Check the following:

• Verify that the is PC plugged in and switched on.

• If the PC is plugged into a surge suppressor (or, gasp, a power strip) or a uninterruptible power supply (UPS), make sure that the power device is switched on. Some surge suppressor strips have a reset button to protect against power surges and that button might need to be reset. If the power device is plugged in and switched on, try plugging it into a different power outlet (one that you know is working).

• Swap out the power cord to the PC.

• If the PC fan isn’t rotating, the problem might be in the power supply. Use a multimeter to check the output voltages of the power supply; if they are not what they should be, it’s time for a new power supply.

This problem is typically caused by the following:

• The monitor cable isn’t properly attached to the video card.

• The monitor’s power cable isn’t properly connected to the monitor or power source.

• The monitor’s power switch is in its Off position.

• The boot failed to load the video Basic Input/Output System (BIOS).

• The video card or interface has failed.

To begin resolving this problem:

1. Power off the PC.

2. Remove and reconnect the monitor’s power cable to both the monitor and the power outlet.

3. Remove and reconnect the monitor cable to the PC and monitor.

4. Ensure that the monitor’s power switch is in the On position.

5. If the problem persists, reboot the system to retry the video BIOS load.

6. Reseat the video card (if one is in use).

7. Insert a known-good video card and retest.

Shut down the PC, open the case, and begin removing the expansion cards one by one, rebooting the PC after removing each one until you discover which card is causing the problem. You should also inspect the case, especially on and under the motherboard, for loose metal screws and washers that could be shorting out the motherboard. If that doesn’t turn up the problem, check the BIOS settings to verify that they’re appropriate to the system. Write down the current BIOS settings and then use the Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) jumper to reset the BIOS settings to their defaults. Check the motherboard’s documentation for the location of the CMOS jumper and the procedure used to reset the BIOS settings. If you can’t locate the CMOS jumper, remove the CMOS battery for about five minutes and reboot. You’ll need to enter the system time and date and answer a few other questions to reestablish the PC’s settings.

The problem could also be a failing or failed power supply. An intermittent problem with the power supply that requires you to boot a PC more than once to get it started is an early sign of a power supply problems.

If the boot process fails before the video system is active and the BIOS is able to identify what it believes is the problem, the BIOS sounds one or more beeps to identify the source. Each BIOS manufacturer uses a different set of beep codes (patterns of beeps in number or length) to identify boot problems; some BIOS manufacturers even have several versions themselves.

If the boot fails, listen carefully for the beep codes (you may need to reboot the system a few times to be sure you have them) and then consult the motherboard or BIOS documentation to determine the identified problem. See Chapter 1 in the book for more information on the beep codes of the various BIOSes.

In most cases, this is a heat-related, or should I say lack-of-cooling, problem. If the CPU is not being properly cooled, it quickly reaches a critical temperature beyond which the chip is damaged. To prevent this, the CPU shuts itself down, which effectively stops the PC as well.

Verify that the CPU fan and heat sink are properly installed and clipped onto the processor packaging or chip. Read the processor manufacturer’s documentation, usually found on its Web site, to learn if thermal grease (also called thermal glue) should be used and make sure it is properly applied.

Also ensure that the power supply fan is operating quietly and the blades are clean. If you need to clean the fan, use pressurized air and a cotton swab (not a screwdriver) to clean the blades and the fan's exterior grill. You may as well go ahead and clean the inside of the system case while you have it open. If the fan is noisy, check for cables or other interior components that may be blocking its air flow. If it’s really noisy, replace it (typically by replacing the power supply).

Some systems have a plastic wind tunnel that directs the air from the power supply fan to the CPU assembly. Make sure this is properly aligned per the PC manufacturer’s specifications.

Opening the system case and blowing it out with compressed air every four to six months is a good idea anyway.

After installing a new device, especially a device that has never been in the PC before, system resource conflicts may exist, or you may not have the latest version of the software device driver, either of which can cause the system boot to fail or act strangely.

You can take four actions to resolve this problem:

1. Verify that the device is compatible with your operating system by checking its HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) found on the operating system maker's Web site.

2. Go to the device manufacturer’s Web site and download the latest driver for your PC and operating system.

   The driver that came with the device and even the version in the device driver library of the operating system may be out-of-date. The product and its driver probably sat on a shelf or in a warehouse for some time. Unless your operating system version is dated in the last month, you should never assume that you have the latest and greatest device driver for your system.

