computer hardware Archives - Page 2 of 10

Quickly get all of your PC’s technical specs and info with Speccy

Posted on February 8, 2025

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Unless you enjoy “popping the hood” on your PC and getting to know its innards on a first-name basis, you probably have no clue what all is inside there.

Sure, you know there’s a CPU, a motherboard, a hard drive or SSD, RAM sticks and a number of other components, but you probably don’t know many of the technical details about those components.

Computer parts such as the ones listed above vary greatly in terms of speed, capacity, and software compatibility so it pays to have a handy reference just in case you ever need to call Tech Support or install a new piece of software (or even upgrade to a new version of Windows). [Read more…]

Q&A: Why do drive letters start with ‘C’ on Windows PCs?

Posted on June 28, 2024

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Brittney: I have a question I’ve been wanting the answer to for a long time and nobody seems to know the answer.

Now that I’ve found this site I’ll ask you.

I’ve noticed that the drive letters in computers always start with “C” and go up from there?

There doesn’t seem to be an “A” drive or a “B” drive. Can you tell me why that is? [Read more…]

Q&A: How do I disable the keyboard on my laptop?

Posted on May 6, 2024

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Greg: I dropped my heavy book bag onto my laptop’s keyboard several days ago, and when it landed I heard a cracking sound.

The keyboard still works, but at random times it’ll just start typing garbage on its own. It’s basically unusable so I’d like to disable the built-in keyboard and use a cheap USB keyboard in its place.

I know I can have the internal keyboard replaced but I don’t want to go to the trouble or expense since I’m going to be replacing this machine in a few months anyway.

So what I need to know is can I disable my laptop’s built-in keyboard? If I can, how do I do it? [Read more…]

Q&A: Can counterfeit RAM damage a laptop?

Posted on April 9, 2024

Note: The links in this post are affiliate links.

Question from Hailey: Rick, I think I’ve gotten myself into a mess and I need your advice.

I recently purchased two RAM modules on Ebay to go an older laptop I own.

The modules I bought were listed and sold as Kingston brand but I just found out that the seller was busted for selling counterfeit computer parts.

The new RAM seems to be working fine in my laptop, but I was wondering if it might cause problems down the road. [Read more…]

Beware of strange noises coming from your computer

Posted on March 22, 2024

If the hard drive in your computer is typical, it makes a distinctive sound that you probably learned to recognize once you had used your computer for a day or two.

The sound coming from your hard drive might be a quiet, smooth hum that you can barely hear (if you can hear it at all) or a slightly louder sound, but whatever sound it makes it should make consistently with very little deviation. [Read more…]