This happens when the computer does not respond to the inputs, for instance when you are trying to move the mouse around to restart the system and nothing happens when you click on it. It is different from a crash, when the whole system shuts down. With hangs you have the ability to recover the by ending the task and restarting the program.

One main cause of hangs is called a deadlock, in which one process may send a signal to a second process then stop execution until it receives a response. If the second process is busy the signal will be forced to wait until the process can get to it. However, if the second process was busy sending a signal to the first process then both processes would wait forever for the other to respond to signals and never see the other’s signal.

Sometimes it is just one program that hangs, or it could be the whole screen, regardless there are ways to recover from it.

One of the first things you should try in attempting to recover from a lockup is ending the application which has caused the freeze. You can do this by using a native program called Task Manager. To bring the Task Manager up press CTRL then while holding CTRL,press and hold the ALT key, next reach over to the top right of your computer and press the DEL key. Once you release the keys a window should open giving you a view of running applications.

This tool has saved many a file and application, as well as the whole computer, giving us the ability to recover from what seems like a random occurrence.

Assuming Task Manager will open, check the list of applications for any programs that say “Not Responding” under “Status”. If Internet Explorer or any other applications you had open read “Not Responding”, then you may Right-Click on them and select “End Task” from the menu. This should close the running application, if you are prompted to “End Now” or “Wait for it to respond” choose to “End Now”. By doing this you may lose any work you had open in this application but it will normally allow you to save anything else that was open at the time of the freeze.

If Task Manager is not working for you and you have no other way of closing the frozen computer programs then you may try powering down the computer. The easiest way to do this when the computer is not responding is by holding the power button in for about ten to fifteen seconds. The machine will power down, if it does not your last resort is to physically unplug the computer from the wall. Once powered down you may turn it back on and resume working, hopefully problem free.

If you continue having problems with the laptop or computer you may want to call a computer repair technician. The technicians at Geek Choice know how to get in and get out leaving your computer feeling healthy again!

DUST!

Clumps of dust can nestle around your processor, cuddle up to your power supply and choke ventilation. Computers can become havens for dust and other natural-borne air pollutants when not properly cleaned.

Let’s start off with a brief explanation of how dust collects in and around your system. Static electricity. Yes, you can blame static electricity for attracting dust to your computer. Why? Well, when a computer is in operation it creates a field of static electricity which attracts dust particles in the surrounding environment. A CRT or LCD monitor also creates static electricity. In fact, if you put your forearm up the monitor screen you may feel the little hairs on your arm rise! This is a perfect example of the static field encompassing your monitor.

Not to worry though, you won’t have to spend hours on end cleaning your computer system to prevent hardware failures and loss of ventilation. If your computer is in a clean environment you shouldn’t have to clean it out more than three or four times a year! A clean environment in our opinion is one without tobacco smoke, large amounts of pet dander or outdoor pollutants (smog/road dirt/sand). If any of these conditions are present in the computer’s environment more frequent cleanings should be considered. Let’s discuss these conditions that affect the quality of a computer’s environment. Smoke; smoke can seep into the openings of your case and settle on your motherboard and other hardware. Smoke is also responsible for discoloring keyboards, mice, cases, screens and wires. Pet hair; this can be worse than dirt because of how much larger it is. Hair can easily block the ventilation of a computer system.

Note: If you notice any dirt inside one of the plug heads use a little compressed air to blow it out.

Case Cleaning:

This is where the dust goes at night to cuddle up with your processor. Dust is not your friend, it is not something to be laughed at, and it deserves respect. This is war ladies and gentlemen! Load up with some compressed air because you?re heading off to the frontlines! Actually, cleaning a computer case isn’t that difficult. In fact, the entire process won’t take more than about 20 or 25 minutes if the dust is really bad.

1. Turn off your computer.
2. Remove the side cover of the computer case, exposing the motherboard and other hardware components.
3. Inspect all cables and connections. Be sure to look for cables that are frayed, loose, pinched, snug or otherwise damaged. If you come across any cables that are damaged in any way or form you should immediately replace them. If a cable is frayed do not attempt to patch it up with electrical tape, this is very dangerous fix. We also advise that you replace snug cables with longer ones before it accidentally snaps.
4. Now its time to get out the compressed air. Shoot the canned air at everything in your computer. Pay special attention to the heatsink and fan on top of your processor. This area collects a lot of dust. Some other areas to focus on are add-on cards (audio/video/modem), case fans, hard disks, power supply and removable media drives (cd-rom). A vacuum may help suck out the dust while you knock it loose with the compressed air. Caution: Follow the directions on the back of compressed air! Do not spray hardware at close range! If you choose to use a vacuum, do not attempt to vacuum anything in your computer!!!
5. If you notice dust in the PCI and AGP slots of your motherboard it may be wise to remove each add-on card and shoot some compressed air into the slots to break away the dust.
6. If your case has an air filter remove it and run it through warm water to remove the dust. To dry it simply use a cloth (lint-free if possible) and gently dab away the excess water. Place the filter back into the case.
7. Replace the side cover of the computer, but check first that there aren’t any cables that are lying next to any fans. Fasten the cover and restore the power.

