Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Can a laptop with a bad power connector be fixed?

Posted on September 23, 2018

Question from Ron: My Toshiba laptop seems to have an intermittent short in the motherboard power connector.

Most of the time it acts like the AC adapter isn’t even plugged in, but if you wiggle the connector a certain way it will sometimes start charging the battery and the screen will get brighter.

I know the problem isn’t a bad AC adapter because it does the same thing with my wife’s adapter plugged in (we have identical laptops).

This laptop is only 14 months old (2 months out of warranty) but I don’t want to spend almost as much as I could buy a new one for to get it fixed. I’m afraid it might need a new motherboard, but I’m hoping it’s something a lot simpler and cheaper.

Do you think this can be fixed without laying out too much cash?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Can you recommend a good parental control software that’s free?

Posted on September 23, 2018

Question from Renee: I just bought my 9 year old son his first computer. It’s an Acer laptop with Windows 10.

Can you recommend a good parental control software program that doesn’t cost a lot (hopefully free)?

Ideally the program would prevent him from visiting porn sites and downloading any programs.

Any advice you can give me will be much appreciated. Thanks.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why does my laptop shut down our Wi-Fi network every time I turn it on?

Posted on September 22, 2018

Question from Ronnie M.: Hi Rick. I have a really strange problem that I need help with.

We’ve had Xfinity Internet for years and the Wi-Fi has always worked perfectly until recently.

A couple of weeks ago my Dell laptop started causing our Wi-Fi network to completely shut down every time I turn it on.

The Wi-Fi can be working perfectly on our other computers, on our phones and on the kids’ Xbox, but within 5 minutes after turning on my laptop the Wi-Fi stops working on everything in the house. The devices still show an active connection but we can’t do anything on the Internet.

The crazy thing is I don’t even have to be using the Internet on my computer for this to happen.

In fact, I don’t even have to have a web browser open. It just happens. But the Wi-Fi starts working again on the other devices just as soon as I shut my laptop down.

Do you have any idea what could be causing this? I thought it might be a virus but I have three antivirus programs running on my computer and none of them are finding anything.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why does my computer shut down after running for just 10 minutes?

Posted on September 21, 2018

Question from Dale J.: Rick, I have a really weird problem with my HP desktop computer. One day last week it just started shutting down on its own after running for about 10 minutes.

I researched the problem online and one of the articles I read said one of the fans might have stopped working. Per the writer’s instructions, I removed the side panel in order to check to see if any of the fans weren’t spinning.

All of the fans appeared to be operating normally, but the weird thing is the computer never shut down. I left it running like that all day, then re-installed the cover. Sure enough, it shut down after just a few minutes had passed.

I removed the cover again, and again the computer ran just fine without shutting down. Am I doomed to use this PC forever with the cover removed?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Review: Lenovo ThinkCentre M710e Business Desktop Computer

Posted on September 20, 2018

It seems that most computers on the market these days are either general purpose computers or gaming PCs.

But did you know there’s still a thriving market for business-oriented computers?

The typical business PC is something of a cross between general purpose machines and gaming rigs.

Business computers need a hefty amount of processing power and RAM but they don’t really need a powerful graphics card like a gaming PC.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M710e Business Desktop PC (#ad) hits that sweet spot quite well. Take a quick look at these specs: [Read more…]