Scotsmist Personal Computer Support

Beginners Corner

Buying PC Equipment
Buying A New Computer
Backing Important Files
Your PC A Spring Clean
PC Voice Mail
PC Hardware Reference
PC Junkie, All Nighter
Do's and Don'ts
Simple DOS Commends

Newbie Guides Beginners Corner

Here's, what they should tell you in the manual, if you got one.
In the left margin you will find links to all of the pages in the Beginners Corner to date. I am considering adding more pages, but have not yet set a time.

Beginner's Corner

Buying Computer Equipment

One of the most persistent questions about purchasing computer equipment is whether to buy mail order or shop locally. So here is the page that gives good advice when considering buying computer equipment.

Backing Up Important Files

When's the last time you backed up any of your important data files? I can not emphasise the importance of this. Keeping several copies of the same file in different places is a habit I have gotten into since gigabyte drives became the norm. There have been many occasions when I am so glad that several perhaps older copies of a file are still on my hard drive, after a careless accident.

Giving Your Computer A Spring Clean

Keeping your computer running like a well oiled machine used to be a task for the technical minded, before the days of free utilities from Microsoft, included with Windows that do the job for you. There are a couple of links to reliable utilities that wanna be power users will find useful and I discuss how you can have a computer that is steamlined.

Computer Voice Mail

If you have always wanted to know what the voice capabilities of your modem are and mean then you should read this page which touches the surface of voicemail. My first impression when hearing the term wasn't that of an answering machine, I imagined that voice capabilities meant that I would be able to talk whilst sending or receiving data.

Computer Hardware Reference Guide

Some readers may find this section a little technical, until the day disaster strikes. The hardware reference is quite big so I have spilt the guide into two pages. You will find tables of IRQ settings for example, POST error codes, CPU and bus speeds and other useful references.

Computer Junkie, All Nighter

When you have been using a computer long enough you are sure to have spent all night on it. Seeing the sun come up and hearing the birds sing and the realisation of yet another all-nighter.

Recommended Do' and Don'ts

I finally decided to add a page listing all the things I hear myself say to newbies over and over, time and again. So if you haven't already payed this page a visit, I highly recommend you do now. I will continue to add new advice, but do not have a schedule for that at this time. If you have any comments about the useless or usefulness of the page you can e-mail me your comments or fill out the feedback form.

If you have a question that is not answered on any of our pages why not post it on our community forum