Need advise on obtaining more computer know-how

[Brayton]

I'm just looking for some advise from some of the very qualified contributors to these forums. I have very limited experience using the computer but I am anxious to learn more, just for pleasure and not for any work related use. I've read through all the tutorial subjects and have started reading the 5-10% of them that I think I am comfortable with and can learn from. The rest seem well beyond my comfort zone. So how do you go about getting from point A to point B with all this computer know how. Event logs, partitions, BSOD, BIOS, dump files zip, exe file, save as an HTML file, etc. etc. is mostly greek to some of us using these forums. What is the best way to start the journey. Do you recommend classes, any good books or websites? Is this stuff you can pick up through trial and error, over time on your own, such as through these forums. Do you need advise individual instruction. A case in point is it cost me a couple hundred dollars for my computer guy to do a complete system restore a couple times before we figured out that the windows updates should be manually updated because automatic updates were causing crashes. Would appreciate any advise you can share.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Upgrading and repairing pc's by scott mueller...I have the 12th edition very outdated now(up to one gig cpu's ) but I'm sure there are newer editions out now....cost me $60 in the mid/late 90's

 

[richc46]

Welcome
These tuts edited by our own Brink are priceless and the cost--free
Tutorials - Windows 7 Forums
Trust me save your money.

 

[xarden]

I guess for most of us, the easiest way (is the hardest way too) is to run into a problem.
Then you research, ask questions, troubleshoot and basically try find a way to fix such problems.
There's an old quote that I really like: "Tell me and I'll forget. Show me and I may remember. Involve me and I'll understand"
So we could tell you a million things under the sun, but you'll really only understand it once you've gone through it.
I still dont know how to read a BSOD or what that cryptic means, but I know a single long post beep means dodgy RAM, only because I've run into that more times than I care to remember.
95% of what I've learnt is self-taught. Mostly through trial and (numerous) error.

Another good thing about forums, is to troll through them. If something catches your eye or attention, you can post what you think about it. You'll either be told your wrong for this or that reason, or you'll be agreed with.

 

[xarden]

Welcome
These tuts edited by our own Brink are priceless and the cost--free
Tutorials - Windows 7 Forums
Trust me save your money.

People reply quick on here...

Yes, theres also plenty of free information everywhere when you know where to look.

I prefer to use such resources as references, rather than reading material.

Good luck with your quest for knowledge

 

[Petey7]

I learned by trial and error. I know how a lot of settings should be configured and how to fix a lot of errors because I have messed with so much stuff and caused so many problems on my computers that I had to fix on my own, I learned how a lot of stuff works. There are two resorces in addition to the tutorials here that will help you greatly: www.google.com and en.wikipedia.org. I have learned a lot from both. Wikipedia is good for getting a general understanding of several topics and google is good for finding specific information (although quit a bit of searching is involved and how you word your searches will effect on your chances of finding the right information).

If you have/can find a secondary computer to experiment on, you can start playing around with it and google anything you come across that you do not understand. If you are going to experiment on you primary computer, back everything up regularly. If you do not have a secondary computer currently, places like GoodWill and sometimes yardsells, sell old computers for a low price. Another option is running an OS in a virual machine. I recently installed a program called VirtualBox and installed Windows 98 so that I could mess around with old legacy programs and games that will not work on newer versions of Windows. It turned out to be an adventure in and of itself to get 98 up and running. When using a VM, you are basically using a computer that does not actually exist, so if you screw it up too bad you can just delete the computer and start again.

 

[richnrockville]

My $0.02 worth is that we learn from our mistakes rather than our success. One way to learn is to
put together a cheap machine and just keep playing with it. Doing different things where each time you
learn action and reaction. It always helps to have a couple of cheap hard drives to experiment with so that
you can just re-format and start over. I learned most everyting by this method.
Also, as someone else said "Google is your friend" Error codes and how to's are great to research.

One thing I do not recommend is when you google on something, I never pick the first couple of responses unless they are well known company sites. Otherwise you end up with websites that put themselves at the top of the google search list by seeding their sites via nefarious methods.
Also most of the PC rags do have some good tips and trick in them.

YMMV
Rich

 

[pasquanel]

You will run into many acronyms and abbreviations that won't mean much to you but you can find the answers very quickly by using webopedia find it here and create a shortcut.........
Webopedia: Online Computer Dictionary for Computer and Internet Terms and Definitions

answer is just a click away!
Pasquanel

 

[whs]

Regardless what you do, you will have to have patience. But it is like learning a foreign language. For a long time you think you are making no progress, and then one Monday morning you realize the you made a big leap forward.

I am teaching System concepts to the people of my local Florida computer club. They are mostly retired people - a lot of nice little old ladies. So I have to go easy on them.

I give you the link to the materials of 2 of my classes that might be helpful for you. The first one is also all recorded on Video (more than 3 hours worth) which you can watch and the second one contains some Videos - the videos I made myself, no canned stuff. Download the folders from the links, unzip them and have a look.

http://cid-475a0a48ca6d4035.office.live.com/self.aspx/System%20Facilities%20Class/System%20Facilities%20Class.zip

http://cid-475a0a48ca6d4035.office.live.com/self.aspx/System%20Facilities%20-%20Part%202/System%20Facilities%20-%20Part%202.zip

 

[pparks1]

If you have a decent computer and can run a virtual machine or two, they are great for learning on. Or, if you can scrape together some money and buy the parts to put together a machine...that is a great learning experience.

