ARK SOLUTIONS UGANDA

How to fix a blank display problem

2011-02-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

How to fix a blank display problem

When your computer does not display anything on the monitor you have a No Display or Blank Display problem. This can be caused by any of the following reasons:

· Monitor or System has no Power

· Monitor is defective

· Loose VGA/DVI Cable Connection

· Video Card Problem

· AGP/PCI-e Connector Problem / Motherboard

· System RAM Problem

Monitor or System has no Power

First thing is to check if the system powers up when pressing the power button, if not check cable connections and the power source. Next is to check if the monitor powers up when you press the power button. If not, check power cable and the power source for the monitor.

If this procedure solves the problem, there may be a loose connection in the power cables of the system or the monitor.

Monitor Is Defective/Loose VGA Cable Connection

After checking if the system and monitor have power and you still encounter the no display problem, try to swap monitors with another computer to check if the monitor is defective or not. You can also try to reinsert the VGA cable to the VGA port of your video card to see if the connection is loose or maybe the VGA cable of you monitor is defective.

Video Card Problem / AGP/PCI-e Connector Problem

After verifying that the monitor is working, the next step is to check the video card. Power down your computer and unplug power cables. Open your computer and try to reinsert the video card. After inserting the video card, power up the pc to check if this solves the problem.

If this does not solve the problem try replacing the video card. After replacing the video card, if you still experience the problem, your system board or agp/pci-e connector might be causing the problem. You correct this by replacing your motherboard.

System RAM Problem

No display problem can also be caused by the system RAM. When your system RAM is defective or is not properly inserted in the memory slot of the main board. the system may not boot. You can try to reinsert the RAM or replace it if it is defective.

You have also probably seen this with message on monitors "MONITOR FREQUENCY OUT OF RANGE" This is the solution;

Monitors have a limit of maximum supported frequency (Refresh rate) for each resolution setting at which display is refreshed. When you set a high resolution with a high frequency that is not supported by the monitor, it displays a message Frequency out of range. Within a few seconds of setting the frequency if you press Esc key it will revert back to the previous resolution.

With these tips, let the monitor not ruin your day, and if this persists you can then call our experts on 0752258605.

E-age soon to be ARK solutions we provide "solutions with passion". Nice day.

HOW DOES YOUR PASSWORD LOOK LIKE?

2010-11-12T05:01:00.000-08:00

Last summer, SmartPlanet colleague John Dodge posted details on the 500 worst passwords of all time.
Now, Imperva has released a list of the 20 most commonly used (and therefore worst) passwords, culled from a hacking incident that took place in December at RockYou.com, a photo-sharing and slideshow site. Reportedly, 32 million usernames and passwords were breached. (RockYou.com issued a statement indicating that it temporarily shut down its platform after the incident, and now employs encryption technology.)
Imperva posted a summary of the passwords, along with advice on how to create stronger passwords.
The most common passwords are as follows. Is yours among them?

123456
12345
123456789
Password
iloveyou
princess
rockyou
1234567
12345678
abc123
Nicole
Daniel
babygirl
monkey
Jessica
Lovely
michael
Ashley
654321
Qwerty

It’s notable how many people apparently use their first names as passwords. Notice how also, in the case of no. 7, the password is simply the name of the site.
[UPDATE: In another study on passwords, a Microsoft researcher conducted a cost/benefit analysis of efforts to encourage stronger passwords, and questions whether the costs of strong password management outweighs the benefits.]
For its part, Imperva observes that we have made precious little progress over the past two decades in improving passwords — long considered the Achilles heel of data security:

“The shortness and simplicity of passwords means many users select credentials that will make them susceptible to basic, brute force password attacks… Ironically, the problem has changed very little over the past twenty years. In 1990, a study of Unix password security revealed that password selection is strikingly similar to the 32 million breached passwords. Just ten years ago, hacked Hotmail passwords showed little change. This means that the users, if allowed to, will choose very weak passwords even for sites that hold their most private data.”

