Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Ask A Computer Support Specialist

Dear Computer Support Specialist,
I think I'm going crazy and I need your help. My daughter just turned 3 and she's going through this "NO!" phase. For some reason, my wife seems to find it "cute", but I'm not sure how much more I can take. It's like, "Maggie, time for bed", "NO!". Or, "honey, are you finished eating?" "NO!" and THEN SHE EATS SOME MORE! I even said "would you keep breathing for Daddy?". You know what she said?? "NO!" This is really driving me crazy, can you help me?
Signed,
Yes Man in Port Huron

Dear Yes Man,
Did you try toggling the power yet? Leave it unplugged for about 30 seconds before you plug it back in. Be sure to trace out all the connections. Is everything snug? Sometimes I like to reseat all of the cables anyway, just to make sure they are snug. You don't say, but I'm curious, what has changed in the system config recently? Have you installed any new software? One thing to consider is your network security, it's entirely possible you have some kind of virus! If you haven't done a malware sweep recently, you probably want to, assuming you have a software AND hardware firewall already installed. If things don't improve, I would recommend a complete reinstall from media. This is generally good practice anyway, but if you aren't running servicepack 2 yet you should at least upgrade.

Dear Computer Support Specialist,
I'm a small business owner and I run a small tool-and-die shop. I employ about 10 people most of whom have been with me for over ten years and a couple have been at the company since I started it up 20 years ago. Anyway, lately business has been pretty weak. Not terrible, just weak. It's been taking longer and longer hours on my part to keep things stable and it's having an effect on my home life. I'm missing school activities for the kids and my wife has been giving me grief, probably not without reason. I feel obligated to keep the business running, but it's just sucking more and more of my life,and yet, I feel obligated to my employees. I'm having trouble finding a balance, and lately, I've started huffing paint to make it through the day. HELP!
Signed,
Over Obligated Huffer

Dear Huffer,
How long has the system been up? I usually turn my box off every night. I strongly recommend that you reboot the thing. Better yet! Toggle power on it and leave it off for a good 30 seconds or a minute! Did that fix the problem? How much RAM do you have installed? If you run out of memory and it starts swapping to disk, you are going to be hurting. If your CPU is under 500 Megahertz and you are trying to run modern software applications, of course you are not going to be having a lot of fun. You probably want to get a faster box. You might want to defragment your hard drive. Of course, I'm assuming you have already traced out your cables and made sure all the connections are snug. One time, this lady had her mouse plugged into the keyboard and then she was surprised when her machine wouldn't boot! Ha ha, of course it won't boot like that. Try getting the latest anti-virus software and scan your system for viruses and spyware. If you are not behind a firewall, that is probably your problem.

Thank you Computer Support Sepcialist for the difference you are making. Feel free to use my blog space anytime.

1 comment:

James said...

Hey, you asked for it.