Now you are all set to use your computer without worrying about damaging the inside components and losing important data.

There is a way out. If your system is about to fall off or has already fell and needs to be repaired, Geek Choice Blog has the key to recovery.

What you will need:

External Hard Drive: these can be found at your nearest computer store, Staples, Best Buy, anywhere they sell computer electronics. This will allow you to copy all of your original files from your old hard drive. You will need this if you want to keep all your existing files, music, documents, and information.

Recovery Tool: can be found in your Windows computer, search for it on the Start Menu. If you cannot find it, then contact your manufacturer to see what can be done. Usually the recovery tool is a CD that came with your computer, if you still have them, take a look at those and see if it is there. This tool will enable you to reinstall Windows. If all else fails, try TotalRecovery, for $50 dollars you can have a fail-safe recovery tool.

The Process:

Launch the back-up tool that is on your computer, TotalRecovery, or any back-up tool you can find. Clone, or copy your hard drive to the external hard drive that is connected via USB. The external hard drive is easy to see on the “My Computer” screen as an external drive. Now you have what  you need to reboot and reinstall.

Depending on whether your recovery tool is from Windows or is an external program, find the option that says “installation”. It usually is processed by a Wizard, no not from Harry Potter, but a step-by-step guide so you do not screw things up even more. Follow the Wizard to boot Windows in a safe environment.

After this is done, you will be asked what kind of Windows would you like to be installed. You want a fresh start right? There should be a “Custom”  option, click that.

Run the Windows Update that is already on your computer, that way your computer will stay fresh. Next you will need to reinstall your drivers, these can be found with the discs that came with your computer. If you do not have them, use the ones you cloned or copied to the external hard drive. What usually is the case is that a back-up folder is created, so when you are ready to copy the old files to the newly cleaned hard drive, you can just click and drag them over to folders located in C:

When picking the right programs to install, choose the security options first. If you do not have any anti-virus software, go online and download Avast or AVG. Most of the programs will ask you to restart the computer to finish the installation. Do not wait, just do it. After your firewall and internet security is in place, go for the Windows basic programs to install.

After you have created a new Windows, and all the programs you want are installed, make sure you back it up! Use the same tool you used at the beginning to clone your new, fresh hard drive so that IF this problem comes up again, you will have this as a fall back plan.

Good Luck!

This topic is current because there is a printer problem every day in the United States, this is not a fact grounded in research, but rather an obvious statement. Printers seem to come equipped with a little guy inside of it, waiting for you to print out homework, or a research paper, or directions, who loves to disrupt your life. So here are some tips to help you beat the little guy inside and print without a problem. Yes, it is possible.

One reason for the problems with printers is that there is so many different types and models, all with their tweaks and twists making the solution clouded in confusing PDF’s and troubleshooting guides.

Printer Does Not Print: This is a common malfunction with printers, you are all done after working for days on a presentation and all you need to do is print it out. Caring freely you click on the print button, and you wait. About 10 seconds goes by, and in the technology world today that is equal to an hour, with nothing happening. What could be wrong? It could be that your printer is out of date, which in that case you need to update it to the current version. Most printer manufacturer’s have websites, you can go online and go to the support section then click on the model of your printer to download the newest driver. Or you can cut out the middle man and go to Windows Updates located in the All Programs from the Start Menu. Run that and follow the instructions. If that does not work, then call Geek Choice and we will gladly come to fix the problem for you.

Paper Jam: This is the worst of the printer problems, this nuisance of a headache that will not go away even when you clear the paper jam. There are many causes to a paper jam, such as something getting lodged in there like a paper clip or a piece of food, but whatever the cause be careful when trying to clear the jam. I tried doing this by ripping the paper out of the printer, frustration got the best of me, and ended up ruining my printer because I stripped the gear threads and now the feed is all messed up. When the paper gets jammed, breath in, calm down, and turn off the printer. Once it is unplugged it will be safe to go in and, according to the user manual, remove the paper yourself.

These two problems are the biggest for printers, nothing gives people more headaches than a printer that won’t print or once it does print, the paper gets stuck. Good luck trying to find a printer that is infallible to these issues!

