Technology

If your computer keeps rebooting then you will need to look at few things.  The first thing you should look at is, does your machine have a virus.

Viruses can shutdown a pc or make it reboot.  If you can get into regular windows mode then you can run a program called malwarebytes.

The Problem Could Be A Virus!

Which can be downloaded from malwarebytes.org.  If you are still having the same problems, then try windows safe mode by pressing the f8 key at startup.

Run malwarebytes in full mode and let it run until it is finished.  Once done, click show next results and clear out any found malware.

Then reboot your pc and see if the problem still happens.  If a virus was found then you will want to make sure you have some sort of virus protection loaded on your machine.

There are many free antivirus programs out there now.  You can download something like AVG or Microsoft security essentials.  If the problem was a virus then just make sure you update and run your virus protection at least every month.  If the problem keeps happening, start looking at other things.

Norton Antivirus can help keep everything free from viruses.  I use it personally on all my pc’s!

Are You Loading Too Much Software!

Now if you loaded any software on your computer problems start a couple of days after, then you may have the culprit.  Unload the newly installed software and see if the problem goes away.

Also, make sure you clean out your machine with a can of air.  Newer processors, if the heat sink gets a layer of dust on it it will need to be blown away.  This goes for laptops also.  If you keep having the same issue, start checking other things.

Use a can of air and perform quick short bursts around the fan of the laptop.  Dust usually starts to accumulate around one year after a computer is bought.  It could be sooner though depending on your environment.

Other things are hardware issues.  Things like memory, video cards and power supplies can all go bad.  The easiest way to find a hardware issue is to eliminate things one by one to find the issue.  You can also try to scan your memory to see if it’s bad.

Or if you just installed new hardware then that could be causing the problem and why the issue keeps persisting.  Make sure you take the newly installed hardware out and test the problem again.

Hardware drivers can also cause major problems.  For this you will need to go into the windows device manager and update your drivers.  If the pc still has the same issues, follow the plan below.

Try and troubleshoot the problem by following a plan.

1. Check for malware.
2. Unload any newly installed hardware.
3. Unload any newly installed software.
4. Update device drivers.
5. Check the computers hardware.

Following a plan is your best course of action with reboot problems.  Please, always make sure you keep some sort of anti virus protection on your machine.

Here is a good video with Mark Russinovich about Windows troubleshooting.

Sometimes windows xp has an error where remote desktop will not work.  You will receive various error messages stating than you cannot connect via mstsc

Error message: the terminal services activex control (mstscax.dll) does not match the version of the client shell

Fix #1.  You may need to register the mstscax.dll.  You can read how to from this KB article.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928055/en-us

You will need to go into the system 32 folder and check if mstsc.exe and mstscax.dll are of the same version.

The other option is, replacing the version of RDP with version 7.0.  I had one person at work where we received the above error message and could not remote into Epicor vantage.  The fix was downloading the Remote Desktop Connection 7.0 client update, located below.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyId=72158b4e-b527-45e4-af24-d02938a95683&displaylang=en

If you have Rockwell software and use the network licensing option then you may be having some issues.  There are two ways to borrow a license from Rockwell.  There is the borrow option and the hosting option.

When releasing the license (year license) from a machine you have to un-host the license rather than un-borrow.

It’s important to note that, there are two ways to get a license.  Borrow (30 days) or host (1 year).

All 30 day license holders should click the borrow license option, wait for the license’s to load and then select their files

Year license holders should choose re-host activations, enter the activation information and download the license.

Rockwell does use the host id’s to identify computers.  For the year licensing scheme you have to work with Rockwell and their servers.  They see everything from their server.  When someone Re-hosts and activates a license for a year it is activated through their server.  If we have any problems with the year licensing, you need to call Rockwell.

Are you looking to speed up your pc and help your computer?  In this Regservo review I tell you why you just may need a registry cleaner.  But first let’s cover some things I do first when I see a slow pc.  I see many computers daily which are slow and sluggish.

There are many things you can do to a windows computer to keep it running in top shape.  One of the first things I almost always do is perform a malware scan.  Especially if the computer just does not seem to be acting right.  What I usually do is perform a scan with malwarebytes.  I really have not found anything comparable as of yet for free that will help your computer.

Clean your computer first, a computer fix

I let malwarebytes do its job and see what it finds.  Next I may download autoruns (a tool from Tech Net) which will help me diagnose start up issues.  When using autoruns I can see if there are programs which need to be uninstalled also.  Autoruns allows me to see what is causing slow start-up issues.  But, be careful, taking out too many things can harm your computer.

Now comes the registry cleaner software to fix your pc!

At this point, I may move on to the registry.  Now this is a very gray area for some.  Some people do not believe the registry should be cleaned or ever touched.  In my career over the last 22 years I know different.

You see, the registry is a database of information loaded into windows.  When Windows accesses files it need to go through the registry.  If you have loaded and then unloaded many programs overtime, Windows will not get rid of every piece of the program.

It will leave many things in the registry.  When Windows goes to access the registry, you then have a lot of junk files loaded in it slowing down windows.  This is where a program like Regservo comes in and helps your computer.

A word of caution:  Using a registry cleaner can make your computer inoperable if used improperly.  This is a fair warning.  So, make sure you read and directions that come with any program you use.  You have to be careful here it could clear your computer.

Regservo is a great program which allows you to really get in and clean up the registry.  It allows you to changes the settings for what you want to scan.  Has an ignore list you can ignore keys in the registry if you so desire.  You can even manage your scan schedule for when it’s most convenient for you.

The program also keeps backups in case something goes wrong.  This is a good option because with registry cleaners things can and do go wrong.

Regservo is a good registry cleaner with my highest recommendation.  Please just be careful using a registry cleaner.  This program will repair your pc but the least that can happen is a program will not run after use and the worst that can happen is you cannot start up your operating system.

Just please be careful when using any registry cleaner program.