Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: troubleshoot, upgrade, fix | Themes: Desktop Computers
4. Getting Good Technical Support
As part of any purchase decision, include an assessment of the quality and availability of technical support. If you’re considering making a major purchase of an application, make a call to the support desk with a question about configuration or system requirements; if you’re not satisfied with the quality of the response you get before you buy the product, you have no reason to expect good service after your check has been cashed.
Here are some more tips:
1. Make a record of error messages. Keep a notepad by your computer, and write down any error messages that you receive.
2. Make notes on what you were doing before the error occurred. Which programs were open? What key combinations or mouse clicks had you just entered? How long had the machine been powered on?
3. Keep copies of every instruction manual, program installation disk, and driver file. I keep all of these materials in large envelopes on one level of the bookshelf in my office, organized by type of device. If you have multiple machines, be sure to attach a note indicating in which machine the device is installed, and the date of installation.
4. Prepare for your technical support call. Know the system specifications for your machine, including the operating system and version, the type of processor, and internal devices. Have your machine running, and call from a telephone near the keyboard so that you can perform any actions asked of you by a technician. Keep a notebook to keep track of actions that you are asked to make.
5. If possible, call when support desks are least busy. In general, it’s not a good idea to call on Monday morning after a weekend’s pent-up problems, or late in the afternoon when a day’s issues are before them. When does that leave? I’ve had the best luck calling early in the day during the week.
6. Write down the name of the technician you speak with, and see whether you can obtain a direct telephone number or an e-mail address for follow-up questions. Find out whether the support desk assigns a case number that documents your interaction with the support desk, and be sure to record that information. If you call back another time, a technician can read the entire history of your case.
7. Be polite, but firm. There’s no point to losing your cool. But if you feel you are not getting good advice, politely ask whether you can speak to another technician or a supervisor who may be able to help.
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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