Educate me in the ways of PC?

Esteemed Computer Geniuses!

A month ago, my laptop crashed, and I had some smart IT guys I know fix it for a discount price, which incidentally was still not cheap. Now I am trying to run WoW on it like I did before, but whereas I used to play for 3 hours before it would overheat, lag, and need a rest, it is now more like 5 minutes of gameplay before that happens. So my smaller enquiry is... what's up with that?

The greater issue at hand is that I'm getting a little worn out of not knowing what's going on with my computers. This is like my 4th crash on my 3rd computer in about 7 years, and I grow weary of having to always seek others' help with my pc problems. My question for you is... where do I start? I have a lot of respect for the number of people in this community who know PC's backwards and forwards, and I am kind of hoping you will be willing to share your wisdom with someone willing to learn. Any informative literature or tools that you could recommend would be awesome, be it a book, website, magazine that you feel like has helped inform someone like you to learn what you learned about computers. I know it's a pretty broad field, so I'll close out by thanking you for your help and listing some more directed things I want to learn:

1. Some BASIC programming skills
2. Comprehension of PC hardware components
3. Troubleshooting Network connection problems
4. How to buildmy ownDesktop Tower
5. How to identify crap computers in a store
6. How to keep my software/drivers etc. up to date
7. Identifying useful software from expensive, commercialized, lesserware (like Norton)

Thanks for any help!

Google is your friend.

The best way to learn about those things is by doing some research, rather than asking people on a forum. I'm not saying your not gonna learn anything here, but everything I have learned so far is by doing some internet searches on specific topics.

I just googled, like how to build a pc. Then I read the guide, anything I didn't understand I googled and kept doing that untill I knew how to build a pc.

Google is your friend.

The best way to learn about those things is by doing some research, rather than asking people on a forum. I'm not saying your not gonna learn anything here, but everything I have learned so far is by doing some internet searches on specific topics.

DJ419

Got it. That's really the direction I'm looking for from this forum though, is suggestions of good resources for that research.

Thanks for all those suggestions, everyone. That certainly helps. And any further comments are still welcome.

Yeah, the way I learned was through google and joining the forums here and trying to understand what everyone was talking about. I started about 2-3 months ago and feel like I have a basic knoweledge of everything but I've still got a ways to go. Mostly it's best to just go through trial and error. Good luck

If you frequent the hardware forums enough, you do learn alot. I was a lurker until I went for my first build. I posted the rig I wanted to build on here, and took feedback from everybody. Then the things I wasn't sure about, I Googled and researched until I made up my mind. Then during the build, I researched plenty of sites about building your own pc.. Specifically Corsair, they have some system build guides with pics that were easy to follow. When I got jammed up about something during the build, I just researched that particular issue on google, and was able to find the solution. I had so much fun building my rig and starting it for the first time, it's really quite easy. In fact, I had so much fun building it, I wish it had been a little more difficult lol. I still have alot to learn, but that's why I love these forums, I surf them alot and I'm like, gawd what are these people talking about.. then do some research on whatever topic it is, and things start to make sense. And you learn... So yes, advice from the gurus on gamespot is invaluable. And to think at one time, I was considering an Aliengreggr107

http://www.tomshardware.combuckwildbob

1. Don't know why you need this.... remember to dim your variables

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2.

CPU - Processes everything except the visuals (if you've got an additional soundcard it won't process sound either)

RAM - temporary store used whilst running a program

GPU - Processes visuals

VRAM - temporary store for visual data (textures, models ect), this along with the GPU is one unit known as the grapphics card

HDD - Also known as hard drive, stores data

Mobo - Also known as motherboard, wires all this lot together

Optical drive - plays optical medai ie DVDs, CDs

PSU - Also known as the power supply, quite simply it supplies power

Case - A box for it all to go into

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3. Unplug everything, master reset and start from the beggining following the instructions in the manual

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4.

1. Follow mobo instructions to fit CPU and CPU cooler

2. Fit PSU to case

3. Screw risers (screws with another screw hole in one end) to the case where they line up with the screw holes in your motherboard

4. Screw in mobo

5. Fit GPU, simply follow your case and mobo instructions

6. Fit HDDs and optical drives (they just screw in at the front of most cases)

7. Wire everything up, power cables: HDDs, Mobo, smaller power connector for mobo, graphics card. Data cables: HDDs to mobo and optical drives to mobo. Headers from case to mobo. All this should be in your motherboard manual.

8. Sell PC

9. Send procedes to markop2003

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5. All of them

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6. Just use windows update and check the manufacturers website every now and then, or you could go through device manager and update them automatically

.

