Laptops are a special breed of computer. They have a lot in common with desktops, but they are quite a bit different too. There are quite a few things all laptop owners should know in order to keep their laptop safe and in good working condition. The usual recommendations that we make for desktops apply to laptops. This includes things like having good, unexpired, up-to-date security software, applying all of the latest Windows updates, and keeping other programs up to date that can cause a security risk. But in addition to those types of things, there are additional recommendations that apply only to laptops.

So, without further ado, here are some tips and recommendations that we hope will help make your laptop experience a better one and will also extend the life of your laptop.

• First of all, don’t get a laptop unless you need one. Laptops cost more to purchase, their performance isn’t as good as comparably priced desktops, and laptops cost more to repair. They also don’t last as long primarily because they take more physical abuse than desktops.
  You should only purchase a laptop if you need portability.

• Keep it cool!
  One of a laptop’s biggest enemies is heat. The cooler you can keep it the longer it will last. To keep it cool, don’t set the laptop on soft surfaces (beds, carpet, overstuffed furniture, or your legs). Putting the laptop on a soft surface blocks vents and fans and makes your laptop hot. I know it seems silly to tell you not to put your laptop in your lap. But if you want your laptop to last, this is a good rule to follow. Get yourself a lapdesk or some other hard surface to put your laptop on. Then you can have it on your bed or in your lap. A lapdesk will also keep the laptop from burning your legs.

• Be careful how you pick it up and carry it.
  NEVER PICK YOUR LAPTOP UP BY THE SCREEN! The screens are the most fragile part of the laptop. They are easily broken. If the laptop is open, carry it with two hands, one on either side of the laptop, in front of you. If the laptop is closed, you can carry it under one arm for a short trip between rooms. For longer trips, put it in a laptop bag.

• AC plug/power jack
  A common problem we see with laptop is that the power jack inside the laptop breaks off the motherboard. When this happens, you can’t charge your battery or run off AC current, so it’s not long before your laptop won’t work at all. Repairing this problem is expensive. To avoid this problem, avoid allowing any side pressure on the plug. When you unplug it, pull it straight out. Don’t wiggle it side to side. Don’t transport the laptop with the ac plug plugged into the laptop.

• Clean the Screen
  If you want to clean the screen on your laptop, be careful. You can easily scratch it and ruin it. Don’t use a harsh cleaner like a glass cleaner. If it’s just dust on the screen, take a very soft cloth and fold it in a square. Then take one flat side and brush it back and forth across the screen gently to get the dust off. If you have more than just dust, we recommend purchasing a screen cleaning kit specifically designed for computer screens. They don’t cost very much.

• Battery
  In the early days of rechargeable batteries, you were told to occasionally let the battery run totally down before charging it. With today’s Lithium-ion batteries, that’s no longer the case. In fact, the opposite is true. Don’t let your battery run totally down. Plug your laptop in and run off AC whenever possible. When running on battery, keep a close eye on it and don’t let it run all the way down. 

• Beverages
  Keep beverages away from your laptop! Because of the design of laptops and because they are often used in places like kitchen tables, restaurants, coffee houses, and so forth, laptops are much more likely to have a beverage spilled on them. Spilling a beverage on a laptop can have devastating results and will most likely be an expensive repair. So keep your coffee as far away from your laptop as possible.

• Maintenance.
  Your average desktop is on all of the time. At night, it does all of the maintenance like windows updates, security software updates, scan for infections, defrag, and other maintenance activities. These types of activities keep the computer safe and in good running condition. But your average laptop only gets turned on when they are being used and then shut down. The result is that the laptop never gets maintained or it tries to do the maintenance when you are using which will slow it way down.

  That’s why we recommend that you leave your laptop on overnight at least once a week. Or, if you don’t want to do that, turn it on and manually perform all of the maintenance. If you leave it on overnight, make sure it’s plugged in and make sure it’s not set to go to sleep or hibernate when plugged in.

  The day before you leave on a trip where you will be taking your laptop with you, boot it up. Update everything. Do a scan with your security software and make sure everything is up to date and working.

• Power
  Many buildings, especially in certain countries, have crappy power. Best case would be to take a UPS with you and use that, but that’s not practical for air travel because of their size and weight. You could do that when you are travelling by car, but it’s still big and heavy. A small surge protector, however, isn’t too heavy and doesn’t take up too much space. Consider taking one with you and plugging your laptop into that instead of straight into the wall.

• Laptop Bag
  Anytime you transport your laptop, we recommend that it be in a good carry case that was designed for laptops. There was a time when laptop bags were pretty standard (and boring). Nowadays, there are lots of options. Backpacks and designer bags are common now. A bag that doesn’t look like a laptop bag is a plus as it is less likely to be stolen. But don’t purchase a bag strictly on how it looks. Make sure the bag has good firm padding all around the laptop and there is some sort of restraint like Velcro that keeps the laptop in the bag so it doesn’t fall out.

