Some more problems... and solutions!


This week's article looks at more problems that people have been having. If there is a problem that you have (or have had) which this article (or recent articles), haven't covered, please feel free to email me (click on the envelope at the top of this page) and drop me a line.

Windows Shutdown Problems

It seems that a lot of people have been having problems shutting windows down. From what I can tell of their experiences and my own, there are a number of reasons for this. These are:

· Incorrect video card and/or monitor driver.

For those of you who have bought a PC that came pre-installed with Windows 95 and you have subsequently upgraded to Windows 98, this can be a problem. On my own machine, my monitor driver had to be updated as the monitor contains USB ports. This caused Windows to crash on shutting down which meant that a proper shutdown was not possible. Checking my manufacturers web site (Compaq) provided me with the latest drivers which cured this problem.

The same can occur if you have old/incorrect video card drivers as well. The golden rule when installing drivers is to pick the most accurate (and latest) driver you can. For example, If you have an ATI graphics card, there is the ATI Rage Pro and ATI Pro Lite (to name a few). Choose the exact one rather than generic.

· A specific patch is needed for your machine.

This is similar to the above, but you have the most up to date drivers for your graphic card and monitor. You may find (as a person who recently contacted me did) that a special patch was needed (a patch is a small program designed to fix a problem). Check your PC manufacturer's web site to see what is available.

· Incorrect shutdown procedure

This one is wholly "user based" (that is - you can't blame it on hardware or software!). Some people simply "shut there machine down" leaving programs running. I have seen people have Word open and they just shutdown. This is bad practice, as all programs should be closed before shutting down. Note that this does NOT include those programs running in your system tray - these can be left, but anything you have run should be shutdown first.

· Bad Housekeeping

You should carry out regular housekeeping on your system - at least once a week if you use your computer a lot. You should:

The copyright of the article Some more problems... and solutions! in PC Support is owned by Chris Cruickshank. Permission to republish Some more problems... and solutions! in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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