HP TouchSmart dx9000 Operating manual

Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide

The only warranties for Hewlett-Packard products and services are set forth in the express

statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as

constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or

omissions contained herein.

HP assumes no responsibility for the use or reliability of its software on equipment that is not

furnished by HP.

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document may be photocopied, reproduced, or translated to another language without the prior

written consent of HP.

Hewlett-Packard Company

P.O. Box 4010

Cupertino, CA 95015-4010

USA

May be licensed in the United States by one or both of U.S. Patents Nos. 4,930,158 and

4,930,160 until August 28, 2008.

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The Windows logo is a trademark or registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the United

States and/or other countries/regions.

HP supports lawful use of technology and does not endorse or encourage the use of our products

for purposes other than those permitted by copyright law.

The information in this document is subject to change without notice.

Table of Contents iii

Table of Contents

Maintenance............................................................................................1

Creating Data Backup Discs ....................................................................................1

Creating System Recovery Discs ...............................................................................1

Removing Unused Programs.....................................................................................1

Running the Disk Cleanup Program...........................................................................2

Running Disk Cleanup manually ..........................................................................2

Scheduling Disk Cleanup to run automatically .......................................................2

Running the Disk Defragmenter Program....................................................................3

Checking for Hard Disk Drive Errors .........................................................................4

Understanding Hard Disk Drive Space ......................................................................4

Recommended Maintenance Schedule ......................................................................5

Troubleshooting Computer Problems ........................................................7

Audio ...................................................................................................................8

CD and DVD Drives................................................................................................9

Video..................................................................................................................11

Display (Monitor)..................................................................................................11

Hard Disk Drive....................................................................................................12

Hardware Installation............................................................................................12

Internet Access .....................................................................................................14

Keyboard and Mouse ...........................................................................................16

Power .................................................................................................................17

Performance ........................................................................................................18

Miscellaneous ......................................................................................................20

Repairing Software Problems ................................................................21

Software Repair Overview.....................................................................................21

Restarting Your Computer ......................................................................................22

Turning Off Your Computer....................................................................................22

Updating Drivers ..................................................................................................22

Microsoft System Restore .......................................................................................23

Software Program and Hardware Driver Reinstallation ..............................................24

iv Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide

System Recovery ..................................................................................................25

Creating Recovery Discs........................................................................................25

Choosing Recovery Disc Media.........................................................................26

System Recovery Options ......................................................................................26

Running System Recovery from the Hard Disk Drive .............................................26

Starting System Recovery from the Windows Vista Start menu ...............................27

Starting System Recovery from system startup ......................................................27

Maintenance 1

Maintenance

This section includes information about tasks you can perform to help ensure the trouble-

free operation of your computer, and to ease the recovery of important information on

your computer should problems arise in the future.

Creating Data Backup Discs

You can use the CD or DVD burning software included on your computer to create backup

discs of important information including personal files, e-mail messages, and Web site

bookmarks.

When writing data to a backup disc, you should use software that includes write

verification functionality. This verification feature compares the data on your hard disk

drive with the data copied to the disc to ensure it is an exact copy. Depending on your disc

burning software, you may need to manually enable this feature.

Creating System Recovery Discs

This is a one-time step that you should perform while your computer is working properly. If

you later encounter problems with your computer, you can restore it to its original factory

settings using the System Recovery discs that you create.

Before creating recovery discs, read “System Recovery” on page 25, and then create the

discs as described in “Creating Recovery Discs” on page 25.

Removing Unused Programs

1Click the Windows Start Button®, and then click Control Panel.

2Click Uninstall a program. The Programs and Features window opens.

3Select the program you want to remove, and click Uninstall.

4Follow the onscreen instructions.

NOTE: Some programs have their own uninstall features. If you cannot uninstall a

program from the Control Panel, refer to the program documentation or Help.

2Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide

Running the Disk Cleanup Program

The Disk Cleanup program frees up space on your hard disk drive by removing temporary

and unused files (including Temporary Internet Files and files in the Recycle Bin). You can

run Disk Cleanup manually, or you can set it up to run automatically.

Running Disk Cleanup manually

1Click the Windows Start Button, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools,

and then click Disk Cleanup.

Disk Cleanup searches for files to delete and calculates how much disk space can be

saved.

2Choose the files to delete by placing a check mark in the check box next to the file

types listed.

3Click OK, and then click Delete Files to finish deleting the selected files.

Scheduling Disk Cleanup to run automatically

1Click the Windows Start Button, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools,

and then click Task Scheduler.

2Click Action, and then click Create Basic Task.

3Type a name for the task and an optional description, and then click Next.

4Select the reoccurrence, and click Next.

5Select the time to run Disk Cleanup and click Next. Disk Cleanup may take a long

time, so select a time when the computer is on but not in use.

6Select Start a program and click Next.

7Under Program/Script, click Browse.

8Type cleanmgr.exe and click Open.

9Review the summary of the schedule you have set. When done, click Finish.

