July's Troubleshooting Tips

This Months tips are focused on what is happening when your computer hangs at the Windows Logo screen. That is after it goes through all the initial hardware checks, Comes up to Windows and then just sits there. Again, all steps here are only suggestions and should be pursued at your own risk.

Most likely issue here is that a driver or newly installed process/program is conflicting with an existing program. This issue also happens when a newly installed Windows update conflicts with the existing configuration.

1) To correct there are a few different options. Use F8 (depending on the system) to get into the advanced boot menu – then choose start in “last Known Good Configuration”. If that clears the issue, work with the client to determine what recent changes were made to the system and trouble shoot how to make the changes without causing the same issue.

The Next two Steps can be reversed depending on your level of comfort in the System Configuration Utility and your comfort interpreting System Logs. I am very comfortable with both and would proceed in this order.

2) Start in Safe Mode with Networking. While in Safe Mode choose Start>Run>MsConfig. This will bring up the System Configuration Utility. Leave that to the side for the moment, next right click on the My Computer icon and choose Manage. At the Computer Management Screen;

1. Choose Event Viewer Check each of the Logs looking for yellow question marks or red exclamation points.
2. Double click on the likely candidates see if there is any useful information listed. Use Google to track down anything cryptic
3. If you get lucky, a single program or service is repeated identified – if so, choose the System Configuration Box and disable it from startup and it’s service.
4. If there is nothing sending errors, go back to the Configuration Utility and do a general cleanup
5. First choose Start Up tab, look for any Blank Keys, Program updating Bots, suspiciously named/located programs etc…
6. Next choose the Services Tab (IMPORTANT: HIDE ALL MICROSOFT SERVICES), after you’ve hidden the Microsoft services look for the same in this section
7. Choose Apply and close – don’t restart yet
8. Finally, choose the add/remove programs option and sort by date and show updates. Make a note of the most recent.
9. Reboot and see if the issue is resolved.

If it is resolved, again, pinpoint the cause of the issue and attempt to uninstall then reinstall the problem program/service/driver.

3) If that doesn’t work, the next step would be to use System Restore from Safe Mode. Prior to using the System Restore make sure you know about any important work the customer has done between the date of the restore point and the current date. If there is nothing significant, move forward. (And again, attempt to pinpoint the cause of the hang-ups).

If there has been, work with the customer to pull off all pertinent data and program files to a thumb-drive. Use Google Search to identify pertinent files if needed.

After the files are retrieved, continue with the System Restore.

If none of that works, deeper trouble shooting is required.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my site

Jeremy Davis

720-421-4384

jeremysitservices@gmail.com

www.JeremysIT.us

June 2011 Troubleshooting Tips

Your Internet Security Suite

The internet is full of potholes and traps for the unwary. But it is also our lifeline to the world around us. These two factors make our Internet Security Suite one of the most important decisions we'll make when setting up our computers.

Personally, I follow a few simple rules:

• First, No amount of technology replaces good browsing habits! We have NOT won an iPod! We are NOT the one millionth customer! Clicking on the Duck in the window is a short ride to Virus Hell! There is NO Nigerian Prince with banking problems! And that piece of software you NEVER installed did NOT detect a threat – IT IS THE THREAT!
  
  If it looks sketchy, sounds too good to be true or smells like porn – DON'T CLICK THE LINK! If for some reason you do and your world is suddenly full of pop-up windows, don't panic and don't press any more buttons/links or permissions. Just two keys will help you here, Alt + F4. This will close each of the windows in turn without actually interacting with them.
• Second, Don't let any one product do all of your protecting. This is a personal preference, but it has served me well over the years. What I mean is this, if you choose to use Norton for your virus protection, choose a different product for your firewall and a third product for your spyware protection. I use and suggest this method to minimize the damage that can be caused if a hacker finds a weakness or exploit in one of the products. Say an exploit is discovered in Norton, since it is only handling your virus protection and not your firewall you're still protected to some degree (which is better than no degree).
• Third, Only use and download reputable products from reputable sources! There are only a few sources I'll download anything from, sites that are tested and test their software for infections. For anyone reading this, I'll only suggest one of those www.Cnet.com.
  
  By reputable product I mean one you've heard of before, one that has been downloaded a few hundred thousand times previously, one that has a CNET Editor's review, one that has lots of user ratings. When downloading anything from the internet it is important to do a bit of due-diligence, skip it at your own peril! If you do choose to, remember part two of rule 1, if it looks too good to be true – it is!
• Finally, Individuals should never have to pay for internet security programs! As an individual, we are not a hacker's average target leaving Viruses and Malware our larger concern. Those aspects of malicious software are, in my experience, governed by EGO and to some lesser degree greed. Meaning there is someone out there saying “I can build a virus that will infect the World!”, and guy or gal writing code for Avast saying “You might infect their World, but my code will spank you!”.
  
  Another point on the free additions of software, they are the company's Loss Leaders. They tend to be single function solid products specifically designed to bring in customers and to establish brand loyalty. This means that you probably wont be able to get much “VIP” support from the companies, you will be able to get some and the products tend to be solid and regularly updated.
  
  Don't get me wrong, there are many advantages to buying the full OEM versions of the software. Support, features and culpability are just a few to come to mind right now. My point here is that as an individual with limited resources, a bit of time and reading will fill any shortfalls you might be feeling.

So, all of that being said, what are my choices for an internet security suite? Virus – Avast, Firewall – ZoneAlarm, Malware- Malwarebytes. Check out CNET, they're all free for download.

Jeremy Davis

Your Personal IT Service

720-421-4384

www.JeremysIT.us