For many people, a broken or failing PC is one of the scariest things they'll face. They have no idea what's wrong or how to fix it. Some get overly aggressive with their recalcitrant system and cause more harm than good. Others simply hand it over to someone else and hope for the best. I'm here to, through my own tale, teach you how to become a PC Whisperer. Sometimes—but not always—you can diagnose and fix your own PC, if you have the patience and take the time to get to know your ailing, electronic friend.
First, my story:
My poor PC. It's had a rough six months and most of the fixes I've applied have been little more than band-aids. I've reset the date in the CMOS, reinstalled the OS and backed up everything just in case. The recalcitrant PC has stayed well for a week or more, only to fall back into a more worrisome chasm of crashes and un-explained reboots. Its most recent issues, though, signaled a downward spiral from which I thought it might never recover.
The latest issue was different than the others, in that it was visual. The screen would start pixellating and, usually without warning, the entire system would shut down and reboot. Unfortunately, after each of these crashes, it wouldn't always successfully restart. Instead it would cycle through repeated boot attempts. Windows 7 would report that the restart was failing and offer to find a solution and also to search online for help.
One of the first times it did this, the system suggested I restore to an earlier state. I did so and the PC restarted OK. But within hours it was back to failing. I often had to unplug and plug-in the system to get it to reboot. Then it would work for a day or so, but soon fail again. Every failure, by the way, would start with the screen starting to look like a retro 256 color screen.
With the crashes coming more and more often and the onscreen images looking worse and worse, I did my best not to panic. Instead I took a step back from my ailing PC and began to analyze what I was seeing. Based on the severity of the issue, I began to suspect hardware failure. It could be the motherboard, but based on what I was seeing and a few searches for similar issues on the Web, it was more likely the graphics cards. I hopped for the latter since at least that was easily replaceable.
With my latest back-up complete (every system repair should start this way), I prepared to upgrade the system. My documentation told me a fair amount about my HP Pavilion, but I didn't think there was enough detail in there to help my find the right graphics card. I found my exact system on HP's support site.
The page covered every critical system component, and though many of the areas were collapsed on the Web page, they all appeared in full when I chose to print out the Product specifications page. With this system guts list in my back pocket, I headed to my local Microcenter for a suitable graphics card.
My system shipped with an NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT, at the time a pretty leading edge board with a then whopping 512MB VRAM. I knew that not only did I want to fix what I assumed was a dying graphics card, but I hoped to update a little bit too. This, by the way, is where this parts list came in very handy.
The Right Card
Like most technology outlets, Micro Center has an aisle full of graphics card options, ranging from $39 to over $600—they get more expensive as you moved down the aisle from right to left. And like the dozens of Ray's Pizza's in New York City, there are a lot of similarly equipped graphics card options: Numerous NVIDIA OEMs cards and an equal number of AMD ATI cards. Knowing what to choose is not easy.
I decided to narrow my choices by sticking with NVIDA (I thought I might avoid some driver issues by sticking with the same GPU subsystem) and began looking for a sub-$100 card that would offer at least 1GB of VRAM and HDMI-out—a feature found on my current, dying graphics card. I found a few options in the $70 to $120 range, but most of the graphics cards over $100 were a bit too powerful and would over-taxed my 350 watt power supply. Of course, I knew my power supply limit because it was on the HP spec list. Also on my spec list was my motherboard's available ports. All of this information, was, of course, invaluable as I made my buying decision.
Eventually I found an NVIDIA GeForce 430 card for $89. Despite having twice the memory (in this case, fast DDR3 RAM), it was actually smaller than my original card. To install the new card, I unplugged all the cords from my system box. Please, folks, never try to install new hardware "in situ." It's safer for you and the computer if everything is unplugged. Plus, you want to move the chassis to an open table where the box will sit at eye level and you have ample room to maneuver. I moved my box to the kitchen table, opened the screwless chassis and found my graphics card (the DVI port on the outside was a dead giveaway). It was held in place by a single screw, so once I had that off, pulling the card was easy. When you're removing a graphics card always check that there isn't an additional clip near the motherboard also holding the card in place—never force anything.
As always, I took the opportunity to blow out all the collected system dust with a little bit of compressed air. If you ever work with electronics or just want to keep your keyboard clean, you should always keep a can or two of compressed air around (they're also known as compressed air dusters). No, you blowing on the components is not sufficient or advisable—I guarantee you'll deposit a little bit of spit along with air. I would, though, recommend you cover your nose and mouth or wear a dust mask when you start blowing around all that dust. I made sure to clean the motherboard, and any fans and vents that always perform better when they're dust free.
With that done, I carefully seated the new card, put everything back together and rebooted my PC. Windows 7 already had sufficient drivers to work with the card, but I did install the driver software that shipped with the card. I also checked online for any updates. These cards ship with the driver software that was current at the time of manufacturer; so it's likely that there's at least one driver update available for virtually any graphics card you buy today.
The card works perfectly and my computer has not crashed since.
One More Story:
My neighbor called me in a panic the other day, telling me her Wi-Fi was dead. She'd been on the phone with her ISP support techs who helpfully explained that her router likely had a hardware problem and would probably have to be replaced. She had already bought a new Wi-Fi router, but had no idea how to hook it up and had a suspicion that, perhaps, not all of the ISP's advice had been on target.
I arrived with my own laptop so I could see if the problem was system- (she has a Windows XP-based netbook) or router-based. If her system's Wi-Fi radio was kaput and the router was OK, I'd be able to get on her network. First we plugged her laptop directly into the router and found that, at the very least, the router was still connected to the Internet and could provide access through any of its LAN ports. Plus, this meant her netbook could still work with an active network connection. Next I used my laptop to test her Wi-Fi network. My laptop saw the broadcasted SSID and that the signal was excellent. When I tried to get online, it worked—perfectly.
Now I knew that the problem was not with her router or Internet connection. Instead, something was wrong with her laptop's Wi-Fi connection. I checked that the radio was on, which it was. I decided to let Windows XP SP3 try to "Repair" the Internet connection. It only took one run through for it to work, and we were back on line. I told my neighbor to return the new router.
How You Can Be a PC Whisperer:
Don't Panic: System problems can be solved by a process of elimination.
Resist the Urge to Purge: When your PC is in real trouble, your first instinct might be to go shopping for a new one. Save your money and figure out what's wrong first.
Improve But Don't Overhaul: A repair can, and usually will, bring some performance improvements to you older PC, but don't go overboard. Finding things like the same manufacturer, drivers and ports can ease the process and help avoid unanticipated issues.
Learn What You Can About the PC You Own: Knowing the make and model number of your PC is not enough. Get as many details as possible about the components, interfaces, power supply, OS version etc. It will save you loads of headaches in the end.
Beware of Over-Repairs: I'm sure there are some good PC- and tech-support technicians out there, but before you call any of them, be sure, you follow my previous advice and have as many answers as possible on hand for every one of their questions when they do call. Also, if their advice sounds wrong, it probably is. Just like a doctor, get a second opinion.
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