911 Part 2

(The following article was created in response to a request on RealTalk for information on what to do when your computer crashes, and is in 5 parts.)

Last night I uncovered technology's "dirty little secret" and why it may occur. I also advised you to cultivate a relationship with a local techie. If you missed it, go back and read it, please.

Tonight I want to talk about some simple things that you can do before calling tech support. Things that may get your system up and running without having to sit on the phone for hours!

To start with, in the old days before broadband and the always on connection to the Internet, most of us turned our computers off when we weren't using them. That way when we turned them on, they were starting a brand new, squeaky clean session of Windows 95/98. It turns out that Windows 9x (Windows 95 - 98 is often referred to as Windows 9x) has a known "feature" (when you see a techie refer to a "feature" in quotes like that it's a derogatory reference to the fact that the software has a bug that the developer can't or won't fix) that causes it to crash after about 45 hours or so of continuous operation. The reason this happens is due to what is known as a memory leak. A memory leak occurs when a program doesn't release the memory that it was using when it is shut down. This is usually caused by the operating system, (Windows 9x), not "enforcing" rules of memory usage. Eventually there is no more free memory and the system will crash. This is an overly simplified definition, but it serves well to illustrate the problem.

So, to eliminate memory leaks, reboot at least daily if you leave your machine on around the clock (Rule #1)! In fact, many, many, many problems "go away" upon a reboot. So, Rule #2 is simple, when you have something strange or unexpected occur, reboot first and see if the problem goes away!

Moving on to some hardware issues now. We are living in dangerous times now here in California. (And if you believe the news, other parts of the country will have the same problems soon) I am referring to the dangers to computers from power fluctuations and rolling blackouts. As mentioned yesterday, power surges are disastrous to electronic equipment (not just computers, but TV's, fax machines, monitors, copiers, scanners, etc). So, here is the next rule, (Rule #3) at a minimum make sure that you have your computer plugged into a surge protector. Don't by the cheap one from the hardware store. By the $50.00 dollar one from your local computer store. Good ones come with an insurance policy that will replace your equipment if the surge protector fails.

Of course a surge protector will do nothing to keep you computing if the power fails. For that you will need a device known as a UPS, or Uninterruptible Power Supply. This is a device with a battery inside and circuitry to convert battery power to something your computer can use. The way it works is simple, you plug your computer into the UPS and you plug the UPS into the wall. When the power fails, you have enough power to gracefully save your work and shut the computer down. You can get a UPS for under $200.00, but the more expensive ones give you more time than the cheaper ones.

So, rule #4 is buy and USE a surge protector or a UPS. The good news is that if you go the UPS route, a surge protector is built in!

Now here comes the biggie. You need to back up your system. Repeat after me...I need to back up my system. But you knew that didn't you? Of the 4,000 or so R/T folks, I'll bet that only a very small percentage do that. And that is just waiting for disaster to happen. There are any number of ways to lose your data. In fact there are so many ways for that to happen that the techies like to say "It's not if you will lose your data, it's when". There are lots of ways to back up data. If your data files are small, the old floppy disk will work just fine. For most of us, we find that dealing with multiple floppies is a pain. There are alternatives to the floppy. Today for under $300.00 you can buy Zip Drives, or CD drives that can save your data to CDs, or you can even buy a fully self contained 20 gig hard drive that sits near your computer and connects via a USB cable. Set up is simple. This is the system that I have set up for my wife and her assistant. Go here to learn more. In case of a fire at her office all she or her assistant would have to do is grab the unit (about the size of a paper back book) yank the cables out of the back and run out the door. All she'd have to do to get back in business is buy a new computer and plug in the drive and transfer the data and she's back in business!

So, enough for now. I have at least one more installment during which I'll cover Virus Scanners, Scan Disk and Disk defragging! Oh joy! Doesn't that sound like fun? I'll do my best to de-mystify those topics for you. And then in the final installment, I'll tell you how to deal with Tech Support should you ever have to call them.