18 replies to this topic

[saeros]

Hey people, I currently work at a Geek Squad precinct and see a lot of weird problems which will not be covered by any certification. Here's some tips which, I think, are very useful

1. Symantec products are a royal pain, which is why they made a program called "SymNRT" (short for Symantec Norton Removal Tool). It is available on their website and completely removes all traces of any symantec product from a client computer. Learn to use it, as Symantec installation errors are extremely common and very had to diagnose.

2. There is a cleaning utility called CCleaner which is free and very powerful. It comes with a file cleaner, a registry clean&repair and a, uninstall menu cleaning option. It's great for removing pesky programs that refuse to get out of the uninstall menu.

3. If your windows xp refuses to boot, try the Last Known Good Configuration, If that doesn't work, boot into the recovery console and try fixboot, fixmbr and chkdsk /r.

4. Hijackthis is an amazing program to use when a customers' browser is being redirected and, well, hijacked. It works wonders when you use it woth ad-aware and spybot SD.

5. Network connection problem? Can't get online? Try the following:
Open a command prompt windows and pass these commands, or even make a batch file of them:
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
netsh
int
ip
reset resetlog.txt
ctrl+c

You can diagnose many connection errors depending on the messages you get while doing the above procedure and, usually, it's going to resolve the error .

[Quinntessential]

Good tips you have there no.1 I will definitely use as I am trying to remove a copy of Norton Antivirus at the moment.

Tip no.3 is covered in the A+ certificate and tip no.5 is covered in the Network+ certificate in case you wanted to know.

[James]

These are great tips. I am pinning this thread to top. Please feel free to expand on these in future.

[aucado54]

Fantastic stuff. Great to have you posting your help.  Once again i am totally impressed with not only the quantity but the quality of help and suppor available in these pages.  Please continue to share with us!

[nati4JC]

Thanks for the good tips

[inite32]

I love the information that you have passed on to those of us, who have come across alot of the problems and have chosen to find remedies, after reading what you have written, I am relieved that the decisions I have made are conformed by someone more experienced in such problems that arise when it comes to the computer, keep up the GREAT WORK  

[Stormy]

A lot of utilize most of that. I swear by #4 and most of #5, I don't always do things netstat but I always tend to do things using /all - such as ipconfig /all to get all settings such as gateway, to see if the user is having DNS, DHCP servers.

This also helps us determine if the isp is having issues, so that we can be prepared with how to handle the situation.

[techpro]

These are really nice real world tips. We could do with some more!!

[Santiago]

I enjoyed these tips, thanks.

[onaquest]

Thanks for the info! Excellent tips!

[totee]

great tips. thanks

[sghariyal]

Thanks a lot buddy. really helpful stuff. keep sharing.

[DrthTater]

Thanks for the tips. I use #5 quite often, but I have a question about #3.

Recovery scares the crap out of me. Would any of the process destroy data for windows? We had a client's computer that wouldn't boot, and no one wanted to run the recovery console to get to the section to use fixmbr, or anything like that.

[ivone_cevallos]

Thanks for the tips

[onefixer]

Thanks for tip #1 it helped

[jace5869]

Network issues? Windows Update problems? Need to re-registry services or re-install critical windows components?
Dial-A-Fix
5 *'s

[I eat glue]

Thanks for the real world tips

[smsoct2756]

Would try to stay away from third party software if possible. Use it unistall it.  Restore to an earlier date checkpoint.

[StelaR]

Great tips really...we freshers need such tips...keep it up...