• Turn off peer-to-peer (ad-hoc) wireless connections.
  Normally when you make a wireless connection for internet access you are connecting to a wireless router or access point. But it is possible to connect two computers directly together using wireless. This is called a peer-to-peer or ad-hoc wireless connection. When in a public place, you don’t want others connecting directly to your laptop, so configure the wireless on your laptop so that it does not allow peer-to-peer or ad-hoc wireless connections.

• Using public Wi-Fi.
  This is a large subject all on its own. In fact, we are going to devote an article to this subject in an upcoming article. Until then, you should know that since public wi-fi connections are not encrypted, they are not safe. Anyone with the right software can intercept your wireless signal and read the information flowing to and from your laptop. So be careful what you say and do when in this situation. Make sure you have a good firewall. Keep an eye on your surroundings and make sure someone isn’t trying to see what you are doing. Do not access financial or other sensitive or identifying information. Make sure file and printer sharing is turned off.

• Password protecting your windows logon won’t stop someone who knows anything about computers from getting to your data if they get their hands on your laptop. If you really need to protect your data in case your laptop is stolen, encrypt your sensitive data using encryption software.

• Etch your driver’s license number on the bottom of the laptop, and somewhere under an access door as well so your laptop can be identified and returned to you if recovered.

• Consider laptop recovery software. Similar to LoJack for a car. If your laptop is stolen, it can help locate and recover your laptop. It’s not perfect, though. Professional experienced laptop thieves can get around it.

Share on Facebook

What do you usually do with your old computer? There are lots of options. You can give it to a friend. Donate it to a charity, school, or church. You can toss it in the trash. You can take it to Goodwill. Before you do anything with your old computer, stop and think about what information is stored on your computer. Most computers have at least your name, address, email address, passwords, websites visited, pictures, documents, and things like that. Email and documents in particular can contain additional identifying information like date of birth, social security number, account numbers, and so forth.

You may have seen a story in the news lately about copiers having hard drives in them. People can get these hard drives and see most, if not all, of the documents that were copied. Many of them contain sensitive information. It’s the same with computers. There are many stores of people getting sensitive information from people’s old computers.

Before you rid yourself of your old computer, we recommend that you do one of two things. Either take the hard drive out and keep it, or have us wipe the hard drive. Simply deleting files or formatting the hard drive isn’t enough. The files can still be access if you know what you are doing. Reinstalling Windows won’t help either. The hard drive needs to be wiped with a special utility that will make it nearly impossible for anyone to recover the files. Once that has been done, you can install Windows or just get rid of the computer and let the next person worry about installing Windows.

Notice I said nearly impossible. The only way to 100% guarantee that nobody can access your information is to shred the hard drive. But hard drive shredders are not very common and they are expensive. And for most situations, shredding a hard drive is not necessary. A Department of Defense (DOD) compliant wipe is all that is needed.

By the way, if you have given us an old computer to recycle, rest assured your data is safe. We either still have the drive, or we wiped it clean and sent it to Goodwill.

Share on Facebook

This week, another one of our clients spilled a beverage on their computer. When drinking a beverage while using your computer, remember to set your beverage at least 3 feet from your computer and keyboard. Nobody expects to spill a beverage on their computer, but it happens quite often. Especially with laptops because people use them in many different places including kitchen tables.

I personally learned this lesson the hard way. When it does happen, what damage is done depends on several different factors. We sincerely hope this never happens to you, but if it does, here are some things to keep in mind.

If your computer was turned on at the time and is still running, immediately unplug it. If the beverage was water, you should be able to completely dry it inside and out. Once dry, there is a good chance it will turn on and be fine. If your beverage was something other than water, then it will probably be sticky when it dries out.  In that case, any moving parts that the beverage touched may not function or could be shorted out. We recommend you call us in this case, especially for a laptop.

If your computer was on at the time of the spill and it popped, smoked, or turned off on its own, then some damage has been done. How much is hard to predict. If the spill was on the keyboard, the fix can be as easy as replacing the keyboard. However, it can be as bad as frying the motherboard in addition to other components.

Share on Facebook

You may have seen refurbished computers for sale, especially online. But what does refurbished really mean and should you purchase a refurbished computer?

The problem with the term refurbished is that it can mean a couple of different things when it comes to computers. And there seem to be no laws that specify how it may be used. In the world of computers, a refurbished computer is usually one of two things. A new computer that was fixed, or a used computer that was either fixed, or fixed up.

