The Computer Experience Continues

"Computer chips" courtesy of PDPhoto.org /public domain

My knowledge and experience continue to grow. It is slow and frustrating at times, but recovering from the computer crash is expanding my understanding of hardware, software, drivers, apps and more. I even risked an exploration into the inside of the computer. Once a person figures out how to get into the case, without inadvertently loosening a device, it becomes a surreal world of wires, boards, cards, chips and fans. Luckily, Dell provided a diagram and instructions for my machine which I downloaded on my laptop.   

So why take the chance. In the last article, I mentioned that after taking my computer to a service center after the first crash, I had only two speakers working. My surround sound was useless. This last crash resulted in the speakers suddenly disappearing completely. They worked for awhile and then I heard a pop and nothing. The Windows device manager could not find a driver. Running the troubleshooter was little help. It was almost the same as talking to a service tech. Check to make sure speakers are plugged in (duh). Make sure drivers are enabled in device manager, improving but not the help I needed.  

I decided to run the Direct X diagnostic tool. The tool is not obvious, and you must hit start, find run in your menu and type in dxdiag to access it. It suggested removing and reinstalling my sound card. H-m-m, now this is something to try. Actually, it wasn’t as difficult as I first thought. However, that was not the problem. I did double-check the device manager page and the drivers. Wait, I should check to make sure the speakers are plugged in. I gave up hope of trying to retrieve my sound.    

During the chaos of trying to upgrade to Windows 7, Internet Explorer was giving problems. The tech suggested downloading Firefox. This was a blessing in disguise. One day Mozilla Firefox suggested their site that checks plug-ins. It found that my Java program was obsolete and created an unstable platform.  What the heck is a Java program? It is basically a programming language and computer platform that is used for many applications and also the Internet.

Java offers a free upgrade. However, they suggest uninstalling the old Java before installing the update. This would delete the original program permanently. Making it nearly impossible to find, and I saved everything to an external hard drive (HDD). I had nothing to lose and went for it.   

I now have sound and more. The 5.1 surround sound with all the extras has returned. With the upgrades and changes, my XP is performing well and I notice better performance and extras that I never had before the crash. However, my next challenge is to get my DVD player to play movies and load games. It does the first install game disc fine, the second freezes the computer. This may take some time. :-(