Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: troubleshoot, upgrade, fix | Themes: Desktop Computers
10. Monitors
Make sure that your monitor is properly connected to the video adapter of the PC and plugged into a working wall circuit. Check the brightness and contrast settings on the monitor; an accidental turn of a knob may make the screen dark and unreadable. Cross-Reference
You can find more information about monitors in Chapter 13.
Windows should be able to identify current monitors as Plug-and-Play devices and install proper device drivers — either from the ones provided by Microsoft as part of Windows or from an installation disk that comes from the monitor manufacturer. If Windows has not recognized your monitor, or if somehow the driver has become corrupted, the system may be attempting to communicate with your monitor at a resolution or refresh rate that it does not support. Reboot the system into Safe Mode, which will load generic VGA monitor drivers. Go to the Display item of Control Panel and make appropriate adjustments there.
Some older or special-purpose monitors have an external fuse. Unplug the unit and remove the fuse. Examine it carefully and replace it if it has blown. If it appears to be good, the fuse may have come unseated because of heat or vibration. Reinstall the fuse and try the monitor again.
Warning
If your monitor has failed, do not attempt to make internal repairs yourself. The video circuitry can retain deadly high voltage, even when off and unplugged, and any adjustments require specialized training and equipment. It probably does not make sense to repair a basic monitor; new models will likely cost less than the repair bill. On the other hand, I have had good luck in getting monitors repaired at old-fashioned TV repair shops. If you use a lot of computers and monitors — as I do — it might make sense to establish a relationship with the proprietor of such a shop if you can find one. An older, 15-inch monitor can be thrown away, but a new 19-inch device that quits working may be worth fixing if you can find someone who really knows their way around the inside of the thing. Chances are you won’t find anybody at a computer store or computer repair facility with these qualifications.
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Not bad, but I'll take a few exceptions:
1 - cleaning up and defragmenting your hard disk is Windows specific.
The Microsoft block allocator is brain dead, was made that way, and will remain so for as long as Diskeeper and Norton Systemworks create revenue: a Mac OS X, xBSD or Linux-based system doesn't need defragmentation(*), as it is done by the OS on every disk access. You can get efficient defragmentation by:
- disabling System Restore: it doesn't work very well anyway, is a virus nest, and eats up to 6 Gb on your hard disk.
- setting your swap file to a fixed size.
- disabling file system indexing.
- deleting DrWatson's log.
- running Ccleaner once in a while with most settings enabled: once you have applied hotfixes, you don't need the uninstall files anyway. You'll need to clean up IE7's and WMP's patches yourself though.
- make Pagedefrag run at every boot after 0 second wait: the first time it may take a while to run, but it'll keep the Registry and swap file in one piece.
(*)to be fair, such a system may still fragment if you fill up a partition with huge files when it is already more than 80% full - Windows will fragment any file if you get past 10% partition capacity. Some say it's a way to prevent data corruption, as usually adjacent sectors are more likely to get corrupted, but then if that's the case Windows doesn't fragment ENOUGH.
2 - a resident antivirus is a resource drain.
Using a limited user account, a well configured firewall (in software or hardware, preferably both), and scanning downloaded files before you run them (and not making use of MS Outlook Express, which runs files for you) will keep you safe enough.
Not using IE may help, too: Opera or Firefox can operate as pure user level processes. Firefox 3 will be able to notify antivirus when a file is downloaded (if it interacts well with ClamAV, you can dump Norton and forget about the yearly AV tax).
3 - power surge protection.
A sound advice. However, a beefy PSU that you change every 1-2 years and a good power surge preventer are, in my experience, less costly and more efficient than a pack of batteries you'll need to renew every year. A good PSU in great shape can handle brown-outs, especially if your system doesn't draw too much current, and a surge protector will cover the PSU's most damaging attack. Changing the PSU regularly ensures that its capacitors remain at peak efficiency, and that its voltage regulators work as required. It is also unsound to clean up a PSU (it's dangerous!), so getting a new one is the most efficient way to get a clean one. With Vista, no UPS lasts long enough to allow you to save your files and shut down a system cleanly.
Clutz. I eat and drink around mine everyday and I've never once spilled so much as a drop of milk.
Milk eh?
I'd suggest keeping your files on a NAS drive or USB external drive and formatting your MS OS every year.
Besides running a limited account try Virtual Machines for avoiding those pesky viruses