All PC Tips

Using DVDs and CDs have become integral part of using computers these days. Hence you can rarely buy any computer without a DVD / CD reader and most of them comes with DVD / CD writers. Soon floppy disks will be obsolete. There are many reasons for the demise of the floppy disks. Firstly the storage capacity of the floppy disks as compared to other storage media such as CD and thumb drive is very very small. Secondly, the files stored in a floppy is not guaranteed to be read by other computers. In comparison, files written to CD or DVD have longer storage life. Moreover the file size in today’s computer use have increased tremendously and therefore they cannot be stored in a floppy.

It is no doubt that CD / DVDs are better than floppy disks, but there are many problems faced by computer users while copying (burning) files to a CD or a DVD. Here you will see solutions for most of the common problems faced in CD / DVD burning (writing).

1. My CD / DVD burner software program hangs half way or exits suddenly
   This problem occurs quit often in some CD / DVD writers. There are many reasons why this may happen. Especially if there are many other programs running when you are burning the disk then at times the CPU may not be able to handle this additional load. Therefore it is advisable to close all the other programs and applications before you start writing to the CD / DVD. Other background applications such as anti-virus software or instant messengers should also be closed. Other utilities that you may have installed but are running in the background (usually visible at the right side of the task bar) may also interrupt the burning process. So better to stop all these programs and run your CD/DVD writing software alone.
   
   For some CD/DVD writers, it may not support all types of CD / DVDs. So before you buy your blank CDs or bland DVDs, its a good practice to check the website of your CD / DVD writer manufacturer if it supports only specific type of CD / DVD and then buy only those type of blank CD / DVD.

   Another possible reason is maybe your CD/DVD writer is a ‘slave’. If it is slave then CPU gives more attention to the ‘master’ and may ignore the ‘slave’ when there are more tasks pending for the master. Its a better practice if you are going to burn cd / dvd quite often then put your cd/ dvd drive as the ‘master’.

2. My CD / DVD cannot be read after burning
   You may have successfully written to the CD / DVD. But when you try to read this new CD / DVD sometimes the CD / DVD drive may not read it properly. If this happens then while writing to the CD / DVD there has been some errors. Maybe after writing to the CD / DVD, the CD / DVD may not have been closed properly. To rectify this problem in your CD / DVD burning software, choose the ‘Finalize Disk‘ setting before starting the burning process. If you do this, the disk will be closed properly after writing.
   
   Another reason for this may be the speed of copying. In your CD/DVD burner software check the ‘Burning Speed’ setting. Choosing lower speed as burning speed will reduce the chances of errors while burning.
   
   Another possible reason is the ‘Firmware‘ problem in your CD / DVD writer. You can visit the manufacturer’s website and for your cd / dvd writer model, see if you can upgrade the firmware.
   
   Another reason may be your CD / DVD writing software. Try to upgrade your application to the latest version or try a different burning software.

   ISO Bustor is a good utility to retrieve and read the content from unreadable CD / DVD. You can get this utility fromwww.smartprojects.net/isobuster

In order to increase the speed and performance of your computer, buying a new computer is not the only solution. You can upgrade your existing computer. It is not very expensive to upgrade computer. You can upgrade selected parts. Here let us see some tips for upgrading your old computer to speed up your computer and increase performance.

Upgrade the BIOS

BIOS – Basic Input Output System – is a software in your computer. BIOS determines how to communicate with the basic hardware installed in your computer such as Memory, Drives, Display, CPU, Keyboard etc.

After you bought your computer new devices may have been introduced in the market. Security may have been enhanced. There may have been Patches for detecting and rectifying system errors. If you upgrade your BIOS you can get all these.

Go to your Motherboard manufacturer’s websites and see if you can upgrade your BIOS. There are also third party BIOS providers. You can buy and upgrade your BIOS software for your old computer.

You can Use Overclock

If the speed of your CPU is not sufficient then you can increase the speed of CPU using Overclock. See your ‘User Manual’ of your motherboard and see if there is an Overclock upgrade facility.

You can do Overclock by changing the jumper settings in your motherboard. You can search for manuals on how to do this from internet.

But if you do Overclocking the CPU will be overheated very fast. Hence the CPU may get worn out soon. If you do not want to take the risk then do not do overclocking. If the warranty period of your computer is not over then do not do overclocking. Because some comapnies do not give warranty if they come to know that you used overclocking.

Use a new hard disk to Boot.

If you already have a hard disk and it is almost full then you can buy a new hard disk. In which case, you should change your new hard disk as C: drive and your old hard drive as drive D:.

You can make the new drive as Master and the old drive as Slave. The hard disk drive user manual will have details on how to configure the hard disk as master or slave. It is done using a jumper at the back of the hard disk.

