I just finished repairing a client's machine that had stopped being able to boot with an accompanying "blue screen of death" (BSD). Every time I tried to boot the machine it would get to the part where it was about to display the Welcome Screen, there'd be a BSD, and then the machine would reboot leading to the same result.
Although I cannot say for certain, I suspect that if my client had taken this machine to FutureShop or Staples, he might have been told his computer would need to be reloaded with Windows. What did I do to fix it? I hooked his hard drive up to my Test Machine and ran chkdsk. That fixed some garbled entries of the Master File Table (MFT). I was then able to put the drive back into the client's tower and was then able to boot.
Once it was booted up I was able to make an educated guess as to what happened and why the machine crashed in the first place. I saw three things right away that I believe were unwitting culprits.
1. System time was off by about 15 minutes. Windows Update depends on your machine being in sync with Microsoft's servers. Some updates just won't happen if the time it out by more than a few minutes. Having the time go astray is often the result of a low battery on the motherboard.
2. Recent updates had glitched after a reboot. Once I was able to fix the MFT and get the machine up and running, it finished these recent updates.
3. There were two AV programs: BitDefender and Avast.
So what's wrong with having two anti-virus programs? When I asked my client later he said that he thought two would be better than one and that they would work together as a team. I politely informed him that this is not the case. In fact, the two programs will compete to try to do the same job.
Suppose one program detects a virus and quarantines it (as it should). Later, the second program scans the same machine, and finds the virus again, but this time it's found in the quarantine folder of the first AV program. The second program will try unsuccessfully to quarantine it but won't be able to because the file has been locked (quarantined) so as not to contaminate the machine again.
What happens after that varies. Sometimes the machine just gets really slow. Sometimes it crashes.
Can you see how this would be a problem? Two anti-virus programs do not work together "as a team;" rather, they will fight to see who can do the job first. It is my hope that after reading this article you will know better and save yourself some future frustration and cash.
Happy computing!
Big Mike
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Staples May Inadvertantly Sell Your Data
In the June 22, 2011 edition of the local paper I saw this headline:
"WATCHDOG: STAPLES RESOLD HARD DRIVES WITH PERSONAL INFO"
The article went on to talk about the federal privacy watchdog says Staples Business Depot stores failed to fully wipe personal info and data from laptop computers they resold. Apparently this has been an on-going problem, which is not good. After the audit Staples responded saying it was actively testing several means of fully wiping data from returned products without damaging or destroying hard drives or operating systems.
Today's blog is about how to make sure this does not happen to you or your data.
The article did not say exactly how these problems manifested themselves but I can make an educated guess. I suspect a scenario where someone buys a laptop, uses it for a few days, and then brings it back saying it's not for them or they'd like one that's a bit better. But in the meantime while they had it they set it up for themselves and copied or stored data, not thinking it needs to be erased before bringing it back. Or, perhaps someone bought an external hard drive to back up their stuff and then realized it didn't have enough storage space. So they bring it back and trade it up.
So what can you do? Here's a simple solution. And you don't have to be any sort of computer whiz to do this. If you have purchased a new laptop from Staples or Futureshop or whatever, and you've used it for a few days and saved stuff to it's hard drive, what can you do to make sure someone else doesn't have to deal with your data?
1. Open the Control Panel
2. Find/Click on User Accounts
3. Click on Manage Another Account (Win7)
4. Find/Click on Create a New Account
5. Give the new account a name (such as "BigMike" or "User2")
6. Put the radio dot on "Administrator" account (rather than Standard User) and then click the "Create Account" button.
7. Do not create a password.
8. Log out of your account (for the last time).
9. Log onto the new account from the Welcome Screen.
10. Go into Control Panel, find User Accounts, and delete your old account.
11. If it asks if you want to keep the files, say NO.
12 Log back out and turn off machine.
It's ready to go back to the store now, or even to give to your neighbour or relative without fear of your data being accidentally left on there. As long as you didn't store data in any other folder other than your own Documents/Pictures/Music folders, all your old stuff should be gone now.
The other thing you could do would be to do a Restore to Factory Default on the laptop. This takes a long time, however, and is probably not necessary unless you've got a virus or corrupt data.
If I were the Tech Director at Staples, even though it would take extra time, I would insist all the techs learn how to restore to factory settings for laptops so there's almost no chance of any old data being found.* That said, read how data is erased below.
