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.

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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.

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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.

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As you probably know, the latest version of Internet Explorer is version 8. Microsoft is working on the next version of Internet Explorer. You guessed it. Version 9. Here’s the poop on it.

Like every new version of IE, Microsoft says that this version will be faster. I’ll believe that when I see it.

IE 9 won’t be getting a lot of new user interface features. The big changes are under the hood. It will supposedly support a lot of the newer technologies that IE8 doesn’t support, or doesn’t support very well. I won’t bore you with a list of those technologies.

What may surprise you, however, is that IE9 will not work on XP. It will only work on Windows Server 2008, Vista, and Windows 7.

There is not set release date for it yet. All Microsoft is saying is that it will be released in 2011.

As you know, Internet Explorer comes with Windows and is also an integral part of Windows.  You can’t uninstall it. But you don’t have to use it for surfing the web. In fact, we recommended that you don’t.  There are a lot of web browsers out there, most of them you’ve never heard of. The better known browsers are Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape, Safari, and Opera.

Of these browsers, we recommend Google Chrome or Firefox. Why? Two main reasons. Speed and security. I won’t go into details here, but suffice it to say, Chrome and Firefox are not only faster than IE, they are more secure. A third, less important reason, is that there are lots of great plug-ins (also called extensions) for Chrome and Firefox. More for Firefox since it has been around a lot longer than Chrome. You would be amazed at some of the cool plug-ins you can get for them.

You don’t have to just choose one browser. In fact, you can have all of them installed if you want to. But only one can be your default. You may run into a web page from time to time that will only work with Internet Explorer, but that’s pretty rare.

If you would like to download and install Google Chrome, go to: www.google.com/chrome.

If you would like to download and install Firefox, go to: www.getfirefox.com.

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Summer vacation season is almost here. When you go on vacation you stop your paper and your mail or get a friend or family member to get it each day. Why? Because you don’t want it to look like you are out of town. Why? Because if it’s obvious that you are away, someone might rob your home.

If you don’t want potential robbers to know  you are going to be on vacation, then don’t use your computer to advertise that you will be away. Here are some tips on things you shouldn’t do on your computer when you are going to be away.

Don’t use vacation reply on email.
Anybody can send you email. And if you have a vacation reply turned on, whoever does will know you are away. Using vacation replies will also increase the amount of spam you get in the future because it let’s spammers know that your email address is valid.

Don’t post anything about it on facebook, twitter, myspace, etc.
Yes, hopefully all of your online friends are actually friends and wouldn’t rob you. But realistically, many of us have friends on social websites who we don’t know that well, or haven’t seen in 20 years. In addition, whenever you do anything online you should always be aware that there is a possibility that someone you don’t know might be able to access that information. It happens every day. Think of it as public domain.

Unless you will be accessing your PC remotely while you are gone, we recommend that you just turn it off. Not only does leaving it on waste electricity, if you don’ t have your PC on a UPS, then a storm or power outage could damage your PC.

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We have said it many times, watch out for any website that wants to install something on your computer. That includes Facebook. The link below will take you to a YouTube video that shows an example of how your computer can become infected through a website.

We strongly encourage you to watch this video so  you will have an idea of what to watch out for.

If for security reasons you prefer not to click on the link below, you can find the same video by going to YouTube and searching for: Kate Gosselin and spyware

While we have a link in this email, let me show you something. Hold your mouse pointer over the link below. After holding it there a few seconds, it will show you where that link goes. If the link in the email is the same as where it really goes, then it’s probably safe. If it’s different, it’s not safe. Give it a try.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH3td8u0lCc

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During the last week of March (2010), Microsoft released some important security updates for Internet Explorer. If you have automatic updates turned on, you probably already have the updates. But please take a moment to check your system tray (the lower right-hand portion of the screen near where the time is displayed) for the windows update icon. If you don’t see it, you may need to click on the less than sign (XP, Vista) or the triangle (Windows 7) to show hidden icons.

If you still don’t see it, then it’s probably already been installed. If you do see it, double-click on it and install all of the pending updates. If you need help, give us a call. We can do this for you remotely.

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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.

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