Refurbished new computers are computers that were built, but didn’t pass the manufacturer’s tests. They are then sent to a department of the company where they are fixed and then sold as refurbished. These computers have all new parts and most of the time come with the same warranty as a new computer.

Used computers are often advertised as refurbished, but there is a big difference between refurbished new computers and refurbished used computers. Refurbished used computers are not new and could be any age. The parts used to fix them could be new or they could be used as well. Used computers usually carry anywhere from a 30 day to a 90 day warranty.

Should you purchase a refurbished computer? That depends.  If you are in the market for a used computer, then a refurbished used computer is not really much different than buying a used computer. Just a different word for pretty much the same thing. The only difference there is that the refurbished computer might have some brand new parts in it, so it might last longer. Then again, it might have used parts in it.

As for refurbished new computers, they are just as good as new computers. They are slightly cheaper, but generally not a lot cheaper. There are just two things to keep in mind. First, make sure the refurbished new computer has the same warranty as a comparable new computer. The other thing to keep in mind is that a refurbished new computer is generally sold with whatever configuration it was built in. So you can’t go online and configure it exactly the way you would want it. So if you want a very specific configuration, it might be a little harder to find the computer you are looking for.

Share on Facebook

A computer basically has four possible power states it can be in. On, Off, Sleep (also called standby and suspend mode), and Hibernation. On and off are pretty obvious, so we’ll concentrate on the other two.

SLEEP

When a computer goes to sleep, power is cut to almost all components of the computer except the memory (RAM). The memory will continue to use power to keep the information in memory. When the computer comes out of sleep, the other components are powered up and the computer will be just like it was before it went to sleep. So if you had a web page open, for example, that web page will still be there. Anything else you had running will still be there.

Advantages
Although it still uses power, it saves power compared to when the computer is turned on. When the computer comes out of sleep a lot faster than if the computer had to start up after being turned off. So it will be ready for you to use sooner.

Disadvantages
Windows XP doesn’t handle sleep mode very well. When you come out of sleep on an XP system, there are often networking issues, display issues, and other issues that can make it quite frustrating. Another disadvantage is that when your computer is asleep, it may not be able to perform certain activities. Your security software may not be able to update itself and clean your computer. You may not be able to access your computer remotely. These and other automated tasks that normally run when you aren’t using  your computer may not be able to run when your computer is sleeping. These tasks will either not get done, or they will run when you are using the computer which will slow it down.

Recommendation
We only recommend sleep mode for laptops when on battery power, but not on AC power.

HIBERNATION

We saw how sleep keeps the information in memory alive and shuts down all other electrical components in the computer. Hibernation, instead, takes that same information in memory and writes it to the hard drive and then turns off the computer. So the only real difference between sleep and hibernation is where the information is stored.

Advantages
Unlike sleep, hibernation doesn’t use any power because the information is stored on the hard drive. That is really the only advantage hibernation has over sleep. Hibernation has an advantage over turning off your computer in that it is faster, although not as fast as sleep, and everything you were doing on the computer will still be there.

Disadvantages
Hibernation has the same disadvantages of sleep. In addition to those disadvantages, hibernation has additional disadvantages. Because hibernation has to write the information to the hard drive before going into hibernation and read it from the hard drive when coming out of hibernation, it is much slower to go in and out of hibernation than it is for sleep. It’s still faster than shutting down and turning on a computer, but not much.

Advantages
Hibernation has the same advantages as sleep does plus one more. The big advantage to hibernation over sleep is that it doesn’t use any power.

Recommendations
Like sleep, we only recommend hibernation for laptops on battery power.
 

RECOMMENDED POWER SETTINGS

Now that you understand sleep and hibernation, here’s what we recommend.

Go into the control panel. In Windows XP, click on “Power Options”. For Vista and Windows 7, type in the word power. Then click on the green “Power Options”.

Vista and Windows 7 have power plans. You can select one of the preconfigured power plans or you can create your own. XP just has power settings  you can set.

For a desktop, we recommend you set it so that it never sleeps and never hibernates. You can set it so that the screen will be turned off after a certain period of inactivity. How long is up to you. On Vista and Windows 7 you can even tell it to turn off the hard drive and other components after a certain amount of time. Doing that is OK too.

For a laptop,  you can configure it to act differently depending on whether the laptop is running on AC power or battery power. For AC power, we recommend setting it up just like a desktop. That way, you can leave the laptop plugged in and turned on from time to time and it will do all of that maintenance.

For battery power, we recommend that you have the screen turn off after 5-10 minutes along with the hard drive if you have Vista or Windows 7. We recommend you have the computer go to sleep after 15-30 minutes of inactivity. We also recommend you have it go into hibernation after 1-2 hours of hibernation. Basically, the sooner you turn things off, go into sleep mode, and go into hibernation, the more power you save and the longer your battery will last. But you have to balance that with usability.

