C
Clive George
Guest
"raisethe" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>> > Are there any techniques you can use when buying hardware and software
>> > which will minimise the hassle?
>>
>> Keep the OS patched and up to date, don't look at dodgy websites, don't
>> use
>> IE, don't read/open spam, install as few programs as possible, have a
>> firewall, have antivirus, keep back ups of files you wish to keep.
>
> Yes, I do all that, and periodically defrag and use a couple of
> registry cleaners, yet still I get the freeze ups - it took me four
> attempts to boot up today. I can't open 3 windows on the internet
> without the computer seizing, windows media player doesn't work, my
> newish external hard drive doesn't work, the original cdwriter has
> long since failed, as has the original monitor, printer and modem.
> When I upload pictures from my camera it is hit or miss whether it
> works or I lose them forever. I can only play one CD before it seizes
> the computer and even then it closes excel for some reason. The rest
> of my music is on the broken hard drive so is inaccessible.
At work in that situation we go for the pragmatic approach : wipe the hard
disk and reinstall from scratch. However our guys are used to doing this, so
can just reimage without much effort. In your case I'd consider buying a new
internal HD, install from scratch on that, then copy what stuff you need
from the old one.
FWIW in some ways I'm slacker than some, eg I use IE and OE, and never touch
registry cleaners, and don't have any problems.
Unless of course your hardware is knackered somehow. You could try a knoppix
CD to see if this is any happier - if it works fine, that would imply the
hardware is ok.
cheers,
clive
news:[email protected]...
>> > Are there any techniques you can use when buying hardware and software
>> > which will minimise the hassle?
>>
>> Keep the OS patched and up to date, don't look at dodgy websites, don't
>> use
>> IE, don't read/open spam, install as few programs as possible, have a
>> firewall, have antivirus, keep back ups of files you wish to keep.
>
> Yes, I do all that, and periodically defrag and use a couple of
> registry cleaners, yet still I get the freeze ups - it took me four
> attempts to boot up today. I can't open 3 windows on the internet
> without the computer seizing, windows media player doesn't work, my
> newish external hard drive doesn't work, the original cdwriter has
> long since failed, as has the original monitor, printer and modem.
> When I upload pictures from my camera it is hit or miss whether it
> works or I lose them forever. I can only play one CD before it seizes
> the computer and even then it closes excel for some reason. The rest
> of my music is on the broken hard drive so is inaccessible.
At work in that situation we go for the pragmatic approach : wipe the hard
disk and reinstall from scratch. However our guys are used to doing this, so
can just reimage without much effort. In your case I'd consider buying a new
internal HD, install from scratch on that, then copy what stuff you need
from the old one.
FWIW in some ways I'm slacker than some, eg I use IE and OE, and never touch
registry cleaners, and don't have any problems.
Unless of course your hardware is knackered somehow. You could try a knoppix
CD to see if this is any happier - if it works fine, that would imply the
hardware is ok.
cheers,
clive