Before asking for help... READ THIS!

[AznTechie]

This thread is meant to be a general solution to most of the tech problems that may arise in the forums as well as some general tips to keeping your computer happy. If your tech problem is not mentioned in this thread, please don't make multiple threads about it asking for help, nor asking for solutions for your tech problems in other people's threads.

Here is a list of free programs that may provide some software alternatives to some paid applications.
Here's a general summary/explanation of computer hardware.



Game-related:
• Make sure you can run the game in question. Compare both the minimum and recommended requirements to your computer specifications. The main thing to compare to is the video card, though for more modern games, the CPU is also quite important.
Download Speccy for a detailed summary of your computer specifications, if you didn't know already.
CanIRunIt offers a service that compares your system specifications to that of a game's; however, it's not always accurate

• If you have problems with patching a game. Try re-downloading and/or reinstalling it. If both doesn't work, try going to that particular game's official forums, as they tend to have a more dedicated community towards these problems.

• If the in-game graphics look screwed up, or the resolution is screwed up, try tweaking your game settings as well as your video card settings. Your video card settings can be found in the Control Panel of your computer (if you're using Windows)

• Make sure your video card has proper, up-to-date drivers. This may be the solution to most of your graphical problems. If you do not know which video card the system holds, you can run the Direct X Diagnostics Tool ("dxdiag" through the Run command on Windows) or use Speccy. If you're using a laptop, I recommend that you take a look on your laptop manufacturer's website as they often provide specialized drivers for your system.
Intel drivers
ATI drivers
NVIDIA drivers


General computing:
• If your computer seems to be running slow to you, it may be that the system might need a defragmentation or there may just be too many processes running at once. Closing unwanted processes, tweaking your startup processes, clearing out temporary data, and defragmenting your computer on a regular basis will go a long way to making your computer work properly.
CCleaner is a disk cleanup program that can also change startup programs as well as registry and program uninstallation.
Smart Defrag is a defragmentation tool and disk optimization tool.

• If there are viruses, spyware, and/or malware on your computer, don't do system restore or system reformat, as viruses may also be transferred through those processes. Instead, run a few scans with Malwarebytes on safe mode, and if that clears out the problem(s), secure your system with a decent antivirus program (the Norton antivirus programs that come pre-installed with your computer is not very good; uninstall it and replace it with better solution).

• If you're asking help on a hardware upgrade for your system, please provide us with the specifications of your system. Dimensions of the case and the specifications of your power supply unit will also help greatly in most cases.

• Search for lighter alternatives to huge programs. A good example of this is Adobe Reader. It's a bit big for what it does and will install many useless utilities. Foxit, on the other hand, is much smaller and is easier on resources.

• Check for programs that you didn't install yourself, or have been installed without your knowledge. They may be malicious, and will drag your PC's performance down.

• Perform regular antivirus & antispyware scans with any of the applications in the first link of this thread.

• Don't put off virus scans until it's too late: many malicious programs may make your computer inoperable.