Eugene's observations

If you are a long way from the exchange and want to make the most of what you get, here are two top tips:

1. Connect your router to the master socket - the one closest to the point where your phone line enters the property. Now use a wired connection (Ethernet if you can position the wire safely or mains electrical circuit with a couple of adapters otherwise) to transport the signal to your computer(s).

2. So small and oft forgotten, microfilters account for many a poor broadband signal. Generally speaking, skip the tiny devices that plug right into the socket and use either one built in to the socket itself, or one with a little tail. It is worth spending a little more to get a quality components. Better ones will contain something like

   • 1 Spark Gap
   • 4 Ferrite cores
   • 5 Diodes
   • 5 Capacitors
   • 7 Resistors
   • 2 Transistors

   Cheap devices are smaller as they may contain only

   • 1 Ferrite core (2 coils)
   • 1 Diode
   • 2 Capacitors
   • 2 Resistors

   and can not do a decent job of filtering the high frequency broadband from the lower frequency analogue voice signals. If your phone line sounds anything other than crystal clear, disconnect all other devices connected to the phone line and see if the problem remains. If it does, replace the microfilter with one costing no less than £5.

Sometimes it is quicker to reinstall Windows than identify and resolve all faults. With Vista and later this has to be done by booting off the hard disk but in XP is can be done from the CD. However, if Windows is so corrupted that the repair option is not offered some small adjustments can make it return - although the omens for a successful repair are not good.

Boot to Recovery Console and then
copy {ODD}:\i386\ntldr C:\
copy {ODD}:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\
attrib -H -R -S C:\boot.ini
del C:\boot.ini
BootCfg /Rebuild

Now remove all hardware not essential for a boot.
Next time you boot off the CD you should have a repair option.

Before you launch into a repair of Windows XP make sure that service packs later than the level on the installation medium are removed, and that Internet Explorer is not at a later version than on the CD. Details at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917964/

There is one other cause of repair failure that can be easily fixed: a corrupted registry hive. In this case just follow the instructions at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545/en-us

I have recently fixed two PCs where the owner has installed huge numbers of (mainly free) programs. In itself this is not a problem, but the more programs that are installed the greater the chance of one unintentionally messing with another - either when they are installed or as a result of them both residing in memory. Moreover, rectifying unrelated faults often takes more time, and therefore cost, as not only is more testing than usual at the end of a repair required, but there is a greater propensity for configuration changes that adversely affect a program.

The more programs that are installed in memory the slower the PC performs generally as they all compete for a slice of the limited memory resource. Not only that but as increased paging is required, there is a greater risk that program faults will develop when shutting down a computer that is completing maintenance operations in the background.

In general, but especially in the above cases, I recommend having CPU and disk activity meters permanently visible on the desktop. These are freely available, for example as gadgets from Microsoft or Google

This will enable you to postpone significant events (e.g. program (un)installation, shutting down the computer, calling for support when something is not working as expected) until the PC is quiesced - hence, limiting the likelihood of interrupting an important modification to the system state.

In much the same vein, it is good to let the system finish its start up procedures as much as possible before beginning work. So start the computer 5 minutes before you start work and shut down 5 minutes after you close the last program to reduce the risk of interrupting important background tasks.

Unless you are loading the same manufacturer's code when you renew your annual subscription, you must remove the old antivirus product and restart the computer before installing the new one.

A handy pointer to uninstallation tools for each main manufacturer is at:

http://support.kaspersky.com/faq/?qid=208280135