Micro Computer Hardware Servicing

Properly Cleaning Your Computer

2009-06-19T00:59:00.000-07:00

A regular cleaning of your computer means a considerable improvement in its effectiveness. You should dedicate 20-30 minutes every 3 months to clean your computer. Here are a few tips:

- Computer keyboard cleaning. Your keyboard gathers a lot of dust and dirt. The keys become sticky and slow down your speed. First, unplug the keyboard when you clean it.

Turn it upside down and shake well to remove crumbs and dirt. Clean the keys using a soft brush or a can of compressed air while holding it upside down. Clean the key tops with a damp cotton cloth using either a mild detergent or rubbing alcohol.

Do not spill liquid over it. If you do so, then wipe it off immediately and let it dry completely. It is a smart idea to keep your keyboard and monitor covered with a cloth when you are not using them.

- Cleaning computer mouse. Take off the cover at the back of the mouse by rotating it anti-clockwise. The ball will come out. There are two thin wheels. Use your fingertips to scratch out the dust that is sticking there. Also shake out dirt that gathers in the hole.

You can wipe the wheels with a mild cleaning agent. Wipe off the ball well with a wet cloth. Use a mild detergent to clean the outside of the mouse. Dry with a soft cloth. Put the ball back into your mouse and close it up.

- Cleaning computer monitor. Use a cloth dampened in water. Do not use detergent or other liquid. Be careful especially with laptop screens that are very sensitive. The strokes should be top to bottom. Paper cloths are highly recommended for monitor screens to avoid any damage.

You can use a mild detergent for the cover. For holes at the back of the cover use an air can spray to take out dust. These vents should be cleaned to avoid overheating of the monitor.

- Remove the case and get to the area where all the hardware parts are located. Cleaning this area is important. Use an air spray to blow out all the dust gathered here. Always ensure that the spray is held in an upright position and blow the dust out of the machine. Everything should be unplugged and avoid any physical contact with the components.

- For CD-ROM drive use a CD-ROM cleaner available with retailers. Cleaning the CD drive prevents reading and writing errors. To clean your CDs just wet a cloth in water and rub it from center to the edge to avoid any scratches.

About The Author

Alex Fir shares a wealth of information on his website Laptop Computers Center. If you want to learn more about buying a laptop go to http://www.laptopcomputerscenter.info/blog/

Why Choose A Core 2 Duo For Your CPU In Your New High End Computer ?

2009-06-19T00:48:00.000-07:00

It must have been difficult for Intel to watch AMD's Athlon 64 and then the Athlon 64 X2 and FX pretty much take over the performance PC market, putting the once-untouchable chip giant into a position where its only competitive response was to cut prices. Those were dark days indeed. But now, with the release of the long-awaited codename "Conroe" -- the Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Extreme processors -- Intel looks set to start a new age of desktop domination.

Most onlookers expected Intel to take back the performance crown from AMD, but few anticipated the sheer magnitude of this victory, or the nearly flawless style with which Intel performed it. And the Core 2 Duo is just the first strike in this battle, as Intel is also planning preemptive Pentium D price drops and has revamped its single-core Pentium 4 and Celeron D lines as well.

The Conroe excels in three areas, which add up to the very definition of what a current buyer expects from a top-end desktop CPU. These factors are price, performance, and power requirements, and the 65-nanometer-process Core 2 Duo and Extreme have surpassed their AMD counterparts in each, completing the same type of triple play that AMD had turned on the Pentium 4 and Pentium D.

The question of who's got the best performance is not even up for debate: The 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 is the fastest desktop processor on the planet, and the 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo E6700 is not far behind. Even the next-step-down 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo E6600 is an outstanding desktop performer that can outpace AMD's flagship Athlon 64 FX-62 in most tests.

Power and cooling requirements are also extremely low -- the Core 2 Duo line offers the lowest power draw of any dual-core processor, with the Core 2 Duo Extreme not far off. Prices are also extremely competitive. In fact, it's amazing that for such a competitive price , the Core 2 Duo E6600 can outrun AMD's entire desktop lineup. The lower-end Core 2 Duo E6300 and E6400 models are even more affordable, although their 2MB instead of 4MB of Level 2 cache mean their relative performance isn't as high.

Intel has accomplished this via a drastic shift away from the Pentium's NetBurst technology. Conroe's next-generation core performs more instructions per clock cycle (IPC), rather than having a longer and potentially less efficient pipeline that can be clocked into the stratosphere. Core 2 processors' 2MB or 4MB of 256-bit L2 cache feature what Intel calls Advanced Smart Cache, dynamically shared between the two cores for maximum efficiency rather than chaining half the cache to each core.

With IPC levels exceeding those of AMD plus clock speeds up to 2.93GHz and a 1066MHz front-side bus, Intel has moved well ahead in the performance game despite sticking with traditional CPU and chipset architecture rather than AMD's on-chip-memory-controller approach.

The Conroe design also reflects a need to keep power requirements and heat production down via various power-saving technologies. Since the basic architecture will be shared through all of Intel's processor lines (except the Itanium), including upcoming mobile CPUs, this translates into very power-efficient processing.

The Core 2 Duo and Extreme processors may offer industry-leading performance, but Intel's SpeedStep technology ensures that the chips can ramp down the multiplier and reduce clock speed to conserve battery power and/or lower core heat levels.

