By Stephen Bucaro

When your computer does not boot, first thing a technician must ask is; what do you mean by "it won't boot"? Many times problem is simply that user doesn't have their monitor turned on, or that they received "Invalid system disk" message because they left a floppy in drive. Or does user mean WINDOWS won't start?

A problem can occur in boot sequence even before hard disk comes into play. When a computer first starts, its Basic Input/Out System (BIOS) performs a Power On Self Test (POST). Before computer is ready to use display, it communicates using beep codes. After display is initialized, it sends codes to screen.

If your computer stops with an error code on screen, you need to find out who made your computers BIOS and check website of BIOS manufacturer for meaning of error code.

When your computer boots, BIOS reads hard disk's partition table in order to find boot record. If partition table is damaged, message "Invalid drive or drive specification" will be displayed. The partition table does not change after drive is partitioned and formatted unless it has been damaged, possibly by a virus.

By Stephen Bucaro

Today's computer equipped with a sound card is capable of generating sound from many different sound and music format files. Formats include WAV, MIDI, MP3, and many more.

Conversion of these sound format files to actual audio relies on several layers of software and hardware. The most basic sound format file compatible with Windows operating system is WAV file format. Before troubleshooting any of more complex formats, make sure that your system is capable of playing WAV files.

The Windows operating system has a built-in program called Sound Recorder to record and play WAV files. To open Sound Recorder, select Start | Programs | Accessories | Entertainment and click on Sound Recorder. In Sound Recorder program, select File | Open. In Open dialog box, navigate to C:WindowsMedia and select one of WAV files to play. Click Open button and then Play button (right arrow).

If you hear WAV file play, then your basic sound configuration is working properly. If you did not hear WAV file play, continue reading (troubleshooting problems with more complex sound file formats will be covered in future article).

The first thing you should do is eliminate obvious possibilities. Many speakers have a volume control on one of speakers. Many times I have thought that sound was not working in one of my programs, only to find that someone turned volume control all way down.

You can test your speakers by plugging them into headphone jack on your CD-ROM drive and playing a music CD. This bypasses sound card.

Check Windows Volume Control by right-clicking on speaker icon in Task Bar and Selecting "Open Volume Contols" in popup menu that appears.

Open Multimedia utility in Control Panel (Start | Settings | Control Panel) and select Audio tab. Make sure that your soundcard's Playback device is selected in Playback section.