System Tuneup Guide

10 Steps to Avoiding PC Disasters: Day 3 - Memory Failure

After the hard drive, your RAM memory is the most likely hardware component to fail, which can cause your PC not to boot or stop responding. You will see most memory errors and problems occur upon installation of your DIMM Memory sticks…but RAM problems can also occur at any time during the daily use of your PC due to power surges or overheating.

If you are getting Stop errors or your PC keeps freezing or crashing, you may have memory problems. The easiest way to repair memory errors is to first run a Windows registry cleaner like RegCure, as sometimes a corrupted and bloated windows registry can cause all sorts of errors on your PC, including freezes and crashes.

The next step would be to actually replace your memory, as that will usually fix any RAM related problems, but you’ll want to run some tests first: One of the most effective memory tests you can run, has to be executed outside of windows, so you’ll need a bootable CD. The test is called Memtest86 and is Free! The longer you run this memory test the more accurately it can measure your RAM’s performance levels, and determine if any faulty memory needs to be replaced.

If you find that you need to replace your computer’s memory sticks, then head of to Crucial.com and use their memory advisor tool to locate the specific RAM you need for your PC. This will involve choosing your PC’s manufacturer and model number. Then go to Newegg.com to purchase your memory (much cheaper prices than crucial)!

Keeping a close eye on your hard drives and RAM with the programs we’ve mentioned in these first two posts can really go a long ways towards preventing any kind of PC disaster from even happening!

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PC Disaster #2, Hard-Drive failures

Your hard drive is one of the hardest working components in your PC next to your cooling fans, and will eventually fail over time. It is always better to be prepared to deal with Hard Drive failures ahead of time…and be ready to anticipate the failure rather than dealing with it after the fact. The easiest thing to do is to make regular backups of your hard drive. One software program that will ‘clone’ your drive for you is the Acronis True Image program (www.acronis.com), which costs around $80.

Backups should done in conjunction with a program that can monitor the health of your hard drive at an given time, and sound an alarm if something starts going wrong. Personal SmartCheck (www.urltoy.com) is a great program for monitoring your hard drive’s health. And it can be downloaded for a 30-day free trial before you have to spend the $20 to keep it if you like it. SmartCheck will even predict when your hard drive will fail,giving you ample warning to make necessary arrangements for replacement drive to be installed.

Of course, protecting an already working drive is easy, but what should you do if your hard drive has already failed and won’t spin up? Unfortunately, if the drive doesn’t spin up at all, then you won’t be able to recover your data. If your drive barley spins up but windows won’t start, you can use the Recovery Console to fix or restore it, or you could try BART PE Disk (www.nu2.nu) to try and gain access to windows and your data. Of course the 3rd alternative is to hire an expensive data recovery service to rescue your hard drive data for you, but depending on your data’s value, the recovery costs will be justifiable.

You can physically install a new hard drive easily enough, but you’ll have to reinstall your windows operating system once you do.

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PC Disaster #1: Power Surges

Power surges aren’t fun, and they can wreck lots of havoc on your valuable computer hardware, and damage your data as well. Some of your more sensitive hardware components are your motherboard, RAM and hard drive. If you cannot get your computer to start at all, then you will probably need to replace the power supply (will cost you $20-$50). If a new power supply doesn’t give you power again, then your motherboard might be at fault, and you’ll need to test each component seperately to find the culprit.

Swapping out a new power supply is relatively easy, and should only take you about 15-25 minutes. You’ll need a philips screwdriver, which you should use to open up your PC and remove the power supply. First however, you’ll want to make sure you have your PC case setup on a table with good lighting, and ensure that all power cords are unplugged!

Start by discharging any extra static electricity that might be in your PC by touching the case, then remove the cover and unplug the power supply from the motherboard…just follow the thick line of wires from the back of the Power supply to your motherboard, and you’ll have to pinch the retaining lever to release the plug from the motherboard.

Your power supply will also be connected to all your hard drives, floppy drives, CD Rom drives, etc. So unplug the power cables from each of those components before actually removing the power supply. Now unscrew the power supply from your case and gently lift it out. Do not unscrew and disassemble the actual power supply, as there may be residual static electricity inside that could discharge and harm you and/or your PC.

Now simply set the new power supply into the place of the old one, and hook everything back up again in the same way that you unplugged your components when removing the old power supply. Your PC should now start up fine…if it doesn’t, then you probably have a motherboard issue and you’ll need to actually remove the motherboard from the case and set it on a non-confudtive surface for further testing.

Connect your Power supply to just your motherboard, and turn it on…if your motherboard heat sink fans start whirling that is a good sign, if not, then you’ll probably need a new motherboard. Now connect each component to your power supply seperately to make sure they also power up ok. First your hard drive, then your video card, then the other components. Once you have established that your power supply os properly supplying power to all your components, it’s time to secure them all back in your case (after unplugging from power of course).

This would be a good time to use compressed air and clean all your components of dust before inserting them back into your case.

Protection from surges require the obvious use of a good surge protector (runs about $30 for a nice one) but an even better idea would be to get a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply). They do a much better job at protecting your PC from power surges, plus they have the added benefit of supplying backup power to your PC in the event of a power failure, giving you enough time to save and shutdown your PC manually.

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