3. After updating the device driver (provided it needed to be updated), check for system resource conflicts, especially IRQ conflicts.

   If a conflict exists, assign the device to an unused IRQ or share an IRQ assigned to a device that should not be in use simultaneously with the new device.

4. If no conflicts exist, try installing the device in another PC.

   If it doesn’t work there either, return it to the vendor from whom you purchased it. (Hope you saved the receipt.)

To resolve a system resource conflict between two devices on a Windows PC:

1. Access the System icon on the Control Panel.

2. Choose the Hardware tab and click on the Device Manager button.

3. Look for a device that has a yellow exclamation point symbol (you may have to expand some of the device branches to find it).

4. If more than one device in a branch has the yellow exclamation symbol, right-click the first one and choose Properties.

5. Click on the Resources tab and examine the Conflicting device list box for the device with which there is a conflict, if one exists.

6. If no conflicts exits, the box states that. If a conflict exists, however, the IRQ and conflicting device are listed.

7. While on the Resources tab, clear the check the box for Use Automatic Settings, if it is checked.

8. Still on the Resources tab, click the check box for Setting Based On and select each of the configurations presented one at a time until the message in the Conflicting device list changes to No Conflicts.

9. Click OK until the system recommends restarting the PC and do so.

If the system boot fails and displays an error message requesting you to insert a boot disk (meaning floppy disk), do so. Then see if you can access the C: (hard disk) drive. If you are able to access the C: drive and its directories and files, the problem is likely a corrupted or damaged boot sector. If so, this is normally caused by a virus or a large power surge. To be safe, run your antivirus software and use a disk utilities program to rebuild the hard disk boot sector.

If all this fails and you continue to get this error, chances are that you hard disk drive is dying and you should back up the system and replace the drive.

If the hard disk drive is not bootable or cannot be auto-detected by the BIOS, the drive has likely failed altogether.

First run your anti-virus software to clean any virus that is damaging the boot sector. Then reboot the system to a DOS prompt (press the F8 key during startup to get to the Windows startup menu and choose DOS prompt). At the DOS prompt, enter the command SYS C: to restore the boot sector.

If, after adding a new IDE/ATA hard disk drive, especially if you are adding a new hard disk to an older system, you find that not all of the hard disk drive’s nominal capacity is available through the operating system, the problem is normally caused by limitations in the BIOS, the operating system, or both. Here are the more common disk capacity barriers and how to deal with them:

• 540MB/528Mb barrier: A PC’s BIOS identifies a hard disk drive through its logical geometry, which means the number of cylinders, heads, and sectors on the disk. Not every BIOS, especially on PCs from the mid-1990s, is able to see more than 1,024 cylinders, which translates to a limitation of 528 Mb. In this case, the system BIOS needs to be updated to what is called a translating version.

• 1.97 GB barrier: Even some enhanced translating BIOS versions are unable to address more than 4,095 cylinders. To resolve this limitation, the BIOS should be updated with a newer version.

• FAT16 2 GB partition size barrier: This limitation is not a BIOS issue, but rather an operating system FAT16 file system problem. MS-DOS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 95a (the version before Windows 95 OSR2), due to the way the disk is organized in clusters, cannot handle a hard disk partition larger than 2 GB. To resolve this problem, you must partition the disk into multiple partitions of 2 GB or less each, upgrade the operating system to a later version of the Windows operating system, and convert the partitions to the FAT32 file system.

• FAT 4 GB partition size barrier: The Windows operating systems don’t support hard disk partitions larger than 4 GB in the FAT file system. I suggest repartitioning the FAT partition to smaller partitions (less than 4GB), converting these partitions to either the FAT32 or the NTFS file system, which don’t have this limitation. Of course, you should always back up your data before doing anything with your disk partitions.

First things first, check to see if there is a diskette in the floppy disk drive. If there is, remove it and reboot.

If that doesn’t resolve the problem, and you have just installed a new hard disk drive, ensure that the hard disk has been partitioned and formatted (including loading the operating system). If the disk is formatted, check to ensure that the data cable and power connector are installed properly.

If something other than a hard disk was very recently installed, check to see if the disk’s cables weren’t inadvertently dislodged during the installation.

You can boot the system using the operating system’s boot disks or if you have created them, use your system recovery disks to get the system up and start your troubleshooting.

