5 REASONS BEHIND YOUR FREQUENT LAPTOPS AND COMPUTER SYSTEMS CRASH

 Are you fed up of frequent system crashes of your computer system of laptops? If yes then find  out the reason first and then a solution to it.

 Some of the common reasons behind computer system crash are listed below:

 5 reasons why PCs and laptops crash U must know:

1. Hardware conflicts

One of the most prominent reasons to why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through a unique interrupt request channel (IRQ).

For example, some usual connections are:

 A printer - connects internally on IRQ 7.

 Keyboard - usually uses IRQ 1

 Floppy disk drive - uses IRQ 6.

Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

With a lot of devices connected to your system, not installed properly, any two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. Now when the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. In order to check if your system is suffering from a hardware conflict you need to follow the steps given below:

àGo to Start menu à Settings àControl Panel à System àDevice Manager

If the device is suffering from a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

Use proper precaution before doing it yourself.

 Initially, the computers come with only eight IRQs. Today, the systems come with just double the no. i.e. 16 IRQs.

2. Bad Ram

Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring you to the blue screen with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. This error message indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes, it may mean a part is damaged and needs replacement.

But the reason behind a fatal error caused by RAM might be a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) RAM with 60ns RAM will usually force the computer to run all RAM’S at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the RAM is overworked.

A possible solution to this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the RAM. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected RAM problem is to rearrange the RAM chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out and put across a single high capacity RAM or RAM’s with same speed. While handling RAM’s to take care of the golden connections, as they are quite fragile.

Parity error messages also refer to RAM. Modern RAM chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be one of the reasons to your trouble.

3. Hard disk drives

After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

 Start àPrograms àAccessories àSystem Tools àDisk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimization. This can be adjusted by going to

Go to Start àSettings àControl Panel àSystem Icon àPerformance àFile System àHard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Shortcut to temp folder: go to run à type %temp% àpress enter àselect all and delete.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors.

Otherwise you can also make use of task scheduler and assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

4. Viruses

Virus attacks can be a most possible reason for your system crash if your system is not protected by some good antivirus software.

Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer. However now antivirus comes with auto update features. Many a times, we do switch off auto update options to prevent use of internet by applications to avoid our internet connection going slow. But antivirus updates are an important requirement to avoid system attack by viruses.

Keep updating your virus definition file regularly.

Some good antivirus programs are available such as:

        a)      McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates

        b)      Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec

        c)      Avast antivirus and many more….

5. Overheating

Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails to work properly or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and may generate a particular kind of error called a “kernel error”. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.

Also it has been seen as a normal behavior that we do put our laptops on beds while working leaving no space between its base and bed and hence the laptop get heated up. And this overheating leads to frequent system crash.

External cooling fans are available in the market to make your work easy and comfortable do purchase them and enjoy….

Read More

HOW TO CALCULATE YIELD TO MATURITY?

YIELD TO MATURITY :

YTM is that rate of discount (r) which makes the present value of cash inflows from the bond (in form of interest and redemption value) equal to the cash outflow on purchase of the bond.

The yield to maturity is calculated as given below:

                           

STEP 1:

Use the given formula and put YTM =rate of interest.

P_{0 =}[I_t * PVIFA _(YTM,n) ]+[MV *PVIF_(YTM,n)]

HERE,

 P₀ = current market price

 I_t = annual cash inflow

 MV= maturity value

 N= no. of years

STEP 2. 

Compare the lhs and rhs and take another value of “YTM” according to the cases given below until you get a range between which the CMP lies.

Cases:

1.       IF RHS  is smaller than LHS (RHS<LHS)	Take a lower value of YTM
2.       IF RHS is greater than LHS(RHS>LHS)	Take a higher value of YTM

STEP 3:

When  V_L  < CMP < V_H  apply the given formula.

YTM=     L    +    [   (V_L – CMP) / (V_L-V_H)  *(H - L)    ]

L= lower rate

H= higher rate

CMP=  current market price

V_L = value @lower rate

V_H = value @higher rate

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read More

INSIGHT TO DERIVATIVES: AN INVESTMENT OPTION

The three main categories of financial instruments are:

• Equities(i.e. stocks)
• Debt (i.e. bonds and mortgages)
• Derivatives.

