The Power Supply So, tell me, has your computer ever made a noise that sounds like one of your fans is dying? I'm sure you would know if it has, because it can be pretty loud and it usually just sounds awful! Well, either way, I'm willing to bet that your fan really isn't the culprit here. Nope, it could be your power supply instead. If you have a noisy fan, you smell something burning or you see smoke or flames shooting out the back of your computer, you may very well have a problem with your power supply. And I assure you, that's a whole lot worse than a dead fan if you don't catch it right away. Keep reading for more on this! There are many different things that could cause your power supply to go bad. For instance, the fan that runs next to your power supply could get clogged up with dust and dirt and start to run much slower or the fan's bearings could start to wear off. When those things happen, your power supply is at risk of overheating and it will eventually fail. Or, it could have nothing to do with your fan. Perhaps the power supply itself was faulty from the get go and it only took a matter of time before it failed completely. Even more so, if you're having trouble with your computer shutting down and restarting itself at random times, that could be another indicator that your power supply is going bad. And since your motherboard, CPU, disk drives, etc. all work off of the power supply, it's not a good idea to take a chance on it getting any better. If you do, you'll just have more trouble down the road. Don't worry though, replacing a power supply is rather easy to do and it's fairly cost friendly. So, if your computer is experiencing any of the symptoms I mentioned above, you'll want to check into getting a new power supply. It's a small price to pay for the safety of your computer! ~ Erin
Why does my PC take so long to shut down?
Dear CNET members,
Happy Friday! Sorry I missed you folks last week, I had some troubles with both my wrists and was decommissioned for a while. However, I'm back in the saddle again. So have you folks had a chance to check out the all-new CNET? I hope you have and I really hope you enjoy it, our entire staff has put countless hours and energy into bring you this new experience. If you haven't done so already, after you've soaked into our new site experience for a while, tell us what you think--hate it or love it, go to the top of any CNET page and click the "Send feedback" link and tell us about it, we are all ears. Now let's get right into Victoria's question on why her PC takes so long to shut down.
Well Victoria, after reading many of our member suggestions for you, there can be many factors that could be causing your Windows system to shut down so slowly. It can range from your PC being infected with viruses/spyware and having an overly defragmented drive, to an excessive amount of programs running in the background, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The major reasons why PCs will eventually take longer to shut down is simply because more programs in the background need to be ended before the operating system can completely shut down. And one quick solution for that is to minimize clutter and unnecessary programs on your PC, but it may not be as simple as that. So give all the answers a read, start with the simple recommended tasks, and see if there are any improvements. If not, go forward from there. I have selected a few answers to get you started in the Q&A section.
For those of you who suggested completely wiping your hard drive clean and reinstalling Windows, I would keep this option as a last resort. While this is a completely valid method of ridding yourself of many Windows problems, unless you are up to the task and know exactly what you are doing, it can be a daunting task. If you have any more suggestions or advice for Victoria, please swing on by and post your suggestions in the discussion thread. Thanks everyone and have a great weekend!
Cheers!
- Lee
Got suggestions? Send me an e-mail: messageboards@cnet.com
Q:
I started up my computer this morning and all of my icons were gone! What could have happened? How can I get them back? Please help!
A:
Now, there are a couple of different ways you may have lost your icons. They could have disappeared when you installed a certain program or even when you upgraded to a new operating system. Either way, you need them, so let's find them again! To enable those icons and more, right click on your desktop and choose Properties. Click on the Desktop tab and hit the Customize Desktop button. Next, under the General tab, check off any of the icons you want to appear on your desktop.
Once you do that, they will all be returned to your desktop in full view. You can choose from the icons of My Documents, My Computer, My Network Places and Internet Explorer. Now, on the other hand, you may want to take some of those icons off your desktop. If that's the case, just uncheck them and they will be out of your way. Easy enough, don't you think?!
~ Erin
Source From News Letters of http://www.worldstart.com
Re-Published By : Computer Software Hardware Tips
