Because relatively speaking, no one else I know comes close to my level of expertise in computer software and hardware. And so as a result, when they have a problem, I'm usually the first person they IM, email or call to get some troubleshooting help. It gets tiresome after a while because I give them simple computer care-taking tips, and they never follow it, and so I think to myself no shit your computer keeps getting STDs.

   

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. My dad, though not technologically illiterate, is dimwitted at times. His desktop was suffering from a case of Loss of Disk Drive, as in, the computer has a DVD drive installed, but explorer did not recognize. So, naturally he thought something terribly bad had gone wrong, he called somebody he works with and they told him to take it to some shop and the shop will keep it for a couple days and figure out the problem and then estimate the cost to fix it. When I was told about this, I was ashamed of my dad for thinking that just because somethings broke, doesn't mean it takes a "professional" to fix it. Knowing exactly what the problem is, I booted up the computer, deleted a few registry entries, restarted, and voila, Disk Drive back in action. He was amazed that I knew how to fix what was wrong. So, I began to explain to him how computer works. I told him that PC's have something called a registry, it houses configuration information, essentially it's the decision maker, it tells the computer what to do and when to do it. when a piece of hardware is not being recognized by Device Manager, it's because the registry hasn't told the computer that the hardware exists. The easiest thing to do to remedy this situation is to delete the files from the registry that are supposed to tell the computer there's a disk drive, then when the computer starts up, the computer will recognize the disk drive as a new piece of hardware and recreate the registry entries. Problem solved.

The Disk Drive is one of the most common drives that becomes unrecognized by the computer. Programs that take control of your Disk Drive such as Nero, Roxio, etc, when uninstalled, will sometimes cripple the registry entries pertaining to your disk drive, and poof, your disk drive is gone.

The method to fix this problem is described in great detail on many different websites. Simply google the problem, and you'll find the solution. The directions will tell you exactly where to go and what to do. It's very simple and easy to follow.

Let this be a reminder to everyone, if you have a problem with your computer that you don't know how to fix, chances are that somebody somewhere on this planet has the exact same problem and has found an efficient way to fix it. Just Google your problem, who knows, maybe you'll find a way to fix it yourself without having to shell out money for some techie to laugh in your face because what's wrong is so simple to fix.

Yeah, 99% of computer issues can be Googled. This reminds me of that site Let Me Google That For You:
http://lmgtfy.com/