For those techie Gray Cells - II

10 Reasons why PCs crash

3-BIOS settings

Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the 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.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).

4-Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.

Hard disks 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 C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

More reasons in my later posts......

How to search on Google

Google is undoubtedly the best search engine out there but not if you can't exploit it properly and use it to get whatever you want. I am gonna help you find stuff on google. :D

Getting movies,MP3,Games...

You want movies, mp3 and games and don't know where to get them, well, there is google.com.

Goto www.google.com and put this string in

"parent directory " /appz/ -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " DVDRip -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory "Xvid -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " Gamez -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

"parent directory " Name of Singer or album -xxx -html -htm -php -shtml -opendivx -md5 -md5sums

Notice that I am only changing the word after the parent directory, change it to whatever you want and you will get lots of goods.

Another way to find MP3 really quickly

Another good way of finding MP3s (or other formats) is using Google and typing the following:

parent + directory + mp3 + OR + wma+ #dido#

Replace #dido# by whatever artist you wish to find, for example:

parent + directory + mp3 + OR + wma+ #Lamb#

You should get plenty of dirs with MP3s or WMA files (you could add OGG, etc. to the query).

To find serial numbers/CD keys using Google

If you are looking for a serial number for nero (for example) goto google.com and type

nero 94FBR

and it'll bring it up

this works great in google

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

Quite simple really. 94FBR is part of a Office 2000 Pro cd key that is widely distributed as it bypasses the activation requirements of Office 2K Pro. By searching for the product name and 94FBR, you guarantee two things.

1)The pages that are returned are pages dealing specifically with the product you want a serial for.

2)Because 94FBR is part of a serial number, and only part of a serial number, you guarantee that any page being returned is a serial number list page.

I hope this trick helps you in finding your cd keys easily. :)

More useful stuff in my future posts. :D