With a little help from my friends

I had a friend email me tonight saying he was having computer problems agin. This is the same person I was helping with Crossloop on Thursday. It would seem like he had an eventful weekend. First he was having sound issues so he bought a new sound card with no luck and when he put the old one back it worked. Secondly he contracted a virus visiting some questionable sites on the internet . It recieved so many errors it shut the system down. he then re-partitioned and formated and reinstalled Windows(XP) , Then after he get;'s it running again he runs into "Bios Checksum Error-insert system disk and press enter" which locks up his system. Repeat re-partition/format/ reinstall Windows again. Mean time his floppy didn't work right so he puts in another which causes an error but still works. When he reinstalls original floppy it works fine. The last message I received was that his hard drive was clicking and freezing up his computer. I like this friend very much but sometimes I just got shake my head in wonder. He seems to be one of those people that if he sits more than 30 minutes in front of his computer something can and will go wrong as Murphy's Law would say. I feel really bad I wasn't able to help him out more. Some things that can be learned from this are:

1. Questionable viewing habits- He was after some sites for serial numbers and perhaps pirate software of some sort. From lessons I've learned is that these sites are so loaded with spyware and virus's it isn't funny. I recommend sites like Majorgeeks.com or FileHippo.com that have freeware programs that are safe and they most likely have a program that will fit your needs.
2. Keep It Simple Stupid Or K.I.S.S. - Check the simple things first. His problem could have been a simple one to fix at the beginning avoiding all the partitioning and formatting(which I believe to be a last resort not first) he did.If your stressed out take a break and step away from the machine for awhile. I've done this and it does help.
3. You have friends - He called us once since Thursday when we weren't home. I tried his cell but I got no answer. No matter how alone you feel with a problem don't be afraid to ask for help. Whether it be a techie friend or just doing a simple Google search he may have found the solution to to his problems. As much as know about computers there are many who know more. A lot of times it's not what you know as opposed to where you can find the answer. You'd be surprised as to how many solutions I've found just by entering into a Google search.

Well I wish my friend the best of luck and I hope to hear from him again. Thanks for coming by I'll talk to you later.