If the mouse or the keyboard stops working, chances are that the connection has been compromised. If either uses a serial or 5- or 6-pin DIN connector, shut down and power off the PC and remove and reattach the connector (never plug in these connectors while the PC’s power is running). If either uses a USB connector, removing and reconnecting the connector while the PC is running is okay.

If the connectors are properly attached, the problem may be in the device itself. Try using them on a known-good system. If they fail there, replace them.

Typically, the cable or the cable connection causes this. If the cable is more than 15 feet in length, regardless of what the kid at the computer superstore told you about cable extenders, the printer will have intermittent errors. Also, make sure that the cable is compatible with the parallel protocol in use.

Another problem could be that the cable is not compatible with the port mode. Parallel cables can be in one of three port modes, each of which require a specific cable type. See Chapter 24 for more information on parallel port modes.

If you have just booted the PC and the monitor is not displaying anything at all, here are some things to try:

1. Make sure that the monitor is plugged into a good power source (and if the power source is a plug strip, make sure that the plug strip is switched on).

2. Check the monitor’s cable and verify that it is snugly connected at both ends (the monitor and the PC).

3. Check the brightness and contrast controls on the monitor, especially on a monitor that has thumbwheels or knobs to set these controls.

4. Try using a different monitor to see if the existing monitor has failed completely.

If all else fails, you may try rebooting the PC. It could be that the video BIOS failed to load the video device driver, and rebooting may cure that problem.

In almost all situations, the problem is that the speaker cable’s jacks have fallen out of the plug on the back of the audio card. If the jacks are connected to the PC, make sure that they aren’t plugged into the modem (audio and modem cards both typically have jacks for speakers).

If the jacks are properly connected, use the Windows Device Driver to check on the status of the audio (sound) card and its device driver. You may need to remove the device and let the Hardware Wizard rediscover it.

A dial tone problem is never a problem with the PC or the modem card itself. Before you attempt to change any COM port or modem settings, verify that the phone cable is properly connected into the phone jack (the telephone system) and the properly port on the modem (or modem card). The phone cable should be connected into the Line In (or Phone) port on the modem.

The problem may also be that one or both of the RJ-11 connectors on the phone cable are faulty, or the cable itself has been damaged. Try using another phone cable to solve the problem.

This problem is common to older systems running the CD Player in Windows 95 and early versions of Windows 98. To solve the problem, access the Options menu bar choice (of the CD Player) and unselect Intro Play. On other CD players, make sure the player is set for continuous play.

Unfortunately, any number of problems could prevent a PC from connecting to a local area network (LAN), but a good place to start is the network interface card (NIC).

To determine if the NIC is the cause of the problem, start with the externals:

1. Look at the NIC’s slot panel and connector port on the back of the computer.

   If the NIC is receiving a signal from the network, activity lights on its panel should be either on or flashing.

2. If the lights aren’t on, check the connection of the network cable.

   If the cable in use is 10/100BaseT, make sure the RJ-45 connector is seated into the NIC’s port. If the cable is 10Base2 or 10Base5, make sure the BNC connector is seated and rotated into a locked position. After verifying the connection, check the NIC’s activity lights to see if this solved the problem.

3. Insert the NIC's support disk and run any test utilities available for the NIC.

4. Most NICs come with a support or troubleshooting utilities disk or CD-ROM. If the problem is with the NIC itself, the utility should identify it.

5. If the NIC checks out or no test utilities are available, open the Windows Device Manager and verify that the NIC device drivers are the current and most up-to-date available.

6. A good source of updated device drivers is the manufacturer’s Web site. You may want to check for updated drivers on the Web site anyway. If a new driver is available for your operating system, download and install it.

7. If after the above steps, the PC will not connect to the network, the problem is likely settings, protocols, or services. See "The PC won't connect to the LAN (Part 2)" later in this document.

If you are having a problem on a PC and you suspect one or more Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) devices, you should first verify the most common causes of SCSI failures:

• Cabling: SCSI cabling can be too short or too long. Check the documentation of your system to verify the proper cable length for the SCSI standard you are using. In general, a SCSI 1 system has a maximum length of about 19 feet (6 meters), including both internal and external chains. SCSI 2 or 3 cables can’t be more than about 10 feet (3 meters). SCSI cables should be as short as possible, but not less than 6 inches.

• Termination: Make sure the type of termination required by your system is the termination in use. Both passive and active terminators exist, but only SCSI 1 uses passive termination. All SCSI 2 and 3 systems use active termination. Never mix active and passive terminators on a SCSI chain!

