Corey Sandler Tom Badgett Learn to: • Diagnose common problems using the index of symptoms • Translate error messages and know what to do • Maintain your computer to help prevent future difficulties • Recognize when you need to call for help Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors Making Everything Easier! ™ Open the book and find: • Introductions to your PC’s parts and operating system • Ways to keep your computer healthy • Steps for stopping viruses, malware, and spam • When to repair and when to replace your PC • How to change your computer’s memory • Tips for repairing Windows • How to get your printer and monitor working again • Tricks for fixing common PC problems Corey Sandler was the first executive editor of PC Magazine. He has written more than 160 books, including all editions of Laptops All-in-One For Dummies. Tom Badgett has published more than 50 books and hundreds of magazine articles on technical topics. He has also worked as a journalist and broadcast documentary producer. Hardware/Personal Computers/PCs $24.99 US / $29.99 CN / £17.99 UK ISBN 978-0-470-50087-3 Go to Dummies.com ® for videos, step-by-step examples, how-to articles, or to shop! Make simple repairs to your computer that extend its life and save you money Do you go into panic mode when your computer isn’t working properly? End the worry with this accessible guide! Expert Corey Sandler shows you how to quickly uncover what’s wrong and fix it by following easy steps. In no time, you’ll learn the best way to maintain your PC, solve hardware problems, restore system settings, troubleshoot issues, and more. • Get to know the parts — from the mouse and keyboard to the monitor, printer, and connection ports, discover how PC components work • Inside the box — develop a working knowledge of your PC’s “brain” and the Windows operating system • Keep your PC healthy — follow tips and techniques for proper computer hygiene • Upgrade memory and replace drives — change your PC’s memory, hard disk drives, and CD/DVD drives • Get Windows® back on track — repair, refresh, or reinstall Windows to quickly get up and running again • Diagnose the problem — use the Windows Troubleshooting Wizard and make changes to your injured PC using a list of solutions • Enhance security — take the steps needed to protect your PC from viruses and other threats Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors Sandler Badgett spine=.768” Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. spine=.768” Start with FREE Cheat Sheets Cheat Sheets include • Checklists • Charts • Common Instructions • And Other Good Stuff! Get Smart at Dummies.com Dummies.com makes your life easier with 1,000s of answers on everything from removing wallpaper to using the latest version of Windows. Check out our • Videos • Illustrated Articles • Step-by-Step Instructions Plus, each month you can win valuable prizes by entering our Dummies.com sweepstakes. * Want a weekly dose of Dummies? Sign up for Newsletters on • Digital Photography • Microsoft Windows & Office • Personal Finance & Investing • Health & Wellness • Computing, iPods & Cell Phones • eBay • Internet • Food, Home & Garden Find out “HOW” at Dummies.com *Sweepstakes not currently available in all countries; visit Dummies.com for official rules. Get More and Do More at Dummies.com ® To access the Cheat Sheet created specifically for this book, go to www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/fixyourowncomputerforseniors Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Corey Sandler and Tom Badgett Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2009940282 ISBN: 978-0-470-50087-3 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. About the Author Corey Sandler is the author of more than a hundred books with more than two million copies in print in more than twenty languages. A for- mer Gannett and Associated Press newsman, he has appeared on NBC’s Today show, the Travel Channel,and National Public Radio, and has been profiled on CNN. His fascination with the mystery of the life and death of Henry Hudson took him on a year-long, 25,000-mile journey to England, Norway, Svalbard, and the North Pole; up New York’s Hudson River to its source, and deep into Canada’s wilderness of Hudson Bay and James Bay. Sandler lives on Nantucket island, off the coast of Massachusetts. About the Contributing Author Tom Badgett is a writer and entrepreneur. He founded one of the first national personal computer sales and programming companies in 1980. He was a founding owner of the tenth-largest Internet service provider in 1994 (U.S. Internet, now part of Earthlink), and was a founding part- ner in IdleAire Technologies Corporation, a national provider of HVAC, Internet, and other services for long-haul truck drivers. Badgett is a prolific writer, having published more than 50 books and hundreds of magazine articles for major U.S. and international publish- ers on technical topics from computer software to computer communi- cations and security. He produced more than 30 instructional videos and interactive DVD programs on similar topics, also marketed interna- tionally. Badgett has worked as a magazine writer and technical editor (Ziff-Davis, McGraw-Hill), broadcast DJ, journalist and documentary producer for radio and television. He taught computer programming, journalism, photography, technical writing, and speech and theater at the college level for several years. He holds a BA in language and an MA in documentary film from the University of Tennessee. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Author’s Acknowledgements Publishing is a team sport, and I had some great players and coaches all around. Thanks to Tonya Cupp, Katie Mohr, and Kathy Simpson for their professional work on moving this title from concept to print. And once again, to old friend Tom Badgett for coming off the bench to pinch-hit in a key moment of the game. Author’s Dedication To my dad, now in his tenth decade, a senior amongst seniors. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com. For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial Project Editor: Tonya Maddox Cupp Acquisitions Editors: Katie Mohr, Tiffany Ma Copy and Development Editor: Kathy Simpson Technical Editor: Sandy Berger Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen Media Development Associate Producers: Josh Frank, Marilyn Hummel, Douglas Kuhn, and Shawn Patrick Editorial Assistant: Amanda Graham Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Composition Services Project Coordinator: Katherine Crocker Layout and Graphics: Samantha K. Cherolis, Joyce Haughey, Christine Williams Proofreader: Jacqui Brownstein Indexer: BIM Indexing & Proofreading Services Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Composition Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Contents at a Glance Introduction 1 Part I: A Computer Is Not a Toaster 7 Chapter 1: Getting to Know the Parts You Can See 9 Chapter 2: Thinking Inside the Box 27 Chapter 3: Looking Through Windows and Other Software 47 Part II: Keeping Your PC Healthy with Preventive Maintenance 65 Chapter 4: Taking Care of Software 67 Chapter 5: Practicing Good Computer Hygiene 85 Chapter 6: Keeping Intruders out of Your Computer 103 Chapter 7: Getting Help When Prevention Fails 121 Part III: Fixing Sick Hardware 137 Chapter 8: Repairing the Monitor 139 Chapter 9: Solving Electrical and Mechanical Problems 157 Chapter 10: Installing Memory 175 Chapter 11: Changing a Drive, Made Easy 185 Chapter 12: Fixing a Malfunctioning Printer 209 Chapter 13: Taking Care of Your Mouse (or Trackball) and Keyboard 221 Part IV: Resetting the Operating System 237 Chapter 14: Repairing, Refreshing, and Reinstalling Windows 239 Chapter 15: Checking and Changing System Configuration 253 Chapter 16: Restoring Your Computer’s Settings 263 Chapter 17: Working in Safe Mode 279 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Part V: Troubleshooting Your PC 293 18: Managing and Troubleshooting Devices 295 19: Relieving Hard Times for Hard Drives 307 20: Fixing Common Problems 321 Glossary 335 Index 349 Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. [...]... 21 Protect Your PC: Surge Protectors and UPS Devices .24 Chapter 2: Thinking Inside the Box 27 Assemble Your Toolkit .28 Get Grounded 30 Open the Computer s Case .32 Find Out What Makes Your Computer Think 36 See Where Your Computer Stores Your Stuff 38 Tour the Computer s Infrastructure 41 Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors For Dummies Chapter... and connection ports ➟ 4 Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors For Dummies In Chapter 2, I take a tour inside the box, to help you understand the brain of your PC And in Chapter 3, I introduce you to the operating system (Windows for most of us) and other major pieces of software Part II: Keeping Your PC Healthy with Preventive Maintenance Here we explore healthy habits for you and your machine In Chapter... operating system are not that great anymore But for the record, I assume the following as your standard machine: ➟ ➟ ➟ 2 A PC An Intel or AMD microprocessor (which together account for nearly all current processing units in PCs) ➟ A current version of the Microsoft Windows operating system (Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7) Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors For Dummies ➟ A current Web browser (Microsoft... and Hubs 21 ➟ Protect Your PC: Surge Protectors and UPS Devices 24 Part I: A Computer Is Not a Toaster This chapter isn’t the Gray’s Anatomy of computers; for that, you need a more-in-depth book such as my Fix Your Own PC (Wiley Publishing) Think of the chapter as being a form of CliffsNotes — just enough to start with — and check out the cross-referenced chapters for more details Make a Point:... the Monitor Easier to Read in Safe Mode 283 Use Safe Mode Tools 284 ➟ xiii Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors For Dummies Test New Hardware in Safe Mode 287 Test Settings in Safe Mode 288 Choose Advanced Safe Mode Options 289 Exit Safe Mode 292 Part V: Troubleshooting Your PC 293 Chapter 18: Managing and Troubleshooting Devices 295 See What You Can... Good Computer Hygiene 85 Run the System Configuration Utility 86 Run Microsoft Office Diagnostics 88 Clean Up Your Hard Drive 90 Defragment Your Hard Drive 91 Test for Chinks in the Security Armor 93 ➟ x Table of Contents Keep Things Cool .95 Mind Your Monitor 98 Pamper Your Printer 101 Chapter 6: Keeping Intruders out of Your Computer. .. Chapter 4: Taking Care of Software 67 Check for Windows Updates Manually 68 Check for Windows Updates Automatically 70 Update Other Software 73 Check Your Service Pack Status .74 Check for and Install Service Pack Updates 75 Download and Configure Windows Live Applications 76 Fix Corrupted Program Files 79 Fix Corrupted Device Drivers 79 Uninstall... Troubleshoot a Video Adapter in Windows XP and Vista 150 Troubleshoot a Video Adapter in Windows 7 152 Reset a Video Driver 153 Prevent Future Picture Problems 154 ➟ xi Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors For Dummies Chapter 9: Solving Electrical and Mechanical Problems 157 Diagnose a Failing Power Supply 158 Research a Replacement Power Supply 159 Remove and Replace the Power... we can function efficiently as seniors I’ll try to explain, in plain English, just enough about how a computer works to help you understand it And, as promised in the book’s title, I’ll show you ways you can make simple repairs to your computer that will extend its life, save you money, and amaze the youngsters Foolish Assumptions You have a computer and you want to fix a problem, prevent a problem,... to fix a problem, prevent a problem, or be able to intelligently discuss your needs and wants with your 14-year-old grandson Nothing foolish there I also assume that you don’t have an advanced degree in computer programming or electrical engineering That’s just fine The information in this book should be of use to any personal computer (PC) user The differences between a desktop and a laptop, between . www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/fixyourowncomputerforseniors Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors FOR DUMmIES ‰ by. do • Maintain your computer to help prevent future difficulties • Recognize when you need to call for help Fix Your Own Computer For Seniors Making