Can somebody help?

[Dave Potter]

Leila -

Wiz answered most of your questions, and he's "da man" on those kinds of things, pretty much.

I installed the WP updates last night after shutting down all programs. There were 3 service pack installations. I'll find out today if it helps.

Hope you notice some improvements.

How can I change the 'automatic' updates from doing their thing in the early morning, when I boot up.

Click Start/Control Panel/Automatic Updates to change when and how Windows Updates occur. I've set mine to let me know when updates are available, but not to do anything else unless I tell it to. That way, if it's not a good time to do it, I can do it later.

It seems when its not updating, and I push the button on my tower to boot up, it makes a loud start up swishing noise. But other times it doesn't make the noise, but just boots up. Does that mean it was in the middle of an update?

No, the presence or absence of an ongoing update process wouldn't have any effect on system noises. The only "swishing" kind of noise I can think of that should come from inside a PC would be cooling fans changing speed in response to the motherboard temperature sensors, if yours is set up to do that. Mine does that all the time. But if that's what's taking place, you'd have been hearing that all along.

Also, in the taskbar sometimes there's another 'update' for Active X but doesn't identify itself as a 'Windows' update so I've hesitated to install it.

Wiz spoke to that, but I'd just add that personally, I'm careful of ActiveX stuff - it's one way hackers try to get into your business. I'd want to know what it was and if I even need it, prior to permitting it to install.

Just for info, Spybot Search and Destroy (Free) in advanced mode can search your computer for all installed ActiveX controls (and a host of other useful stuff), list, and identify them, and you can delete any you don't want.

[Wiz Feinberg]

I forgot to address the strange sound at bootup that Leila mentioned.

Startup sound changes are usually related to fan bearing issues, or hard drive bearings wearing out. Your first action to t-shoot this would be to power off the computer, unplug it, open the right side of the case, get a vacuum cleaner with a snout and remove all of the dust bunnies that can be found living inside the case, the fan blades and the heatsinks. Give extra attention to the power supply vent slots, on the inside and outside and slide the snout up the front panel, at the bottom, as a lot of dust is drawn in there. When there is no more dust to be seen plug the power cord back in and start up the computer. Listen carefully for any unusual sounds and try to locate the source with the cover off. If a fan seems to be making the noise that indicates imminent failure of the bearings. Fans can be replaced if they are simply screwed onto to the case, or the CPU or video card heatsinks, but if it is the power supply fan you had better get the power supply replaced entirely.

If the sounds you hear are coming from the hard drive either take the computer to a repair shop or have a technician visit your house. A failing hard drive can stop spinning at any time. Heat buildup causes the bearing to dry out and eventually seize. If they are making noise now you may have just enough time to have the hard drive cloned onto a new one, before it fails entirely. Modern hard drives are usually only warrantied for two years, whereas in the past five years was typical.

By keeping dust and hair out of the vent slots, heatsinks and fan blades you can keep your computer alive a lot longer than would otherwise be the case.

[Dave Potter]

A failing hard drive can stop spinning at any time... Modern hard drives are usually only warrantied for two years, whereas in the past five years was typical.

Funny you should bring that up.

I ran the free HD Tach hard drive benchmark/diagnostic utility recently, and it warned me my 3 older internal HDs were not up to snuff. I've already bought and installed 3 320Gb SATA drives to replace them, but the old ones still worked, and contained a lot of personal data. Couldn't just toss 'em.

I spent last evening cutting each of them in half with a metal-cutting bandsaw.

Oh, and every couple months or so, I remove the side panel on my computer case and take the whole deal down to my shop and blow it out with shop air.

[J Hill]

Wiz and Dave,

Okay, tomorrow I'll keep checking for those updates. I actually do notice a little difference in the way my WP program is acting. When I have 3 docs open I have more problems. I'm trying to work with just one open but that's problematic when I need references in other the documents.

My computer's new so it prolly doesn't have much dust yet. The swishing on boot-up when I push the button... my salesman said when I bought it that's normal on boot-up so I just worry when it doesn't have that sound. I just wonder why not.

Again, thanks and I'll check for those updates tomorrow. I'll be back.