouse maladies and cures ...............................................168
Your mouse is getting s-l-o-w ............................................................170
Monitor Madness .........................................................................................170
A Time to Clean ............................................................................................171
Yes, you can clean your keyboard....................................................171
Cleaning the mouse............................................................................172
Cleaning your monitor.......................................................................173
Chapter 14: Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175
So Is It the Printer?.......................................................................................175
Your best friend, Print Preview.........................................................176
Controlling the printer from your application................................177
Envelope printing tips .......................................................................180
Where the Printer Stuff Hides in Windows ...............................................181
Finding the Printers and Faxes folder..............................................181
Your printer’s window .......................................................................183
Little printer guy.................................................................................183
xii Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
And Then, the Printer Goes Wacky ............................................................183
General troubleshooting advice .......................................................184
Things to check when the printer isn’t printing ............................185
There are lines or blanks on the page .............................................186
The “weird text atop the page” problem .........................................186
The color is all wrong (too pink, too blue,
too green, and so on) .....................................................................187
“My black-and-white image prints dark blue”.................................188
Halting a printer run amok................................................................188
Printer Maintenance Chores.......................................................................189
Chapter 15: Dealing with Disk Disaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
Smells Like Hard Drive Trouble..................................................................191
“A hard drive is missing!” ..................................................................192
Hard drive failure warning signs ......................................................193
What to do when you suspect trouble ............................................194
CD-ROM Catastrophes! ................................................................................195
The all-purpose, do-or-die, tried-and-true
CD-ROM troubleshooter ................................................................196
Turning autoplay on or off ................................................................197
CD-R and CD-RW drive stuff ..............................................................199
Floppy Disk Woes .........................................................................................200
“The floppy disk doesn’t format!” ....................................................200
Floppy disks are unreliable ...............................................................201
Chapter 16: Correcting Graphics Disgrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Unraveling Resolution .................................................................................204
What are pixels? .................................................................................204
The mysterious depths of color .......................................................205
The number of dots per inch ............................................................205
“Why does the image look so large on my monitor?”....................207
Changing the monitor’s resolution...................................................208
How the resolution affects the image size ......................................210
“How can I see the whole image?”....................................................210
Setting Resolution ........................................................................................211
“At what resolution should an image be for e-mail?” ....................211
“At what resolution should an image be
for photo editing or enlarging?”....................................................212
“How can I change my image’s resolution?” ...................................212
“How can I resize an image?” ............................................................212
Glorious Graphics File Formats..................................................................213
Graphics file format reference ..........................................................213
The JPG compression stuff ...............................................................214
“What’s the best graphics file format for e-mail?” .........................215
“How can I convert my image from the
[whatever] format into JPG?”........................................................215
Table of Contents xiii
Chapter 17: Internet Connection Mayhem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217
Just a Sampling of the Zillions of Things That Can Go Wrong
with Connecting to the Internet with a Dial-Up Modem ......................217
“Windows doesn’t remember my password!”.................................218
Automatic-connection dilemmas .....................................................219
The PC dials in to the Internet at seemingly random times .........222
Connection mysteries in Outlook Express......................................223
Disconnection mysteries in Outlook Express.................................224
Missing modem guys!.........................................................................225
Hanging up the modem without restarting the computer ............226
Losing the Connection.................................................................................227
Disabling the Annoying Call Waiting..........................................................228
Humble Words of Advice for When Your
Broadband Connection Goes Bonkers...................................................230
Adjusting the Connection Time-Outs ........................................................230
Improving Your Internet Connection Speed .............................................233
Chapter 18: Web Weirdness with Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235
Maintaining and Configuring Internet Explorer........................................236
Changing the home page ...................................................................236
“I cannot change the home page!”....................................................237
“Why does it tell me that there’s a
new version of Internet Explorer?”...............................................237
Adjusting the temporary file size .....................................................238
Common Puzzles and Solutions .................................................................239
“The text is too small to read!” .........................................................239
Pop-up porn puzzles ..........................................................................240
Where did the download go? ............................................................241
JavaScript errors, or “Error on page” ..............................................241
Disabling ActiveX ...............................................................................242
Printing Web pages.............................................................................245
Content Advisor Woes .................................................................................246
Dealing with Cookies ...................................................................................247
What’s a cookie? .................................................................................247
The official way of deleting cookies.................................................248
An unofficial (yet effective) way to delete cookies ........................248
Preventing cookies in the first place ...............................................249
Chapter 19: E-Mail Calamities with Outlook Express . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
General Outlook Express Nonsense...........................................................252
“The links don’t work!” ......................................................................252
“Spell check doesn’t work!”...............................................................254
“The Contacts panel is missing!”......................................................255
Receiving duplicate messages ..........................................................256
Displaying the BCC field ....................................................................257
Fragmenting large messages .............................................................258
People complain that you send them unreadable messages .......258
xiv Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Folder Folderol .............................................................................................259
The mystery of the Drafts folder......................................................259
Copying an e-mail folder to a “real” folder......................................260
Any way to undelete a message?......................................................260
Attachment Adversity .................................................................................261
You just cannot open this attachment!............................................261