Derivatives are one of the three main categories of financial instruments.It is a financial contract between two parties whose value is measured as the value of the underlying assets. In actual an underlying corpus is made which consists of one security or a combination of different securities. The value of the derivative is the value of the created corpus and keeps on changing as the value of the underlying assets change. The term securities may confuse you but it is nothing but just a term used for all tradable assets. All the tradable assets are securities example: bonds, shares, stocks, futures, forwards etc.

Lets understand some more about this financial instrument. What is it actually?

Derivative came into existence in 12^th century. It is a contract between two parties. But what this contract actually comprises of?

The contract has the following information clearly described:

1. Important dates.
2. Description of the underlying assets i.e. the securities involved. The most common underlying assets include stocks, bonds, currencies etc.
3. Parties’ contractual obligations.
4. The notional amount.

What do derivatives include?

Here the, Forwards, futures and the swaps are commonly known as “lock products”.

And the options are known as an “option product".

What are these lock and option products?

Lock products obligates the parties to certain terms over the life of the contract. On the other hand, options are not held with any obligations but with rights that are provided to the buyer under the terms specified.

Let’s study in brief about the various derivatives and how they differ from each other.

1.   1. FUTURES:

    Futures are categorized under the lock products and hence obligate the buyer to purchase and seller to sell an asset such as a physical commodity or financial instrument at a predetermined future date and price.                                                                                                                                    As the name itself is self explanatory and can be easily remembered as a product that is locked for future transaction, the future contract may call for physical delivery or can also be settled in cash. Future contracts detail the quantity and quality of the underlying asset, they are standardized to facilitate trading on a futures exchange.

Future markets are known for its high leverage capacity as compared to stock markets.

For example: a farmer can use futures and lock his crops in certain price and reduce risk(hedge) but at the same time the price of the crop may float in a reverse direction and may land the farmer with a loss.

2. FORWARDS: 
With futures as a lock product with a future predetermined date and price, forwards are similar but a bit different from futures. The price of the future transaction under forwards are decided at the time of contract itself and is not a future based parameter.

Forwards are customized contracts between two parties to sell or purchase an asset on a specified price but on a future date. It is of non- standardized nature. Unlike standard future contracts, a forward contract can be customized to any commodity, amount and delivery date. A forward contract can also be settled either in cash or on a physical delivery basis.

Example: A farmer who has sowed the seeds today would be getting his crops after 3 months enters into a forward contract to sell the 10 tons of wheat after 3 months at a price of Rs 50/kg and settlement on the cash basis. Here the price is fixed today but the delivery of a fixed quantity or cash settlement is set on a future date based on the difference in price at that point in time between the two parties with an obligation to sell and purchase.

Now suppose in this case the price after three months can be the following:

• More than Rs50/kg: then the farmer owes the difference between the contracted rate and current spot rate.
• Less than Rs50/kg: the farmer will pay the difference to the other party as per the difference in the current spot rate and the contracted rate.
• Remains Rs50/kg: no money is owned by anyone to each other and the contract is closed.

3. SWAPS: 

Swap is a type of derivative in which the two involved parties exchange their financial instruments so as to gain mutual benefits. The benefits depend upon the type of financial instruments involved. The swaps agreement clearly mentions the dates when the cash flows are to be paid and the way they will be calculated and accrued.

There are different types of Swaps:

1. Interest rate swaps.
2. Currency swaps.
3. Credit default swaps
4. Commodity swaps.
5. Subordinated risk swaps.

4. OPTIONS:

Options are the second type of category other than lock products under the major categories of derivatives.

The options carry with them certain rights rather than obligations as we have seen in lock products.

Options are contracts that give the involved parties the right, but not the obligation to buy (in case of call option) or sell (in case of put option) a specified amount of commodity, currency index or any other financial instrument or to sell or buy the underlying futures at a specified price on or before the specified future dates.

Call option gives the right to buy.

Put option gives the right to sell.

