Troubleshooting Your Computer

First, of course, you need to check the stupid stuff. You'd probably be amazed how many "problems" are solved by connecting the cables, or turning on the power switch that you swear you just did. Beyond that, double-check the snugness of your connections—jiggling in a new add-in card or screwing in a cable connection can (and often does) make a difference. You may even want to check the integrity of your cables and connectors. I once solved a baffling SCSI problem by noticing that one of the pins in a miniature 50-pin SCSI-II connector was bent. I had mistakenly presumed, prior to that, that a bent pin would have prevented me from making a connection at all, but it didn't. Unfortunately, as a result, I wasted several hours on something that could've taken two minutes.

Finally, whenever you install something new, whether it's more memory, a new drive, a plug-in card or what-have-you, and something doesn't work, it's more than likely because you made a mistake somewhere in the installation process. Step back through the process again, double- and triple-check your connections, and then try one more time. In the case of RAM that doesn't work or isn't recognized, it could be an incompatibility with the specific manufacturer of the RAM and your motherboard, so see if you can try a different brand before you give up hope.

One good general rule of thumb to keep in mind when doing software-related troubleshooting is to make sure you have the most recent versions of your applications, drivers and operating system. Usually that means taking an inventory of the software and hardware you have installed on or in your computer, and then trolling the web sites of the companies who make those products in search of updates, patches, service packs and other types of bug fixes.

Also remember to check for viruses. Most of the times you get a virus on your PC you'll know about it, but some of them work "stealthily" in the background, so you always have to be careful. Make sure that any computer you work on has good anti-virus software installed and properly configured so that it's regularly checking for viruses. Even more importantly, make sure that you keep the virus definition files for the program current. Unless you update those definitions on at least a monthly basis, your data will be at risk.