The greatest danger, Imperva points out, is that it wouldn’t take long for a hacker to break into a percentage of accounts using the weak passwords with a brute force attack. It’s simply a numbers game:
Citing NASA guidelines, Imperva recommends that all passwords be at least eight characters, and contain a mix of four different types of characters – upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special characters such as !@#$%^&*,;” If there is only one letter or special character, it should not be either the first or last character in the password.
Of course, context is important as well. For online banking, email accounts, Website administration access, and so forth, the stronger the password, the better. However, there are countless information sites — online journals, analyst firm sites, and so on, that require password access, and fumbling with a unique strong password every time you want to read a white paper is just plain annoying.
Accordingly, Imperva advises users to “choose a strong password for sites you care for the privacy of the information you store.” If you’re concerned about being able to remember the code, here’s a little memory-jogging trick: “Take a sentence and turn it into a password. Something like ‘This little piggy went to market’ might become ‘tlpWENT2m.’”
Imperva recommends that administrators enforce strong password policy, especially if sensitive data is on the line. Another word of advice: “Make sure passwords are not transmitted in clear text. Always use HTTPS on login.” Also password files should be encrypted before being stored in a database.
Also worth consideration: requiring passphrases instead of passwords. “Although sentences may be longer, they may be easier to remember. With added characters, they become more difficult to break.”

2010-11-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

TIP OF THE DAY

Have you noticed that the longer you have had your computer, the slower it runs and the more it crashes? This is often caused by problems in the special Windows system area, called Windows registry.

Worse, installing and uninstalling programs often leave behind tons of useless files and other computer trash.

The result is: your system becomes increasingly unstable, runs slowly and crashes frequently.

We have PC cleaners give us a call if your PC is slow.

TIP OF THE DAY

2010-10-30T01:33:00.000-07:00

HIBERNATION

Hibernation is the act of putting your computer in a state where its off but not necessarily shutdown. Some computer users don't like shuting down their computers due to reasons like my computer is slow to restart, oh i like my PC to stay on like at night. So the best thing to do is hibernate that computer, your computer will go off but when you press the on button the next day, it will simply start from the state it was when you hibernated it, hibernating helps you to save power and to quickly restart your PC from a previous state. To turn on hibernation, go to the control penal, select power and in the available tabs, select hibernation and then check the hibernate option, remember to turn off the welcome screen so as to get the hibernate option when you select shutdown.

How to speed up your Hard drive

2010-10-29T01:22:00.000-07:00

Every day on this blog we post advice concerning your computer and how to get the most out of your computer, today we shall discuss about your hard disk of what others call hard drive. The hard disk is the main storage device in your computer, its important in that it stores the files of the operating system. This means that its one device that needs to be monitored so as to avoid problems. In this tutorial we show you how you can make your drive speedy and attain maximum performance.

Speedier HHDs

Significant improvements to the performance of your PC can be achieved by making changes to your hard drive. Although your CPU and memory have a part to play you won’t experience the best from your system if your hard drive isn’t optimised.
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There are a number of settings you can change and we’ll begin by looking at the file system that’s being used by your hard drive. This will determine the way in which your files are named, stored and organised. If your PC came with Windows XP from new then it’s likely that you’ll be using NTFS already. However, if you’ve installed the upgrade version of Windows XP then there’s a chance you’re still using FAT or FAT32. A simple way of checking this is to highlight your C: drive in My Computer and look at the details listed under file system.

NTFS differs from other file systems in that it supports features such as file and folder permissions, encryption and privacy options. Furthermore, the way that data is organised on your disk means that you’ll be able to retrieve information much faster than you’d be able to under normal circumstances. Converting to NTFS can be done within Windows XP without the loss of any of your data. To do this click Start> Run, type cmd and press [Return]. At the command prompt type convert c: /fs:ntfs and press [Return] (where ‘c’ is the letter of the drive you’re converting). The process begins when your PC restarts, at which point the Check Disk utility will run and your PC will have to reboot a further two times.

