Last year I had an issue where Windows XP failed to load. It would always get to a certain point during boot up, and then stop and reboot. This occurred when it was loading one of the Windows drivers (I can’t remember which one).
After searching the Internet for a solution to my problem, I came across the Windows Recovery Console. I loaded up the console and ran chkdsk against all the hard drives in my system. Chkdsk found a few errors on the C drive and repaired them. I reloaded Windows and everything was back to normal.
Below are the steps I used to repair my boot problem.
- Insert the Windows XP CD into the CD-ROM drive and restart the computer.
Note: Make sure that your computer boots off the CD and not the hard drive. This can be changed in the BIOS.
- Once the “Welcome to Setup” screen appears, press F10 or R to repair.
- The Windows Recovery Console should now load and ask you which Windows you would like to log on to. Select the number pertaining to the Windows installation you would like to repair. Usually you would have only one install.
- Enter your administrative account and password to log on.
After you log on, you will only be able to access the following:
- The root folder.
- The Windows folder and all subfolders within that directory.
- The Cmdcons folder.
- The removable media drives such as the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.
- At the command prompt, type chkdsk /p /r, which will scan your hard drive and repair errors, locate bad sectors and recover readable information.
- Once the scan is done, type exit to exit the Windows Recovery Console.
- Restart your computer and load up Windows from the hard drive. Hopefully everything should be fixed.
Summary
This post described how I was able to fix a Windows load problem that I experienced. All I did was run chkdsk from the Windows Recovery Console, repair the errors and restart.
Security has become a huge concern for many users, especially if you are online on a frequent basis. It is important to ensure that your computer is as secure as possible to prevent unauthorized users from poking around in your computer.
There are many steps that you can take to ensure that your information is safe:
- Use a hardware firewall with a strong password associated with the administrative account. Many routers have a built-in firewall.
- Install a good software firewall, such as ZoneAlarm.
- Install a good anti-virus. Retail products include McAfee, and Norton from Symantec. A good free alternative is AVG.
Note: Only install one anti-virus software on your computer. You could run into problems if more than one is installed.
- Install anti-spyware software such as Ad-Aware and Spybot – Search & Destroy. Both of these can be installed on the same computer.
- Install all security updates for your operating system. The updates can be set to automatically download and install.
- Update your anti-virus and anti-spyware software. The updates can be scheduled or be done manually from within the software.
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- Schedule your anti-virus and anti-spyware software to run at least once a week. You should also run them manually if you suspect a virus or spyware has infected your computer.
- If you have children, setup parental controls on your firewalls (both hardware and software). This will help prevent your children from visiting less that ideal Web sites.
- Don’t open e-mails from individuals you don’t know. Just delete them.
- Don’t click a URL link in an e-mail. Instead, copy and paste the link into a Web browser manually to ensure you open the correct Web page.
Broadband, or high-speed, Internet connection is what many users currently use in their home. Along with high-speed Internet, many users may also use a router to allow multiple computers to connect to the Internet. This post will describe how a router is used to connect multiple computers. To make it easier to understand, I will use where you live as a comparison to how your computer is connected to the Internet.
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Every time I read articles or tutorials about saving images for Web pages or sending through e-mail they always mention saving the images with a resolution of 72dpi or Dots Per Inch. The interesting fact about this suggestion is that a computer monitor doesn’t deal with dots or inches, but rather with pixels.
The resolution of a monitor is indicated as two numbers: [number of pixels for width]x[number of pixels for height]. For example, resolutions are indicated as 800×600 or 1024×768. You notice no mention of dots or inches because a monitor only cares about the number of pixels. This means that when creating images for viewing on a monitor it is important to pay close attention to the size of the file in pixels.
Let’s see an example of how this works. Below you will see two images from the same image. The top image has a print resolution of 300dpi, while the bottom one has a resolution of 10dpi. You will notice that when displayed on the monitor, they are identical. With regards to monitors, both are the same size: 225×300.
A 225×300 pixel image will always be displayed as 225 by 300 pixels regardless of the screen size in inches.
Summary
Unlike printing, DPI as no affect on how an image is displayed on a computer monitor. When resizing an image for Web sites or e-mails it is important to resize the image based on the number of pixels, and not DPI.
Many times as I connect to the Internet I realize that I don’t establish a connection. My modem and router (Linksys BEFSX41) are on and connected, but still I can’t reach the Internet. The purpose of this post is to discuss the steps I take to bringing my modem, router and computer back online.
Note: This post assumes that you know how to log into your router and know where specific settings, such as the IP addresses are displayed.
Reset the Equipment
Before changing the settings, you should first reset all equipment as the first step. The following steps describe the order to reset the equipment:
- Turn off the computer.
- Turn off or unplug the router.
- Turn off or unplug the modem.
- Wait 5 seconds.
- Plug in the modem and wait for it to come back online.
- Plug in the router and wait for it to come back online.
- Turn on the computer and login.
- Click Start->Run.
- Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
- At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
- Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you can’t get an Internet connection then continue on to the next section.
Checking Router Connectivity
In this section we will check to ensure that the router has an IP address from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
- Open up a Web browser and navigate to your router setup.
- Once the setup loads, navigate to the page that displays the IP address assigned by your ISP. For my Linksys router is shown by clicking the Status menu item.
- There may be buttons or links to release and renew the IP address. First, release the address, and then renew it. For my Linksys router, I first click the DHCP Release button and then the DHCP Renew button.
- An Internet or IP address should now be displayed in the page. If it doesn’t, then check to ensure that the router is connected to the modem and perform the previous step again. If you still don’t get an IP address then skip the next steps and continue directly with the next section.
- Click Start->Run.
- Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
- At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
- Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you can’t get an Internet connection then continue on to the next section.
Computer to Modem Connection
This section will determine if you can actually get an IP address from your modem, which would mean that there is a problem with the router. Follow the next few steps to perform the connection:
- Disconnect the cable connecting the router and the computer from the computer.
- Disconnect the cable connecting the modem and the router from the router.
- Connect the cable from the modem directly into the network card in your computer. Plug the cable into the same location as the router was connected into.
- Click Start->Run.
- Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
- At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
- Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you don’t then call your ISP technical support number and inform them of a problem. If you do, then there may be an issue with your router. Continue to the next section to see if the router problem can be fixed.
- Before continuing, however, ensure that you plug in all the cables as previous to following the steps in the section. This means that the connection should be: modem->router->computer.
Troubleshooting the Router
Up to this point we have reset all the equipment, tested the router, and the modem. It has been determined that the problem may be with the router. This section will attempt to solve the issue.
- If you closed the Web browser from a previous section then open a Web browser and navigate to your router’s setup.
- Navigate to the page containing your Internet Setup. For my router it is the first page that is displayed.
- Your setup hear depends on your ISP. Since I have cable as my Internet connection I make sure that setup is set to Obtain an IP automatically. If you have broadband dialup, you may need to select PPPoE and specify a user name an password. Check with the documentation provided by your ISP to determine which setting you should use.
- Ensure that DHCP on the router is enabled.
- Ensure that the number of IP addresses managed by the router can accommodate the number of computers that will be connected to it.
- Save any setting changes you made.
- Click Start->Run.
- Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
- At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
- Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you can’t, then continue to the next step.
- At this point you should try resetting the router to factory defaults and try the previous four steps again. Please read the documentation that came with your router on resetting it.
- If it still doesn’t work then there could be a hardware issue with the router. If you just bought it, return it to the store and get a new replacement. If it is an older router, you may need to buy a new one.
Summary
This post described how to troubleshoot a broadband Internet connection. I hope that the tips provided here have help to solve connection issues that you may be having.
