Sunday, March 27, 2011

Internet Browsing Can Slow Down Your System

There is nothing worse than a slow computer system. The truth is that from the first day of use, your computer begins the process of slowing down and working less effectively. You may not see this on a day-to-day basis, but gradually just because of everyday wear and tear, your system takes a beating. A computer is not that much different than a person or a vehicle. Without proper maintenance and a checkup now and then, things begin to run less efficiently.

We all know about the dangerous virus or the malicious spyware that can, at best, slow down our system, and, at worst, crash it. What people don’t realize is that browsing the Internet day after day will eventually cause your computer to run slower. When we browse the Internet and open different programs, or download various games, it takes up energy and space on the system. The Internet is also a major source of malware, infections and data mining programs. When we visit locations on the Internet, our computer is naturally harvesting traces of the places we have been. These traces take up space and leave infections that affect computer performance and speed.

The little day-by-day traces may not be enough to harm or slow your system by themselves, but the more we browse, the bigger these little traces become and eventually our computer is running slower than ever. Even when we later remove the program, the registry is affected and traces of the places we have visited and programs we have downloaded remain in our system files. This is not to suggest that you should stop browsing or downloading, but rather know that this is contributing to the wear and tear of your system and take proper steps to remove the little things that will eventually cause great harm to your system. At DoubleMySpeed.com, there are tools available that will help you to keep your system in good working order.

The good news is that you can prevent your computer system from a gradual death by doing a few very inexpensive, very effective things that will prolong the life of your computer and increase speed and performance. There are a few natural processes that we perform with our computers than cause it to slow down. Being aware of these speed suckers can arm you with the information you need to keep your system running quickly.

The causes for a slow computer are countless, from not enough memory to a corruption of the registry. There are many programs out there that can arm you with the resources you need to keep your computer running at optimum speed, such as those found at DoubleMySpeed.com. This is free to download and install. Once the program is installed on your computer, it will allow you to scan your system for a list of the issues that are slowing down your computer system. Having this information will allow you to fix the problems that are causing undo stress on your system and slowing it down to a crawl.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

How to Know if You Have a Bad Hard Drive Sector

A sector is an area on the surface of a hard drive or disk that has several areas called platters, which are the areas on the drive or disk that are covered with the magnetic type material where the data is stored. The platters are divided into a set of tracks and each track is separated into smaller areas called sectors. The sectors on a drive are the areas where data is stored. Hard drives have many different sectors, so if one goes bad it does not ruin the entire hard drive, only the data in the sector is affected.

Hard drives have millions of sectors, many of which do go bad just because of everyday use. You may or may not know if you have a bad sector on your computer’s disk drive because the computer will be alerted to the bad sector and know not to store data in that area. It is always possible that the data stored in a sector that was bad is no longer useable, even with recovery methods.

A faulty sector cannot be used if it has permanent damage to it, but a modern computer comes with many spare sectors, so if one goes bad, the computer is naturally programmed to remap to a functioning sector. When this remapping occurs, the user may not even be aware of it because all of the programs are written to the spare sector and the computer continues to function normally.

In the case that more than one sector in your hard disk has gone bad, there may be noticeable changes to the way your computer system functions. If you are having issues with reading certain data on your hard drive or receive a sector error, or a timeout, it may simply mean that the computer is remapping the data. If the problem continues to persist you can attempt to repair your hard disk sectors by taking the following steps:
  • Go to Start
  • Select My Computer
  • Under Hard Disk Drives, highlight the drive you want to scan
  • Open File, Menu and click on Properties
  • Open Tools
  • Click the Check Now button and follow any prompts
If enough of the sectors go bad, or the problems continue to persist even after your repair, it may be time for a new hard drive. The potential for a bad drive sector is just one of the reasons why it is always advisable to have a reliable back up system for all work stored on the hard drive.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Am I the Victim of a Root Kit?

It is hard to tell if you become the victim of a root kit until something devastating happens. The best method is prevention. Simply put, a root kit is a software tool that can be installed on a computer, without the user’s knowledge. Once installed, a root kit provides remote access to computer information including files and system information. The root kit is difficult to detect and it embeds itself into the operating system and “watches” the information.

Root kits are used for both good and bad reasons. Used properly, they allow parental programs and law enforcement systems to provide surveillance and protection. Parents can download these root kits to monitor their child’s online activities, and law enforcement can install these for the purposes of catching criminals. The downside is that hackers can install root kits on computers for the purpose of stealing a person’s identity or importing a virus.

A root kit can be placed on a computer in a variety of very inconspicuous ways. It can be installed by a user opening up an e-mail with a graphic or link to a website. Once the user opens the e-mail, the root kit is installed without the user’s knowledge. A pop-up window may appear when users are surfing the web, informing that in order to view a certain site a program must be downloaded. The user may download the program and at the same time be downloading a root kit.

Once a root kit is installed, it allows the hacker to communicate with the computer whenever the computer is online. This puts the user at great risk for identity theft. The root kit can allow the hacker to access sensitive information from the system, such as credit card information, banking passwords and usernames.

Running a virus scan usually protects your computer from most dangerous viruses; however, this is not necessarily true with root kits. Root kits are difficult to detect and are not typically found or removed through standard antivirus scans. The other issue is while root kits do interfere with the computer system there are rarely red flags that tell users that something is wrong. There is no slowing of the system, or issues with logon or other typical clues that there is a virus. These root kits are very savvy and work hard to not cause problems so they can continue to hack into the system.

