Reasons Why Computer Crash

Reasons Why Computer Crash

1.FATAL ERROR : The system has become unstable or is busy ,Like “ Enter to return to windows or Press Control-Alt-Delete to restart Your computer. If you do this you will lose unsaved data in all open application. HOW U ?

• Hardware Conflict
  The one reason why window crashes is hardware conflict. Each Hardware device communicates to other devices though an interrupt request channel(IRQ).These are supposed to be unique for each device. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself (printer,scanner etc).
  If there are lot of devices,or if they are not installed properly,two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen.
• So ,do Start-Settings-Control panel-System-Device Manager
  Often if a device has a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer(in the Device Manager) and press properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer.
• If the IRQ number appears Twice, Two devices may be using it.
• Sometime a device might share and IRQ with something described as “IRQ holder for PCI steering”, This can be ignored.
  The Best way to FIX the problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.
• Sometime you may have to fined more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A Good resource is WWW.DRIVERGUIDE.COM .If the device is a sound-card, or a Modem it can Often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard.
• When working inside the computer you should switch it off,unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any Static electricity.
• Bad Ram
  Ram (Random Access Memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying FATAL EXECPTION ERROR.
  A Fatal Error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometime It means a Part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips .For example ( different Ram ) mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will Force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed.This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

• So ,the One way is , Enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of The RAM.This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected RAM problem is to rearrange the RAM chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. When handling RAM try not to touch the gold connections , as they can be easily damaged .
• BIOS SETTINGS
  Every motherboard is supplied with a rage of chip-set settings that are decided in the factory. A Common way to access these settings is to press F2, or DELETE button during The first few seconds of a boot-up.
  Inside the BIOS, care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a paper all the setting that appear on the screen. That way, If you change something and the computer becomes more unstable,you will know that settings to revert to a common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This defers to RAM .Older EDO(extended data out) .RAM has a CAS latency of 3.newer SDRAM has a CAS latency of 2.Setting the wrong figure can cause the RAM to lock up and freeze the computer's display.
• HARD DISK DRIVES
  It is a good idea to derangement the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to START-PROGRAMS-ACCESSORIS-SYSTEM TOOLS-DISK DEFRAGMENTER
  This will start the procedure.
• START-SETTINGS-CONTROL PANEL-SYSTEM ICON -PERFORMANCE-FILE SYSTEM-HARD DISK.
  Hard disk will slow down and crash if they are too full, Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the windows folder on the window drive where you install the operating system and find the temporary Internet files folder.Deleting the contents(NOT FOLDER) car free a lot of space. And Also Empty The Recycle Bin

Every week to free more space. Hard Drive should be scanned every week for error or bad sectors,

Go To START-PROGRAMS-ACCESSORIES-SYSTEM TOOLS-SCANDISK

• Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors
   Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to START-SETTINGS-CONTROL PANEL-DISPLAY SETTINGS
   Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the color settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high color 16-bit depth is adequate.If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

• Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

• Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics
   Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card's manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

• Viruses
   Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

• Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs
   Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.

An excellent antivirus programme is McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates ( www.nai.com). Another is Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec ( www.symantec.com).

• Printers
   The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer's performance.

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.

• Software
   A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don't do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org

Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message "Starting Windows" press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn't work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.

• Overheating
   Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heat sinks are available from WWW.COMPUTERNERD.COM OR WWW.COOLIT.COM

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

10 Power supply problems