So you could configure your laptop so that when it is running on battery power, after 5 minutes of inactivity, it will turn off the monitor and the hard drive. After 15 minutes of inactivity, you could have it go to sleep. Then after 1 hour of inactivity, you could have it hibernate. So if you stopped using your computer at 3:00, at 3:05 it would turn off the monitor and the hard drive. Then at 3:15 it would go into sleep mode. Then at 4:00 it would go into hibernation.

Share on Facebook

Everyone knows that laptops have batteries, but did you know that all computers have a battery? It’s true. Desktops usually have one battery while laptops have two. The battery you may not be aware of is the battery on the motherboard of the computer. its purpose is to give the computer the ability to remember the date, time, and all of its hardware settings if there is no power to the computer. It’s kind of like having a battery in your alarm clock so that if there is a power outage, you don’t  have to reset your clock.

Sometimes you may unplug your computer because you are moving it or because there is lightning in the area. And sometimes there are power outages. When power is restored to your computer, you may get an error message on boot about the date and time not being set. If you get this, it means the battery on your motherboard is dead. By the way, if your computer looses power for a minute or two, when the battery is dead, it may not loose it’s settings because there are capacitors that store up power that can be used for a short period of time to keep the settings.

So the question becomes, is it important to replace that battery and can you do it yourself. And of course, we’ve got the answers. Unless you have some sort of unusual hardware setup, which is very unlikely, then it’s not important to replace the battery. It’s just annoying after moving your computer or after a power outage. You’ll have to go into setup and set the date and time. Yes, it’s very important that the date and time on  your PC are set. If they aren’t, your security software won’t work right and it can cause all sorts of other problems as well.

If your battery goes and you want to replace it, a replacement battery is usually $5 or less and can be had at most any place that sells batteries that work in watches, calculators, cameras, etc. Whether or not you can replace the battery yourself depends on your computer. If it’s a laptop, then most likely it’s going to require that the laptop be almost completely taken apart to get to the battery. So we wouldn’t recommend that you do that. If you have an all-in-one type computer that combines the computer and the monitor in one, this also might be difficult to work on and you might want to call us for that.

For a desktop, it’s easier. It’s pretty easy to take the cover off and when you do, you can pretty easily spot the battery on the motherboard. Round, flat, and silver, it looks like many batteries you’ve seen before. The only hard part about changing the battery on a desktop is getting the battery out without breaking the latch that holds it in. Generally, you can take a small standard screwdriver and gently push a flexible piece of metal to the side and the battery pops out. Then you just make sure you pop the new battery in the same way and you are good to go.

The important thing is to make darn sure you don’t break the latch that holds the battery in. If you do accidentally break it, you’ve got three options. Get a new computer, replace the motherboard, or jury rig it. Getting a new computer is pretty self explanatory. You’ll need to call us to get the motherboard replaced. Motherboard replacement isn’t cheap and it’s impossible to find replacement motherboards for older computers.

The last option is to do some soldering and manually connect the battery to the motherboard. It isn’t pretty, but it works. Usually cheaper than replacing the motherboard.

Share on Facebook

We are frequently asked what features and specifications to look for when purchasing a new PC. The answer to that question depends on how you will be using the PC. For the purposes of answering this question, we will categorize users into three basic categories:

Casual User

This user reads e-mail, surfs the web, edit’s documents and other similar tasks only. May play low graphics games like solitaire. Typically only has 1 or 2 applications going at the same time.

Power User/Business User

This user does everything the casual user does. In addition, this user does occasional editing of photos, graphics, or video. May play games that are somewhat graphics intensive but not action oriented. May have 2-4 applications going at the same time.

Gamer/High-End Business

This user does everything the power user does. In addition, this user may play games that are graphics intensive (First Person Shooters, etc.). User may perform tasks like CAD drawing. This user may do a lot of graphics or photo editing. This user may also frequently edit video. Once you have determined which category you fall in, you can then determine what features you should look for in a PC.

Now that you have categorized yourself, here are our recommendations.

PROCESSOR

The processor, also known as the CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the brain of your computer. Casual Users don’t need too much processor power. Even so, we don’t recommend low end processors. Get any processor made by Intel except for the Celeron or pentium. Get any processor made by AMD except the Sempron or Athlon (different from Athlon II). We recommend a dual core processor at minimum. Power/Business Users need a fairly beefy processor, but you don’t need the latest and greatest. An Intel Core 2 Duo or better will be fine at minimum but we recommend a core 2 quad or a core i3 or core i5 if you can afford it. An AMD Athlon II or Phenom will also be good. Gamers/High-End Business Users will need a quad-core processor at minimum but we recommend a Core I5 or core I7 if you can afford it. An AMD Phenom II is recommended for AMD processors. Get the fastest speed and the most cores you can afford.