But my Macintosh friend swears that it’s a real JPG image! .........262
Beware of AOL .ART files...................................................................262
“The attachment never got there!”...................................................263
Printing an e-mail attachment...........................................................263
“I forward a message, and the image
is replaced by a little red X!” .........................................................263
Vain Efforts to Filter Spam ..........................................................................264
Reviewing your message rules .........................................................264
Unblocking accidentally blocked senders ......................................265
Chapter 20: General Windows Disruption
(Or, “Is This PC Possessed?”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267
“That Looks Stupid”.....................................................................................267
Screwy colors......................................................................................268
Fuzzy icon trouble ..............................................................................269
Jiggling icons.......................................................................................269
Getting more stuff on the screen......................................................270
The window has slid off the screen .................................................271
The window is too large for the screen ...........................................271
The window is too tiny ......................................................................272
The taskbar has moved .....................................................................272
The taskbar has disappeared ...........................................................274
Locking the taskbar............................................................................275
“The menu, button, or some other element
in the program, is missing!”...........................................................275
You Open the File and You Get Crap..........................................................276
Uninstalling Uninstalled Programs ............................................................277
Another way to uninstall ...................................................................277
Use CleanSweep, my boy!..................................................................278
Giving up and deleting the damn programs....................................278
The uninstalled program remains on the stupid
Add/Remove Programs list............................................................279
The Big, Scary Question of Reinstalling Windows ...................................280
“Are there any benefits to reinstalling Windows?” ........................281
What about reformatting the hard drive? .......................................282
Chapter 21: Windows Can Be Your Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283
Windows Event Logs....................................................................................283
Shutting Down All Running Programs .......................................................286
How to shut down all your running programs ...............................286
Disabling your antivirus, firewall, and so on ..................................287
Processes and Services Here, There, and Everywhere ...........................288
Table of Contents xv
Checking System Restore............................................................................291
Confirming the status of System Restore ........................................291
Setting the amount of disk space used by System Restore ..........292
Chapter 22: Shutdown Constipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295
What to Do When Your Computer Doesn’t Shut Down ...........................295
“Why doesn’t it shut down?” ............................................................296
Common things that stop up shutdown..........................................296
Try this first! (System Restore) ........................................................297
To fix a problem with a corrupt shutdown sound .........................297
Restart Windows quickly...................................................................298
Try shutting down in Safe mode.......................................................298
Check logs and error messages ........................................................298
Disabling Some Things to See Whether They’re at Fault ........................299
Disabling the graphics adapter ........................................................299
Disabling power management ..........................................................301
Disabling the network........................................................................301
The Annoying Shutdown/Instant Restart Problem..................................302
Help Me, Microsoft! ......................................................................................304
Controlling the Power Button’s Behavior .................................................304
Forcing the power button to turn the computer off ......................304
Changing the power button’s function ............................................305
Part III: Preventive Maintenance ................................307
Chapter 23: Maintaining Your Disk Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .309
Disk Maintenance Tools ..............................................................................309
Accessing the disk tools ....................................................................310
Is not the disk drive riddled with errors?........................................311
Fragment me not ................................................................................313
Increasing Disk Storage ...............................................................................315
Checking disk space...........................................................................316
Some space-saving suggestions........................................................316
Disk Cleanup .......................................................................................317
Other things to try .............................................................................319
Scheduling Automatic Maintenance ..........................................................321
The Scheduled Tasks window...........................................................322
Adding a task ......................................................................................322
Test-running a task .............................................................................324
Checking on your task’s progress ....................................................325
Removing a task..................................................................................325
Chapter 24: Useful Tools and Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .327
Weapons within Windows ...........................................................................327
The System Configuration Utility (MSCONFIG) ..............................328
The Device Manager ..........................................................................329
xvi Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
System Information ............................................................................330
The System File Checker ...................................................................332
Automatic Updates.............................................................................333
Dr. Watson ...........................................................................................335
Welcome to Safe Mode ................................................................................336
Starting in Safe mode .........................................................................336
Fixing things in Safe mode.................................................................337
You’re done with Safe mode..............................................................338
Internet Tools ...............................................................................................339
Antivirus ..............................................................................................339
Anti-spam ............................................................................................341
Anti-spyware .......................................................................................341
Anti-hijacking ......................................................................................343
Firewall protection .............................................................................345
Chapter 25: The Benefits of Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .347
What to Back Up, What Not to Back Up ....................................................347
How to Back Up ............................................................................................349
Backing up without backup software ..............................................350
Backing up with real backup software.............................................352
When to Back Up..........................................................................................355
Part IV: The Part of Tens ............................................357
Chapter 26: The Ten Rules of Tech Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .359
Chapter 27: Ten Dumb Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .363
Chapter 28: Ten Things You Should Never or Always Do . . . . . . . . . .369
Appendix: Windows Startup Program Reference ...........373
Index........................................................................375
Introduction
W ow! This book made it to the second edition. Who’d have thunk that
there was that much PC trouble out there?
