Hardware

New Articles at Terry’s Computer Tips

By terry Leave a Comment

I write my weekly online and email newsletters. Then, occasionally I get around to converting some of the newsletter articles into web pages.

Google and the other search engines like web pages more than they like online newsletters — the newsletters get indexed fairly quickly, but then get dropped as "old" pretty quickly, too.

Here are the latest editions. I’ll add them to the listing on the front page in a few days…

* Creating a Blog For Family and Friends

Blogs are one of the easiest ways to create a web site. You can do it for free, too…

* Internet Explorer + Outlook Express Problem

Links in Outlook Express don’t work after upgrading to IE7 for some people. The fix is easy…

* Computer Shuts Down By Itself

I’m sure you’ve never had this problem <grin> — if you haven’t, you will…

* Turning Off System Restore

Sometimes we need to turn off System Restore — and not because we want to save disk space…

* I’ve Reconsidered the Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router

After Linksys changed the internals on the WRT54G as of version 5, it was a totally different router. After some more changes, it’s better now…

Filed Under: Anti-Adware, Anti-Spyware, Anti-virus, Hardware, Internet Explorer, Networking, Outlook Express, System Control, Terry's Computer Tips, Web Browsers

Disadvantages of a Notebook Computer

By terry Leave a Comment

I’ve mentioned many times that my main computer is my notebook computer. Sure, I have a desktop computer, too, I just don’t use it very much. I also have my home theater PC and a Linux-based file server for backup. But, my Dell Inspiron 8600 is the real workhorse.

In this week’s online newsletter, my article Why Buy a Notebook Computer? I’ve written about making the decision on whether or not to buy a notebook computer — and when to go for the cheaper models.

But, first, let’s consider some of the limitations of a notebook computer, as compared to a typical desktop computer.

These include:

Price — for an equally capable computer, a notebook is more expensive
Fragility — the notebook is meant to be easily moved from place to place. But, it’s more likely to be dropped and broken than is a desktop computer. The built-in LCD display is one of the most expensive cost items, at least in terms of repair, as well as being the most fragile.
…

Continue reading Disadvantages of a Notebook Computer

Filed Under: Hardware, Terry's Computer Tips

Saving Money on Computer Memory

By terry Leave a Comment

Whether you are buying a new computer or wanting to expand an old one, desktop or notebook, additional memory is one of the cheapest and easiest upgrades you can do.

Tech Tip
If you’re buying a new computer, memory is often one of the highest-priced add-on options that manufacturers offer � usually much higher than the market price for the memeory. Adding memory to your computer is an easy upgrade.

Sites like Crucial Technology, from whom I buy my computers’ memory, offer easy to use wizards to find the right memory for your particular computer.

Filed Under: Hardware, Memory, Speed-up

Adding a SATA Hard Drive to Your System

By terry Leave a Comment

In order to use a hard drive with an existing Windows XP system, you have to prepare the hard drive before Windows XP can use it.

The good news is that you can do this in Windows XP while WinXP is running, and even while you are doing something else.

To do this, you want the Disk Management part of
Start, Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, Administrative Tools, Computer Management , Storage, Disk Management (Local)

This will display the multiple hard drives (Disk 0, Disk 1, etc) and the partitions on them.

Right-click on the SATA drive and create the partition size you want and then format it (NTFS format, unless you have a particular reason that you want FAT32).

Filed Under: Hard drive, Hardware, SATA, Storage, Terry's Computer Tips, Windows XP