BUS SPEED

The bus is what ties all of the components of a computer together. The different components that go together to make a computer communicate with each other over the bus. The speed of the bus is a big factor in the overall performance of your computer. Having a fast processor and fast memory won’t help much if the line of communication between them is slow. Computer manufacturers often bury the bus speed in technical specs. It’s generally written as a number in Megahertz (MHz). For example, 800Mhz. It’s usually listed as an FSB (Front Side Bus) rating. Sometimes it’s listed in the specs for the system memory like this: 1 GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (800MHz). The bus speeds currently available are 800, 1066, 1333, and 1600. The higher the number, the faster the bus is. Casual Users will be fine with 800MHz. Power/Business Users should get 1066MHz bus or faster. Gamers/High-End Business Users will want at least an 1333Mhz bus or higher.

WINDOWS

It’s getting harder and harder to find a pre-built PC with Windows XP on it. If you are going to buy a computer at a store, you will have to get Vista or, more likely, Windows 7. We can still get Dell computers with XP on them, but it generally costs an extra $100 to get XP. Although it had problems when it was initially released, Vista is good now. But Windows 7 is better. But there are some customers or situations where it’s best to stick with XP.

There are several different versions of Vista and Windows 7 out there. Casual Users should get Home Premium. We do not recommend Home Basic. Power Users should get Home Premium or Ultimate. Business users should get the Business version of Windows 7 or XP Professional. Gamers/High-End Business Users should get the Home Premium or Ultimate version of Windows 7.

64 bit versus 32 bit. Most people should get the 64 bit version of Windows 7.  It’s faster and can address more memory than the 32 bit version. However, some software and hardware may have issues on a 64 bit system. Older printers and other hardware may not work. Some older software may not work, or may need special compatibility settings. Software and hardware manufacturers are finally starting to catch up to 64 bit. 64 bit is the future and there is a good chance the next version of Windows will only be available in 64 bit.

SYSTEM MEORY

There are basically two types of memory in a computer. System memory (often referred to as RAM) and hard drive memory. Hard drive space is the amount of space you have to store programs and files. System memory is the computer’s internal workspace.

Imagine that the computer’s process is the person who does the work. Imagine that this person has a desk to work on and that the desk represents system memory. All work must be performed on this desk. If the desk is too small, then the person must move things he’s not working on off the desk and move things he wants to work on to the desk in order to work on them. If the person is working on several things at once, they may spend more time shifting things on and off the desk than they do actually working on things.

This is why system memory is so important to the performance of your computer. Even if you typically only run one program at a time, you still need a good amount of memory because even if you are doing nothing, there are still a lot of programs running on your system. Things like Anti-Virus, Anti-spyware, Firewall, Windows internal processes, and the like. Casual Users should have 2GB of system memory for Windows Vista or Windows 7 but we recommend 4 GB. Power/Business Users should have 4GB of system memory. Gamers/High-End Business Users should have at least 4 GB of memory, but we recommend 8 GB. Don’t get a system with more than 4GB of system memory unless you are getting a 64bit version of Vista/Windows 7. The 32 bit version of Windows cannot address more than 4 GB of memory. 

VIDEO/GRAPHICS

The video functionality of your computer is the part of the computer that processes graphics and displays information on the monitor. Some computers have the video functionality built-in to the motherboard. This usually means that video processing will take up processing time on the main processor and also will take up system memory. You can get better performance, in general, out of your computer if you have a video card that is not part of the motherboard, often called a distinct video card.

The video card provides a dedicated processor for processing graphics along with dedicated memory, thus taking a huge load off of the processor and memory on the motherboard. Note that just because it says it has a 256mb video card, doesn’t mean that the video card itself has 256mb of memory on it. Some video cards steal system memory away from the computer and use that. Make sure you get a video card with DEDICATED memory, not shared.

Casual Users should get a PC with a video card with any graphics processor and at least 256mb of dedicated memory. What kind doesn’t matter much. Power/Business Users should get a computer that has a video card with a GeForce 8000, or 9000 series, or GTX 200 series. Or get a Radeon HD series, and at least 512MB of dedicated memory. Gamers/High-End Business Users should get a video card with a GeForce 9000 series or GTX 200 series or a Radeon HD 4000 or higher, and at least 512mb of dedicated memory on the video card. 

HARD DRIVE SIZE AND SPEED

There are two basic types of hard drives that you usually find on the market. ATA and SATA. SATA is newer and faster. You don’t really see ATA drives much any more except in some laptops. A hard drive has a speed that can be 4,200, 5,400 and 7,200 RPM. 10,000 RPM drives are around too, but not as common. Generally, most desktops have 7,200 RPM drives and you only see the slower speeds in laptops. We do not recommend 4200 RPM or 5400 RPM drives for desktops or laptops. These slow hard drives will be a bottleneck in your system. Get a 7200 RPM SATA hard drive.