The Operating System and the Application software can be installed in Drive C. and these data has to be removed from the old disk properly. This may take some time. If you are not prepared to spend time on this then there are software that can be used to transfer the systemd files, hidden files and data files from your old hard disk to the new hard disk.

Power Quest’s Drive copy ( www.powerquest.com ), Micro House’s EZCopy
( www.microhouse.com ), Symantec’s Ghost ( www.symantec.com ) can be used for this.

Additional tips for increasing computer performance

If your computer often hangs or you get ‘General Protection Fault’s then the CPU or the RAM memory is not fixed on the motherboard properly and may be loose. Open the cabinet and remove and refix the CPU and RAM.

If your computer get very hot after some time or if the computer hangs after a few hours then the CPU fan and SMPS fan may be faulty. Or there may be dust and dirt around these fans. So open the cabinet at specified intervals (every month once) and clean the computer’s motherboard, fan etc using a vacuum cleaner.

At frequent intervals check whether all the cables are connected tightly. Similarly check that all cards in the motherboard’s expansion slots are tightly secured.

Some readers says that while is inserting flash drive in USB port. The system didn’t recognize it how could we overcome it.

First of all we should know the two types of USB ports.

USB 1.1: This is the first type of USB. It designed as per the speed of transferring 1.5mb/sec data’s. This is designed instead of serial and parallel port for the use of USB port. This is basically used only for connecting mouse and keyboard. System would be struggled for data overloading.

USB 2.0: This kind of USB ports is used for large scale into data transfer. More readers ask that how to identify these two kind of USB ports. To identify the model use the following commands. Start=>My computer=> properties. And click Hardware tab after than select Device Manager. Now you got the list. In that list select the plus symbol that is located after “Universal Serial Bus controllers” if your system have USB 1.1 mean it displays as “Host controller (or) Open Host Controller”. Else USB 2.0 is used mean it displays like.” Enhanced host controller (or) USB 2.0 controller.

Your windows operating system says that the connected USB get speeded. When you are connecting the high speed USB to logo speed USB port of the system, but most of the reader saying that while connecting the USB device to the system. The device was not getting detected. Commonly while inserting an USB device to the system. Window XP will say new hardware found. This message will display in the hard disk. While inserting the USB device it will get auto play, and enquire whether to open the files as file (Or) audio format (Or) video format? It assigns a drive letter for it. If all the details mentioned above had not displayed means the inserted device had not matched with your operating system. You can solve this by doing below.

Go to Start => control panel =>Administrative Tools and click in administrative tool. After that double click on Computer Management.
In that left side select Disk Management, at the right side a drive displays with the name of a removable drive. This is the drive thus containing to same name of already using drive.
To change it right click on the while bar then a got a list.
Now select “change drive letters and paths”.
Now you can select the letter that you want. Click the “change” option.
The letter that you selected it should be already used one.
After finishing this you should get a warning message.
Now click ok to it.
Now close the computer management console while clicking the My computer icon.
You can see the USB drive’s letter.

We face more problems on problem on using USB port. Some part may become in accessible due to the power shortage of computer. These kinds of problems happen on USB 1.1 ports only. These problems happen only on windows 2000 and the before edition while getting these kind of problems. We just disconnect the instruments after that connect one by one.

Now a days the new version computer consists of at-least four USB ports. Two ports are fixed in backside and the remaining two parts are fixed in front side. Windows XP packages will manage these ports without any problems.

Consider now your computer works properly. But the monitor has a problem. The monitor problems irritate us while we want to get things done fast. Follow these steps to troubleshoot your monitor.

1. First of all check if the power supply to the monitor is ON. In old type of computers the power supply is given in the CPU but in recent computers the monitors have own power cable.. Check if it is fixed correct and If the switch is on. If the power supply comes to the monitor the LED will glow in the monitor. Otherwise it does not glow.

2. After that you have a switch control in monitor for adjusting the monitor setting. You can adjust to get display. Children may change the settings mistakenly. We can check it out.

3. After that check whether video cable is connected to the CPU firmly.

4. If you have any other monitor you can connect with CPU by using the same video cable and also the problem continuous that means the video cable has a problem.

5. If you can connect your monitor with another CPU then we decide the problem is in your monitor. You have to change your monitor or repair the monitor by the technician.

6. When booting the computer the monitor that is identified maybe incorrect then we decide the problems in your display card. Try to change the monitor driver if you have the CD. Or change the video card.

After fixing new display card, if the problem continues then change your monitor. Don’t buy a second hand monitor. Buy a monitor based on new technology releases when you buy a new monitor. Recently the flat LCD monitors are cheep.