Slow Computer Emergecy Repair Kit
Written on 9:37 PM by Unknown
Is your slow computer driving you nuts?
Speed up your computer
and prevent it from crashing,
with no technical knowledge what so ever.
I actually broke my computer monitor once. Yup, it was 2 AM and I had just lost an English essay I was writing for class. I had a buggy Windows 98 system that constantly crashed, and though I was saving every couple minutes, when I rebooted after it crashed, the document was completely gone. Forever. I shambled into class a couple hours later with no essay and a sore fist.
My next computer was a gleaming, brand new Windows XP machine. Guess what? After a year, it was slowing to a crawl, and began crashing. Gee, thanks Mr. Gates! By then I had started my own web design business, so my time was extremely valuable. I did this part-time after work. One productive hour a night turned into three frustrating wasted hours, and I found it took twice as long to load up my email than actually reading them! I had to always backup my work to CD, fearing that my system would crash at any moment. I constantly went to bed angry and frustrated, which is certainly NOT a good way to get a good night sleep.
What a nightmare!
I constantly checked online looking for solutions to my slow computer. Forums, newsboards, I tried figuring out why I always seemed to buy computers that sucked.
More hours were spent every night reading little bits of information and trying them out. Some worked, some made things worse. Here's what I found:
- Most websites that offer free information offer only specific advice - "try this, if it doesn't work, try this." My evenings quickly turned into a scavenger hunt, and sometimes the information screwed my computer up even more.
- Other websites say it's the registry. The problem is that it's not ONLY the registry. That's only one specific problem (see the point above). Even worse, I did try a registry cleaner once, and my computer would no longer start. THAT WAS SCARY, and I had to take it to a technican.
- Too much techno jargon - I've come across way too many sites where the support staff ask me to do stuff that makes me go "Huh?" Then I look stupid to them, and their responses are either chiding or abusive. I didn't need that, I just wanted my freakin' computer to work, and I needed it in easy steps!
Because I am a web designer, I have crossed paths with many computer experts. A old computer repair friend's story blew me away when he said that he charged $150 to tune up people's slow computers on site. And it only took him 17 minutes to fix each one!
Before moving to another city, I begged him to teach me his techniques, as I still had constant headaches with my own computer. He agreed, teaching me the step-by-step checklist he uses to fix people's computers. I couldn't believe how easy it was!
With his list, and another two years collecting all the tips and advice I found, I revised, refined and simplified my own techniques to keep my computer in optimum shape.
I have a notoriously bad memory (just ask my wife), so if some computer problem again happened down the road (which it did), all I had to do is go back to all the notes I collected. Viola, problem fixed!
Then one night I got a call from one of my clients complaining about his slow computer. Since I was his web designer, he figured I was the "computer guy" to call. I fished out my notes and took him step by step through the techniques that worked for me, in the exact order that from experience I knew worked best. The phone call lasted twenty minutes. And guess what?
He emailed me the next morning thanking me and offering to buy lunch. His computer was completely error-free and blazing fast, just like new!
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