Sizes of hard drives vary these days from 80GB on up past 500GB and more. Casual Users should get the smallest sized available 7200 RPM SATA drive will be fine. Power/Business Users should get a 7200 RPM SATA drive with at least 500GB of storage space. Gamers/High-End Business Users should get the largest 7200 RPM (or 10,000 RPM) SATA drive you can afford. At least 500GB. If you are considering a dual drive or RAID configuration, we recommend you consult with Computer Troubleshooters before making a purchase. RAID is too complicated to go into in this article.

Solid State Drives (SSD) are now available on some laptop models. These drives are smaller and more expensive, but they are very fast. If you are looking for a fast laptop and don’t need a lot of storage space on your laptop, consider getting a laptop with an SSD if you can afford it.

BRAND, WARRANTIES, SUPPORT

Most brands are OK. If you look for the features and specifications we have outlined, you should generally end up with a decent computer. The question then becomes about the quality of the system, how long it will last, the cost of repairing it, how easy it is to find parts, and how the support is.

In terms of quality, the old adage that says, “You get what you pay for” is generally true. The cheaper brands like EMachines and Toshiba tend to have more problems. In general, most companies provide a 1 year warranty on hardware. Many of them say it is onsite service as well. Many people pay extra for onsite service warranties thinking that if there a problem, someone will show up and take care of them. But it doesn’t always work that way. For example, if the hard drive on your 2 month old PC dies and your system won’t boot, the onsite service technician will come to your home, remove the old hard drive, install a new one, install Windows, and leave. That sounds nice until you realize that all of your data is gone and you are left to reinstall a lot of programs that came preloaded on your system. That is certainly not how Computer Troubleshooters does business. In this example, we would get your data off of your old hard drive, install the new hard drive, and load all of your data and programs onto the new hard drive. Also, when you call technical support for any of these big computer companies, you are going to get someone in a foreign country that may be difficult to understand. For these reasons, we do not recommend upgrading your warranty.

Our favorite brand of computer is Dell which is why we signed up to sell them. You can order one directly from Dell on their website, but if you buy it though us, you’ll get the same price, but you’ll also get a professional computer technician to deliever it, unpack it, set it up, and give you a tour of your new computer. But buying from Dell will take 1-2 weeks before you actually get the computer. If you can’t wait, you may want to purchase one at a store. You can get a limited selection of Dell Computers at Walmart and Sams. Another good brand is HP/Compaq. Other brands are generally OK.

For laptops, we again recommend Dell and HP/Compaq. We sell Dell.  Sony is good, but in general, we don’t recommend the more recent models because several of their newer models are hard to work on and therefore, more expensive to repair. Like desktops, avoid the cheapest brands like e-machines and toshiba. We recommend going with a big name brand because it’s difficult and expensive to find parts for the smaller brands. For example, an Alienware laptop is a good, high performance, expensive laptop. But if it breaks, trying to find parts for it is difficult and expensive.

STORES

What store you buy your computer at doesn’t really matter as long as you are buying one of the major brands of computers. Just look for the lowest price with the specs you want. In the Austin, Texas area, a good places to look is Fry’s Electronics. We do not recommend purcasing extended warranties or store warranties on computers.

NOTBOOKS/LAPTOPS

Notebook or laptop computers are a special case. Laptops lag desktops in technology because of size and heat requirements. If you don’t need portability, don’t get a laptop. They are more expensive to purchase, not as upgradable, more expensive to upgrade, and more expensive to repair. If you do need a laptop, then things to consider in addition to what we have covered are battery life, screen size and shape, size, and weight. In this instance, we are not breaking this down based on user category. Here are our recommendations:

Battery Life
If you are going to be using it on the go, get a laptop with a long battery life. There is nothing more frustrating that paying a lot of money for a laptop you can use on the go, and then not being able to use it because the battery is dead. Get the best battery available for that laptop. You may also want to consider getting an extra batteries. Some laptops will also let you put 2 batteries into a computer at the same time. Of course, that’s going to make the laptop heavier!

Screen Size and Shape
Get the biggest screen you can afford as long as the size of the laptop that goes with it is not too big or too heavy for you to carry around. Remember that the bigger the screen size, the bigger and heavier the laptop will be. When you are not travelling, you can connect an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse to your laptop and then when travelling use the smaller screen on the laptop itself. Hooking up an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse is easier with a desk dock, but not required.

