General Guide to Troubleshooting Windows XP (All problems)

General Troubleshooting By : ComputerShack

Title: General Troubleshooting Description: A step by step guide that will fix about 75% of your computer problems. Written by www.ComputerShack.net URL: http://www.computershack.net/content.php'article.1

General Troubleshooting (Skill Level:) Beginner

90% chance following this guide, made out of 4 separate solutions to common problems in order of helpfulness will fix your problem. Est. 30 min for all 4 solutions. Complete one by one, and restart your computer after every section to get slightly higher chance of success.

Simple Solutions (most common problems) -Check that all of the cables are plugged INTO THE RIGHT SPOT, and PUSHED IN WELL -Find the site for your devices manufacturer (dell.com, nvidia.com, ati.com, etc) find and access the search bar/feature in their site and enter your model number / part number. Once you find the download page for your device, save the driver files to your computer. Install the new driver file. If an auto-install pops up, you can figure the rest out.

How To for harder problems, estimated 30 min for all 4:

Disable all virus scanners/programs that run in the background after every restart.

Plan A Open My Computer and double click the driver file you downloaded. An install window starts and extracts its files to a place on your computer C:xxxxxxxxxxdrivers for example. Make sure you write it down, and WATCH CLOSE -It may automatically start the install; otherwise we do it manually in Plan B -Follow the install, finish it out, and restart your computer. Check your problem.

Plan B (if plan A didn't work) -Click>Start>Run C:xxxxxxxxxxxxdrivers where that location is where the extracted files went. -Find the drivers install file (setup.exe, install.exe, [etc].exe) -Start and complete the install. Restart when done. See if problem is gone

Plan C(if plan B didn't work) -Right click My Computer>Properties -In the Hardware tab, go to Device Manager -Find your troubled device in the sub-lists in the window -Once found, right click, and update driver. -Install it from a list -check "include this location in the search" C:xxxxxxxxxxxxdrivers (extracted files location u wrote down) -click next. -If found, check your problem, and if not, move on.

Plan D (Last chance!!!) -In Device Manager, find your problem device -Right click, update driver -Yes, connect to windows at this time -Follow the menu, restart and see if problem is gone.

If still broken, your problem is beyond the capability of this article.

Estimated reasons for failure (estimated based on experience): 70% Device not installed using proper directions 10% Problem with Windows 10% broken device 10% other