Most of the time, it is not being skilled enough or able to intellectually solve the problem yourself, it is not knowing where to look. Fixing your computer should not be such a hard task that leaves you feeling powerless and overwhelmed. When calling the “support” number for the computer, which usually fuels the frustration, does not work and you need help fixing it, read this blog.

If you cannot get out of the program you are running because it is frozen, stuck and not moving at all, press these keys down in order: Ctrl-Alt-Delete. This little trick will solve this problem like magic. A task manager window will open up, displaying all of the programs you are running with the status of each next to them. You will see different status’ if one is acting funny, such as “program not responding”. Highlight that program, and on the bottom of the task manager, click the “End Task” button. Wait for the magic to happen, and resume your activity on the computer.

Most people in these “modern” times we all live in, amidst all the emerging technology and fast growing trends, are trying to keep up with the crazy pace. Not everyone knows about fixing what may seem like simple problems to tech-savvy people, are complicated to those who are not.

That is our goal here at Geek Choice: self-knowledge, giving the customer the know-how to fix problems on their own to maybe save a few bucks in these tough economic times.

Back to problem solving. If you notice the speed of your internet not up to par, there is a quick easy solution for this one. Temporary files are things like history, cookies, and downloads which are saved to your computer. Maintenance is a good idea to keep this issue from happening. I have noticed with some people who let this go, and there internet is so slow I could write a book on blogging before they check their email it is that filled with crap.

Solution: Go to the search box located on the Start Menu and type ’.tmp’, it will pull up all the temporary files. Right click the mouse on each one, or select them all by selecting one and then, holding the shift key, going down to the last one. Hit the delete button, you are on your way to faster surfing instantly.

Troubleshooting the PC can lead to even more problems if you go beyond your skill level and end up really screwing things up! Make sure you know the limit of your knowledge, for example if it involves going inside your computer or trying to delete or mess with programs that you do not know the importance of.

Call Geek Choice at 1-800-433-5435 and the nice people on the phone will direct your problem towards the solution!

Not a lot of people, that’s who, because all this happens behind the LCD scene. There are all these processes that go on that we do not see, like sending an email or receiving an email, did you know that for there is 100 instances of one Mega Byte of email attachment? Fascinating language, and it is true.

It is also true that if you are aware of this nuisance, you can take action to reduce all the extra crap that takes up space on your computer. Here are some useful tricks to use while you walk the sands of the internet to make sure you have only one footprint, not hundreds.

Compression: it is probably the most well-known data reduction trick out there. Compression is the process of finding and being ridding of repeated patterns of bytes. It works well with databases, e-mail, and files. It’s included in some storage systems, but you can also find stand-alone compression applications or appliances.

By compressing, which means pressing together the data files so that it does not take up your whole hard drive space, you are able to use up the free space on the hard drive for programs and files that you actually use. Do not let your computer get slow and stupid because somebody forgot to keep up with all those files getting duplicated.

Another useful tool in making sure your computer is running at peak performance is visualization. By pooling all the storage devices together, like data backup and disaster recovery, in one pool is most efficient. It eliminates the unnecessary back and forth between different programs of data storage by having them all together.

With this method, the proper management policies are then applied to a single copy of the data, defining where, for example, it is stored and how it is deduplicated during functions such as backup and replication. This can cut storage needs greatly. The less need for storage, the less need for spending money that could be saved if you only took the time to become aware then act.

The last trick is called thin provisioning. This means setting up an application server to use a certain amount of space on a drive, but not using that space until it is actually needed. Thin provisioning is a concept that should be the normal way the storage should operate, if you are not using a program, why is it running or taking up space on the hard drive?

Make sure you have enough space, check the hard drive to see how many giga bytes you have left free. There is nothing worse than forgetting to keep your drive clean until it is too late, when you have to pay someone money to fix it.

A perfect tool that is free to download is called CCleaner 3.0 and it works like a miracle. I just downloaded it to test it out, it takes about two minutes total to get it up and running. It gives you a checklist of Windows applications on your computer, like Internet Explorer, Mozilla, and Google Chrome, that save tons of files every time you log on to the internet.

This tool is easy to use. It runs very fast searching through your hard drive, based on your selection of what you want deleted, and gets rid of all that crap you do not need. What is good about it is that when it is deleting all that crap, it knows what files to keep like email and other files that you use most frequently.In fact, that is what the name means: “Crap Cleaner 3.0″, just what we need!

What I love about using this tool for cleaning up my computer is that it really makes me feel that I have total control. Isn’t that what everyone wants for their PC? For me, having the ability to run a broom through my hard drive and clean up 118,096 MB of free space, is pretty freakin’ sweet!

