troubleshooting

Major, minor iPhone upgrade problems and how to fix them

A number of iPhone Atlas readers, and numerous more on Apple's Discussion boards, have reported a bevy of problems--some large, some small--after upgrading to iPhone OS 3.0 or the iPhone 3G S. The following two procedures work to solve a number of the reported problems:

Reset your iPhone by holding down the sleep and home buttons until the Apple logo appears. Restore your iPhone: In iTunes, click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos, and other data on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, … Read more

Restore a lost administrator account in Vista

A reader named Eric found himself locked out of his Vista administrator accounts:

"Somehow, my account and my son's accounts were downgraded to standard user on his new computer using Vista Home 32-bit. I cannot seem to log in to make any changes to the accounts now. It prompts me to enter a password but no password box is available to type it in. How can I log in to change my account back to administrator?"

In a post last year, I described how to enable Vista's hidden administrator account and password-protect XP's default administrator … Read more

In laymen's terms

The Ultimate Troubleshooter aims to help computer users detect and avoid the problems that plague their system. By acting as a coach and healer, this program wants to do it all. Despite strict trial limitations, we found it delivered.

Ultimate Troubleshooter's interface is a little crowded, with the majority of the display taken up by a screen outlining the programs and whether they are a threat. Around this box are several smaller ones, showcasing performance, diagnosing problems, and giving solutions. The main screen can be toggled between different tabs showing the user Tasks, Services, and Startups. Once a user … Read more

Keep Windows XP secure and trouble-free

Windows XP users can't get no respect. A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft announced that it would no longer offer free support for XP, apart from critical security patches. XP machines are much more likely than Vista systems to be infected with a virus, according to a recent Microsoft Security Intelligence Report.

And dis of disses, Microsoft delayed patching the AutoRun glitch in XP (and Windows Server 2003) until last February, more than six months after the same hole was plugged in Vista and Server 2008.

But just because Microsoft believes XP has outlived its usefulness doesn't mean … Read more

Telltale signs of a computer virus infection

PCs do the darnedest things. When a program crashes, your system slows down, or a file or program refuses to open, it's probably due to a problem with an application or device. But not always. Computer viruses and worms will cause your PC to exhibit many of the same symptoms as a failed or failing component or program.

Here are some of the primary indicators that your system is infected:

• Your system slows to a crawl for no apparent reason. • The machine crashes, with or without an automatic restart. • Error messages pop up repeatedly. • Programs or files open slowly … Read more

No easy way to diagnose a bad memory module

The other day, my friend Howard asked me about an error message that appeared whenever he tried to open Internet Explorer on his aging Windows XP machine. After a little basic long-distance troubleshooting (Howard lives on the other side of the country), we determined that it wasn't a problem with his network connection.

Howard isn't very tech-savvy, unfortunately. (He's a handicapping wiz, though, which explains why he needed to get back online--he had a longshot lined up at Gulfstream.) My brother Larry, who lives in the same town as Howard, restored his Web access by logging him … Read more

Troubleshooting iPhone keyboard lags

Several iPhone users are experiencing visual feedback lags when attempting to type messages on their iPhones. Symptoms include key animations not activating when keys are touched. The issue does not appear to be for a specific letter or area of the keyboard and is generally considered intermittent, though many users report a consistent problem while typing in the SMS application.

Apple Support Discussions user Delapidator relays their experience with this issue:

"On the iPhone keyboard. You know when you touch a key on the keyboard and as you touch the letter it pops up but larger? Well, occasionally when … Read more

Troubleshoot notebook hardware disasters

On Saturday afternoon, my Hewlett-Packard notebook computer was working fine. On Sunday morning, the machine wouldn't start. The power would blink on and go off just as quickly.

If I held the power button in the on position, I could keep the power indicator and other of the machine's LEDs lit, but nothing would happen: no power-on self-test, no BIOS message, and definitely no Windows.

My first thought was that it was a power glitch. I unplugged the machine and tried starting it on battery power, but no go. I removed the battery and tried using just AC … Read more

Ultimate fix for a Firefox update failure

Sometimes, it pays to go with your first instinct.

For the last couple of weeks, every time I opened the Firefox browser on my PC, the program attempted to update but failed. I didn't sweat the error message at first, thinking that it was likely a widespread problem that the good folks at Mozilla would address soon enough. And besides, version 3.0.4 opened right after I closed the error message, and everything appeared to be working normally.

I kept, however, getting that same error message every time Firefox loaded. It struck me that one of the things … Read more