troubleshooting

Fix uTorrent (And Other Application) Quirks In Windows 7

6:30AM Whitson Gordon | If you’re having issues with the popular BitTorrent application uTorrent in Windows 7, such as memory overusage, downloads stopping at 99.9 per cent or false reports, weblog AddictiveTips offers some tips to get your downloads back on track. More »

Computer Repair Flowchart Troubleshoots Hardware Problems

8:00AM Azadeh Ensha | We recently showed you a fun (but accurate) tech support cheat sheet courtesy of popular web comic xkcd. If hardware is more your problem, this series of interactive charts can help you troubleshoot some common hardware problems. More »

Tech Support Cheat Sheet Reveals The Secrets Of Troubleshooting

11:30AM Adam Pash | If you read Lifehacker, chances are you’ve been designated as your family’s de facto IT person, and you’ve probably spent more than your fair share of hours troubleshooting applications you know no better than the person asking. How do you do it?! More »

BlueScreenView Helps Troubleshoot The Blue Screen Of Death

4:00AM The How-To Geek | Windows only: Free, portable system utility BlueScreenView displays your last Blue Screen of Death, so you can more easily see the error message—while you use Google to figure out the problem. More »

Notify Mee Sends An Email When A Downed Site Is Working Again

1:30AM Azadeh Ensha | Server crashes, site maintenance and traffic surges are among the reasons why your favourite site may be down. Regardless of origin, all you’re left with is a broken link. Notify Mee can help. More »

The Blue Screen Of Death Survival Guide Decodes Your System Crash

9:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Getting a Blue Screen of Death is never a good time, but the infamous error screen is actually trying to help—seriously! This handy guide can make some sense of what’s killing your computer’s stability. More »

Microsoft ‘Fix it’ Automatically Takes The Steps To Fix Problems For You

7:01AM Adam Pash | Microsoft’s online troubleshooting and support documents can be useful, but even if you find a help doc, it can still be a pain to follow along with their steps, right? Not anymore. CNET reports that Microsoft has started adding a new Fix it button to a few thousand Microsoft help and support docs that—when clicked—downloads a script that will run through the steps for you, like this support doc for enabling the DVD library on your Vista PC. It seems like a good idea, but as far as we can tell, the Fix it feature is weighed down by some serious cons. Pros: You may not be required to do quite as much tech support for your friends and family for trivial fixes. Cons: The “scripts” come in MSI packages that you have to execute on your desktop. God knows how soon we’ll start seeing Fix it icons everywhere offering to fix your common Windows problem with a boatload of malware. I tried the script to restore the IE icon on your desktop script, and it required a restart! That’s the short list, but I’m sure you can think of a few more. Let’s hear what you think of this new feature in the comments. [via CNET] More »

Are My Sites Up? Tracks Multiple Web Sites’ Availability

10:00AM Jason Fitzpatrick | Are My Sites Up? is a web-based application for tracking the up time of web sites and sending notifications when they are down. If you need to know immediately if a site is down completely or just unavailable to you, a service like Down For Everyone Or Just Me? is a great tool. If you’d like to monitor a site more consistently and get notifications when there is an interruption in service you’ll need a more advanced tool. Set up a list of up to 50 sites to monitor at the Are My Sites Up? web site. In addition to being able to check the status of the sites on the Are My Sites Up? control panel as seen in the screenshot above, you can also set it to email you and send you an SMS update when one of your monitored sites is down. The service requires no ownership of or modification to the web sites you are monitoring, you can use it on your own site or any site you want to keep an eye on. Are My Sites Up? [via Webware] More »

Where Do You Go For Tech Support Online?

9:00AM Adam Pash | You could head back to the big box store and wait in long lines to get support for the new gadget you unwrapped yesterday, but you can save time and frustration troubleshooting it yourself online. It should come as no surprise to Lifehacker readers that some of the best tech support you can find is available through web sites and online forums that tap into the wisdom of the crowd, but the New York Times is coming around to the same idea, rounding up their favourite online tech support sites for Windows, Macs, and smartphones. We’ve covered many of their suggestions in the past (like previously mentioned FixYa), but if you’re looking for a good forum or web site to handle your troubleshooting needs while you get to know your new gadgets, the article has some good suggestions. That said, our readers are some of the savviest troubleshooters around, so why don’t you tell us: Where do you go for tech support online? Let’s hear your favourite spots in the comments. Photo by makelessnoise. There’s Lots of Tech Help, Yes, on the Internet [NYT] More »