The 30 Most Common PC Issues

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First Edition, March 2013
Copyright © 2013 by Sebastian Nesh.
www.30issues.com
All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission
of the author.
E-mail: sebastian@30issues.com
Cover & Layout: Sebastian Nesh.

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Table of Contents
Foreword 1
Chapter 1: The basic components and tests
What’s in the case? 2
How to test the components. 3
Chapter2: The 30 issues
Issue #1. The computer won’t start. 5
Issue #2. The PC is on, but the screen is blank. 6
Issue #3. Missing or corrupt hal.dll 7
Issue #4. BOOTMGR is Missing 8
Issue #5. NTLDR is missing 9
Issue #6. The black screen of death 10
Issue #7. The blue screen of death (BSOD) 11
Issue #8. The computer freezes. 12
Issue #9. The computer turns off by itself. 13
Issue #10. The computer restarts by itself. 14
Issue #11. I hear strange noises from the case. 15
Issue #12. I want to recover deleted files. 16
Issue #13. The computer is very hot. 17
Issue #14. I can’t go online. 18

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Issue #15. The smartphone won’t sync with my PC. 19
Issue #16. The wireless network is unstable. 20
Issue #17. I get popup ads all the time. 21
Issue #18. Browsing the HDD makes my system freeze. 22
Issue #19. I have a virus. 23
Issue #20. The computer reacts slowly. 24
Issue #21. The printer doesn’t print. 25
Issue #22. The keyboard doesn’t work. 26
Issue #23. The mouse doesn’t work. 27
Issue #24. There is no sound. 28
Issue #25. Skype won’t sign in. 29
Issue #26. The CD/DVD drive disappeared from My Computer 30
Issue #27. I can’t open the Control Panel 32
Issue #28. Virtual memory too low 33
Issue #29. I forgot my user password 34
Issue #30. Windows not recognizing total RAM 35

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1
Foreword
This book is written to help You fix your own personal computer without having to
browse the web for hours or waiting for the PC repair guy to come and charge You
at least twenty dollars for two minutes of work.
I have used every information available on web sites and forums, and also used my
10 years of experience in PC repair business.
I sincerely hope that this book guide You through Your problems. If You have
fixed the problem differently – email me at: sebastian@30issues.com and I will
include Your fix in the next edition.
Kind regards,
Sebastian Nesh.

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2
What’s in the case?
A quick overview of the main components of your system.
Note: Different cases may have different layouts.

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3
How to test components?
¢ Temperatures – use SpeedFan - http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
“SpeedFan is a program that monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in computers with
hardware monitor chips. SpeedFan can even access S.M.A.R.T. info and show hard disk
temperatures. SpeedFan supports SCSI disks too. SpeedFan can even change the FSB on some
hardware (but this should be considered a bonus feature). SpeedFan can access digital
temperature sensors and can change fan speeds accordingly, thus reducing noise. SpeedFan
works fine with Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, 2003, XP, Vista, Windows 7, 2008, Windows 8
and Windows Server 2012. It works with Windows 64 bit too.”
Source: www.almico.com
¢ RAM memory – use Memtest86 - http://www.memtest86.com/
“There are many good approaches for testing memory. However, many tests simply throw some
patterns at memory without much thought or knowledge of memory architecture or how errors
can best be detected. This works fine for hard memory failures but does little to find intermittent
errors. BIOS based memory tests are useless for finding intermittent memory errors.
RAM chips consist of a large array of tightly packed memory cells, one for each bit of data. The
vast majority of the intermittent failures are a result of interaction between these memory cells.
Often writing a memory cell can cause one of the adjacent cells to be written with the same data.
An effective memory test attempts to test for this condition. Therefore, an ideal strategy for
testing memory would be the following:
1. Write a cell with a zero.
2. Write all of the adjacent cells with a one, one or more times.
3. Check that the first cell still has a zero.
It should be obvious that this strategy requires an exact knowledge of how the memory cells are
laid out on the chip. In addition there are a never ending number of possible chip layouts for
different chip types and manufacturers making this strategy impractical. However, there are
testing algorithms that can approximate this ideal and MemTest86 does just this.”
Source: www.memtest86.com

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4
¢ HDD – use Seatools- http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
Everything is explained in the software’s web page.
¢ Computer Power Supply (PSU) – for voltages you can use SpeedFan.
When testing the PSU, we must remove it from the case and detach all connectors to the
motherboard, optical drive and video card. Plug in the power cable to the wall, and then into the
back of the power supply. Make sure the power supply is turned on (if it has a button on the back
side). Take a paper clip (for example) and bend it. Two ends of it must be next to each other.
Locate the Green wire on your PSU. There should only be one Green wire, whether you have a
20 or 24 pin power cable. Now find a Black wire on your PSU as well (there are few – it doesn’t
matter which) . Take the paper clip and insert one end into the Green wire and the other end into
the black wire. If your power supply turns on – it’s working. This though doesn’t
guarantee stable voltages.

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3
Issue 26
The CD/DVD drive disappeared
Description:
Your CD drive or DVD drive is missing or not recognized by Windows or other programs, so
you cannot access a CD or DVD. This issue might have occurred after you installed, uninstalled,
or updated a program or Windows Vista.
Fixes:
#1. Check if the tray opens. If the tray does not open, it means the drive is not getting any
power, so check the power cables.
#2. Run Windows System restore
#3. Try this: Control Panel - Device Manager - CD/DVD - double click the device - Driver's
Tab – click Update Drivers – Right click the drive - Uninstall – Reboot. This will refresh
the default driver stack.
#4. Reset the drive. Click Start, type Disk Management and choose the "Create and format
hard disk partitions" link. If your optical drive is visible here then right-click it, select
Change Drive Letter and Paths, click Change and choose a new letter. If the drive is now
visible in Explorer, then repeat the process to change the drive letter back.
#5. Resetting the drive letter has worked for some. Click Start, type Disk Management and
choose the "Create and format hard disk partitions" link. If your optical drive is visible
here then right-click it, select Change Drive Letter and Paths, click Change and choose a
new letter. If the drive is now visible in Explorer, then repeat the process to change the
drive letter back; if it's still not visible, reboot and it should appear.
#6. Create a text file with NOTEPAD containing the following data exactly as below and
name it FIXCD.REG. If you do not change it from txt type to all files type, then the file
will actually be fixcd.reg.txt, this won't accomplish the desired result. Double click on the
file and say yes to the merge into registry question.

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4
Filename : fixcd.reg Save as type: all files Encoding: ANSI
contents of FIXCD.REG (copy and paste everything below)
REGEDIT4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlClass{4D36E965-E325-
11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}]
"UpperFilters"=-
"LowerFilters"=-
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesCdr4_2K]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesCdralw2k]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesCdudf]
[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesUdfReadr]
#7. Fixed the problem differently? Email me at: sebastian@30issues.com . I will include
your fix in the next edition.