EXCHANGES THAT OFFER DERIVATIVE TRADING IN INDIA

• NSE (NATIONAL STOCK EXCHANGE)
• BSE (BOMBAY STOCK EXCHANGE)
• NCDEX (NATIONAL COMMODITY AND DERIVATIVES EXCHANGE)
• MCX (MULTI COMMODITY EXCHANGE)

Read More

BASICS OF BONDS

BONDS

A bond is a legal document containing an acknowledgement of indebtedness by a company. A bond is a debt instrument which is issued for a period of more than one year. The only purpose of issuing a bond is raising capital by borrowings. It contains a promise to pay a stated rate of interest for a defined period and then to repay the principal at a given date of maturity. However it is not necessary that all bonds pay the interest but all bonds require a repayment of principal.

In essence, a bond is an “IOU- I owe You” or loan issued by the borrower.The moment when a borrower buys a bond he becomes the creditor to the issuer. Unlike an equity holder the borrower of a bond does not get any kind of ownership by the issuer of the bond. Hence, the bondholder does not share in the growth of a company. Whereas a bondholder enjoys the preference of getting paid over shareholders. If sufficient financial reserves are not there, it is difficult to get back the principal by the bond holders.

TYPE OF BONDS

Broadly bonds are classified under three categories i.e.

(1)   Government bonds.

(2)   Corporate bonds.

(3)   Zero-coupon bonds.

GOVERNMENT BONDS- 

These are the fixed income bonds.  Govt. bonds represent the borrowing of the govt. as they are backed by the govt. they are 100% risk free. These are again divided under categories.

(1)   BILLS - Debt securities maturing in less than one year.

(2)   NOTES - Debt securities maturing in one to 10 years.

(3)    DEBTS- Debt securities maturing in more than 10 years.

CORPORATE BONDS- 

Corporate bonds represent debt obligation of private sector companies.The company’s earnings ability and debt obligations would determine the bond’s default risk. Corporate bonds are characterized as higher risk yield bonds because there is a higher risk involving of a company than a government bond. A corporate bond can be of short-term, intermediate and long term.

(1)   Short-term-  Such bonds are of less than 5years;

(2)   Intermediate term- is 5-12 years, and

(3)   Long term- over 12 years.

Besides this, corporate bond also includes callable bonds and convertible bonds.

Callable bonds are such types of corporate bonds which are callable and redeemable at any point of time before its maturity period.

And Convertible bonds are those bonds, the borrower of whose can easily convert them into stocks.

ZERO COUPON BONDS (ZCBS)-ZCBs are a special type of bond which does not pay annual interests. It is “issued at discount and repayable at par” type of debt instrument.Because of this nature it is also called as pure discount bonds or DDBs. The return received from a ZCBs expressed on annualized basis is the spot interest rate.

REASONS FOR ISSUING A BOND

Bonds are issued for various reasons by the issuer. The 2 main reasons behind issuing a bond can be.

(1)   TAX SAVINGS

Interest on bonds is deductible while figuring corporate income for calculating income-tax which is not possible for dividends on equity. Thus EPS get increased when financing is through bonds rather than equity or preference shares. 

(2)   GET BENEFIT OF LEVERAGE

The presence of financial leverage in a company is considered by the company’s debt and preference shares. Financial leverage changes the earning before interest and tax (EBIT) and translate it into the larger changes in earning per share (EPS).

  

ADVANTAGES OF BONDS 

(1)   Bonds are attractive to those who are risk averse.

(2)   Bonds are necessary in a portfolio to diversify assets.

(3)   Investors, if properly trained can learn to benefit on the bond price movement and benefit from capital gain.

(4)   Bond " indenture” acts as a proof of its legal existence between the company and bondholder.

(5)   Unlike equity shares, a bondholder enjoys the preference of getting paid first. 

SOME IMPORTANT TERMS RELATED TO BONDS.

(1)   Intrinsic value of the bond- Intrinsic value of bond is equal to the present values of all future cash inflows discounted at the required rate of return.

(2)  Coupon rate- A coupon rate is a fixed nominal rate of interest which is written on the bond certificate and is calculated on the face valve of the bond. It is the rate at which interests are paid to the bondholders at different intervals of time till the date of maturity.

