Since we know our computer will someday fail, we all make regular backups, right? OK, so not as often as we should. Let's leave that topic for another time. What I would like to offer today, is to have you inspect the configuration of your computer before it does it's breaky breaky.

Here's the thing - if you bring your computer into a shop after it is in a situation where the tech can no longer start it up, the tech has to guess on which drivers were installed that made all those lovely devices on your computer work correctly. By providing a list of all the installed drivers on your computer, you can potentially save the tech a fair amount of time, which translates into saving you money on repair.

If you are running Windows XP, you can find all the installed devices by right clicking on 'My Computer', select 'Properties', click the 'Hardware' tab, then click the 'Device Manager' button. Windows 98 users can go to the Control Panel and select 'System'. This brings up a list of  all installed devices. Make special note of installed Display Adapter(s), Network Adapter(s), and the Sound components. Many of these are now commonly installed on the motherboard, so it can be time consuming to research what the appropriate driver is for each piece.

Even more helpful for when 'it' breaks, is to actually "have" all the drivers with your computer. All it takes is a to keep all those CD's that came with your computer (and any devices you have added) all in one place. When your computer needs to have it's life force put back, these are of tremendous help in the healing process.

If you have a Mac, you can ignore the whole 'listing' part of this eNote. Qualified Apple techs will have the Apple inspection program that will answer the device questions for them. It is still a good idea to keep all the device drivers and CD's that you have used to set up your computer in one place and make them available to your tech when 'it' breaks.

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