Hard drive technology
Windows XP assumes that you have more than one device attached to both your IDE channels. This can cause delays during the startup process while the Operating System attempts to locate these items. If you only have one hard disk or one CD/DVD drive then you canreconfigure your settings so that autodetection doesn’t take place. To do this go into Control Panel, open System, select the Hardware tab and click Device Manager. Scroll down to IDE/ATAPI controllers, right-click Primary IDE Channel first then select the Advanced Settings tab. Under Device 0, Device Type will be greyed out because this is where your hard disk is attached. Now, in Device 1, Device Type is set to Auto Detection and with no other devices attached to this channel, time will be wasted during start up. Therefore, click the drop-down box and set this to None. Repeat this process for the Secondary IDE Channel if you only have one device attached.
Tips for a faster hard disk

If your hard drive is nearly full it’ll have slow response times. First use the Disk Cleanup tool to remove old files and compress those you want to keep. Having done this safely remove unwanted applications using Add or Remove Programs.

Defrag your drive regularly, particularly if you’ve just performed a major cleanup. Furthermore, you’ll notice an improvement when it’s done. It re-sorts the data on your hard drive, places the blocks of data contiguously and improves seek times.

Move the print spool folder to another drive to speed up printing. Create a new folder on the other drive. Go into Printers and Faxes in Control Panel, click File> Server Properties, select the Advanced tab and then in Spool folder enter the new location.

Write caching enabled data is written to the cache and saved to the hard disk during idle time. In Device Manager right-click your hard disk and choose Properties. Select the Properties tab and click ‘Enable write caching on the disk’.

The indexing of your hard drive improves search times, but if few searches are performed its activity will slow the drive and affect other tasks. In My Computer, right-click your C: drive, choose Properties. Uncheck the indexing option.

Speed up startup times by reducing the stress placed on your hard disk. Use the System Configuration Utility (msconfig) to remove unnecessary items from startup, but leave vital programs such as anti-virus software untouched.
With that information you can now attain speed on your hard drive. For any information on SATA hard drives and hot to connect them contact e-age on 0752258605. Check our Google ads for any computer related information from our partners.

BE AWARE OF A NEW VIRUS CALLED "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL"

2010-10-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

Please Be Extremely Careful especially if using internet mail such as Yahoo, Hot mail, AOL and so on.

This information arrived this morning direct from both Microsoft and Norton.

Please send it to everybody you know who has access to the Internet.

You may receive an apparently harmless email with a Power Point presentation

'Life is beautiful.'

If you receive it DO NOT OPEN THE FILE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES , and delete it immediately.

If you open this file, a message will appear on your screen saying: 'It is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful.'

Subsequently you will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC and the person who sent it to you will gain access to your name, e-mail and password.

This is a new virus which started to circulate on Tuesday afternoon.

AOL has already confirmed the severity, and the antivirus software's are not capable of destroying it.

The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself 'life owner'

PLEASE TELL THIS TO A FRIEND.

ABOUT ARK SOLUTIONS

2010-10-21T02:33:00.000-07:00

ARK computer solutions is located in East Africa Uganda in the capital city of Uganda kampala. ARK solutions is a small company that started in 2008 in Makerere University, the company started small by two friends, Kisembo Robert Atwooki(admin of this blog) and Waswa Arthur who has since moved and started his own company known as quid pro quo also offering IT services. The two friends by then were second year students of Information Technology at the faculty of computing and IT Makerere University kampala. Today Kisembo Robert is the director of ARK solutions. ARK was mainly operating in areas around Makerere University and in campus mainly helping people in trouble shooting computer problems, software supply and maintenance, simple networking, hardware problems troubleshooting and other computer issues. Today ARK operates in a mobile way. ARK has a mission to grow as one of the leading IT firms in Uganda providing all IT related services and promoting research in the IT sector. To get help from ARK mobile workers you can call 0752258605.

HOW WE WORK

You have any computer issue or problem?
You give us a call on 0752258605, , email bobbieworld14@yahoo.co.uk.
We come and trouble shoot the problem.
We tell you what is to be done.
Then we work on it.
You can then enjoy hassle free computer usage.

SERVICES WE OFFER

General computer repairing and mantenaince.
Softwares of all kinds, designing softwares, OS CDs, financial softwares, antivirus softwares and many more.
Website designing.
We teach applications.
Networking cafes, home networks, office networks and troubleshooting networks.
we give computer advice.
we teach computer applications use.
Many more.
Get latest computer information from our blog, we update it every day.
We sell computers and accessories.