“Oh, wow. Looks like it’s completely dead! At this point, it’s not even worth saving. You might as well just buy a new computer.”

“Really, we can’t just fix it? It’s only 2 years old!”

Have you ever had that conversation before? It’s pretty common at retail establishments like Best Buy. Sure, they sell services. And services are pretty high margin. But if they can convince you to get a new computer with a monster surge protector, anti-virus installation, customization, and a service plan – that’s a much better sale for them!

How can you avoid that situation altogether? I will go over how to diagnose both software and hardware issues.

Software

I would argue that most issues with peoples computers that I fix are software related. A Geek Squad employee may tell you that your hard drive is shot if you have so many virii (yeah, that’s the plural of virus!) that he doesn’t feel like dealing with it, but that is still a software issue.

Malware

If someone who uses your computer frequently has the urge to click on random links, or if you click on random links, you’ll most likely find your computer inundated with random malware. This leaves you in a not so fun position.

I happen to be the "go to" computer geek in the family, so I have a flash drive with a bunch of utilities that do an excellent job of cleaning up a computer.

• Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – Free. Simplicity. Sometimes the only thing I am missing is that it makes it TOO easy. You won’t get detailed explanations, but it will do a good job at getting rid of adware, spyware, virii, and rogue security programs (ever have what looks like an antivirus program lock down your computer and demand payment?).
• Avast! Antivirus- Free. Effective. When presented with an "in the wild" virus, Avast has proven to be one of the best programs at identifying the unknown threat. This is known as heuristics, the ability to learn and discover based on experience. This offers real time scanning, scheduled scans, and on demand scans. Also, Avast is more effective at root kit removal than MBAM.
• Spybot Search & Destroy – Also free. A great tool to remove spyware. Comes with a tool that runs in the background to alert you when anything tries to change your settings (like add a startup program or your default homepage).
• HijackThis - Scans your computer and gives you a detailed report of all of the programs running, programs set to run on startup, browser helper objects (BHOs) installed, etc. If you have no idea what you are looking at, copy the log file here to get an explanation of what’s good and bad.

All of these programs should be run from safe mode for maximum effectiveness.

How about the smart virus that makes it impossible for you to install one of the aforementioned programs or even run the program if it’s already installed?

I like to go the route of a Live CD. A Live CD is a CD that boots into it’s own operating system (OS) with pre-installed applications to fight malware. It can connect to the Internet in order to update its virus detection abilities. Two that I suggest:

• The Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows – If you have your original Windows Installation CD’s, UBCD4 will create a bootable version of Windows for you. Your computer will boot to a clean version of Windows running off of the CD with a bunch of utilities to clean up your Windows installation on your hard drive.
• BitDefender Rescue CD – Will automatically update virus definitions if you are connected to the Internet. Comes with BitDefender’s virus scanner and a root kit checker. Bored while waiting? Firefox comes installed so you can browse the web while waiting!

The combination of the options above should be able to solve any software issues you have.

Error Codes

Ever get a BSOD? Or, what is known as a blue screen of death? It’s that frightening screen that alerts you that you just lost everything you are working on and your computer will (hopefully) be restarting.

They typically will display an error code.

Example:

STOP 0×000000ED (0xaaaaaaaa,0xbbbbbbbb,0xcccccccc,0xdddddddd)

UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME

A quick Google brings you to Microsoft’s Knowledge Base giving you information on the symptoms and resolutions. Most people don’t realize how helpful those error codes can be for them!

Just Google any error code you get and you will either get a fix from Microsoft or from a random forum where someone posted the problem and had people help fix it.

System recovery

If this option isn’t turned on, turn it on.

XP: How-to

Vista: How-to

This way if anything goes so wrong that you can’t fix it, you can just restore your computer back to a previous state.

If your last restore point is 1 week ago and you haven’t saved anything important to your computer since then, I would even suggest just doing a restore before going through the hassle of running virus scans to make things easier and quicker.

Hardware

In the chance that it is a hardware issue, here are a few things to think about to figure out which part is causing the problem.

Recent changes?

The first question you should always ask if you start experiencing hardware issues is: Have I changed anything lately?

If the answer is no, then you can skip to the next step.

If the answer is yes, does undoing that change fix the problem? For example, if you just installed a new DVD burner and now your computer is frequently shutting off randomly, does uninstalling the DVD burner fix the issue? If yes, the hardware itself could be faulty or maybe the drivers are causing conflicts with your setup. If no, skip to the next step.

Drivers

In order for your hardware to work on your computer, there is something called a driver. The driver acts as a way for your computer software to understand how to communicate with the hardware.

Sometimes the drivers won’t be tested well enough or won’t be tested in conjunction with other drivers and they will create problems.

If you recently updated a driver, roll back to an older version. If the only thing that has changed is a new piece of hardware, make sure all of your drivers are up to date.

Use Google to see if anyone else has had any issues.

Failure testing

Check out this good article on failure testing using multimeters, cable testers, POST cards, error messages, and the beeping sound the computer makes on startup.

Depending on when the beeps occur and how many there are, you can isolate where the failure is happening.

Good Luck

Hopefully, trying out all of the above steps will ensure you don’t have to make the dreaded trip to a retail computer repair spot (Geek Squad?!).

This could save you anywhere from $100, which seems to be the usual minimum charge for basic repairs, to $1,000+ if they convince you to get another computer.

By taking ownership of your property and knowing what to look for, you can save yourself money for years to come!

Good luck, please don’t hesitate to give comments, suggestions, or questions!