Until next time,
Happy Computing!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*NOTE: You have probably heard that even when you delete data from a hard drive it is not really "gone." This is true but let me tell you what the means. When you delete a file or folder from a hard drive, it normally goes to the Recycle Bin. While in the Bin it can be restored if necessary, so you know it's not really gone permanently. If you hold the Shift button down while deleting a file or folder, it will ask you if you want to "permanently" delete this file. That's because when you hold the Shift key down while deleting it skips the Recycle Bin and erases the index entry on the hard drive. In effect, the file is deleted and it would be difficult to get it back. Difficult that is, but not impossible.
When the index entry is erased, it's sort of like removing a section from the Table of Contents of book. Just like a ToC in a real book, it doesn't delete the actual pages where the information is written, but it erases what page it was on, making it difficult to find again. The file or folder can still be recovered again with not too much trouble if you know what to look for. As soon as another file overwrites the spot where your file or folder was, it is essentially gone. Same goes if the drive is defragged. Your data is "gone" for all intents and purposes.
The RCMP has software that can get back data that has been deleted or defragged up to 6 times. If you are REALLY paranoid, you can download something called the "Guttman" process which erases and overwrites the hard drive 7 - 32 times. Very little chance of getting your data back if you run this process. You could also defrag the drive and each time will push your old data further and further away from being resurrected.
The article went on to talk about the federal privacy watchdog says Staples Business Depot stores failed to fully wipe personal info and data from laptop computers they resold. Apparently this has been an on-going problem, which is not good. After the audit Staples responded saying it was actively testing several means of fully wiping data from returned products without damaging or destroying hard drives or operating systems.
Today's blog is about how to make sure this does not happen to you or your data.
The article did not say exactly how these problems manifested themselves but I can make an educated guess. I suspect a scenario where someone buys a laptop, uses it for a few days, and then brings it back saying it's not for them or they'd like one that's a bit better. But in the meantime while they had it they set it up for themselves and copied or stored data, not thinking it needs to be erased before bringing it back. Or, perhaps someone bought an external hard drive to back up their stuff and then realized it didn't have enough storage space. So they bring it back and trade it up.
So what can you do? Here's a simple solution. And you don't have to be any sort of computer whiz to do this. If you have purchased a new laptop from Staples or Futureshop or whatever, and you've used it for a few days and saved stuff to it's hard drive, what can you do to make sure someone else doesn't have to deal with your data?
1. Open the Control Panel
2. Find/Click on User Accounts
3. Click on Manage Another Account (Win7)
4. Find/Click on Create a New Account
5. Give the new account a name (such as "BigMike" or "User2")
6. Put the radio dot on "Administrator" account (rather than Standard User) and then click the "Create Account" button.
7. Do not create a password.
8. Log out of your account (for the last time).
9. Log onto the new account from the Welcome Screen.
10. Go into Control Panel, find User Accounts, and delete your old account.
11. If it asks if you want to keep the files, say NO.
12 Log back out and turn off machine.
It's ready to go back to the store now, or even to give to your neighbour or relative without fear of your data being accidentally left on there. As long as you didn't store data in any other folder other than your own Documents/Pictures/Music folders, all your old stuff should be gone now.
The other thing you could do would be to do a Restore to Factory Default on the laptop. This takes a long time, however, and is probably not necessary unless you've got a virus or corrupt data.
If I were the Tech Director at Staples, even though it would take extra time, I would insist all the techs learn how to restore to factory settings for laptops so there's almost no chance of any old data being found.* That said, read how data is erased below.
Until next time,
Happy Computing!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*NOTE: You have probably heard that even when you delete data from a hard drive it is not really "gone." This is true but let me tell you what the means. When you delete a file or folder from a hard drive, it normally goes to the Recycle Bin. While in the Bin it can be restored if necessary, so you know it's not really gone permanently. If you hold the Shift button down while deleting a file or folder, it will ask you if you want to "permanently" delete this file. That's because when you hold the Shift key down while deleting it skips the Recycle Bin and erases the index entry on the hard drive. In effect, the file is deleted and it would be difficult to get it back. Difficult that is, but not impossible.
When the index entry is erased, it's sort of like removing a section from the Table of Contents of book. Just like a ToC in a real book, it doesn't delete the actual pages where the information is written, but it erases what page it was on, making it difficult to find again. The file or folder can still be recovered again with not too much trouble if you know what to look for. As soon as another file overwrites the spot where your file or folder was, it is essentially gone. Same goes if the drive is defragged. Your data is "gone" for all intents and purposes.
The RCMP has software that can get back data that has been deleted or defragged up to 6 times. If you are REALLY paranoid, you can download something called the "Guttman" process which erases and overwrites the hard drive 7 - 32 times. Very little chance of getting your data back if you run this process. You could also defrag the drive and each time will push your old data further and further away from being resurrected.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Buy New, or Upgrade?