Ah. The innocent. The naïve. The newbies. . . .
For the uninitiated, I have news for you: Trouble lurks around your computer
like teenagers at the mall. That’s why you need this book! It uncovers the
secrets and the power lurking beneath the goofy-colored Windows shell.
Trouble will run scared and naked as you merely show this book’s cover to
your computer monitor. No more waiting on hold to get the answers! No more
reinstalling Windows! The truth, well, it’s in here!
Computers aren’t supposed to die or crash or hang or bomb or toss a hissy
fit for no apparent reason. But, as any computer owner knows, computers
often don’t do what they’re told. In it-was-working-yesterday syndrome, for
some reason your computer decides that today is a different day and so it
will act up. And in the who-owns-the-problem? issue, you have to decide
whether the printer isn’t working because of the printer itself or because of
Windows or because of the application that’s trying to print. I won’t even
bore you with random Internet-disconnect problems, dead mice, monitors
thrust into stupid mode, and a myriad of other problems — because these
and other issues are all adequately covered, cured, and remedied throughout
this handy little book.
Oh! And that Dummies thing? Face it: Anyone who uses a computer feels
intimidated enough. It’s not that you’re a dummy, but dealing with these plas-
tic and silicon monsters certainly makes anyone feel like a dummy. Relax!
It’s the For Dummies approach that lets you recognize that it’s you who is in
charge of your PC’s destiny. You can tame the beast! This book shows you how.
About This Book
This is a problem-solving book. After all, if every problem mentioned in this
book were to land on a computer at one time, even I would toss the thing out
the window and take up yodeling or log rolling instead. The idea here is simple:
You have a problem, and you look up the solution.
Troubleshooting
Your PC
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
2ND EDITION
by Dan Gookin
Troubleshooting
Your PC
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
2ND EDITION
by Dan Gookin
Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies®, 2nd Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2004117995
ISBN: 0-7645-7742-5
Manufactured in the United States of America
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About the Author
Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has con-
tributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than
90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books
that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than
14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that
his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published
in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time
moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller
(although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT
best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books,
which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; C All-in-One
Desk Reference For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; Buying a
Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He also
publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” full
of tips, how-tos, and computer news. He also maintains the vast and helpful
Web page www.wambooli.com.