I'm an avid book learner myself. While I realize that you can find most everything online and in forums, it's sometimes nice to just go through a book where you have chapter after chapter of stuff...some of which you didn't even know about...so how would you have ever found it in forums? When Windows 7 first came out, i got the Windows 7 Secrets book by Paul Thurrott and read 90% of it. Picked up quite a few things.

Don't discount "the dummies series" of books..as you can often learn quite a bit from them and they are mostly easy reads.

In the end, it's just a lot of trial and error. I've been working with computers for well over 25 years and over 13 professionally.

 

[bigmck]

You can read all you want, but there is no substitute for doing it yourself. If you can do little addon's to your computer, like adding a hard drive or an additional fan, you will learn alot. If unsure about something, ask on here. People are very nice and quick to help.

 

[richc46]

Regardless what you do, you will have to have patience. But it is like learning a foreign language. For a long time you think you are making no progress, and then one Monday morning you realize the you made a big leap forward.

I am teaching System concepts to the people of my local Florida computer club. They are mostly retired people - a lot of nice little old ladies. So I have to go easy on them.

I give you the link to the materials of 2 of my classes that might be helpful for you. The first one is also all recorded on Video (more than 3 hours worth) which you can watch and the second one contains some Videos - the videos I made myself, no canned stuff. Download the folders from the links, unzip them and have a look.

http://cid-475a0a48ca6d4035.office.live.com/self.aspx/System%20Facilities%20Class/System%20Facilities%20Class.zip

[URL="http://cid-475a0a48ca6d4035.office.live.com/self.aspx/System%20Facilities%20-%20Part%202/System%20Facilities%20-%20Part%202.zip"]http://cid-475a0a48ca6d4035.office.live.com/self.aspx/System%20Facilities%20-%20Part%202/System%20Facilities%20-%20Part%202.zip[/URL]

Awesome contribution. I went as far as pushing the rep button, but got that familiar "Spread it around"

 

[xarden]

You can read all you want, but there is no substitute for doing it yourself. If you can do little addon's to your computer, like adding a hard drive or an additional fan, you will learn alot. If unsure about something, ask on here. People are very nice and quick to help.

Agreed.

Try adding several harddrives on an IDE cable, change/remove the jumper on them. See what happens

Use a 40wire IDE cable, then an 80wire IDE cable.
See what happens then

 

[Brayton]

This is why I love these forums. Thanks for the responses and great suggestions. I've made a list and will get to work on it. I sometimes think there are as many people looking at these forums, as I am, that need this type of help, as well as the more technical viewers. Please keep any additional suggestions coming. Many thanks to all who responded thus far.
Brayton

 

[whs]

Awesome contribution. I went as far as pushing the rep button, but got that familiar "Spread it around"

Thank you Richard. It is the thought that counts. I really appreciate.

 

[Darryl Licht]

Upgrading and repairing pc's by scott mueller...I have the 12th edition very outdated now(up to one gig cpu's ) but I'm sure there are newer editions out now....cost me $60 in the mid/late 90's

Mueller's book is good, I also like Mike Meyers books for A+ Certification pretty much the same material!

 

[unifex]

I've got to say, I miss the good old days when computers came with User Manuals. I mean ... these days it looks like the computer companies think that consumers are not supposed to mess with anything, but rather treat their machines as black boxes that perform certain tasks. How did I learn anything? You'll be surprised, but all I did (in addition of trial and error) was I read the manual. My first computer was Commodore 128. It came with two very thick books, User Manual and Programmers Reference Manual. These contained all information about the machine, including memory maps and some chip blueprints and a complete reference for the assembly language.

Well, nowadays, the information is less easy to come by and I must say, the machines are way more complex. But still, you can find your way around. Of course the first thing to do now is to learn your way around the OS. So I would grab the Microsoft book - some of that available online for free - about Windows 7, it's similar to the good old manual. As to the adding hardware to your PC - at least my computers (mostly Sonys and Dells) still come with little manuals that describe in detail which screws to use for each purpose.

 

[Ivan the SoSo]

Upgrading and repairing pc's by scott mueller...I have the 12th edition very outdated now(up to one gig cpu's ) but I'm sure there are newer editions out now....cost me $60 in the mid/late 90's

Mueller's book is good, I also like Mike Meyers books for A+ Certification pretty much the same material!

If your hardware isn't right you will never get the software right!

 

[blackzero]

I'm learning by doing. That's what I get for being a network and software administrator. >_>

It's priceless though. Learning from experience is the best course you can get in this world. None can beat that.

 

[Imperfect1]

I am partial to the Microsoft publications for all of their products. I find they give the most accurate and detailed information as to how everything works.

I find it particularly helpful to mark up my 'how-to' reference materials with my own notes and comments. Going through the motions of reading and commenting on what I've read seems to cement the information in my mind.

Another thing that I do is that whenever I read a good tip or instruction about how to do (or not do) something, I copy it into a Word doc list that I've created for this purpose. My how-to list for Vista is over 150 pages now (believe it or not) and my Windows 7 how-to list is about 50 pages already. Little by little, by little, you learn how to do things.

I also find a lot of good information on-line by using the Google browser (rather than any of the others) which is particularly useful for computer issues. Many of the posts refer you to other forums and help sources, many of which seem to be excellent. (A word of caution though, when trying to follow anyone's advice on a particular problem: ALWAYS make a system restore point and/or back up your system before trying any of the advice you read!)