To guard your system against root kits it is advised that security software be kept up to date. Ensure that you do not open mail from unidentified users, delete your spam e-mails and install operating system updates as they become available. There are specific security tools that are used for root kit detection and removal. These tools go beyond the standard antivirus. Doing a search for a root kit detection or root kit remover will provide results for many programs that work specifically to detect and remove root kits.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

How to Fix a Slow Computer

Anyone who uses a computer regularly can attest to the fact that over time and with increased use, most computers will begin to slow down and even freeze at times. Unfortunately, there really isn’t anything to do to prevent this from happening. As you use different programs and manipulate different files, little errors or broken pieces of files begin to get stored within a computer’s memory. As time progresses, more and more of these problems occur and begin to mount up. This means that when a computer is trying to access a program or file, it can take longer for it to find the correct, and unbroken, route to whatever it is that you have directed it. Freezing occurs when the computer cannot find an unbroken path to whatever it is that you need.

While this is a common occurrence, the positive news is that there is something you can do to correct this problem before it gets too bad. To save having to buy a new computer, there are many different products and programs out there that will help you speed up your computer by correcting any issues within it. DoubleMySpeed.com is one such tool. DoubleMySpeed.com is free to download and install. Running the software when it is installed will execute a free diagnostic scan of your computer. When the scan has finished, you will be provided with a list of issues that are slowing your computer down. As well as being provided with the list of issues, you will also be provided with options to help clean up the problem areas and ultimately speed up your computer.

When it comes to correcting any issues, only those people who are comfortable and have a good understanding of how computers work should attempt to make the corrections themselves. Instead, a safer, and proven, method is to purchase the DoubleMySpeed.com software. Once you have activated your software, it will make the necessary corrections to ensure that your computer is back up and running as it was when you first purchased it.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

My iPhone won’t Sync in Windows 7

It is not uncommon for Windows 7 users to be faced with the issue of being unable to sync their iPhones with the Windows 7 operating system. The issue seems to be isolated to Windows 7 users who use 64 bit Intel chipsets. Something with this combination prevents easily synching the iPhone with the computer.

After investigation from Intel, Apple and Microsoft, it seemed that there was an easy fix to this disruptive issue. It seems that while Windows 7 is a new and popular operating system that ensures that your computer runs quickly and efficiently, it sometimes tries to fight off other hardware that may pose a potential threat. In most cases, when users attempt to sync the iPhone to Windows 7, they are met with an error message or it simply won’t work. It is likely due to Windows 7 trying to conserve power to ensure that the system runs quickly.

There is a quick fix for this issue by taking the following steps:
  • Go to Start
  • Right click Computer
  • Choose Properties
  • Chose Device Manager
  • Choose Universal Serial Bus Controllers
  • Right click on USB Root Hub
  • Choose Properties
  • Choose Power Management
  • Uncheck the box that says “Allow the computer to turn this device off to save power”.
  • If you want to be proactive you can uncheck every entry that is checked in USB root hub to prevent this issue from occurring with other hardware.
  • Reboot your computer and attempt to sync your phone.
Gigabyte Technology is a manufacturer of many computer products including processors, motherboards and graphic cards. This company is well known to not only provide products but to investigate issues that come up with technology and provide solutions to some common problems.

Gigabyte came up with a quick BIOS update that was said to not only fix the iPhone sync issue, but provide other enhancements to Windows 7 users. For those that have a Gigabyte motherboard in their computer system, simply download the Gigabyte BIOS update from their site and it will automatically fix the sync problem. This will not work for everyone, only users who have Gigabyte mother boards. If you are unsure of the make and model of your motherboard the first solution offered above is your best and safest option.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The Meaning Behind the Red Screen

We have all heard of the infamous blue screen of death, and have probably experienced one of the many damaging relatives, the red screen or the blank screen. Less popular, but equally as damaging as the blue or blank screen is the Red Screen of Death. It is sometimes referred to as the Red Screen of Doom and it has a codename of “Memphis.” Luckily, not everyone will have the unfortunate experience of seeing their computer screen plastered with complete red. If you never have to experience this consider yourself lucky.

Historically, the red screen is an error message reserved for the beta versions of some of Microsoft’s operating systems, including Windows Vista and Windows 98. The red screen of death does still exist, but is becoming a bad memory because of the changes in Windows operating systems. Basically the red screen is designed simply to let users know that there is a serious system error that has occurred and Windows is informing the user of this error with a big bold red screen. Windows has since reverted back to a black or blue screen for this type of error; however, some users still may be one of the few to experience the red screen.

Much like fixes for a blue screen, the red screen may occur due to software errors, device drivers or bugs in the operating system. If this is the case, it typically requires a technician to diagnose and correct them. On other occasions, the red screen can be caused by something as basic as overheating, faulty or loose power supplies or cords or hardware that is running without enough memory to support it.

The first thing you will want to do is shut down the system. Let it cool for a few minutes and check all of your cables to make sure they are securely plugged into the back of your system. Take note if the system seems to be running loudly or the fan is working overtime, this can be a clue that the system is overheating.

If you have installed any recent software, try uninstalling it and restart your system to see if the screen reappears normally. It may be that there is not enough memory to run the software or it may be something as simple as loose wires causing what Windows thinks is a system error. If you determine it is the memory, you can have new memory installed before you run your new software. To be preventative, run a virus scan on your computer once it is up and running normally.

If the red screen goes away, chances are it was probably one of the simple issues that you were able to fix taking the steps above. If the red screen appears again, even intermittently, you should seek the assistance of a trained technician.