Dan holds a degree in communications and visual arts from the University
of California, San Diego. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he enjoys
spending time with his four boys in the gentle woods of Idaho.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form
located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
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Project Editor: Rebecca Whitney Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers,
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Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director
Publishing for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher
Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director
Composition Services
Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services
Contents at a Glance
Introduction .................................................................1
Part I: What the @#$%&*!? ........................................7
Chapter 1: It’s Not Your Fault! Well, It Might Be Your Fault
(How to Tell Whether It’s Your Fault)............................................................................9
Chapter 2: Stuff to Try First ............................................................................................19
Chapter 3: Telling a Hardware Problem from a Software Problem ............................27
Chapter 4: The “R” Chapter (Reinstall, Restore, Recycle, Recovery)........................37
Chapter 5: Your Last Resort: Tech Support ..................................................................51
Part II: Troubleshooting Minor Irks and Quirks..............65
Chapter 6: “This Just Bugs Me!” .....................................................................................67
Chapter 7: “Gosh! This Is Embarrassing!” .....................................................................87
Chapter 8: Startup Problems ..........................................................................................99
Chapter 9: Finding Lost Files and Things ....................................................................121
Chapter 10: Sounds Like Trouble .................................................................................135
Chapter 11: The Mystery of System Resources (and Memory Leaks) ....................145
Chapter 12: The Slow PC ...............................................................................................155
Chapter 13: Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor Dilemmas.............................................163
Chapter 14: Printer Problems .......................................................................................175
Chapter 15: Dealing with Disk Disaster .......................................................................191
Chapter 16: Correcting Graphics Disgrace..................................................................203
Chapter 17: Internet Connection Mayhem ..................................................................217
Chapter 18: Web Weirdness with Internet Explorer...................................................235
Chapter 19: E-Mail Calamities with Outlook Express.................................................251
Chapter 20: General Windows Disruption (Or, “Is This PC Possessed?”) ...............267
Chapter 21: Windows Can Be Your Friend ..................................................................283
Chapter 22: Shutdown Constipation ............................................................................295
Part III: Preventive Maintenance ...............................357
Chapter 23: Maintaining Your Disk Drives ..................................................................309
Chapter 24: Useful Tools and Weapons .......................................................................327
Chapter 25: The Benefits of Backup.............................................................................347
vi Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Part IV: The Part of Tens ...........................................357
Chapter 26: The Ten Rules of Tech Support ...............................................................359
Chapter 27: Ten Dumb Error Messages .......................................................................363
Chapter 28: Ten Things You Should Never or Always Do .........................................369
Appendix: Windows Startup Program Reference ..........373
Index .......................................................................375
Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................1
About This Book...............................................................................................1
How This Book Works......................................................................................2
What You’re Not to Read.................................................................................3
Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................4
How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................4
Part I: What the @#$%&*!?.....................................................................4
Part II: Troubleshooting Minor Irks and Quirks .................................5
Part III: Preventive Maintenance ..........................................................5
Part IV: The Part of Tens........................................................................5
Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................5
Where to Go from Here....................................................................................6
Part I: What the @#$%&*!? .........................................7
Chapter 1: It’s Not Your Fault! Well, It Might Be Your Fault
(How to Tell Whether It’s Your Fault) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9
Why It’s Not Your Fault..................................................................................10
How It Possibly Could Be Your Fault ...........................................................11
You did something new to the computer ..........................................12
You were bad and deleted files you shouldn’t have deleted ..........12
Other ways to remove files you didn’t create yourself ...................14
How old is your PC? .............................................................................15
What You Can Do about It .............................................................................16
Chapter 2: Stuff to Try First . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
Some Quick Keyboard Things You Can Do .................................................19
Test the keyboard.................................................................................19
Use Ctrl+Z for immediate file relief ....................................................20
Escape! Escape!.....................................................................................21
The Drastic Measure of Restarting Windows (Yet It Works) ....................22
Restarting Windows .............................................................................22
Restarting Windows when the mouse is dead
but the keyboard is alive .................................................................24
Restarting when everything is dead ..................................................24
What to do about “restart guilt”.........................................................25
viii Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Chapter 3: Telling a Hardware Problem
from a Software Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27
Whose Problem Is It? .....................................................................................27
Is it a hardware problem?....................................................................28
How hardware fails...............................................................................28
Is it a software problem? .....................................................................29
Some good questions to ask yourself ................................................30
Hardware Things to Check When You Smell Trouble................................31
Listen!.....................................................................................................31
Touch! ....................................................................................................32
Check the monitor................................................................................33
Other hardware tricks to try...............................................................33
