The Art of Troubleshooting...

You bought a new Laptop and have been using it without any hitches. Weeks have passed and suddenly you feel your new baby is not performing as it used to.

Your computer has been running fine for months, when


Dealing with machines in general leads to frustration and often is time consuming. However, following a few guideline can help you to become proficient in Troubleshooting problems. From my little experience with Computers, I have found out that the best way to approach a computer related problem(s), you have to think like a Doctor.

A good Doctor will proceed with his/her patient with an open mind. Meaning he will not come to conclusions
without a diagnosis, first. The same process can be applied for a Computer or a Laptop which is not doing what it is supposed to be doing best.


I will be introducing you to a  Troubleshooting Theory Model which is just a set of mental steps to help us fix the problem. This Model includes talking to yourself (no, I am not asking you to become mad.) to determine how and when the problem took place, determining a cause, verification, and documentation.

• Identify the problem

 If you are reading this, that means your computer is not working properly in the first place. Look out for the symptoms of the problem.

Is it a degradation in the performance of the computer/laptop in question?
Is it an error message that popped up?
Is something not accessible?

I should add, that at this stage it is recommended, if not critical, to backup! Get those important documents, project works on a thumb drive or an external hard disk.

• Establish a theory of probable cause (question the obvious)

 Time to analyse the issue in question and come up with a theory as to what might be wrong. In simple terms, at this stage you are playing a "Guessing" game! And keep it simple.

Do not overlook the obvious things that might have cause the problem. Things such as a loose power cord, preventing the machine to power up properly. A dimmed monitor may cause a person to think that his monitor is dead.

• Test the theory to determine the cause

 At this stage you already have an idea of what is causing the problem and you need to confirme this idea.
Sometimes the theroy you have formed and the fix for the theory, pretty much prove themselves at the same time.

For instance, lets say the power plug is not plugged in properly in. You notice no life from the PC when the power button is pressed

• Once theory is confirmed determine next steps to resolve problem

• If theory is not confirmed re-establish new theory or escalate

• Establish a plan of action to resolve the problem and implement the solution

• Verify full  system functionality and if applicable implement preventive mesaures

• Document findings, actions and outcomes.

Latest Rapidshare Revision

Latest Rapidshare Changes:

While admitting that they received mostly negative feedback from their customers, the folks at Rapidshare decided it was not confusing enough to change their policy AGAIN. Thus, making my previous post irrelevant.

So now, Rapidshare users will have only one uniform Package, guess what... It’s called RapidPro.

First things First.

Some of the new items which were introduced previously will remain unchanged. For instance:

• It is Free to create a new Premium account (which I forgot to mention in my previous note). Yes free! But once you discover that you need to buy Rapids later for the account to be of any use, you will see how this illusion fades away.

• As mentioned, your premium account will not be deleted once you are out of fuel
• Speaking of fuel, the Rapids will still be your main currency.
• And the pricing of the Rapids remains the same:

Onto the new changes here:

• No more RapidSmall, RapiMedium , RapiBig, RapidSupersize, RapidBusiness packages.
• Only one Package for all: RapidPro
• More details on the new Package below:

For heavy uploaders and downloaders:

• If this package does not suit your needs, RS provides you the flexibily to expand your storage (for uploaders) and your traffic (for downloaders) limit by using up Rapids.
• More details below:

Let’s say you’re a heavy uploader and you’ve consumed all of your 10GB in less than 30 days and you wish to upload more, the only way is to use your Rapids to purchase more storage.

1 GB of Additional storage for uploads = 2 Rapids per month
2 GB of Additional storage for uploads = 4 Rapids per month
And so on…

Now let’s say you love to download huge files (movies, video tutorial, and anime) and you’ve used up all of your 30GB in 1 single day! And you wish to download more. The only way is to use your Rapids and buy more traffic volume.

5GB of traffic volume = 14 Rapids
10GB of traffic volume = 28 Rapids
… maximum traffic volume you can buy in one go is 100GB.

Some final points:

Under Premium Zone, after logging in. Expanding the Settings option, will reveal the following:

• Keep files forever

This option concerns the Uploaders.

1. After 60 days, your upload stuff will not be deleted if no one downloads them.
2. Plus if you decide to buy additional storage, you will be charged only for the additional storage you bought.
3. To illustrate this, I’ve draw a little diagram. Suppose that you’ve reached your upload limit of 10GB of storage and you decided to purchase an extra of 10GB of storage, you will be charged only on this extra 10GB you purchased:

• Automatic purchase of traffic

This option concerns the Downloaders:

If checked, this option automatically purchases more traffic volume once you’ve reach the limit (30GB) before 30 days by using your Rapids.

• Automatic RapidPro Extension

See Diagram below: