Repairs

One day your computer may be as fine as can be but the next day it stops working or behaves oddly, especially if you have Windows as your operating system. The key to fixing the computer is first to work out if the fault or faults are because of a hardware or software problem, or even a combination of both.

Let me give you an example, I had an old desktop computer running Windows 98 SE that I had in addition to my main computer. Recently the Windows 98 computer would start up fine but after loading Windows or a few moments later the much feared blue screen would pop up, or sometimes the less serious explorer has performed an illegal operation error. A clue to what was wrong was that the errors were random and they had only started to appear recently.

Although software including drivers could be to blame, a dodgy power supply or faulty memory (RAM) were just as likely. I ruled out the PSU as it was of the type that is supposed to provide a power good signal to the motherboard that would prevent the computer from starting if the voltages were not a the right level. I also remembered that I had added extra memory recently so I removed the second DIMM memory stick. Now there were no errors, even after using the computer for some while just to make sure that removing the bad RAM really had caused so much trouble.

Hard drive failure

Traditional, mechanical, hard drives are still very common and have grown dramatically in capacity while dropping in price; 3TB and higher hard drives are now available. Hard drives should last a long time which is just as well as for many computers they are the main form of storage and contain the operating system as well as personal files. But even modern mechanical hard drives or SSDs can fail early on so you need to always make back-ups of valuable files on another storage device, such as a USB flash drive or external hard drive, another computer via a network connection, on CD or DVD, or online (but I would recommend local copies if possible and use online services as an extra form of back-up).

If you do suspect a problem with your computer's hard drive, such as if you are getting file errors, slower than normal operation (other issues can cause slowness, however), random freezing, stop using the computer and shut down. To test the hard drive you can use a boot CD or DVD which will run a number of tests on the hard drive or some BIOS set-up utilities have a built-in hard drive test. If you do find that the hard drive is about to fail there are a number of ways you can recover most or all of your files if you haven't already backed them up. One option is to use a Linux live CD or DVD which you can boot into, giving an operating system that runs just of the disc so there is no chance of effecting the hard drive. Using Linux you should be able to access the files on the hard drive and copy them over to another storage device like an external hard drive or USB flash drive. An alternative is to take the hard drive out of the computer after shutting it down and either put it into another computer or use a hard drive docking station.

Multiple USB device not recognised errors

When using Windows, you may get a USB device not recognised error pop up even though you have had no problems with the device before. This is likely to be caused by a faulty USB cable or USB HUB so the first thing to do is to try another USB cable and if you are using an external HUB, try another one or connect the device directly to the computer if possible.

One day I found that the USB device not recognised error kept coming up on my laptop whenever I connected my Arduino (microcontroller development platform) and that was still the case even after trying other USB ports. I knew it shouldn't be the Arduino that was at fault as I'm always so careful with it. I tried another USB cable and the error still returned but when I used the Arduino through an external HUB it was working. I tested the Arduino on another computer and it worked so the Arduino was not the problem. I then found that the built-in webcam of my laptop also was playing up so I looked online for clues as to what could be causing the multiple USB device not recognised errors and the solution of shutting down and removing the power cable from the mains socket (the charger in my case) and then powering up again worked.

Random freezes when using Windows

The total lock-up of a modern computer should be rare as processes run in their own 'bubble' and the O/S is more useful in detecting program issues and providing a means to terminate them should they get into trouble. If your computer freezes completely in a random manner and quite frequently then it is a good idea to check both the hardware and software. On the software side it may be a program has become corrupted so if the computer froze when using a certain program it would be a good idea to update it or better still to uninstall it and install it again. When I was getting freezes I was using Google Chrome so I became convinced that it was Chrome that was locking up the computer and so I tried disabling hardware acceleration in Chrome's settings as that supposedly would help. However, when the computer froze yet again I was not using Chrome but a completely different program. I was starting to think that there was a hardware fault and possibly that the new graphics card I had put in was to blame. I updated the driver for the graphics card but later on the computer froze so clearly I had still not got to the root of the problem. As I had planned to get a different graphics card that required more power I bought a new power supply and even with a more power hungry graphics card installed the computer hasn't yet froze up. Whether the old power supply was actually to blame for the lock-ups I don't know for sure but it is very possible that a bad power supply, especially when strained more than usual, could have caused the freezes.

Real World Problems

Acer Aspire 5560g will not completely shut down

When installing Windows 7 on an Aspire laptop it would not restart when it needed to but the installation did continue when I forced the laptop to shut down and then powered it on again. However, whenever I restarted or shut down the computer it would seem to shut down but the the power wouldn't go off. It turns out, as I found out from finding the site linked below, that the problem is fixed by not pressing a key when prompted to boot off the disc, when first installing Windows 7:

http://www.tomsguide.com/forum/82200-35-acer-aspire-5560g-hangs-restart

Bluetooth keyboard/mouse stops responding

I use a Surface ergonomic keyboard and MX Master 2S mouse with my Windows 10 PC, both of which use Bluetooth (the MX Master 2S also supports the unifying receiver but I use it in Bluetooth mode). Recently, the keyboard would be slow to wake up when my PC is taken out of sleep mode and my mouse would also take more than a few moments to connect to the PC (the light underneath would be flashing and then settle). Even when the PC was on, the keyboard and mouse would take some while to start responding again after not using them for a short while. I also noticed that often the PC would not go to sleep even though it's set to sleep after 30 minutes.

After changing the keyboard's batteries and charging the mouse, the same issues were still present and I checked various power saving/sleep settings. The solution was to update the 'Intel Wireless Bluetooth' driver not by using the device manager (which insisted the most suitable driver was already installed) but by downloading the most recent driver from Intel's site (Google 'Intel Wireless Bluetooth driver download'). The download is an executable and after installing the software, I restarted my PC and the previous issues have gone.

Cannot pair Surface ergonomic keyboard to PC

If you do a lot of typing it's worth investing in an ergonomic keyboard and for me I went with the Surface ergonomic keyboard since I picked it up at a very good price and although it will take some getting used to the layout of the keys it will be a more comfortable experience. Although I had no trouble pairing the keyboard to my Surface Pro I wanted to actually use the keyboard with my Windows 7 PC which doesn't have internal Bluetooth connectivity. So I first tried using a cheap Bluetooth 2.0 dongle on my PC I happened to have but even after putting the Surface ergonomic keyboard into pairing mode the PC wouldn't pick it up (yet it saw other Bluetooth devices). As far as Microsoft is concerned the Surface ergonomic keyboard is only compatible with Windows 10 but it didn't make sense to me that the keyboard could refuse to work based on the O/S unless it required additional software to work though I wondered if the keyboard required Bluetooth 4.0.

As a further test I had also tried to pair my Xbox One controller to my PC using the cheap Bluetooth dongle and although my PC picked up the controller and connected to it the controller soon lost the connection. So I bought a tp-link Bluetooth 4.0 adapter, model UB400, which is compatible with versions of Windows all the back to Windows XP. Using the dongle I was able to pair with the Xbox One controller and stay connected but the Surface ergonomic keyboard still would not show up as a device to pair with.

I had suspicions that the problem was possibly either the drivers (Windows installed generic drivers from 2006) or the built-in Bluetooth software that Windows 7 offers for pairing with devices. So, as instructed in the Bluetooth adapter manual, I downloaded and installed the driver from:

https://tp-link.com/download/ub400.html#driver

If you are following along be sure to click on the 'Driver' button (next to 'FAQ') and click the 'UB400(UN)_V1_Windows' link to download the driver which is 418MB.

After the file downloads, extract it; there is a copy of the instruction manual in the Windows/Manual sub-folder called 'Installation Guide (Windows XP&7)'.

To install the driver run setup.exe in the Windows sub-folder and during installation when you are presented with 3 options set 'Discovery mode' to 'Discovery ON', leave 'SCMS-T' as 'Disabled' and change 'Device Type' as required (e.g., PC/Desktop). After successful installation, restart the computer; once my computer started up again Windows installed additional drivers from Windows update (but failed to install the PAN driver). Now, using the 'CSR Bluetooth' icon (which replaces the built-in Windows version) the Surface ergonomic keyboard showed up immediately when I selected 'Add Bluetooth Device->Keyboard/Mouse' (right-click on the icon). I paired the keyboard and it has worked with no problems so far.

Ethernet connection randomly disconnects

I recently built a new computer which features an ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E motherboard and as typical of most motherboards it has a built-in Ethernet connection, allowing me to get online simply by plugging a cable from my router to the motherboard's Ethernet port. What I found, however, was randomly the Ethernet connection would disconnect and then almost immediately reconnect. It would do this frequently and then go for a period where it would stay connected before once again going into a cycle of disconnecting and reconnecting.

Since the motherboard was new I did not think it was the cause of the fault although it did cross my mind I could have been sent a bad board. The Ethernet connection is handled by an Intel I219-V controller and I ran an Intel test utility to confirm that the hardware was not faulty. I made sure the driver was up-to-date yet still the Ethernet port kept giving up randomly.

Looking online I investigated the I219-V controller and found people had the same issue with suggestions including to disable 'Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power' under the Power Management tab of the properties for the 'Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V in the device manager in Windows. This advice unfortunately did not help with my issue.

Before revealing the fix I must mention that there is a related error which can be found by opening the Event Viewer and navigating to Windows Logs->System. At a similar time to when the Ethernet port disconnects you will see a warning from source 'e1dexpress' and the warning detail says:

The description for Event ID 27 from source e1dexpress cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (7) I219-V

The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table

You can clearly see the warning is related to the Ethernet connection as for one thing the detail mentions the Intel controller but the actual warning information cannot be displayed. Just Googling 'e1dexpress', however, will giving plenty of results with useful information in solving the Ethernet stability problem.