Which way do you go?
This week I had a client (whom I'll call "Joe") who has a diagnostic device that requires a serial port on a computer to plug into. For a long time he had been using a Compaq laptop, circa 2004, which had, as many laptops of the day, a serial port.
Well, Joe's laptop has definitely seen better days. The battery was toast and the hard drive was just about shot, but salvageable. It could use more ram too at only 768 megs. Adequate, but not great.
At this point, Joe is asking what it costs to replace all this stuff and I do a quick check and it would normally be well over 3 or 4 hundred dollars with labour and taxes. He figures he could put that money into a new machine instead of fixing up the old one. But a new one could be $600 and up after all is said and done. Then a person would need to purchase some sort of adaptor to turn USB into a Serial port. Unfortunately, there are potential issues with these adaptors and not ALL serial port devices will work through them. There was a chance Joe could spend several hundred dollars getting a new maching, only to find out later his usb/serial device works but it sometimes is flaky or inaccurate, or slow, or stops responding.
To upgrade, a new 160 gig drive to replace the 40 gig is about 80 bucks or so. As for a new battery, I called one place and they wanted $178!!!! I was a bit shocked. I called another place and was able to get one sent to me for about $80. Pretty good deal compared to the first quote, that's for sure. To max out the ram on that laptop would be about 130 bucks and bring it up to two gigs of ram. Great for Windows XP.
Since Joe didn't have much money we decided to upgrade, but not everything; just the hard drive and battery. These are the two most critical things. The ram can wait. So we ghosted over his old drive to a new one and replaced the battery, and now it runs like it was new. Joe is happy.
If Joe is happy, I'M happy.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Things that make ya go "hunh?!?"
Recently I worked on a machine that was giving me a false message. It was telling me on boot up that the bios needed to be updated and was asking me to insert either a cd with the xxxx.rom file or a usb drive with the same.
After a lot of time spend trying to "please the machine" by running bios updates in various ways, it became apparent that the real problem lay elsewhere. I removed all the pci cards and powered up. No change. There were four sticks of ram; I removed two of them them and powered up. Hey, it booted! Something with the ram. After trying various combinations I was able to determine which of the four was the problem.
This is kinda like your car stalling with a message on the dash saying you're out of gas. But then you get out and see you have a flat tire. You fix the tire and suddenly the low fuel light goes out.
Sometimes things aren't always what they seem when fixing pc's.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Custom Building a Computer
If you are a small business and you need a computer to do a particular task, it might be a good idea to consult someone (such as myself) to see what sort of parts would make a good machine for your particular needs.
For example, if you wanted to edit video, you would need a much more powerful machine with higher end parts than you would to, say, create spread sheets or type a newsletter. Or if you were a serious hardcore gamer and had a really huge budget, you would want to build a better machine than what it would take to, say, surf the web and play your favourite movie on dvd.
But you know what? You don't need to be a computer whiz with years of experience to know what you want in a new computer for your specific needs. The hard part is deciding which way to play with numbers so you get the best bang for your hard-earned buck.
Here are a few pointers you may find helpful.
1. If you are into editing pictures with Photoshop, believe it or not, you do not need a high-end video card. What you need is lots of RAM power, rather than video power. So there's no need to spend a bunch of money for a video card unless you're doing something with video files or you're a gamer.
2. If you want to build a decent gaming machine, don't cheap out on the power supply; get a really decent one. If you buy a cheap one you're just looking for trouble. Remember that clean power is what your machine really likes. The power coming into your home is not "clean" power, meaning there are constant spikes and dips and noise on the powerlines. Having a battery backup power supply (or UPS) will clean the power for you so your power supply doesn't have to. Now, I say this about gaming machines, but really, my advice is to stay away from cheap, light power supplies altogether unless it's just an emergency temporary fix.
3. Don't worry about maxing out the ram on your motherboard. Just get what you can for now and fill in the rest or upgrade later. Just because your motherboard is capable of supporting 24gigs of RAM doesn't mean you have to make it full from the start.
4. Make sure the front side bus (or FSB) matches or exceeds the speed of your RAM. RAM will typically get faster and cheaper so you can fill up later. For now, however, it would be okay to get a motherboard with 1333MHz FSB and DDR3 RAM at 1333MHz. It would also be okay if your FSB was 2000MHz and your RAM was 1333 as this would still work well and you could always upgrade the ram later. It's not so easy to upgrade the motherboard.