7. Just spend time arround the forums or ask for a specific type of program in a thread

[QUOTE="buckwildbob"]http://www.tomshardware.comX360PS3AMD05

If you frequent the hardware forums enough, you do learn alot. I was a lurker until I went for my first build. I posted the rig I wanted to build on here, and took feedback from everybody. Then the things I wasn't sure about, I Googled and researched until I made up my mind. Then during the build, I researched plenty of sites about building your own pc.. Specifically Corsair, they have some system build guides with pics that were easy to follow. When I got jammed up about something during the build, I just researched that particular issue on google, and was able to find the solution. I had so much fun building my rig and starting it for the first time, it's really quite easy. In fact, I had so much fun building it, I wish it had been a little more difficult lol. I still have alot to learn, but that's why I love these forums, I surf them alot and I'm like, gawd what are these people talking about.. then do some research on whatever topic it is, and things start to make sense. And you learn... So yes, advice from the gurus on gamespot is invaluable. And to think at one time, I was considering an Aliengreggr107

awesome, and very helpful everyone. thank you so much! :D

awesome website DWG, thanks.

awesome website DWG, thanks.

Nokoryous

You're welcome.

@markop2003, thanks for the detailed explanation there. very nice.

I just built a new gaming pc and i beleive i may have fried a peice this was my first built and i should have learned a little more before hand but o well now. i didnt know about the whole grounding the mobo to the case and i did. i didnt use any standoffs and tried to power it up and nothing happened. i look up online and saw where i had to use them and fixed the problem but after i loaded my new os i spent about an hour on it loading empire and played then it froze. i installed all the drivers all the while having to restart after a new freeze every 30 to 20 minutes. then i started getting blue screens does this mean i fried a peice of hardware and if so how do i find out which peice hopefully not all of themFuriousnuts

Your best knowledge is going to be experiential. Get a cheap PC from someone (try craigslist), then completely take it apart and reassemble it. Familiarize yourself with the insides. Install an operating system on it. Then infect that operating system with a virus and clean it manually (using Google as a guide). Everything that most "techie" type people know was learned through experience. We know how to help you with your problems because we have had them ourselves. And if we haven't, someone else certainly has, and it's probably online somewhere. One of my happiest moments was when a friend contacted me a few months ago about a virus on his home computer. I was taking a course at the time, so I didn't have time to walk him through the removal over the phone. I told him to start googling his symptoms and that I would try to help him later in the day. I texted him after classes and he said he'd call me if he needed help. He called me at 1 in the morning and told me he had fixed everything himself, and thanked me for my help. I told him I didn't do anything...and he just said that he never knew he could HELP HIMSELF that way. Genius!!! The biggest obstacle people have is their own fear of their systems. Overcome that, and you are 50% of the way there.theragu40

[QUOTE="theragu40"]Your best knowledge is going to be experiential. Get a cheap PC from someone (try craigslist), then completely take it apart and reassemble it. Familiarize yourself with the insides. Install an operating system on it. Then infect that operating system with a virus and clean it manually (using Google as a guide). Everything that most "techie" type people know was learned through experience. We know how to help you with your problems because we have had them ourselves. And if we haven't, someone else certainly has, and it's probably online somewhere. One of my happiest moments was when a friend contacted me a few months ago about a virus on his home computer. I was taking a course at the time, so I didn't have time to walk him through the removal over the phone. I told him to start googling his symptoms and that I would try to help him later in the day. I texted him after classes and he said he'd call me if he needed help. He called me at 1 in the morning and told me he had fixed everything himself, and thanked me for my help. I told him I didn't do anything...and he just said that he never knew he could HELP HIMSELF that way. Genius!!! The biggest obstacle people have is their own fear of their systems. Overcome that, and you are 50% of the way there.matte3560

[QUOTE="matte3560"][QUOTE="theragu40"]Your best knowledge is going to be experiential. Get a cheap PC from someone (try craigslist), then completely take it apart and reassemble it. Familiarize yourself with the insides. Install an operating system on it. Then infect that operating system with a virus and clean it manually (using Google as a guide). Everything that most "techie" type people know was learned through experience. We know how to help you with your problems because we have had them ourselves. And if we haven't, someone else certainly has, and it's probably online somewhere. One of my happiest moments was when a friend contacted me a few months ago about a virus on his home computer. I was taking a course at the time, so I didn't have time to walk him through the removal over the phone. I told him to start googling his symptoms and that I would try to help him later in the day. I texted him after classes and he said he'd call me if he needed help. He called me at 1 in the morning and told me he had fixed everything himself, and thanked me for my help. I told him I didn't do anything...and he just said that he never knew he could HELP HIMSELF that way. Genius!!! The biggest obstacle people have is their own fear of their systems. Overcome that, and you are 50% of the way there.markop2003