Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Oliver: I just read your article about replacing a hard drive with an SSD and I have a question about it.
I remember hearing that upgrading the graphics card in a computer can sometimes require a power supply upgrade as well because the newer graphics card will draw more power than the old one.
My question is do I need to be concerned about the power supply if I replace the hard drive in my computer with an SSD?
Question from Jamey: Hi Rick. I hope you can answer a question for me.
I get my Internet from my telephone company and it’s really slow. Well, at least a lot slower than it should be.
I’m supposed to be getting 100 Megs for downloads but according to SpeedTest.net it’s only about 2 Megs even with my desktop computer connected directly to the modem.
Nothing else is connected at all to the Internet at all, not even with WiFi.
I have already power-cycled the modem to make sure that isn’t what’s causing the problem.
I read your post about powerline networking adapters and I was wondering if using one of them instead of an Ethernet cable would make my Internet any faster.
I’ll really appreciate your thoughts on this. Thanks!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Bailey: Hi, Rick. I have a bad problem and I need help ASAP.
I was browsing Facebook last night and clicked on a link that caught my attention. As soon as I clicked it my screen went solid blue and the computer froze up completely.
I finally just unplugged it and it booted back up into Windows, but now none of my programs will open. It’s running real slow too.
I’m sure the link I clicked probably put a virus on my system but my Norton antivirus software won’t open so I can’t run a scan.
Is there anything I can do to fix this problem besides just buying a new computer? [Read more…]
Question from Marion.: Why are computers made by Apple called Macs?
That seems like a really odd name for a computer.
It actually sounds more like something you’d find on the menu at McDonald’s.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
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Question from Devin: A few weeks ago I ordered this new Dell laptop and found out after I got it that it doesn’t have an optical drive.
Is it possible to add a DVD-RW drive to a laptop that didn’t come with one from the factory? [Read more…]