Using Software to Check for Hardware Problems ......................................34
The Device Manager ............................................................................34
Diagnostic tools ....................................................................................35
Chapter 4: The “R” Chapter (Reinstall,
Restore, Recycle, Recovery) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37
Restoring from the Recycle Bin....................................................................37
Restoring a file you deleted recently .................................................39
Restoring a deleted file when you know its name............................39
Restoring a deleted file when you know which
application created it (by file type)................................................39
Using System Restore ....................................................................................40
Knowing when to set restore points ..................................................40
Setting a restore point .........................................................................40
Restoring the system ...........................................................................41
Undoing a System Restore ..................................................................42
Restoring Files from a Backup......................................................................43
Restoring a single file, folder, or folders............................................44
Restoring an application .....................................................................46
Restoring the entire hard drive ..........................................................46
Reinstalling Stuff.............................................................................................47
Reinstalling applications .....................................................................48
Bringing back bits of Windows ...........................................................49
Chapter 5: Your Last Resort: Tech Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51
When to Use Tech Support ...........................................................................52
Boring tech-support history that you don’t have to read...............52
Before you call tech support ..............................................................53
Finding your version of Windows.......................................................54
Finding the version number in an application program..................55
Making the call......................................................................................55
Tech Support on the Web (Better than You Think) ...................................56
Finding the manufacturer’s Web site .................................................56
Using the Microsoft Knowledge Base ................................................57
Downloading a new driver ..................................................................58
Table of Contents ix
Windows XP and Remote Assistance ..........................................................59
Setting up your system for remote assistance .................................59
Getting someone to help you..............................................................60
Performing remote assistance on another system ..........................62
Part II: Troubleshooting Minor Irks and Quirks ..............65
Chapter 6: “This Just Bugs Me!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Funny Startup Noises ....................................................................................67
In the presence of unwanted noises ..................................................68
In the presence of unwelcome silence...............................................69
The Display Is Stuck in “Dumb” Mode.........................................................70
Checking the screen resolution ..........................................................70
Updating your graphics device driver...............................................72
Annoying Programs in the System Tray/Notification Area.......................74
“So what the heck are those icons, anyway?” ..................................75
Required icons for the system tray/notification area......................75
Killing off teensy icons in the system tray/notification area ..........75
Sleep Mode Poops Out, Hibernate Poops Out, We All Poop Out Now ....78
The PC can’t recover from Sleep mode .............................................78
“The Hibernation button is missing!” ................................................78
Fixing the power-management software ...........................................79
Oh, That Annoying Logon Dialog Box!.........................................................80
You Can’t Open a File, or the Open With Fiasco ........................................81
That Wicked File Is Read-Only......................................................................83
Full-Screen DOS Prompt ................................................................................84
Chapter 7: “Gosh! This Is Embarrassing!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87
Deleting Recent Documents from the My Recent Documents Menu.......88
Historically Speaking .....................................................................................89
Clearing places from the history ........................................................89
Clearing all the history ........................................................................90
Disabling history altogether ...............................................................91
Undoing the AutoComplete Nightmare .......................................................92
Turning off AutoComplete...................................................................92
Removing an MRU list..........................................................................94
Dealing with Nasty Wallpaper!......................................................................97
Hiding Something on the Screen ..................................................................98
Chapter 8: Startup Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99
How the Computer Starts..............................................................................99
Immediate Trouble.......................................................................................101
“I see nothing — just a blinking prompt!” .......................................102
The nefarious Non-System Disk error message..............................103
The dreaded Missing Operating System message .........................103
The computer stupidly starts from another drive.........................105
x Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Dealing with the Boot Menu .......................................................................105
Getting at the Windows Advanced Options Menu (Startup Menu) .......107
Hunting Down Mystery Startup Messages................................................110
For some reason, Selective Startup is on ........................................110
The missing DLL or VxD file mystery ..............................................111
Stopping Things from Automatically Starting ..........................................113
Deleting a program from the Startup folder....................................114
Creating a NotStartup folder.............................................................115
Where else do startup programs lurk? ............................................116
Mystery startup programs from beyond.........................................118
Disabling a window that appears every time
you start the computer ..................................................................119
“My PC Annoyingly Phones the Internet Every Time It Starts!”.............120
Chapter 9: Finding Lost Files and Things . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121
Finding and Searching .................................................................................121
Why do your files get up and go? .....................................................122
The quick Search command..............................................................122
Searching for something you created or
downloaded today or yesterday...................................................123
Searching for something when you
know only the file’s contents.........................................................125
How to find a found file’s folder .......................................................126
“Wow! This Search command is awesome!
