[Sussex] Wotcha List..... and other problems....

[John Crowhurst]

On Mon, April 13, 2009 14:40, Desmond Armstrong wrote:
> Slow computer:
> I am just repairing a computer which was very slow and I found that one
> of the plastic clips which holds the heatsink on was broken. The result
> - the processor overheats and finally shuts down. Fortunately the
> processor is not damaged on this occasion. The last time I saw this
> problem the processor was damaged so it meant a new processor.
> Fortunately I keep the plastic brackets off the dead M/Bs, also I note
> that they are available second hand on the internet.

Usually its the fan that ceases on the heatsink that causes most people's
problems or the customer is a heavy smoker and has choked the fan and
heatsink with tar. In that case, its usually the motherboard that fails
with a slow death.

> So, absolutely nothing is beyond suspicion.
>
> Belarc, I find, is the most useful program as it reveals all the license
> numbers including those of Microsoft O/S etc.
>
> I did once run this on somebody's machine and the license was not the
> one on the Microsoft Tax sticker, I guess they mixed up the hard disks
> and the stickers. A simple Microsoft restore does correct such problem.

I've found a lot of corporate copies installed on home machines in this
town, where some cowboy has been too lazy to use an XP home CD, and
installed XP Pro corp.

-- 
John Crowhurst
John's Computer Support