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The following information is to help users with basic PC Diagnostics
(Click on the topic to view the information)
Often times people notice their computers starting to run slow and quickly assume that the computer itself is failing. Many people don't realize that part of the reason their computers may be having issues is due to viruses and spyware. They can cause a number of different issues that some may not relate to the presence of viruses or spyware.
Some on the other hand are much more obvious and make their presence known. If you see warnings or popups saying you have a virus thats a good indicator that your PC is infected. Some people click on the warnings and purchase the software they are told to by the pop-ups which are actually related to the spyware threat to begin with and end up with lots more viruses. There are a few simple rules on how to determine if you have a virus or spyware on your computer making it run slow.
- Check and see if you have any pop-ups warning you about infection
- Check your antivirus software to see if its up to date (If you do not have antivirus software theres a high chance your PC is infected)
- Boot into safemode (press F8 on PC startup), and see if your computer runs like a completely different machine.
If your PC is infected you may want to try one of two options (or both). You can choose to remove the spyware yourself through the steps provided [link] Or we do offer malware removal and malware removal packages (which include Internet Security to prevent reinfection)
Is your PC making noises it didn't use to make? Find a symptom on the list that matches what you hear to determine what could be causing it.
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Screeching noise when you are saving anything.
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If you are getting this regularly its actually the data platters (disks) inside the drive being scraped away by the data head that writes data, that is a sign of hard drive failure.
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You will want to backup your hard drive information to another drive and replace it before failure.
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Random clicking noises w/ slow PC performance
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If you're hearing random clicking noises from your computer and you see it slow down when trying to move or save data to your hard drive, thats the sign of another form of hard drive failure.
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Loud whirring noises.
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This often happens when your fans are speeding up to cool down different components of your computer.
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The main fans that will be automated to speed up and slow down are on your Processor, and in your power supply.
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The first step you should take is to determine which fan is speeding up to make the whirring noise.
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If its the power supply you will want to use a can of air to clean it out.
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Turn off the computer and unplug the power supply from the wall before cleaning it out.
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Spray the air from front (faces inside the case) to the back (outside the case) to ensure that you are not blowing any dust back into your case.
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If its the Processor heatsink you will need a can of air, and thermal paste. (Do not attempt if you are unsure of how to remove or attach a heatsink)
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Turn off the computer
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Remove the heatsink from the processor (you dont want to remove the dust back into your case).
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Clean the heatsink of any thermal paste (As this will attract the dust you are taking off the heatsink). Do not use water to clean it, use rubbing alcohol.
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Take the can of air and hold the heatsink over a garbage can, spray the dust out of the heatsink.
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Once all the dust is removed, take roughly a drop of thermal paste and flatly and evenly spread it across the heatsink until its large enough to cover the entire processor.
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Place the heatsink back on the Processor.
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Beeping sounds every few minutes and random PC shutdowns
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Beeping is often a sign of your Processor overheating.
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Motherboards use a warning of beeps to tell you that a component is over heating and it will turn off the system to protect from heat damage.
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If you are unsure of how to clean a heatsink and apply thermal paste its suggested that you have the computer cleaned by a technician.
If your computer does not boot to Windows and simply keeps rebooting itself there are a few different issues that could be causing that problem. A few of the most common issues are as follows
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You just updated Windows and upon restart the PC won't boot to Windows again.
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Windows updates sometimes do not complete and can cause registry corruption that don't allow you to boot back to Windows.
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Boot into safemode and restore to a previous point.
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Upon reboot you can reinstall the update.
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You've made alterations to programs or drivers and now either the PC won't boot to Windows or it boots to Windows but does not load anything but the background and cursor.
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This means that you've uninstalled needed windows files along with the program, or installed incompatible or corrupted drivers.
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If you uninstalled or installed software rollback the registry.
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If you installed new drivers boot windows into safemode and uninstall the new driver that caused the issue.
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Your computer randomly blue screens then restarts.
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If your PC is randomly blue screening there are usually three main reasons.
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Hard Drive failing, Failed System Memory, Virus infection.
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Your PC beeps a few times then turns off after less than a few minutes.
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Beeping is often a sign of your Processor overheating.
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Motherboards use a warning of beeps to tell you that a component is over heating and it will turn off the system to protect from heat damage.
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If you are unsure of how to clean a heatsink and apply thermal paste its suggested that you have the computer cleaned by a technician.
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Windows corruption can occur if you install or uninstall programs too often, install programs not compatible with your operating system, and using registry editors and repair programs without checking to see what it is repairing or deleting.
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File fragmentation occurs the more the pc is used. As it saves files it begins to save them wherever it can find free space. Fragments of files are saved in random places on the hard drive. As the files are accessed their fragments need to be found and pieced together. The more fragmented the files are the longer it takes to open a file or program. Defragmenting [link] your hard drive at least once a month will help to lower the chances of seeing the slowdowns.
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When hard drives begin to fail they start to have issues accessing the data stored on them. The best way to determine if this is the case is to first determine who the manufacturer of your hard drive is. From the manufacturers site download their hard drive diagnostic utility and run it. It will run a scan of the hard drive and let you know if it is failing (If there are long and short tests, you will want to run the long test).