• Termination power: The power for the terminator is provided either by the SCSI host adapter or the SCSI device to which the terminator is connected. In most cases, the SCSI host adapter should be set to supply termination power to the chain. Check the documentation of both the host adapter and the terminated device to ensure the host adapter is configured to supply termination power and the device is not.

• SCSI device IDs: Each SCSI device on the chain must have a unique device or target ID.

To identify a problem with the SCSI system, here are some things to try:

1. As with all internal or external device problems, first check for loose connectors or bad cables.

2. Make sure all of the devices are powered up and check internal devices for a good power connection.

3. Check and recheck the location and connection of the SCSI terminators.

4. Make sure they are at the end of the chain and not right before the problematic device. Also verify that the SCSI chain (bus) has at least one device supplying termination power to the chain, especially on external chains and terminators.

5. If the SCSI chain is physically sound, verify that no two devices have been assigned the same device ID. Check your SCSI system documentation on how to set device IDs, which is typically done with jumpers or DIP switches.

6. Verify that all of the devices attached to the SCSI bus are using the same signaling method.

7. Reconfigure the SCSI bus with just a few essential devices. If all are working, begin adding (and reconfiguring) the chain one additional device at a time.

Perhaps the most common complaint from PC users is system crashes. Unfortunately, the reason for the crash is not always easily identified or fixed. Most system crashes are circumstantial and are rarely easy to recreate. On top of this, a variety of system crashes occur, but I’ve included a few of the ones that you can actually identify and perhaps do something about.

The general procedure when dealing with crashes is to first eliminate the easy stuff:

1. Run the ScanDisk utility without a surface scan and then do it again.

2. Run the Disk Defragmenter utility, which unfortunately may take a while.

3. Reboot the PC and then and only then attack the type of crash the user is experiencing.

Of course, this may just be a mouse problem. Check to see if the keyboard is working. If so, try pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del to display the Task Manager. If so, the problem is the mouse. If not, reboot the system to see if the problem persists.

If the mouse is a serial mouse, you may also want to check for an IRQ conflict.

If this problem happens only after the PC has been in use for a relatively long period of time, its free memory may have dropped below acceptable levels.

On a Windows 98 or Me system, click on the System icon on the Control Panel and choose the Performance tab. On a Windows 2000 or XP system, you should use the Performance Monitor tool, which has a variety of resource usage and system counters to let you know the level of system resource utilization. You can access the Performance Monitor standalone at Start -- Programs -- Administrative Tools and click the Performance tab.

If the system resources utilization has dropped below 70 percent, you should reboot the system to unload orphan files from memory.

The dreaded blue screen of death does hold some valuable information. If you are lucky enough that the user actually saved it for you to see, the information displayed can help you to determine the device, device driver, or virtual device driver causing the problem. Find out what the message actually means by using a search engine such as Internet Explorer to search the Web for the message number.

If a device or vxd driver causes the error, you may want to update the driver. However, first restart Windows and press F8 during startup to access the Windows boot menu. Choose logging and reboot the PC. After the PC starts up, open the bootlog.txt file (typically in the C:\ directory) using Windows Notepad and search for the word "fail." Hopefully, only one such entry appears. It should identify the driver that is failing to load, which will typically be either the display adapter or the modem. Use the Device Manager to update the driver.

Programs that have started and stopped without releasing memory space allocated to it typically cause this type of crash. Unless you know exactly which programs were running at the instance the message appears (or had just been closed), you will probably have to resort to trial and error to recreate this error. If you cannot identify the culprit that way, you may need to uninstall (and reinstall) applications until the error ceases to occur. If the Fatal Exception Error box includes a number, search the Web for information to identify it and discover how best to resolve it.

If you are unable to identify which application program is causing the error, you will need to run the msconfig utility to disable the services that run in background on the PC. If you have turned off all of the services, the Task Manager should list only the Explorer running. If there are others, use the End Task function to stop them. Now start opening applications one at a time until the problem shows up again.

If nothing seems to resolve the problem, completely re-installing the Windows operating system may be necessary. This is an extreme step, so be sure you’ve exhausted all other avenues first.

This error is typically caused when the system is swapping memory pages between RAM and the hard disk swap file. This error occurs if memory page is already in use or isn’t where it was supposed to be when the swap action starts.