5. Look for the "sweet spot" when it comes to getting the best bang for your buck with your CPU. For example, you could buy an Intel Core i5 2.8GHz for $173. But right next to it is the Intel Core i5 3.1GHz for $177. It's a "no-brainer." Spend the extra 4 bucks.
6. Harddrives. Have you noticed that some brand names of hdd's are using colours to designate various designs now? For example, Western Digital sells "blue" drives, "green" drives, and "black" drives. What's the difference? Speed. The Green drives are spinning at 5400 rpm while the Black drives are spinning at 7200 rpm. Black drives are almost twice the price of Green drives at the moment. If you can afford it, go with the Black drives. If you need a "value" machine, go Green.
As I mentioned, playing with the numbers is the harder part of building a new machine. In general, I usually spend the most money on motherboard, CPU, tower and power supply. The other stuff I don't mind "cheaping out" on like the DVD burner or card reader. Personally, I like spending a bit more on a nice case rather than just a ho-hum run-of-the-mill tower that everyone else has. But that's just me. Some people don't give a dang about how their case looks, just so long as everything fits.
Hope that helps.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
i3, i5, or i7? Which is best for you?
i3, i5, or i7? Which is best for you?
I don't know if you can read this nifty little chart to the right here, but Intel has three main naming conventions for their CPU's.
Here's the short story:
ALL i3's are dual core
SOME i5's are dual core
OTHER i5's are quad core
ALL i7's are quad core
If you're going to be reading and writing emails on your computer and maybe burn a cd or two, an i3 is probably ideal for y our needs.
If you will be editing audio and maybe playing the odd high end graphics game now and then, you'll want at least an i5.
If you want to be using Autocad, hardcore gaming or any other 3D rendering stuff, or video editing, you'll want the i7's quad core processing power.
And, of course, they range in price accordingly, with the i3's being the least expensive.
Monday, April 25, 2011
5 Things to Consider when Buying a Computer
What to look for when buying a computer.
This is a rather huge topic so this blog post will hardly be "exhaustive" by any stretch. Rather, these are just a few simple things you may or may not already know about buying a new computer.
1. What will this computer be used for? If you want a travelling machine that you can take on holiday and type emails along the way, you don't need anything high end. Almost any cheap (or rather, "inexpensive") laptop will do. Creative writing, spreadsheets, databases, power point presentations are all pretty easy on any computer and none require a lot of horsepower. On the other hand, if you are planning to record and edit high def video, a cheap machine just will not do the job. If you're semi-serious about editing video then more than likely you'd want a desktop type PC that won't be moved around much after it's initial set up to get that job done, so a laptop will not likely meet your needs. Try to do at least a bit of homework by talking to some computer literate friends or co-workers before you go shopping and at lease figure out what you need this machine to do.
2. Does it need to be portable? Here's something to remember: a laptop is a compressed and flattened down version of a desktop computer. What is gained in space is lost to upgradeability. What is gained in portability is lost to less available internal components. Eight hundred dollars (at today's economy) can buy a pretty skookum PC these days, or a decent laptop. More than likely you'll get a better bang for your buck with the desktop than you would with the laptop. Also, desktops can usually easily be upgraded with a new video card, more ram, nicer monitor, faster harddrives, processors, etc., while you are pretty much stuck with what you get with a laptop.
3. Laptops are meant to be portable, not durable. They will not take much in the way of physical punishment. If you accidently drop a laptop or have one get yanked off the coffee table onto the floor by someone tripping over the power cable, you can almost be assured of some damage.
4. There are three main criteria I look for in a new PC.
- CPU speed. Amount of RAM. Harddrive space.
Firstly, I want to know the CPU speed in GHz (ie. is it a 3.2GHz, or 2.3GHz?). The higher the number the better and the number of cores is good to know too. There are single core processors, dual core processors, tri-core processors, quad-core processors, and even hexi-core processors. The more cores the better. The lower numbered ones will be cheaper, of course, but will be working the hardest to get the job done.
Secondly, I want to know how much RAM it has. Older 32-bit machines have a maximum of about 3 gigs of ram. Some can take 4 gigs but will only read 3.5 at the most. The newer 64-bit machines are usually 4 gigs and up. Sixty-four bit is the way to go if you're buying a new machine today. For those who have older software, SOME of it will not work on 64-bit machine, but that 'some' is very few. Most 32-bit programs will run on 64-bit machine just fine; there are of course exceptions. But we move on.
