Washington - A Windows computer doesn't always do what you expect it to. Sometimes the "shut down" command doesn't shut down the computer, for instance. Sometimes your mouse might not act the way it should. and other times your PC slows down for no apparent reason.
How can you handle such glitches? Read on for some answers.
Q: My Windows XP PC refuses to shut down. It was shutting down fine a few days ago. Now when I click Shut Down, nothing happens. Why is this?
A: When something stops working that used to work fine, always look first at what has changed in the interim. Have you installed any new programs? Added any new hardware? Surfed any new Web sites? The solution can likely be found in the answers to those questions.
Lots of drivers and background programs have to be shut down before Windows itself will shut down. When one or more of these programs freezes or gets stuck, then Windows itself will often seem not to respond to your shut down command. That shoudn't happen, but it does. If you have installed new software or hardware, you probably have new drivers or processes running that you didn't before. Undo your changes, one at a time, and see whether the problem goes away.
If you have visited any new Web sites or responded to unfamiliar e- mail recently, make sure that your computer is free of spyware or malware. Spyware often interferes with the normal operation of computers - especially shutdown. Download and run one of the free spyware removal programs - Windows Defender or Ad-Aware, for example.
Q: My mouse has started acting erratically. It moves on its own either to the lower left or the upper right of the screen. I can't control it. do you have any suggestions?
A: There are a few things that can cause erratic mouse behaviour. First, if you are using an optical mouse, swap the battery. A dead or dying battery could be the culprit. If you are using an older mouse with a roller ball on the underside, turn the mouse over, remove the ball, and clean any lint or dust from the mouse. Normally removing the ball is easy: Just twist the plastic cover that retains the ball, and it should drop right out.
Second, be sure that you do not have another input device attached to your computer that may be causing the problem. A drawing tablet with the pen left on the drawing surface, for instance, can cause the mouse cursor to move in what appears to be a random fashion.
Finally, rely on the process of elimination: find yourself another mouse or input device, remove the existing one, and replace with the new to see if that one works as it should. If so, you may simply have a mouse that has gone bad.
Q: Lately, my Windows computer slows to a crawl. I'm not sure why. It's not exactly frozen, but everything takes a very long time. Switching from one window to another can take several minutes. How can I diagnose the problem?
A: first, make sure your PC has not become infected with spyware. Run Windows Defender and Ad-Aware to scan your system thoroughly.
If that doesn't work, find out what program or process is hogging your system resources. To do this, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to bring up the Task Manager. From the Task Manager, Select the Process tab. There, you'll see a list of programs and processes that are currently running on your Windows computer.
the list of processes can be sorted by clicking on the column heading according to which you would like to sort. For instqance, to sort the list of active processes by CPU, click the CPU column heading. You want to do this in order to determine which process is consuming the most CPU cycles - and thus slowing down your computer.
Once you have sorted by CPU, you'll probably notice a process named System Idle Process at the top of the list. You can ignore this. Anything below that, however, that has a high number is probably responsible for the slowdown you experience.
Try to identify the program to which the process belongs simply by reading the name. If you can't figure it out, type the name into an internet browser, and search for it on the Web. The application to which it belongs will probably be identified quickly. You can kill the process by right clicking its name in the Process tab, and selecting End Process from the resulting pop-up menu. Once you have identified.
Once you have identified the program that is consuming all of your CPU cycles, uninstall it. That should solve your problem.
Have a computer question? Send it to the Computer Helper at jayd@csi.com