Is there anything it cannot find?” .................................................127
Recovering Other Lost Things....................................................................127
“The shortcut points to nowhere!” ..................................................127
“The whatever-submenu on the Start menu is missing!” ..............129
Forgotten Passwords ...................................................................................130
Missing Internet passwords ..............................................................131
Missing Web page passwords ...........................................................131
Using password recovery in Windows ............................................132
The administrator’s passwords........................................................134
Chapter 10: Sounds Like Trouble . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .135
It Is the Sound of Silence .............................................................................136
Checking the speakers.......................................................................136
Checking the master volume control...............................................138
Last stop: The Device Manager ........................................................139
Anything else to check as far as sound goes? ................................141
Sounds to Scheme Over ..............................................................................141
Other Sound Weirdness...............................................................................142
“Sound gets suddenly loud!” .............................................................143
The microphone gets muted.............................................................143
Annoying MIDI files play on Web pages or in e-mail ......................143
That stuttering sound ........................................................................144
Table of Contents xi
Chapter 11: The Mystery of System Resources
(and Memory Leaks) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145
What Are System Resources? .....................................................................145
Monitoring resources.........................................................................146
Perusing performance .......................................................................148
Leaky Memory ..............................................................................................150
What’s a memory leak?......................................................................150
Tracking down a memory leak .........................................................150
Things You Can Do to Improve Resources................................................152
Your system will never have 100 percent free resources..............152
Number-one strategy: Add more RAM!............................................152
Remove excess fonts..........................................................................152
Disable unneeded background programs .......................................154
Mind what you install; uninstall what you don’t use.....................154
Chapter 12: The Slow PC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .155
Slow Is Relative.............................................................................................155
Why things can get slow (and what you can do about it).............156
Any way to speed things up? ............................................................157
Some Slow Q&A ............................................................................................158
Chapter 13: Keyboard, Mouse, and Monitor Dilemmas . . . . . . . . . . .163
The Best Way to Tell Whose Fault It Is ......................................................164
Keyboard Kraziness .....................................................................................165
The keyboard’s Control Panel home................................................165
The language problem .......................................................................166
Mouse Mayhem ............................................................................................167
Give me mouse control! .....................................................................167
Common mouse maladies and cures ...............................................168
Your mouse is getting s-l-o-w ............................................................170
Monitor Madness .........................................................................................170
A Time to Clean ............................................................................................171
Yes, you can clean your keyboard....................................................171
Cleaning the mouse............................................................................172
Cleaning your monitor.......................................................................173
Chapter 14: Printer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175
So Is It the Printer?.......................................................................................175
Your best friend, Print Preview.........................................................176
Controlling the printer from your application................................177
Envelope printing tips .......................................................................180
Where the Printer Stuff Hides in Windows ...............................................181
Finding the Printers and Faxes folder..............................................181
Your printer’s window .......................................................................183
Little printer guy.................................................................................183
xii Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
And Then, the Printer Goes Wacky ............................................................183
General troubleshooting advice .......................................................184
Things to check when the printer isn’t printing ............................185
There are lines or blanks on the page .............................................186
The “weird text atop the page” problem .........................................186
The color is all wrong (too pink, too blue,
too green, and so on) .....................................................................187
“My black-and-white image prints dark blue”.................................188
Halting a printer run amok................................................................188
Printer Maintenance Chores.......................................................................189
Chapter 15: Dealing with Disk Disaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .191
Smells Like Hard Drive Trouble..................................................................191
“A hard drive is missing!” ..................................................................192
Hard drive failure warning signs ......................................................193
What to do when you suspect trouble ............................................194
CD-ROM Catastrophes! ................................................................................195
The all-purpose, do-or-die, tried-and-true
CD-ROM troubleshooter ................................................................196
Turning autoplay on or off ................................................................197
CD-R and CD-RW drive stuff ..............................................................199
Floppy Disk Woes .........................................................................................200
“The floppy disk doesn’t format!” ....................................................200
Floppy disks are unreliable ...............................................................201
Chapter 16: Correcting Graphics Disgrace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203
Unraveling Resolution .................................................................................204
What are pixels? .................................................................................204
The mysterious depths of color .......................................................205
The number of dots per inch ............................................................205
“Why does the image look so large on my monitor?”....................207
Changing the monitor’s resolution...................................................208
How the resolution affects the image size ......................................210
“How can I see the whole image?”....................................................210
