Discount Computers

The net is full of software packages to prevent, clean and
remove Spyware & Adware from you PC. Most of these packages cost
a substantial amount of money to purchase and keep up to date.
If you’re anything like me, the last thing you need is another
monthly subscription to pay.

So what to do then? Top sources ( http://spyware.dugancom.com )
all agree that Spyware & Adware are some of the leading causes
of computer problems today, and they are right. An infected
computer can become almost useless. Often times it is near
impossible to remove all traces of the infection short of
reinstalling your operating system again.

Subscription services and software packages are only one layer
of defense against Spyware & Adware. These remedies are not
always up to the task of providing complete protection, so there
needs to be multiple layers, the first and most important one
being an informed user.

Most Spyware & Adware infections can be prevented by having an
understanding of the nature of these attacks, and staying up to
date with new methods of exploitation. Keeping informed is not
as difficult as you might think. Finding an up to date website
that is easy to read and understand is key. A great starting
point is http://spyware.dugancom.com, a site full of great
information.

So get informed and stay that way. You might be surprised how
easy it is and the positive effect it will have on the overall
security of your computer.

-Dave http://www.dugancom.com

About the author:
D. David Dugan is the president of DD&C (
http://www.dugancom.com ), an IT Consulting and Solution
Providing Organization, and is personally involved in updating
http://spyware.dugancom.com.

You have a sound card and a set of speakers, but for the life of
you, you cannot get them to work. Most of the time, this is
caused by carelessness. Though it sounds idiotic, the first step
is to check the connections. Most people accidentally plug the
speaker jack into the Line-in Jack of the sound card. Check to
see if this is not so in your case. If you have amplified
speakers, make sure that the power is on and mute is not.

The next step is to see where the trouble lies. Many-a-times,
people spend hours trying to fix a system that hasn’t broken.
Check to see if the speakers work properly before trying to
troubleshoot your system. Do this by connecting the speakers to
a music system or radio. If they do, the problem is definitely
system related.

The first thing to do now is to check the volume levels in the
system. Check the volume controller in the system tray and also
open the advanced audio controls to make sure that all is
well-nothing is muted or at really love levels Now use several
multimedia applications to play various media files to insure
that the problem is truly system related, and not limited to a
particular application or file. If you find that only a certain
application has the problem, such as Windows Media Player or
Winamp, reinstall it.

If all this is to no avail, go to the system properties
[Windows] + [Pause/Break] or right-click on my computer and
select Properties and in device manager make sure that sound
card is installed properly. Look for a yellow exclamation mark,
if it present, you will have to reinstall the drivers.

If you have an integrated sound card that is disabled in the
BIOS, then Windows will not be able to detect it. Refer to your
motherboard manual, and find out how to enable the same. Usually
it is present under the advanced peripherals section in BIOS.

If you have access to another PC, plug the sound card into that
system, and check if it is working. If the problem persists, off
to a technician you go.

About the author:
Ravi chamria is a webmaster, for more computer related articles
please visit at target=>Computers-and-Technology

One fine day you start your PC and get messages that say,”Book
Disk failure”. The problem is that the hard disk is detected but
the OS does not load. The system may get stuck in the second
screen during the booting process or the OS might display an
error message and refuse to load. Such situations can be trouble
some as they leave you with very few troubleshooting options

One of the common problems in dual boot systems is of the boot
loader getting corrupted. For example, you have a system running
Windows XP and Linux using Lila as boot loader. If Lila gets
corrupted, you can not boot into either OS.When this happens,
you have to boot into the system using some other media, such as
a boot floppy or the Windows Dafter booting go to the command
prompt, type ‘fdisk/mbr’ and press [Enter]. Note that if you use
Windows 2000 or XP, boot into the recovery console and give the
command ‘fixmbr’ to clear the MBR. Unfortunately, after you
restart, it will boot to Windows directly, without any option of
booting into Linux. You will have to restore LiLo again from
your Linux CD, or reinstall boot loaders such as XOSL from
Windows.

If your problem persists, or if you never used a boot loader,
than boot into the system from a boot floppy or the Windows
CD.Windows 2000 and XP users should boot into the recovery
console. Go to the command prompt and give the command
fdisfk/mbr’and then give the command ’sys C’. This clears the
MBR, and makes the bootable partition C, Windows 2000 and XP
users should give the command ‘fixmbr’ and’ fixboot’ C: to do
the same. Then restart the system to boot into the OS.

If you still have trouble, you might have a virus on your PC’s
boot sector .It is difficult to confirm an infection without a
virus scan. Thesymptoms of an infections-applications slowing
down or many unrecognized files appearing in the system-should
give you a clue. For example Windows 98 and Me users might see a
message during boot up that says,” No valid FAT on boot drive”
this is caused due to a boot sector virus called stoned Monk.
Even reinstalling Windows might give you an error message that
says, “Your computer already has an operating system installed”.
Then best solution is to connect the hard disk to another
system, and scan with an anti virus tool. You can also create a
rescue disk for the anti virus tool and scan the system using it.

If nothing mentioned above seems to work. Then you have a
serious problem at hand. Connect it to some other system and try
to access the data if you can, then your boot record is damaged.
Otherwise the service center beckons.

About the author:
Ravi chamria is a webmaster, for more computer related articles
please visit at target=>Computers-and-Technology