Size and Weight
Size matters in this case. If you carry it around a lot or for long distances, the smaller and lighter it is, the better. A 9 pound laptop doesn’t sound like it would be that heavy to lug around, but when you add in the AC adaptor and other accessories, it can get pretty heavy. Even if you just carry the laptop without the AC adaptor or other accessories, 9 pounds get’s pretty heavy after a while. Get the smallest and lightest laptop you can afford with the screen size you want. In general, the smaller and lighter the laptop, the more expensive they are.

Carry Cases
Be careful on the prices of carry cases. Some laptop manufacturers include it, while others make it an option and really stick it to you on the price. Make sure you get a carrry case that your laptop will fit in. Most laptops with 15″ or smaller screen will fit in most any laptop case. However, laptops with 17″ or bigger screens won’t. It’s a good idea to get a carry case that doesn’t look like a laptop carry case, for security reasons. One of our favorites are the back-pack type carry cases. These look less professional in a business environment, but the great thing is they don’t look like laptop bags and are, therefore, less likely to get stolen at the airport or hotel.

PRINTERS
This isn’t part of the computer, but we are asked about printers a lot and people often buy a printer when they buy a new computer, so we thought we would include it here. These days, printers are not made to last a long time. It is generally more expensive to have one repaired than it is to get a new one. Our favorite brand of printer is HP. We do not recommend Dell printers because of the poor availability of printer cartridges. You have to purchase them from Dell. Lexmark make’s Dell’s printers for them, so if you are comfortable doing so, you can often find a Lexmark print cartridge that will fit your Dell printer.

There are two basic ways that printers print. Ink Jet and Laser. Ink Jet is always color. Laser may be black and white only, or Color. For most home users, Ink Jet is fine. If you are producing brochures or something, or are doing a large volume of printing, you will want a laser printer. After that, there are printers that just print, and then there are multi-function or all-in-one printers. If you just need to print and only print, a plain printer is fine. If you ever have the need to make a few copies, scan something, or send or receive a fax, then a multi-function printer is a great idea. It does all of those things and doesn’t take up too much space.

Share on Facebook

Storm season is upon us. Every year around this time, we like to remind everyone about how to protect your computer from storms.

Storms can have an effect on your computer in one of two ways.

Wind or lightning from a storm can cause a power outage. If a computer is turned on and suddenly looses power, it can cause data loss. One way you can lessen the risk of this happening is to shut your computer down before a storm hits. This is effective, but what if you are not home? A better way is to purchase a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply). When a computer is connected to a UPS and there is a power outage, the UPS can provide power to your computer for a little while. If the power doesn’t come back on after a set amount of time, the UPS will instruct the computer to shut down normally. In addition, a UPS also provides surge protection.

It’s a good idea to have all computers on a UPS, but not necessarily required. Servers, however, should be on a UPS. No exceptions!

When shopping for a UPS, don’t buy the cheapest one. You can pay anywhere from $50 to thousands of dollars for a UPS. For a workstation, you should be able to find one for $80-$100. A UPS should have a capacity of 1000VA and 550W. It should be rated for at least 1000 joules. It should also include a connected equipment guarantee. This is like insurance that allows you to submit a claim if equipment connected to your UPS is damaged by lightning.

For a Server, a better UPS is recommended. What a server needs depends on how much power it’s pulling. Give us a call to help you determine what is needed.

If lightning strikes the building your computer is in, or hits the power line or phone line, it can harm your computers. It can harm any electrical device in your home, but computers are more susceptible than most household appliances. A lightning strike can take out most any part in your computer. I’ve seen lightning take out power supplies, modems, keyboards, Ethernet cards, and motherboards. It can take out more than one with one strike too. Even if a lightning strike only damages one part in your computer, it’s going to cost you money to fix that. A lot more money than it would have cost to protect your computer in the first place.

A popular myth is that shutting your computer down before a storm will protect it from lightning. This is totally false. As long as your computer is connected to a phone line, electrical line, or network, lightning can get to your computer. If you shut your computer down and disconnect all wires that go to the wall, that would protect it, but what a pain that is. And again, what if you aren’t home when the storm hits?

It’s easy and not very expensive to protect your computer from lightning. Just get yourself a good surge protector and connect your computer and all of its accessories to it. Please be aware that a power strip is not necessarily a surge protector. Also be aware that all surge protectors are not created equal. Some are better than others.

Here are some tips for purchasing a good surge protector. Get one that has at least some of the plugs spaced apart so that those plugs with transformers on them will fit. Get one that is at least 2400 joules. Get one with a lifetime warranty. And finally, get one that has a connected equipment guarantee. This guarantee is basically an insurance policy. If the surge protector fails to protect your equipment from lightning, you can submit a claim to be reimbursed for the cost of your equipment.