Disk Cleanup runs at the time you have set.

Maintenance 3

Running the Disk Defragmenter Program

When Microsoft® Windows Vista™ stores files on your hard disk drive, it often divides

them into multiple pieces (or fragments) so they fit into available space on the drive. When

you attempt to open a fragmented file, it must be retrieved from more than one place, so

the process takes more time.

The Disk Defragmenter program groups the fragmented files together on your hard disk

drive to improve computer performance. This does not affect the location of files and

folders on your computer.

1Save your work and close all open programs.

2Press the Ctrl key, the Alt key, and the Delete key at the same time.

3Click Start Task Manager.

4On the Applications tab, select all the programs that are listed, and then click

End Task. Close the Task Manager.

5Click the Windows Start Button, choose All Programs, Accessories,System

Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter.

6Click Defragment Now.

If Disk Defragmenter repeatedly starts, a hidden background program is still accessing the

hard disk drive. Restart the computer and run the Disk Defragmenter program again:

1Click the Windows Start Button, click the arrow next to the

Lock button, and then click Restart.

2After Windows Vista starts, use the previous procedure to run the

Disk Defragmenter program.

NOTE: The Disk Defragmenter program may take a long time to complete. You can run it

unattended overnight.

4Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide

Checking for Hard Disk Drive Errors

Perform the following procedure to check the integrity of the hard disk drive in Windows

Vista. Close all open programs before beginning the disk check.

1Click the Windows Start Button, and then click Computer.

2In the window that opens, right-click the hard disk drive that you want to check, and

click Properties.

3In the Properties window, click the Tools tab.

4Under Error-checking, click Check Now.

5If desired, click the check box next to Automatically fix file system errors and

Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

6Click Start. If prompted to restart, click Yes to restart the computer.

Understanding Hard Disk Drive Space

Hewlett-Packard and Compaq computers with the Windows Vista operating system

preinstalled may appear to have a hard disk drive smaller than what is stated in the

product specifications, in the documentation, or on the box. Hard disk drives are

described and advertised by manufacturers in terms of decimal (base 10) capacity.

Windows Vista and other programs, such as FDISK, use the binary (base 2) numbering

system.

In decimal notation, one megabyte (MB) is equal to 1,000,000 bytes, and one gigabyte

(GB) is equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes. In the binary numbering system, one megabyte is

equal to 1,048,576 bytes, and one gigabyte is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes. Because

of the different measuring systems, you may see a difference between the size reported by

Windows Vista and the size advertised. The storage capacity of the hard disk drive is as

advertised.

Windows Vista reports smaller capacity in the Windows Explorer tool and in the Computer

window because it shows information about one partition on the hard disk drive at a time.

The first partition contains the System Recovery information.

Maintenance 5

Recommended Maintenance Schedule

Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly (seasonally)

Manage e-mail

Delete e-mail from

unknown sources.

Do not open

untrusted

attachments.

Organize e-mail.

Protect against

viruses, adware,

and spyware

Update definition

files or schedule a

weekly automatic

update.

Run a full virus,

adware, and

spyware scan or

schedule a weekly

automatic scan.

Use Windows

Update

Check for updates or

schedule a monthly

automatic update.

(See the Getting

Started guide for

details.)

Set new passwords

(See the Getting Started

guide for details.)

Optimize

performance

Run Disk Cleanup.

(See “Running the

Disk Cleanup

Program” on

page 2.)

Run Disk

Defragmenter.

(See “Running the

Disk Defragmenter

Program” on

page 3.)

Check for disk

errors.

(See “Checking for

Hard Disk Drive

Errors” on page 4.)

Review the

Start menu

Set to open only

needed applications:

1Click the Windows

Start Button, All

Programs, then

click Windows

Defender.

2Click Tools.

3Click Software

Explorer.

4In the Category list,

select Startup

Programs.

5Select the program

that you want to

prevent from running

and click Disable.

Clean the computer,

monitor, keyboard,

and mouse

For detailed cleaning

instructions, go to:

http://

www.hp.com/

support

Select your country/

region and language,

search on your

computer model

number, and then

search on the keyword

cleaning.

6Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide

Clean up Web

browser files

Delete cookies.

Delete cache.

Delete history files.

Clean up the desktop

Delete or uninstall

unneeded icons

and applications.

(See “Removing

Unused Programs”

on page 1.)

Empty the

Recycle Bin

This, and other

cleanup tasks, can

be performed with

the Disk Cleanup

program.

(See “Running the

Disk Cleanup

Program” on

page 2.)

Maintain overall

condition

Check cleanliness.

Make sure

ventilation is

unobstructed.

Secure all

connections and

cabling.

Back up important

files to CD or DVD

(See “Creating Data

Backup Discs” on

page 1.)

Create a Restore

Point

(See “Microsoft System

Restore” on page 23.)

Recommended Maintenance Schedule (continued)

Daily Weekly Monthly Quarterly (seasonally)

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