Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Jane C.: I made a huge mistake Rick and I hope you can help me.
I accidentally clicked “Format” on the wrong drive and ended up formatting a USB flash drive with over 100 important photos on it!
Is there any way to “unformat” a drive that was formatted by mistake? Or maybe there’s some other way to retrieve the files?
I’ll be heartbroken if I’ve lost all those pictures!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Donna Q.: The wireless network adapter in my Gateway desktop computer has stopped working and I need to replace it. I looked on Amazon and BestBuy.com and there are so many to choose from!
I have a Netgear AC 1600 router so I’d like to get a wireless adapter than can connect to it at the fastest speed possible. I’m not all that concerned with price as long as it’s a really good product.
I would appreciate it if you could give me a recommendation. Thanks.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
A Powerline Ethernet Adapter kit is the perfect solution when you need to connect a computer to your home network in a distant room where the Wi-Fi signal is weak, and running an Ethernet cable would be difficult or impossible.
Simply plug one adapter into your router and a nearby electrical outlet and the other adapter into an outlet in the room where you need service, and you’re all set.
I recently had the opportunity to check out the TRENDnet Powerline 500 AV Nano Adapter Kit (#ad), and overall I really like it. TRENDnet is known for making high-quality, highly effective devices, and the Powerline 500 is one of the best I have ever used. [Read more…]
Question from Kelly: I’m an admin on a large Facebook group that now has over 60,000 members.
This is a wonderful group that discusses ways for people to assist loved ones who suffer from a certain debilitating disease.
The problem is the person that created the group (who is also an admin) has stopped making useful posts and now posts nothing but SPAM. I have a feeling he’s selling posts on the group to third-party businesses.
My question is do you know of a way to kick that person out of the group and ban him? Everything I’ve read says I can’t but I thought maybe you know of a way to do it.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Apple has just announced a recall of certain MacBook Pro laptops due to faulty batteries that could overheat and start a fire.
Most (but not all) of the faulty batteries were installed in MacBook Pros that were sold between September 2015 and February 2017.
Luckily, only one specific model is affected by the recall.
Follow these steps to find out if your laptop is one of them: [Read more…]