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Help this novice mac user help his ultra-novice PC friends


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:wave: I got my mac two years ago. Not to sound like a switch ad, but it runs super-smooth. Infrequent crashes are always minor, no hd problems, all external devices always work. I have a couple of friends who use PC's, and occasionally I get tech questions. I usually just say "macs are different, sorry I can't help." [b]What is the best PC FAQ site?[/b] One PC friend uses a Compaq Presario that is not starting up right now. He asked me to take a look at it today. He said "okay, watch what happens when I try to restart," and he proceeded to unplug his computer from the wall. Whoa- is there a last resort before that one? Many maccers don't know that you have to hold down the start button for a few seconds, is it the same for PC's? And what the heck is "Safe Mode?" Maybe just point me to a FAQ site. thanks
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The usual thing when there's a problem in the Windoze world is to just reinstall the damn OS. I know, in the Mac world that's appalling, but that's what usually happens. To restart though, you do a ctrl-alt-delete..if that doesn't work, hit the reset button on the case. And not using Norton's Disk Doctor is like having a death wish.
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I just got off the phone with the guy. I asked him to try holding down the start button for 5 seconds. As he did it he said "it won't work... I tried it... oh wait... IT WORKED!" He thinks I'm a genius now, so I'm sure to get more questions. :rolleyes: :D I'll still be needing that PC help/faq site, if anyone knows a good one.
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I have found a few helpful sites, like [url=http://www.pcguide.com/topic.html]pcguide[/url] . I even found some decent info at [url=http://support.microsoft.com/servicedesks/webcasts/wc020101/WCT020101.asp]support.microsoft.com (webcast transcriptions)[/url] . Most microsoft help that I found was not that helpful, and the Compaq site was not well organized at all. To be fair, there are mac help sites that are just as confusing, but I did find some good mac sites a while back through a thread here at mp. Thanks Audiobotica, and Ultravibe.
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posted by BrakkaJudd(say it like one word) [quote] And what the heck is "Safe Mode?" [/quote]I don't think anyone answered this question yet, did they? so please allow me. Safe mode is a special mode that boots your computer with minimal drivers. I just had to use it the other day. I installed a new video card and it's drivers and it crashed the computer bigtime. I don't what the hell happened but the computer would get to the command line-Loading Windows and freeze so I went into Safe Mode. To do this right after the computer starts up hold down the CTRL key and you will be given several options one of which is to boot in Safe Mode. So I went in and uninstalled the drivers and changed a few other settings, hardware acceleration or something and rebooted. Then I reinstalled the drivers manually and everything worked fine. I also used Safe Mode once to remove a virus that couldn't be deleted normally because it was in use by the OS. So Safe Mode is very important because many times when you're computer won't boot normally it will boot in Safe Mode and you can go in and make repairs to get it to boot normally.
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