Software Crashes - How To Recover and Prevent
Them
We
have a lot of software on our computers today. Everyone should
know how to take care of their computer as well as manage the
hidden dangers and avoid the risks of a crash
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Understanding the meaning of these terms will help
as you read this article:
1. Crash - When a program or your entire computer
stops
working and
you cannot move the mouse
or use the keyboard, and
the screen is
frozen.
2. Reboot - When you restart your computer after
a crash.
3. Control Panel - A feature of Windows that will
give you
access to
system utilities and settings.
OK, so what should you do first if your computer crashes? |
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Try to STOP
and do nothing for a few
minutes. Often, the computer is trying to do your
commands and might just need a little more time to
complete them.
Pressing more keys could add to the computer's
problems, maybe even forcing a crash.
Check your connections for the keyboard and make sure the
pins are not bent. Maybe there is a jammed key on the
keyboard, maybe some liquid has spilled. Check the
computer connections as well.
Also, the mouse may just
be dirty and need the inner ball that rolls cleaned with
soapy water. Dry it and remove any dust in the mouse
body itself and replace the mouse roller ball.
Be sure to check the batteries in your keyboard and mouse if
they connect to your computer by wireless.
Most of the time the hardware is OK, but the software has caused a
problem. A good way to try to recover from a problem is
to press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys simultaneously.
This will case a dialog box to appear and show you all
of the running programs.
Note that at least one will have a not-responding indication. Try
clicking on the program listed and click END TASK. Close
the dialog box and see if your computer is working
again. If it does not respond, then try the
dialog box again and see if there is another program
causing trouble and End Task on it as well.
This should solve about 98% of your computer crash problems. If your
computer is not responding with all this, you can try
restarting. Switching off the entire power is the
last resort and should not be done unless nothing
else worked.
To prevent computer crashes, you need to take care of your computer
and do some maintenance.
First thing to check is that you have room on your hard drive.
Windows likes to have space and will not work if you do
not keep the total usage down on your hard drive. Never
go over 70% usage of your total hard drive space. To
check usage, go to Start, right click on My
Computer, then click on your hard drive letter
and Properties and see what amount of space is
available.
You may need to delete or move to another hard drive or a CD any
large audio or video files and remove software programs
that you do not use. Do this by choosing the "Add
or Remove Programs" icon from the Control Panel
from Start Menu.
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Note
- Performing
the Defrag function after removing
files from your hard drive
often helps improve your
computer's operating efficiency.
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You also should make sure you have enough Memory or RAM
(Random Access Memory). You can help out your computer
by not opening too many programs at once if your RAM is
low.
To find out how much RAM your computer has, select Control Panel
from the Start Menu, Double Click System Tools,
and then open the System Information tab. The
total and available memory is listed towards the bottom
of the right panel when you click on System Summary.
Software that uses the most RAM are those that include a
lot of graphics, video or sound capabilities. You can
keep these to a minimum on your hard drive by burning
to a CD or Flash drive, then deleting
those files from the hard drive allowing your hard drive space to be
saved.
Another quick tip is to back up your hard drive regularly.
Read out report
Backing up Your Computer data.
There are notes on how to do this online and it is very
important and should be done consistently. This way you
will not lose a lot of work should you have to turn off
power or restart your computer due to a crash.
You will be very happy to have done your proper maintenance and
support work for your computer should you have a crash.
Losing work is never fun and can be avoided by a little
preventive maintenance.
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