There was one thing I had not tried that had been suggested but I had ignored because it had not been a problem on my old computer and that was to change the Ethernet cable that connects my router to my PC. After changing the cable I have not had the Ethernet connection randomly disconnect (it now only disconnects when the PC goes to sleep). So had I tried the obvious - change the cable - I could have saved a lot of time but it's a good reminder to always do the simple tests first.

Unable to select menus; menus appear that shouldn't; difficulty starting Windows

I had been given a Compaq CQ58 laptop to fix which had been taken to a repair shop but supposedly couldn't be mended because of a motherboard problem. The laptop had had liquid spilt on it and the Ctrl key from the keyboard was missing. The computer turned on no problem but a startup menu always appeared, offering a number of options, such as to continue with startup, enter BIOS, etc. This suggested to me that the computer was unable to boot from the hard drive so I tried a Linux CD but that caused many errors as it tried to boot.

With the Linux CD removed I tried again to boot Windows from the BIOS menu and found that the 'Choose Operating System' screen would show very briefly before returning to the startup menu; sometimes there would be a loud bleeping sound so I had to shut down the computer. I tried the built-in diagnostics which did not report any errors. So next I used the built-in restore option to put Windows back to how it was in case that was the problem, but at every restart during installation the startup menu would show up. I found that if I held the Enter key at the startup menu I was able to continue with the installation as well as start Windows when it had installed.

I came to the conclusion that the keyboard was faulty and that the Esc key was always on. The Esc key, I reasoned, was causing the startup menu to show every time the computer was started as well as causing the other problems. I had noticed that while in the BIOS settings I was unable to go back a page, which was usually done with the Esc key.

To determine if I was right or not I removed the laptop's internal keyboard, connected a wired USB keyboard to the laptop and then powered on. No startup menu appeared and Windows started as normal; the computer responded correctly to the USB keyboard. I ordered a new keyboard from ebay, costing about £10, installed the keyboard which resulted in the computer now working correctly.

Windows installation problems

Another example was when trying to install Windows 7 on a desktop PC; it would install fine until it got to the 'Completing installation' stage which is when it froze. I waited an hour and the computer was still stuck at the same point, so I had to shut down by holding the power button. From searching online I found many people had the same problem but there were numerous causes for the freezing. However, one of the suggestions worked, and that was to disable the on-board devices (LAN, audio, etc. but USB was fine to be left enabled which was just as well as the computer had no PS/2 ports) using the BIOS set-up facility (most commonly accessed by pressing the 'Del' key when the computer first starts up). The installation then went without a hitch and when I next restarted the computer I retuned to the BIOS set-up utility and re-enabled just one of the on-board devices. After Windows had loaded I then installed the driver, restarted and enabled another on-board device, and installed the driver and repeated those actions until all on-board devices were working. The reason for doing it one at a time was in case Windows had a problem with one of the on-board devices I would know it would be the most recent one I had enabled.

Yellow tint on text in Windows when using 4K at 60Hz

I had recently bought a 4K TV, a Samsung UE40MU6120, which I found to give a very clear image when using my Xbox One X and PC (which has a GTX 1060 6GB) but when I realised that my PC was only outputting 30Hz to my TV I switched it to 60Hz which made Windows seem much more responsive. However, I started to see a yellow tint on text under certain conditions such as when viewing web pages but the issue was still present even when using a different browser and even after updating the graphics card and restarting the computer. I could even go to the 'Adjust ClearType text' setting and see yellowing of the text and turning off ClearType text helped somewhat. Some time later I came across a web page that gave me the solution:

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/777438/geforce-900-series/gtx-980-and-samsung-4k-tv-hu8550-60hz-works-but-not-getting-4-4-4-full-rgb-output/2/

The link above is page 2 but on that page is a link to a test image which you can click here:

http://cdn.avsforum.com/b/b4/b4a44044_vbattach208609.png

If any of the text is difficult to read in the image linked above with your PC set to 60Hz and fine to read at 30Hz then you are having the same problem that I had and it shows that the problem is more than just adding yellow to black and white text.

The fix, at least for my TV, is to have the PC HDMI disconnected from the TV and then in the TV settings go to General->External Device Manager and enable 'HDMI UHD Color' for the HDMI number for your PC which will turn on 4:4:4 chroma subsampling for that HDMI port. Now, even with the PC outputting at 60Hz and with ClearType on you shouldn't see any yellowing of text and the linked above image should be clear for all the text. Note that your graphics card must support HDMI 2.0 and you need to use a HDMI 2.0 rated cable to be able to get 4K at 60Hz without any colour issues. Also, when using a Samsung TV you may need to edit the HDMI input and set its type to 'PC'.