Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Daniel G.: Hi Rick. I just noticed something that has me puzzled and I hope you can help me understand how it works.
Last night I downloaded a game and installed it on my computer, and it runs just fine.
The thing that’s puzzling me is the game was a 30GB download but it runs on my computer even though it only has 8GB of RAM.
What trick are they using to shoehorn 30GB of code into 8GB of RAM? Is it compressed somehow?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Tom J.: I have a 4TB Seagate external hard drive that recently came down with a bunch of bad sectors even though it’s only about 2 years old.
A friend of mine said I could do a low level format of the drive to lock out the bad sectors and the rest of the drive would work just fine.
What’s your opinion on this? I hate to just trash a drive that large when it still has most of its capacity available, but I don’t want to risk losing my files either.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Adam G.: I’ve been using Avast Antivirus for a few months, and for the most part I really like it. I know you use it too, so I thought you might be able to help me solve a problem I’m having with it.
I was just tipped off by one of my customers that Avast is placing what is essentially an ad promoting their software into the footer of my outgoing emails.
I actually don’t mind the ad in my personal emails since Avast allows me to use their software for free, but I don’t like them showing up in my business emails. How can I remove them?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Do you enjoy keeping up with the latest in technology?
If so, you probably know that replacing your router’s proprietary firmware with the free open-source DD-WRT firmware could possibly increase your Wi-Fi speed, extend your wireless range and make your wireless connection more stable.
That being said, you might also be afraid to install DD-WRT on your own expensive router because of the very real chance that you might accidentally “brick” it.
Well, now you can actually buy an awesome wireless router that comes from the factory with DD-WRT already installed! [Read more…]
Question from Jeffrey D.: I’m looking to replace four ancient Dell Windows Vista desktop PCs that we use to run the custom inventory software I use in my business.
That software runs just fine on these machines and I’m only replacing them because Windows Vista is no longer being supported by Microsoft.
I’ve tested the software on a Windows 10 PC and it runs fine so there are no worries about software compatibility.
I don’t need anything fancy, or even new. What I’m hoping to do is to replace all 4 machines for less than $1,000 total.
I have already replaced the original 17 inch CRT monitors with 22 inch flat panel displays so I only need to replace the towers. The new computers won’t need huge hard drives since the current ones have tiny 320GB drives with plenty of space left over.
Do you know of any dependable refurbed systems that’ll run my software that are within my $1,000 budget (for all 4 PCs)?
Thanks in advance for your help!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]