Crashproof your PC (crashproofpc.com)

Member Name: The Duke

Product:	crashproofpc.com
Date:	02/12/00 (24 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free, Problems mostly solved

Disadvantages: Takes time to get responses

CrashproofPC (also known as PCTips.com) is a bulletin board which deals directly with both hardware and software problems on the PC platform.

You have to register with them in order to post your query, or a reply to someone on their boards, but you can browse other peoples problems without joining. Given that this site has been going for a few years now, there might be enough problems online already wherre you can find some help. Although, saying that, the number of different problems that Uncle Bill's Windows can cause is almost the same amount of money that he has in his mattress!

Generally, the categories are divided into Win95/98/Me, Microsoft Office, Windows Hardware and Win3.1/DOS, although there are topics for other things like Unix, Novell, HTML, Windows NT etc. These are fairly self explanatory, so there's no need to tell you where you can post your queries, is there? (If not, how did you turn on your computer and log on?)

Generally, it's very good. You log on by typing in your username and password, and then type out your query. A bit of advice here is to give as much information as you can, including your systems specification - this helps other people help you. Hit the send button, and sit back and wait.

One of the few drawback about using this site is that it's American, so most of the people who would browse it are behind the UK timewise, so you might have to wait a while to get a response, although there are some British users, and moderators too.

With all sites like this that rely on the average person to help out other people, the more technical your problem is, the less likely you are to get it sorted quickly, if at all, but it's a rare thing when no-one replies to your query. As I stated above, if you supply as much information as you can, then people whill be able to help you a lot quicker than if you suply only the basic details.

If you use your computer a lot, and use a
lot of different software, and hardware, then I would recommend that you bookmark Crashproof PC for future reference, and have a browse - who knows you might be able to help someone out!

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