Welcome to HomeCinemaHeaven.4t.com!

This Website is designed to help people such as yourself with the vast world of computing.

Common Problems

1. When I turn my computer on it makes a beeping sound, but nothing appears on screen. Solution: If the machine is not covered by any warranties, unplug from the mains and remove the case via the screws at the back of the computer. Once the case is free, lift it off carefully and check all cables, PCI cards and memory modules are seated firmly in their sockets. If the computer is covered by warranty, call the manufacturer's customer careline.

2. My computer has recently begun to run extremely slowly, takes great pleasure in crashing regularly and the hard disk is always grinding away at the simplest of tasks. Solution: Firstly, see if your hard disk is fragmented. In Windows 95/98/200/Me go to Start, click on Programs, Accessories, then System Tools, then click on Disk Defragmenter. Select the drive where Windows is installed (Usually C:) and click 'OK'. Then click 'Start' in the defragmenter window. This may take several hours depending on the size and condition of your disks. In Windows XP, click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then Disk Defragmenter. Select Drive C: and click 'Defragment'. If the computer still runs slowly, you can run ScanDisk in Windows 95/98/2000/Me. Do this by clicking on Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools and then ScanDisk. Select C: and select the Thorough option. This may take up to one hour. If the computer is still slow, it may benefit from more memory. See the table below for the recommended amounts of memory for each version of Windows.

Version           Minimum RAM     Recommended RAM

Windows 95          4MB                      16MB                                 

Windows 98         16MB                     80MB

Windows 2000     32MB                     128MB

Windows ME       64MB                     192MB

Windows NT4.0  64MB                     192MB

Windows XP       128MB                   256MB

A good place to buy cheap memory is Cruical.com. Ensure United Kingdom is selected in the Choose Your Country box at the the top left, and follow the on-screen instructions.

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3. The icons on my desktop, and the Start bar at the bottom of my screen are too large / too small for my preference. Solution: Right-click on a blank area of the desktop and, from the drop down list, select 'Properties'. Click on the 'Settings' tab, and locate the slider for Screen Resolution. If the icons appear too small, move in one segment to the left, and if they appear too large move it to the right. If the screen fails to reappear, wait 15 seconds and the settings will be restored.

4. My mouse is becoming harder to move, and it is now easier to use keys to navigate Windows than my mouse. The mouse movement is very erratic and lumpy. Solution: This is a classic case of dirty mouse rollers. Remove the mouse ball by rotating the disc in the way the arrows on the underside of the mouse indicate, remove the ball entirely and clean the rollers on which the ball rubs with your fingernail, removing the dirt that has accumulated around the rollers. Replace the ballm and the disc over it, rotating the disc the opposite way than the rotation that removed it. If you can't be bothered with all of this, you should buy an optical mouse as these do not suffer from this problem.