Lastly, I look for harddrive space. Usually, the more the better, but if you'll be using the computer to write a novel and keep notes and maybe some pictures, you won't need a whole bunch of harddrive space; even a few hundred gigs is probably far more than you'd ever normally use. On the other hand, if you're the person who likes to download stuff and collects every video your friends have sent you in the last 10 years, you'll want to make sure you get lots of disk space. As of today, a laptop sized 1TB sells for roughly $140 to $160 here in Canada. (In five years, if you are reading this blog, you'll either laugh at that price or cry. I remember seeing my friend pay about 800 dollars to upgrade his 486 from 4 megs to 8 megs of ram; when 2 megabyte chips were $200 each. Ouch! I myself paid over $500 for a 10gigabyte harddrive. You would be hard-pressed to even find a 10gig drive today. And it sure wouldn't be a months' rent for it either!)
5. If you are considering building a computer yourself or having one built for you, please don't buy a cheap power supply; and if your data is important, make sure you also buy an uninterupted power supply (UPS) to go with your power supply. That is so you won't have to deal with power issues later on. Get prepared now rather than wish you had later.
I hope that helps.
This is a rather huge topic so this blog post will hardly be "exhaustive" by any stretch. Rather, these are just a few simple things you may or may not already know about buying a new computer.
1. What will this computer be used for? If you want a travelling machine that you can take on holiday and type emails along the way, you don't need anything high end. Almost any cheap (or rather, "inexpensive") laptop will do. Creative writing, spreadsheets, databases, power point presentations are all pretty easy on any computer and none require a lot of horsepower. On the other hand, if you are planning to record and edit high def video, a cheap machine just will not do the job. If you're semi-serious about editing video then more than likely you'd want a desktop type PC that won't be moved around much after it's initial set up to get that job done, so a laptop will not likely meet your needs. Try to do at least a bit of homework by talking to some computer literate friends or co-workers before you go shopping and at lease figure out what you need this machine to do.
2. Does it need to be portable? Here's something to remember: a laptop is a compressed and flattened down version of a desktop computer. What is gained in space is lost to upgradeability. What is gained in portability is lost to less available internal components. Eight hundred dollars (at today's economy) can buy a pretty skookum PC these days, or a decent laptop. More than likely you'll get a better bang for your buck with the desktop than you would with the laptop. Also, desktops can usually easily be upgraded with a new video card, more ram, nicer monitor, faster harddrives, processors, etc., while you are pretty much stuck with what you get with a laptop.
3. Laptops are meant to be portable, not durable. They will not take much in the way of physical punishment. If you accidently drop a laptop or have one get yanked off the coffee table onto the floor by someone tripping over the power cable, you can almost be assured of some damage.
4. There are three main criteria I look for in a new PC.
- CPU speed. Amount of RAM. Harddrive space.
Firstly, I want to know the CPU speed in GHz (ie. is it a 3.2GHz, or 2.3GHz?). The higher the number the better and the number of cores is good to know too. There are single core processors, dual core processors, tri-core processors, quad-core processors, and even hexi-core processors. The more cores the better. The lower numbered ones will be cheaper, of course, but will be working the hardest to get the job done.
Secondly, I want to know how much RAM it has. Older 32-bit machines have a maximum of about 3 gigs of ram. Some can take 4 gigs but will only read 3.5 at the most. The newer 64-bit machines are usually 4 gigs and up. Sixty-four bit is the way to go if you're buying a new machine today. For those who have older software, SOME of it will not work on 64-bit machine, but that 'some' is very few. Most 32-bit programs will run on 64-bit machine just fine; there are of course exceptions. But we move on.
Lastly, I look for harddrive space. Usually, the more the better, but if you'll be using the computer to write a novel and keep notes and maybe some pictures, you won't need a whole bunch of harddrive space; even a few hundred gigs is probably far more than you'd ever normally use. On the other hand, if you're the person who likes to download stuff and collects every video your friends have sent you in the last 10 years, you'll want to make sure you get lots of disk space. As of today, a laptop sized 1TB sells for roughly $140 to $160 here in Canada. (In five years, if you are reading this blog, you'll either laugh at that price or cry. I remember seeing my friend pay about 800 dollars to upgrade his 486 from 4 megs to 8 megs of ram; when 2 megabyte chips were $200 each. Ouch! I myself paid over $500 for a 10gigabyte harddrive. You would be hard-pressed to even find a 10gig drive today. And it sure wouldn't be a months' rent for it either!)
5. If you are considering building a computer yourself or having one built for you, please don't buy a cheap power supply; and if your data is important, make sure you also buy an uninterupted power supply (UPS) to go with your power supply. That is so you won't have to deal with power issues later on. Get prepared now rather than wish you had later.
I hope that helps.
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