Setting Resolution ........................................................................................211
“At what resolution should an image be for e-mail?” ....................211
“At what resolution should an image be
for photo editing or enlarging?”....................................................212
“How can I change my image’s resolution?” ...................................212
“How can I resize an image?” ............................................................212
Glorious Graphics File Formats..................................................................213
Graphics file format reference ..........................................................213
The JPG compression stuff ...............................................................214
“What’s the best graphics file format for e-mail?” .........................215
“How can I convert my image from the
[whatever] format into JPG?”........................................................215
Table of Contents xiii
Chapter 17: Internet Connection Mayhem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .217
Just a Sampling of the Zillions of Things That Can Go Wrong
with Connecting to the Internet with a Dial-Up Modem ......................217
“Windows doesn’t remember my password!”.................................218
Automatic-connection dilemmas .....................................................219
The PC dials in to the Internet at seemingly random times .........222
Connection mysteries in Outlook Express......................................223
Disconnection mysteries in Outlook Express.................................224
Missing modem guys!.........................................................................225
Hanging up the modem without restarting the computer ............226
Losing the Connection.................................................................................227
Disabling the Annoying Call Waiting..........................................................228
Humble Words of Advice for When Your
Broadband Connection Goes Bonkers...................................................230
Adjusting the Connection Time-Outs ........................................................230
Improving Your Internet Connection Speed .............................................233
Chapter 18: Web Weirdness with Internet Explorer . . . . . . . . . . . . . .235
Maintaining and Configuring Internet Explorer........................................236
Changing the home page ...................................................................236
“I cannot change the home page!”....................................................237
“Why does it tell me that there’s a
new version of Internet Explorer?”...............................................237
Adjusting the temporary file size .....................................................238
Common Puzzles and Solutions .................................................................239
“The text is too small to read!” .........................................................239
Pop-up porn puzzles ..........................................................................240
Where did the download go? ............................................................241
JavaScript errors, or “Error on page” ..............................................241
Disabling ActiveX ...............................................................................242
Printing Web pages.............................................................................245
Content Advisor Woes .................................................................................246
Dealing with Cookies ...................................................................................247
What’s a cookie? .................................................................................247
The official way of deleting cookies.................................................248
An unofficial (yet effective) way to delete cookies ........................248
Preventing cookies in the first place ...............................................249
Chapter 19: E-Mail Calamities with Outlook Express . . . . . . . . . . . . .251
General Outlook Express Nonsense...........................................................252
“The links don’t work!” ......................................................................252
“Spell check doesn’t work!”...............................................................254
“The Contacts panel is missing!”......................................................255
Receiving duplicate messages ..........................................................256
Displaying the BCC field ....................................................................257
Fragmenting large messages .............................................................258
People complain that you send them unreadable messages .......258
xiv Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Folder Folderol .............................................................................................259
The mystery of the Drafts folder......................................................259
Copying an e-mail folder to a “real” folder......................................260
Any way to undelete a message?......................................................260
Attachment Adversity .................................................................................261
You just cannot open this attachment!............................................261
But my Macintosh friend swears that it’s a real JPG image! .........262
Beware of AOL .ART files...................................................................262
“The attachment never got there!”...................................................263
Printing an e-mail attachment...........................................................263
“I forward a message, and the image
is replaced by a little red X!” .........................................................263
Vain Efforts to Filter Spam ..........................................................................264
Reviewing your message rules .........................................................264
Unblocking accidentally blocked senders ......................................265
Chapter 20: General Windows Disruption
(Or, “Is This PC Possessed?”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267
“That Looks Stupid”.....................................................................................267
Screwy colors......................................................................................268
Fuzzy icon trouble ..............................................................................269
Jiggling icons.......................................................................................269
Getting more stuff on the screen......................................................270
The window has slid off the screen .................................................271
The window is too large for the screen ...........................................271
The window is too tiny ......................................................................272
The taskbar has moved .....................................................................272
The taskbar has disappeared ...........................................................274
Locking the taskbar............................................................................275
“The menu, button, or some other element
in the program, is missing!”...........................................................275
You Open the File and You Get Crap..........................................................276
Uninstalling Uninstalled Programs ............................................................277
Another way to uninstall ...................................................................277
Use CleanSweep, my boy!..................................................................278
Giving up and deleting the damn programs....................................278
The uninstalled program remains on the stupid
Add/Remove Programs list............................................................279
The Big, Scary Question of Reinstalling Windows ...................................280
“Are there any benefits to reinstalling Windows?” ........................281
What about reformatting the hard drive? .......................................282
Chapter 21: Windows Can Be Your Friend . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283
Windows Event Logs....................................................................................283
Shutting Down All Running Programs .......................................................286