Most of the programs used on the computer take “craps” on the hard drive, and after a while this can lead to a very slow PC. Another great feature of this program solves that riddle called DLL, that annoying error message that comes up when a file is missing. This program uses the registry cleaner, which searches the computer for those missing DLL files and solves the riddle.

What about those pesky start-up programs that clutter your computer as soon as you turn it on? No problem with the Crap Cleaner, it has a special tool to clear that crap out of there. By doing this your PC will be running like new again, simply because your PC will not be full of crap!

The new version has added new programs such as AVG Internet Security, Bittorrent, Audacity, and Windows Game Explorer. It gets better, after installing this program on your computer, all you have to do is sit back and let the cleaner do it’s job. The major problem people have with their computer is the speed it is running at. If it is not fast enough to their liking, then one of the first issues to look at is the crap that is covering the computer.

This is the way to thoroughly clean-up your PC. Yes, you can use the programs provided by Windows but this one is too easy. Keeping your PC clean should be easy, fast, and complete in doing the job. By giving you the control of what you want to be deleted, Crap Cleaner 3.0 is the ultimate cleaning tool.

If you hear your hardware inside of your computer making a clicking sound then it may already be too late, the PC is near death at this point. How did it get to that point?

The power supply units are the main cause of this problem. What most people do not know is that when it comes to making a PC, a company will most likely skimp on this very important component of the computer in order to cut costs of making it. This big metal box that sits in your computer is overlooked when it should be the first thing you check out.

When you look with the perspective of electricity, the power supply runs through every little electronic component in the computer. Kind of important, right?

When you want more hard drives, CD/DVD-ROM players, and floppy drives added on to your computer, you are really asking for an overload of power. By overloading the power supply, the system might not shut down right away leaving you to suspect other problems for the reason why your PC is going slow. The results of putting too much pressure on the power is the slow failure of the supply or the fluctuating power that creates an unstable system.

Another way in which your computer might be failing is the Power On/Off switch you keep hitting. When you power on the computer the electricity heats up the components, expanding them. When you power off the system, they contract. The thermal shock to the computer is too much for it to take after a while, leaving you with a broken piece of machinery. This is a problem that might be happening in your computer right now, for example, when you had to push the power button 0n your computer two or three times on and off in order to finally get it running.

This is when the question of whether to fight or flight comes in. What should you do? Unless you have a degree in Computer Science, I would call places like Geek Choice who can get to you fast and fix the problem. Next time you are about to throw the computer out of the window for acting up again, check how the basics. It might be over heated, or it might be getting too much power. Simple right?

Computers do not have to be a big mystery on how to shoot the trouble in the face and go along your business without interruption. But most of the time it is through ignorance that leaves the person stumped on why their computer needs repair. You did not know what you did not know, that is okay, just make sure you make the right decision.

Let’s say someone has been using their computer for five years. At first it runs smoothly for a couple years with no problems. But over time, and through no fault to the user, the place where operations run called the registry gets cluttered.

You do not want to buy a new computer, so what do you do? To go in to the registry on your own and try deleting a bunch of files thinking that it will make your computer run faster, is a fallacy. There are very sensitive files in the registry that if you delete by accident, even your computer’s basic functions will be compromised.

The best way to fix this problem is to go to a trusted source such as a program like Workstation Optimizer. This program will enable you to do what you cannot do for yourself, which is free up all that stuff that is cluttering your computer and make it run like it first did when you bought it.

If you are lazy or your computer is so full of crap that downloading anything will break its back, there are tools on your computer which will clean up disk space, thus allowing for smooth sailing. The Disk Cleanup tool that exists in Windows 7, XP, and Vista can work wonders for your computer.

You can use Disk Cleanup to:

• Remove temporary Internet files.
• Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
• Empty the Recycle Bin.
• Remove Windows temporary files such as error reports.
• Remove optional Windows components that you don’t use.
• Remove installed programs that you no longer use.
• Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.

Another way to make your PC run better is to go to your Control Panel from the Start Menu, and click on Add/Remove Programs. Once in here you will see a list of programs that are most commonly used, like you internet, your anti-virus, and your work applications. But you will also find many programs that are not being used or that snuck in by downloads.

These extra programs take up that valuable space you need for work or play, regardless of why you use it, no one wants a slow retarded computer.

Check your start-up folder. Somehow a lot of random programs sneak into this folder and jump on you as soon as your computer boots. Most of these do not even tell you what they are doing, so they are invisible taking up CPU space if you do not take action. To solve this, go to your start up, click on All Programs, and you will see a folder called Startup. If there is anything in there that you did not intentionally put it in, delete it.

PC’s come with problems, so do these simple steps to eliminate these problems and turn them into costless solutions.