Help Corner What To Do If Your PC Crashes

All computers crash at one time or another. Some crashes are relatively minor and can be fixed with a bit of effort. Then there are the crashes that can totally wipe out a computers memory. Here's some tips and help to prevent and recover from crashes.

There are many things that can cause your computer to crash, from having a file out of place to a glitch in a new piece of hardware you've installed.

If your computer is still under warranty and you're having problems then one option can be to return it or have it serviced. Don't do anything to void your warranty. Instead contact the manufacturer who will guide you on what to do. For the rest of us that have computers a few years old or more there's still hope in bringing your computer back to life.

When you are having any type of problem with your computer such as a screen freeze, slow performance or erratic behaviour of any kind, one of the best things to do is to simply reboot. If the screen is frozen that means you can't use the mouse so just hit the off button wait about one minute then press the button on again. A lot of times just rebooting can solve the problem.

If the problem is more serious, you might need to use System Restore to roll back the computer to a restore point before the crash happened. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools then System Restore. Select an earlier date before the crash happened. Click next and the computer does the rest. This procedure usually only takes a few minutes depending on how much there is to back up before performing the restore.

Another option is to run scan disk. With XP and Vista it's called Error Checking instead of scan disk. If turning your computer off then turning it on again does not activate this function, the next easiest way is to go to My Computer, right click on C: drive, click on Properties, on the next screen click the Tools tab then click Check Now in the section for Error Checking. On the next window check both boxes then click Start Now. The next window is a message saying Error Checking will start after you reboot the computer. Once the computer is rebooted the Error Checking function begins. All you do now is sit and wait because this can take awhile. Once Error Checking is finished the computer is automatically restarted and everything should be back to normal.

Run defrag after running Error Checking. Always use these two together when recovering from a crash. The options are the same to access defrag with XP and Vista. First click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools then Disk Defragmenter. You need to run defrag at least once a month. Running defrag puts all files back in their original location. Files tend to get shuffled around as we browse the internet, download and install or uninstall software.

Run the virus scan. If you don't have anti virus software get one immediately! An anti virus program should be running all the time your computer is on. If your computer crashed but you can still get on the internet (which sometimes happens) go to a website that offers PC scanning for viruses. Next download a free trial of an anti virus software. The reason for one with a free trial is to give the software a trial run to see if you like the product before buying it. If you already have an anti virus program installed, run a virus scan to see if the reason for the crash was due to a virus. If a virus is detected your software will guide you through what to do.

If running a virus scan does not fix the problem the next thing to do is run a registry scan. If you do not have registry scanning software, go to a website that offers free PC scanning to see if something in the registry caused the crash. If something is found, again download a free trial of a registry cleaning or registry fixing software.

The best thing to do is not panic when your computer crashes. In most cases it's not the end of your computer.

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