• Systems - General
• Monitors
• Modems
• Graphic Cards

  Systems

  • Power -
    After a power outage or surge you may find that nothing happens when you switch on your system. This is quite common and a few simple tests may solve the problem.
    1. Check your main circuit board or power box to ensure that you have not blown a fuse in your main power circuit.
    2. If your system runs power from a power board, check the reset switch on the power board.
    3. Remove the power cable from the back of your system and push the power button on the system as if you were trying to boot-up. This will discharge all power from the power supply, effectively resetting it. Then plug the power cable back in to the system and push the power button again.
    4. If you have a spare power cable try swapping cables to rule out a cable failure. Although cable failure is rare, it is best to cover all bases before carting your system away for repair. If the system still fails to boot after checking all of these options then it is likely that the power supply has blown and will need replacing.
  • System Performance -
    After time you may find that your system does not seem to run as fast as it used to. There are a number of issues which can effect system performance.
    1. Installing and uninstalling multiple programs will, after time, reduce the speed of the system. When a program is installed it places files in many different locations on your hard drive. Uninstalling the program will not remove all of these files, especially if you are prompted to delete shared files and you select 'No' to deleting them. Although this is normally the safest option, it over time leave many unused files taking up valuable space.
    2. By default, when a program is installed on your system it will add itself to the start group, which means when your system boots it will initialise some functions of these programs to make them quickly accessible when required. However, in a lot of cases these may be programs that you don't often use and rob your system of RAM that could be put to better use. Removing programs from the start group will improve your system performance.
    3. As time goes by you fill your hard drive up, sometimes with useless programs, and files. As the hard drive gets closer to it's maximum capacity, the systems performance will suffer. Try uninstalling unused programs and cleaning out your files.
    4. If you use the internet a lot, your hard drive will be storing all your downloaded material in your 'Temporary Internet Files' folder. Set your internet options to empty this folder on a regular basis or delete after 'X' amount of days. The same applies to 'Cookies' and your user 'Temp' files. These all fill up after time, utilizing much needed space.
    5. Check the amount of RAM you have installed in your system and upgrade to a suitable level.

  Monitors

  • Picture quality -
    Right click on the desktop and left click on 'Properties'. Left click again on 'Settings'. Check what screen resolution you are currently set to. Try changing settings and see what happens, you can't get yourself into any trouble changing these settings, but it is a good idea to write down what settings you are currently using before changing them, so in the event you don't like the changes you have made, you can always return to the original settings.
    Set your 'Colour Quality' to it's highest setting to take full advantage of your graphic capabilities.
    Most monitors will have adjusting dials or buttons somewhere on the body of the monitor, (normally at the front). Here you can adjust the width of the screen display, horizontal and vertical alignment, brightness and contrast. Adjust to suit your environment. Some monitors have an auto adjust button. Push this button and the monitor will self adjust to optimum settings.
  • Signal -
    If you have purchased or are purchasing a new monitor and are unable to get a signal, it is possible that you may have the monitor plugged into the wrong port. This will usually only be possible if you have a motherboard that has built in graphics and also has a graphic card installed. In this case you need to plug the monitor into the graphic card port. Your monitor cable should fit snugly into the port without forcing it. If you are having difficulties plugging it in, check the end of the cable, you may have bent a pin. If this has occurred, try very carefully to straighten the pin. They do snap, and if this occurs you will need to replace the cable.
    If everything seems OK and you are still unable to get a picture, yet you definitely have power to the monitor, it may be that the monitor or your graphic card is faulty.

  Modems

  • Drivers -
    Whether you are using in internal or external modem it is important that the correct driver is installed for your modem to operate properly. Windows XP comes with many drivers pre-installed so that you simply need to select your modem from a list. Older operating systems will require an installation disk or a downloaded driver file to install. Go to Control Panel and click on the Modems icon to check the details of your driver. You can also elect to Update Driver from here.
  • Phone cable sockets -
    • Many Fax/Modems, internal or external, have two sockets. One marked 'Phone' the other marked 'Line'. The telephone extension cable plugs into the socket marked 'Line'. If you plug into the 'Phone' socket you will receive an error noting that 'No Dial Tone' could be detected.
    • If you have ensured that you are plugged into the correct socket and yet you still receive the error message stating No Dial Tone, it is possible to force the modem to dial without waiting for a dial tone.
      1. Go to Control Panel and click on the modem icon.
      2. Click on Properties
      3. Remove the tick from 'Wait for Dial Tone before dialing'
      4. Click Ok
  • Constant Disconnection -
    If you are constantly being disconnected from the internet it may be caused by having call waiting enabled on your line. The signal used by call waiting will interrupt a modem and cause it to Drop Out. To set your modem to disable before dialing:
    1. Go to Control Panel and click on the modem icon.
    2. Click on Dialing Properties
    3. Tick the box labeled 'To disable call waiting, dial:'
    4. Enter the code used by your phone provider
    5. Click 'Apply'
    6. Click 'OK'
    7. Click 'OK' again to close window.
  • Slow connection speeds -
    Slow connection speeds or data rates can be caused by a number of elements. In the event of a modem being responsible for slow speed, it is likely that the modem has been set to a lower connection speed or that the modem is in fact faulty and needs to be replaced. To check the connection speed the modem is set to:
    1. Go to Control Panel and click on the modem icon.
    2. Click on Properties
    3. Under the 'General' Tab you will find 'Maximum Speed' This will indicate it's current setting. Click on the drop down menu to see what other options are available. When in doubt, choose the highest speed.
    4. Click 'Apply'
    5. Click 'OK'

Graphic Cards

• There is a wide range of Graphic cards to choose from varying in memory size and price. Graphic cards start as low as $60 and run as high as $2000. Choosing the correct graphic card for your PC is very important as you don't want a card that want support the application you want to use, but you don't want to spend $400 on a card to find that your have no use for the additional features or memory capacity.
• Games are an important factor in the choice of graphic card. All games have a minimum system requirement. Although meeting the minimum requirement may enable the game to run, it may not run very effectively, so make sure you purchase a card with more memory than the minimum requirement for the game you want to play, because you can be assured that the next game you want to install requires even more memory. It can be a very expensive exercise updating graphic cards on a regular basis.
• To get the best out of the graphic card you have installed, it is important to use the very latest driver. Although your graphic card will come with a driver, it is a good idea to go to the manufacturer's web site and check to see if there is a later version of driver to suit your operating system.
• If your PC is displaying poor graphic quality or the PC tends to crash during games or other applications which draw on the resources of your graphic card, it is possible that the driver needs updating or that the card may be faulty.
• When installing a graphic card the driver disk may also have a copy of DirectX. Before installing this copy, check your system to see what version you are currently running, as you may already have the latest or a later version than that supplied on the disk. To check your system for DirectX you need to look in the systems display properties. Different operating systems and different graphic cards will determine the exact location of the DirectX properties.