Uninstalling and reinstalling the software affected can correct this problem. However, the problem could also be caused by not enough swap space or the swap file becoming fragmented on the hard disk. To correct the latter situations on a Windows 2000 or XP system, access the System icon on the Control Panel, click the Advanced tab, and click the Performance button to display the Performance options window. On a Windows 9x or Me system, the Performance options window is accessed from System Properties window using the virtual memory button. On a Windows NT system, click the Change button on the System Properties window. Regardless of the Windows version, click the Virtual Memory button, choose the option for Let Me Specify My Own Virtual Memory Settings, and check the box for Disable Virtual Memory. Reboot the PC, access the Virtual Memory settings, set the options back to Let Windows Manage My Virtual Memory Settings, and reboot again.

This problem could be that the PC needs additional RAM, or in an extreme situation, has bad RAM installed.

The Run32dll.exe utility allows DLL (dynamic link libraries) to run as 32-bit programs. When this problem occurs, one of the DLLs loaded by Run32dll is not unloading as it should. If this happens frequently, you need to determine which DLL is not unloading. This is not an easy task, but typically a printer driver or scanner file is the culprit. The simple solution is to End Task Run32dll.exe.

If, after entering the Ctrl+Alt+Del keys to open the Task Manager, a blue screen appears with the message that the system is busy or unstable, a variety of conditions may be the cause:

• If you are running a program from a dirty or scratched CD, you need to clean the CD and let the system retry its read operations.

• If you are running more programs than the virtual memory system can manage, the system obviously needs more RAM.

• If the PC has been running for a relatively long time without being shut down, the system memory could be filled with orphan DLL files that weren’t unloaded when the program that called them stopped. Shut down a PC every few days to prevent this problem.

The easy answer to this problem is that when you try to shut down, one of your device drives is failing to unload or a running program failed to terminate properly. In that case, simply power off the PC (you will have to suffer through a ScanDisk when you power the PC up again, though).

Another common problem is the power management system of the PC. The easiest thing to try is disabling the Advanced Power Management system on your PC. To do this, access the Device Manager and if APM is listed in the System devices, double-click it.

From the Properties window that appears, choose the Setting tab and select the Force APM 1.0 Mode and the Disable Power Status Polling check boxes. Close the Properties window and the Device Manager by clicking OK. Restart the PC.

If this fails to solve the problem, enter the BIOS setup program using the designated key on your PC and disable APM is the BIOS.

If changing the APM settings in the Device Manager solved the problem, it’s likely that you need to update your system BIOS.

Assuming you have checked all of the possible hardware issues that could be causing this problem (see "The PC won’t connect to the LAN 2nd Part 1"), the problem very well could be that the NIC is not configured properly. Here’s what to do:

1. Open the Control Panel (Start -- Settings -- Control Panel) and double-click the Network icon to open the Network Configuration window.

2. Choose the Adapters tab and select the device driver or adapter installed in the PC, and then click Properties.

3. Enter the appropriate settings, which are unique to the PC or network (you can get these from the network administrator).

4. Click the Identification tab and enter the user’s username, password, and domain to save this information so the user doesn’t have to enter it each time she connects to the network.

5. Click the Configuration tab. If the TCP/IP protocols are not listed in the list of installed network components, add the TCP/IP protocols by clicking Add -- Protocols -- Microsoft -- TCP/IP and choosing the TCP/IP listed for the installed NIC and clicking OK to return to the Network configuration window.

6. Click on the newly added TCP/IP protocol in the installed components panel and then click Properties. Check with the network administrator on what the IP and DNS setting should be for this PC. Click OK until you are asked to restart the PC and then do so.

If you have just installed a new peripheral device in a PC running an older version of Windows (9x or older), and the device either isn’t working at all or isn’t working properly, the problem may be that the device driver in the Windows device driver library is too old or that Windows doesn’t have a device driver for the device at all.

This is particularly a problem when you attempt to add a USB port to an older PC. First of all, if you are using Windows 95, it’s finally time to upgrade to at least Windows 98 SE (or higher if the PC meets the minimum system requirements of the later Windows versions) because many USB device manufacturers don’t have device drivers for any Windows version before Windows 98. Next, check with the PC or motherboard manufacturer for a BIOS upgrade that provides USB support.

Also try visiting the device manufacturer’s Web site and looking for a downloadable device driver for the operating system in use on the PC.