I wish I had dressed up like a computer for Halloween. I don't know of anything more frightening.

I spent time in the Army. I have been mugged on a city street. I flew airplanes without the natural ability for that task, and I have survived a couple of bad car wrecks.

But nothing in my life has frightened me like a computer. As soon as something goes wrong at home, I start feeling this blinding, panicked need to fix it fast. My bald head develops quivering dots of sweat. And I get this overwhelming urge to do something, anything.

This high-tech fright seems to hit computer users of all experience levels.

If I had to rank the various causes of computer disasters, I'd rate the panicked "fixing" of computers ahead of viruses, worms and lightning strikes.

I was reminded of this a few weeks ago. My main home computer suddenly developed a memory nearly as bad as my own. It would work fine for a while and then lose a hard disk. When I restarted the PC, it would forget that it had a CD drive.

Now, this is a classic symptom of a dying battery in a desktop computer.

That battery --- usually a shiny disc the size of a quarter --- preserves the set-up information for your computer. Included in the set-up information are the location and size of your hard disks and CD drives, along with other more esoteric data.

So, instead of continuing to check things out, I popped the case and replaced the battery.

If anything, the computer got even flakier. The machine's hard disk light flashed and flickered like a firefly on drugs. The machine would freeze up and then pop back into action. Things were getting ugly. And that fueled my panic and lowered my IQ to somewhere between the level of a daisy and a chipmunk.

Somehow, I decided I should reinstall Windows XP. There is no logical reason why that would help and --- in a more sane state of mind --- I would not have done it. But with my panic-induced stupidity, I wasn't able to think of anything else to try at the moment. And I was downright desperate to try something.

To say that things didn't go well would be like saying that Bill Gates is prosperous. Crashes and freezes made the installation stall. When I was finished, the main hard disk that once had acted strange now didn't act at all. It was as dead as roadkill.

Instead of taking a deep breath and telling myself that maybe I needed some time to think, I performed a long list of insane tasks. I won't repeat them, because I promise you that they were all the wrong things to do.

Maybe I just got exhausted. But finally, I had my first smart notion. I unplugged the computer and sat on my front porch for a while. I watched the cat disassemble a bug and spent some time thinking.

I decided to open up the PC and see if anything looked strange. I knew it would be a good idea to make sure that the data cables to the hard disks were seated correctly.

They were seated firmly at the connecting points. But I noticed that something looked screwy with the ribbonlike cable that is used as the data connection for the older hard disks in my machine.

It was folded over on itself like someone's clumsy attempt to tie a bow on a Christmas package.

Since I was the person who installed the disks, I didn't have anyone else to blame. But I wondered --- since that computer is used as a test machine for a lot of different devices --- if all the installing and removing of hardware had aggravated the cable to the point of destruction.

Replacing the cable was easy. I keep a lot of spare parts around. So I dug out a new cable and popped it into place. Turns out, that was the right thing to do.

Now, other than the main hard disk that was messed up because of my mistaken notion of reinstalling Windows, things were looking up. Within 30 minutes or so, I was able to reverse most of my failed attempts at repair and get the machine running again.

That's when I decided to tell you about all this. It was a perfect example of starting with a small problem and then, through stupidity or ignorance, making it into a big problem.

It's embarrassing for me. After all, I earn a living telling you how to fix computers. But I made a mess of fixing a relatively simple problem --- one that would have been obvious had I taken time to check out the computer before starting my repairs.

But I think that it's a valuable lesson. I'm not alone in suffering from computer-induced panic. And it's not limited to those of us who work on computers. With you, the panic may cause you to do something crazy while installing software. Or you may act like a fool when a program fails to work.

Next time trouble hits with a computer at home, simply turn the machine off. Wait a few minutes and turn it back on again.

If everything works, don't do a thing. If the problem persists, take some time away from the computer to think of possible causes for the problem.

Then if you feel as if you know what you need to do, feel free to try it. But take your time. And if you're not sure what to try, then keep Husted's Fourth Law of Computing in mind:

Some computer problems are best repaired with a credit card.

tecbud@ajc.com