How to shut down all your running programs ...............................286
Disabling your antivirus, firewall, and so on ..................................287
Processes and Services Here, There, and Everywhere ...........................288
Table of Contents xv
Checking System Restore............................................................................291
Confirming the status of System Restore ........................................291
Setting the amount of disk space used by System Restore ..........292
Chapter 22: Shutdown Constipation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .295
What to Do When Your Computer Doesn’t Shut Down ...........................295
“Why doesn’t it shut down?” ............................................................296
Common things that stop up shutdown..........................................296
Try this first! (System Restore) ........................................................297
To fix a problem with a corrupt shutdown sound .........................297
Restart Windows quickly...................................................................298
Try shutting down in Safe mode.......................................................298
Check logs and error messages ........................................................298
Disabling Some Things to See Whether They’re at Fault ........................299
Disabling the graphics adapter ........................................................299
Disabling power management ..........................................................301
Disabling the network........................................................................301
The Annoying Shutdown/Instant Restart Problem..................................302
Help Me, Microsoft! ......................................................................................304
Controlling the Power Button’s Behavior .................................................304
Forcing the power button to turn the computer off ......................304
Changing the power button’s function ............................................305
Part III: Preventive Maintenance ................................307
Chapter 23: Maintaining Your Disk Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .309
Disk Maintenance Tools ..............................................................................309
Accessing the disk tools ....................................................................310
Is not the disk drive riddled with errors?........................................311
Fragment me not ................................................................................313
Increasing Disk Storage ...............................................................................315
Checking disk space...........................................................................316
Some space-saving suggestions........................................................316
Disk Cleanup .......................................................................................317
Other things to try .............................................................................319
Scheduling Automatic Maintenance ..........................................................321
The Scheduled Tasks window...........................................................322
Adding a task ......................................................................................322
Test-running a task .............................................................................324
Checking on your task’s progress ....................................................325
Removing a task..................................................................................325
Chapter 24: Useful Tools and Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .327
Weapons within Windows ...........................................................................327
The System Configuration Utility (MSCONFIG) ..............................328
The Device Manager ..........................................................................329
xvi Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies, 2nd Edition
System Information ............................................................................330
The System File Checker ...................................................................332
Automatic Updates.............................................................................333
Dr. Watson ...........................................................................................335
Welcome to Safe Mode ................................................................................336
Starting in Safe mode .........................................................................336
Fixing things in Safe mode.................................................................337
You’re done with Safe mode..............................................................338
Internet Tools ...............................................................................................339
Antivirus ..............................................................................................339
Anti-spam ............................................................................................341
Anti-spyware .......................................................................................341
Anti-hijacking ......................................................................................343
Firewall protection .............................................................................345
Chapter 25: The Benefits of Backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .347
What to Back Up, What Not to Back Up ....................................................347
How to Back Up ............................................................................................349
Backing up without backup software ..............................................350
Backing up with real backup software.............................................352
When to Back Up..........................................................................................355
Part IV: The Part of Tens ............................................357
Chapter 26: The Ten Rules of Tech Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .359
Chapter 27: Ten Dumb Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .363
Chapter 28: Ten Things You Should Never or Always Do . . . . . . . . . .369
Appendix: Windows Startup Program Reference ...........373
Index........................................................................375
Introduction
W ow! This book made it to the second edition. Who’d have thunk that
there was that much PC trouble out there?
Ah. The innocent. The naïve. The newbies. . . .
For the uninitiated, I have news for you: Trouble lurks around your computer
like teenagers at the mall. That’s why you need this book! It uncovers the
secrets and the power lurking beneath the goofy-colored Windows shell.
Trouble will run scared and naked as you merely show this book’s cover to
your computer monitor. No more waiting on hold to get the answers! No more
reinstalling Windows! The truth, well, it’s in here!
Computers aren’t supposed to die or crash or hang or bomb or toss a hissy
fit for no apparent reason. But, as any computer owner knows, computers
often don’t do what they’re told. In it-was-working-yesterday syndrome, for
some reason your computer decides that today is a different day and so it
will act up. And in the who-owns-the-problem? issue, you have to decide
whether the printer isn’t working because of the printer itself or because of
Windows or because of the application that’s trying to print. I won’t even
bore you with random Internet-disconnect problems, dead mice, monitors
thrust into stupid mode, and a myriad of other problems — because these
and other issues are all adequately covered, cured, and remedied throughout
this handy little book.
Oh! And that Dummies thing? Face it: Anyone who uses a computer feels
intimidated enough. It’s not that you’re a dummy, but dealing with these plas-
tic and silicon monsters certainly makes anyone feel like a dummy. Relax!
It’s the For Dummies approach that lets you recognize that it’s you who is in
charge of your PC’s destiny. You can tame the beast! This book shows you how.
About This Book
This is a problem-solving book. After all, if every problem mentioned in this
book were to land on a computer at one time, even I would toss the thing out
the window and take up yodeling or log rolling instead. The idea here is simple:
You have a problem, and you look up the solution.