(3)   Current Yield- Current yieldmeasures the annual returnaccruing to the bond holder who purchases the bond from the security marketand sells it beforematurity.

(4)   Yield to maturity (YTM)- Yield to maturity is the compounded rate of return an investor is expected to receive from the bond purchased at current market price from the date of maturity.

(5)   Yield to call (YTC)- Some bonds are callable bonds and are redeemable before the date of maturity at the option of borrower or the issuer at the specific rate.

(6)   Interest rate risk- It refers to variation in returns of bond because of a change in market interest rates.Interest rate risk is composed of two risks:

·         Reinvestment risk

·         Price risk

Read More

STEPS TO SOLVE GOAL PROGRAMMING

GOAL PROGRAMMING: Management by multiple objectives & also referred as multi objective decision making technique.

3 basic things to remember:  
a) Multiple objectives
b) Goal constraints
c) System constraints

GOAL PROGRAMMING FORMULATION:

1) Define decision variables

2) Decide the priority level of each goal.

3) Decide your most important priority & put it in a sequence according to the importance you have given & use deviation variables ( d_i ⁺ & d_i ^-) acting as surplus & slack variables.

4) Then define the system constraints ( the main constraints as used in linear programming).

5) Write objective function: add all the deviation variables which are not of use to minimize the objective function.

6) Solve all the constraints and get the minimized objective.

Example: Conceptual product is a computer company that produces cp400 & cp500 computers. The computers uses different mother boards produced in abundant supply by the company, but uses the same cases & disk drivers. The cp400 model uses 2 floppy disk drives & no zip disk drive whereas cp500 model uses 1 floppy disk drive & 1 zip disk drive.

           Disk drives & cases are bought from the vendors. There are 1000 floppy disk drives, 500 zip disk drives & 600 cases available to conceptual product on a weekly basis. It takes 1 hour to produce cp400 & its profit is 2000 rs. And it takes 1 & half hour to produce cp500 & its profit is 5000 rs.

SOLUTION: 

The company has 4 goals:

Priority 1: Meet a state contract of 200 cp400 machine weekly (goal 1)

Priority 2: Make at least 500 total computers weekly (goal 2)

Priority 3: Make atleast 2500000 rs weekly. (goal 3)

Priority 4: Use no more than 500 man hour per week (goal 4)

Decision variables:

X_1: No. Of cp400 computer produced weekly.

X_2:No. Of cp500 computers produced weekly.

D_i^-: Amount the right hand side of goal is deficient.

D_i⁺: Amount the right hand side of goal is exceeded.

Functional constraints:

2x₁+ x₂ ≤ 1000

X₂≤ 500

X₁ + x₂ ≤ 600

Goals:

1)    200 cp400 computers weekly:

X₁- d₁⁺ +d₁^-= 200

2)     500 total computers weekly:

X₁+x₂-d₂⁺+d₂^-=500

3)2500000 profit:

.2x₁+ .5x₂- d₃⁺ + d₃^-=2500000

3)    400 total man hours weekly:

X₁+ 1.5x₂-d₄⁺+d₄^- =400

Non- negativity constraints:

X₁,x₂,d_i⁺,d_i^-≥0 for all goals.

Objective function:

Priority 1: Minimize the amount the state contract is note met: min d₁^-

Priority 2: Minimize the number under 500 computers produced weekly : min d₂^-

Priority 3: Minimize the amount under 2500000 rs. Produced weekly. : min d₃^-

Priority 4: Minimize the man hours over 400 used weekly: min d₄⁺

Formulation summary:

Min. D₁^-+ d₂^-+ d₃^-+d₄⁺

s.t.c.

2x₁+x₂≤1000

x₂≤500

x₁+x₂≤600

x₁–d₁⁺+d₁^-=200

x₁+x₂–d₂⁺ +d₂^-=500

.2x₁+.5x₂-d₃⁺+d₃^-=250

X₁+1.5x₂-d₄⁺+d₄^-=400

X₁,x₂,d₁⁺,d₁^-,d₂⁺,d₂^-,d₃⁺,d₃^-,d₄⁺,d₄^-

Read More