We all use computers (well maybe there are still some who don’t), but there is a substantial amount of computer users out there. Those computer users use different types of computers, from different types of computing environments. When working with software products and hardware equipment some might cause computer problems, so what can we do? How can we identify the problem?
I will describe some basic reasons for computer problems, which will give us a pretty good cover of what can cause a computer problem? How can we identify it? And of course, knowing those issues can cause us to avoid some of them from happening.

Hardware Issues:

• Plugging/Attaching new hardware – can cause computer problems. There are many hardware devices that get attached to the computer/laptop using the USB connection.

• When we plug a new device to the computer system, the operating system is trying to define it, to be able to recognize it. It starts searching for a known suitable device driver that suits the device we have plugged in, and by doing that define the device as an active accessible device on the system. During that process – sometimes the system has problems identifying the device, and on rare occasions, in windows, it might even cause a crash or a “blue screen of death”.

• Also, in case the USB socket has a problem of some sort, connecting a device through that socket, can cause the system to crash and reboots.

• The motherboard has a battery that preserves the Bios and time clock in sync. It is responsible to give that extra charge, to keep them from damage in case of a computer failure/crash and prevent damage. When the battery has done its duty and doesn’t have enough charge in it anymore, the computer might not start and will start beeping, until you will replace that battery with a new one.

• When a device gets tired, maybe it has some hardware issues, it might cause a short in the electricity of the computer, and either burn important circuits or just cause the computer to crash, or reboot repeatedly.
  

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Software Issues:

• When we install new software, that might be unsuitable to run on our operating system, it might cause the computer/operating system to crash.

• Software gets updated, (This includes the operating system itself that gets updates as well) some updates might cause a computer crash, either if the update has an issue that wasn’t properly tested by the vendor or if the update just collides with something that only your computer has, like some device that is not commonly being used by others.

• Computer drivers can cause problems, in case you have installed the wrong driver to your device. Each device has a specific device driver for each operating system; the vendors produce the suitable device drivers to suit any type of operating system (well at least the most common ones). If you by chance install wrong or unsuitable device driver, that might cause the operating system to become unstable and crash.

• When messing up with the operating system files, you might cause it to become unstable and crash. Only people, who have a strong knowledge of the system files, should touch them. With windows, there is the registry and if you change something on that registry without knowing what you are doing, or what the effects might be due to the changes you made, this might cause the operating system to crash.

These are only examples of such computer problems caused by software and hardware issues. You can seek some more on the web (internet).

Who doesn’t need something from a computer? Who wouldn’t mind to be able to install almost anything without paying for it? Where can we find such an option, what do we need to do? Well there is an answer to these questions and it is within the Linux operating system. Linux is a term that describes to a Unix-Like computer operating system, which is based on a Linux kernel. The base of this operating system is to enable free and open source (system codes opened to the public) software and works under the GPL (General Public License). The Linux operating system can be installed on a wide range of computer hardware.

Thus, it is a recommended option for a free operating system that anyone can use, and of course since it is free of charge, it is cheap. The Linux OS has many applications from almost any type you might need, from monitoring systems, FTP server, WEB servers, E-mail servers, all sorts of GUI applications, which can run on Linux client systems. You can choose from either a Linux server system (which usually comes without a GUI) or a Linux client system, which also has a GUI that resembles the Windows operating system interface.

The basic of Linux is pretty simple, and it just lets you install almost any kind of service you might need. Linux operating system usually doesn’t need much, a very old computer might suffice and so in total you have a very cheap computer as a base, a free of charge operating system, with free of charge applications, So what can I say ? This is the cheapest option you can get for your computer needs.

I always say that I prefer the UBUNTU Linux operating system, it has a major command called “apt-get” which does all of your needs automatically, which means that you can use this command to install the programs you need. It has a repository of known programs, which it knows to discover if you have it installed or not and in case you haven’t installed them, it offers you to download them from the web, and install them automatically. This tool is a major feature that makes the installations really easy.

The problematic issue, is that you need to have some programming, technical computer sense, since after you install the program, most of them require a set of configuration changes, directly made into their configuration files (*.conf). That issue requires some inquiries being done on the web (internet), to learn how to configure the tool/program your installing to fit your requirement and your environment. But, even though I specified that last problematic issue, it is doable, and there is much information on every tool/program on the internet, including others that have installed and configured their programs and of course forums, where people asked questions to their problems while installing, which might resemble the problems you encounter.

Summarizing, The Linux operating system, combined with a regular simple computer (either PC or Laptop) are the cheapest option out there. Those computers with the Linux applications will be able to perform the process you need, with ease, and without much effort. All you need to do is to practice, play around with some simple installation, try to configure them, to use the internet for assistance, and you will discover that it is not as tough as you thought, it require some basic Linux knowledge, but it is something that can be done and in the long term, you will be able to enjoy the open source life, and even save some money.