My favorite surge protector is the CyberPower 850. You can even purchase it at Walmart. http://www.walmart.com/ip/CyberPower-2400-Joules-8-Oulet-Surge-Protector/10250441.

By the way, unless you have dial-up or use your computer for faxing, we recommend not plugging a phone line into  your computer. It’s just another way for lightning to get in. So if you aren’t using it, why increase your risk.

Share on Facebook

Drivers are little software programs that tell windows how to talk to hardware. For example, if you purchase a new printer, you have to install the driver for the printer so that Windows will know how to talk to your new printer so you can actually print to it.

In the example of the printer, that is a piece of hardware on the outside of your computer, but there are several pieces of hardware on the inside of your computer that each need their own drivers as well.  This can vary from computer to computer depending on what expansion cards are plugged into your computer, but every computer has at least these devices that need drivers:

Motherboard chipset
Ethernet Port (AKA LAN or NIC)
Video (AKA Display)
Sound (AKA Audio)

As I said, your computer may have additional driver requirements, but these are the basics that all computers have. When you purchase a computer, the drivers are already loaded so that your computer is operational. When you add new hardware like a printer or a wireless card, you will need to install the CD that came with the device. That will install the drivers and often will install additional software that the device uses.

Over the years of ownership of your computer, Windows is updated, a lot of your software is updated, but your drivers generally are not updated. Some printers come with software that automatically updates your printer driver, but the 4 basic drivers listed above are generally not updated.

So the question is, should you update them.  The answer is not to bother updating your drivers unless you are running into some sort of problem. If you play games that have intensive graphics, then you may need to keep your video driver up to date in order for newer games to work.

Several of our customers have installed these programs that are supposed to automatically detect what hardware you have and download and install the latest drivers for them. Some of the better known driver update programs include Driver Detective, Driver Genius, Driver Agent, and Driver Guide. These types of programs sound like a really good idea. And they are a good idea. The problem is that it’s pretty common for one of these programs to download the wrong driver for your hardware. Then things stop working and it can cause a big mess. Because of this, we don’t recommend using these programs.

If you really want to update your drivers, the best way to do it is to have a list of EXACTLY what hardware you have. This means you need to know the make and model number. Then go to the manufacturer’s website and download the latest drivers.

If you have a Dell computer, you can go to Dell’s website and type in your service tag and it will give you a list of all of the drivers for your system. You can then download and install them. This would only include drivers for the hardware that came with your system. Any additional hardware you added later, like printers, would not be there. You would have to go to the hardware manufacturer’s website for your printer to get those drivers.

But again, we don’t recommend that you update your drivers. Drivers should generally only be updated if you are experiencing some sort of problem. If you really want  your drivers updated, it would be better to have us do it to avoid problems.

Share on Facebook

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. These are the rectangular ports on your computer. Most computers have several USB ports in the back and a few in the front. You can use USB to plug in a printer, scanner, Ipod, flash drives, external hard drives, phone, and all sorts of things.

When USB first hit the scene, it was nice, but slow. The second version of USB was USB 2.0. It was also called high speed USB. It started showing up on computers in 2001. USB 2.0 was much faster than the first version of USB. The first version of USB could transfer about 183 thousand bytes per second whereas USB 2.0 can transfer about 57 million bytes per second.

If these numbers don’t mean anything to you, don’t worry. USB 2.0 is good for a lot of things. But even though it’s a lot faster than the original USB, it’s still kind of slow for some things.

Now USB 3.0 has just come out. It is also called super speed USB. It can handle 3.8 billion bytes per second. That’s pretty darn fast.

So what does this mean for the average computer and user? To answer that, let’s look at how the faster USB 2.0 changed things. USB 2.0 became popular because it was a standard port that was pretty fast. Soon, devices that plugged into the computer through special ports started plugging into USB. Printers, for example, used to plug into parallel ports. With USB 2.0, printers began changing and plugging in through USB instead. Now when you buy a new computer, it doesn’t even have a parallel port on it. Dell stopped putting PS2 ports on their computers years ago. PS2 ports are where the mouse and keyboard normally plug into. The mouse and keyboards on Dell computers plug into USB.

So what devices might USB 3.0 take over? It could replace the network (Ethernet) plug on your computer. It could replace the plug where you display plugs in. It could replace eSATA, firewire (1394), and even sound plugs. It could potentally replace most every plug on your computer except for the power cord.

USB 3.0 is special hardware. To get it, you either need to purchase a new computer with USB 3.0 on it, or purchase an expansion card which will add USB 3.0 ports to your computer. Most people won’t need to do this. If you purchase a computer that has USB 3.0 ports on it, you’ll be happy to know that you can still plug USB 2.0 devices into USB 3.0 ports. But the opposite isn’t true.

Watch out for USB 3.0. It’s going to change the way we compute.

Share on Facebook