This week is all about something small, but VERY important to backing up data.

A Flash Drive or USB thumb drive.

• Very easy to store things on
• Can hold a lot of storage and media
• Does not cost much at all; anywhere from $5-$25 dollars depending on brand and how much storage is needed

Even though this devices are small and not costly they do need some maintenance and fixing here and there. It's not uncommon but when it happens flash drives are not too hard to fix at all. I will give you some basic steps to follow. 

 How to troubleshoot a flash drive:

Drive Recognition

1. Step 1

   Ensure Windows recognizes your drive. Click the Start button, then type "Device Manager" in the search box.

   Step 2

   Click the "Device Manager" option within the Control Panel.

   Step 3

   Click on the small arrow next to the "Disk Drives" option to expand the list.

   Step 4

   Double-click the down-facing arrow over your undetected flash drive. Click the "Enable Device" option. Click "Next" twice when prompted, then "Finish."
2. Here is a website with some VERY good solutions and common problems that anyone can do and will in most cases help with troubleshooting a flash drive: Troubleshooting a flash drive .

Not much this week, but stayed tuned.

Troubleshooting a LAN connection that is running slow

First off.. What is a LAN?

• A LAN is a Local Area Network, which stretches over a short distance such as office to office within the same building. Sometimes that connection can become slow and crowded within that building and you need to do some troubleshooting

Here is a GREAT website I came across thats explains some simple/common ways to help fiure out whats going on with your connection! 

Troulbeshooting LANS

Have a good weekend eveyone!!

*sorry for the late post if anyone looks at these*

Back again with some informative troubleshooting stuff!

Ever had a problem with your printer? Something people overlook is you may have to troubleshoot a printer at sometime.

Troubleshooting a printer could consist of anything for example:

• replacing the paper(because it will not print without paper)
• removing jammed paper(Jammed up paper will not allow the printer to do its job
• replacing the ink(without ink you will have nothing on your paper)

 But some things are not that easy to do like the above tasks, here is a link that will take you to 10 of the most common or known problems with printers and it will also show you how to resolve the problem. 

10 Most common printer problems

Happy Troubleshooting!! 

THIS WEEK! 

iHave something very interesting to talk about in the troubleshooting world.

• Its all about the Bus Topology. What is this you may ask? WELL, a Bus topology consists of a single cable called the Bus, that connects all nodes of a network without intervening connectivity devices.   Here is a diagram of how a basic Bus is set up : 
  

   

A problem with the bus topology is that it is very difficult to troubleshoot.

They are difficult to fix because it is a very big challenge to identify a fault location. Finding the error can prove to be very difficult. Once the cable is broken somewhere or a cable is loose it will bring the whole network down and it is hard to track this down.

That's all this week. 

All my information came from Pg. 199 and 200 in the Network+ Guide to Networks book (6th edition) by Tamara Dean.

In this week's blog I will be talking about what COULD happen if your devices are not fixed ASAP

So what could happen?

Actually a lot could happen. Anything from the device going slow or as bad as a virus attack your information such a photo, music, and anything personal on your computer!

Theses guys are BAD and they are something you never want.

If you click on this link  http://www.microsoft.com/security/pc-security/virus-whatis.aspx it will tell you what a computer virus is and what it does.

Purchase anti-virus and watch what you click on. 

Next week is looking good, tune it.

So why would someone need to troubleshoot a device??

Troubleshooting is the best way to keep your devices running smoothly and operating at the optimized performance. Weather your device is having a problem or simply running slow, a form of troubleshooting will be used to fix the problem. Troubleshooting also will help narrow the problem to something specific rather than having to deal with 1,2,3, or even more problem at one time. If you are ever experiencing a problem with your device you can either get it fixed or fix it yourself! Here is a link a recent blog by, me, and it provides a link to some simple troubleshooting techniques, very helpful. 

http://troubleshootingtech.blogspot.com/

Happy Troubleshooting!!

More to come next week.

As in my other blog last week I mentioned you could pay someone to fix your device or ix it yourself.

Here is the link to last week's link : http://andwhydothis.blogspot.com/

Paying someone to do something so simple can be very expensive.

Some places such as Best Buy, who have people from Geek Squad will charge by the hour to have your device looked at and if it is able to be fixed it costs $200-$250+ and then you might have to take it to someone else and pay more. 

But luckily a problem might be so simple that just a simple online check could tell you what to do and how to do it which in turns saves you money and gets your computer back tor running better.

Tune back in next week.