Moreover, new Intelligent Power Capability can go beyond slowing the CPU as a whole to turning various core functions on and off as required. These power-saving techniques don't get in the way of outright performance, as the Conroe instantly jumps back to top speed when required.

Through the use of technical expertise obtained through advanced CPU server technology and exprertise Intel has leapfrogged once again to a combination of power , low energy use and heat production and reliability especially since with advances in CPU speed can disabling and damaging hear.

The Core 2 Duo CPUs should be a major consideration in your next high end computer purchase.

About The Author

Mr. Arthur Fellon IT Dept Head Ace Employment Services http://www.aceemploymentservices.net Interest in Vintage Computer Technology http://www.vintageomputersystems.net http://www.vintagecomputermanuals.com

Understanding Your PC's CPU Clock Speed And Front Side Bus

2009-04-25T00:28:00.000-07:00

Have a computer in your home that is put to use often? Why not take the time to fully understand the terms, the components,and software used to make it work. To understand your PC is not hard and you'll be rewarded greatly.

How you ask? By upgrading your own system as well as repairing those of your friends while earning extra cash in the process. One of the more important PC components are the Motherboard,CPU Chip,and your computer's Hard Drive.

The CPU or Central Processing Unit is the brains of any computer and the two major manufacturers are Intel and AMD or Advanced Micro Devices.

For many years Intel CPUs were found in nearly all PCs. And now the Intel is found in most systems but the newer Athlon class cpu from AMD have taken a large chunk of the cpu market.

AMD's top cpu is the Opteron which compete's with Intel's Itanium and the Xeon.The Athlon is next on AMD's cpu lists and is intended for mid to high end computers.The Athlon XP was introduced in 1999 and is there most popular CPU.

Intel advertised their CPU's by their clock speed but now have introduced a rating system using a three digit number such as Intel Pentium 735.To understand the meaning of the number you can visit www.intel.com/products/ processor_number/info.htm

There you will see a list of all Intel CPUs, their rating numbers and meanings.This information is a valuable asset in helping you further understand your computer's CPU.

What then is meant by the term Clock Speed? This is the speed at which the CPU runs and is measured as a frequency such as 500 MHz or 500 million cycles per second.

As every action carried out by the CPU requires one or more cycles,be means that the higher the clock speed, the more instructions it will be able to process in any given second.Take the time to know the clock speed of your current CPU.

Want to know the clock speed of your CPU? There is a handy little utility named CHKCPU that will show your CPU's speed,and type.It can be downloaded in either DOS or Windows versions and its absolutely free.

The CPU's clock speed is an important indication of its quality but is by no means the only one.You must also understand and consider its FSB or Front Side Bus speed.

The FSB allows the CPU to communicate with the rest of the computer.The 3 GHz Pentium 4 PC has a FSB of 800 MHz and the 3 GHz Celeron's FSB is 533 MHz. Other names for this technology is the CPU Bus Speed, Memory Bus and System Bus.

Note that they both have the same processing power but the Pentium 4 can transfer data much more quickly since it has the faster FSB.

To make it easier for us pc users,manufacturers of the motherboards made them to support several FSB speeds within a specified range.To find the FSB rating for your computer look in the owners manual.

The Front Side Bus speed can generally be set either using the system BIOS.Short for Basic Input/Output System,this small software is responsible for starting the computer's bootup procedure.

The BIOS also recognizes and configures the system's hardware prior to the loading of the operating system. To access the BIOS,you must press a combination of keys such as CTRL-ALT-DEL on older systems but newer PCs allow you enter setup by press F1 or F10.

As your computer boot's up,watch the screen for a key to press to access your Setup.Once inside the BIOS, look for references to the FSB.Other motherboards allow FSB setup with jumpers located on the motherboard.

While most motherboards allow you to set the FSB to any setting,ensure that the FSB is properly set unless you plan to speed up your system by overclocking the Central Processing Unit.

The AMD has its own Hyper Transport Integrated I/O Bus and don't use FSB numbers.This technology resulted in communication much faster between the CPU,the RAM and other parts of the motherboard.

Now when you decide to upgrade your CPU or the Motherboard, don't overlook the Front Side Bus capacity and the CPU clock speed.You'll further boost your PC know as you understand these terms in more detail.

About The Author

Otis F. Cooper is solely dedicated to boosting the knowledge and confidence of every computer user. Sign up to receive his informative articles every month and learn PC Repair absolutely free.Sign up now at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com

Computer Repair Prices: A Complete Price

2009-04-25T00:26:00.000-07:00

Computer repair prices are fixed before you ever start a consulting job. Be sure to think about every aspect of the work you will complete before setting computer repair prices, and that these prices include every expectation of your customer.

The Main Factor Of A Complete Price

There is nothing more irritating than finding a computer or other technology item at the right price only to find out there is something you need that is not included. This is the definition of incomplete pricing, and as a computer repair specialist, you want to avoid it. Incomplete pricing will anger your customers and make them feel cheated.

Provide Extras

When you add something special to your computer repair prices as a bonus to your customer, your customer will feel good about the services you provide. Services like a free check-up visit post-repair will make the client feel he is getting a good deal. You should also make follow-up phone calls to add to your company's reputation and feed word of mouth.

Provide Details

Even before you do any repair work you should give your client a written estimate. The estimate must include computer repair prices and exactly what is included service-wise. Any changes you make need to be brought to the client before they are implemented in order to create a good relationship and encourage future business.

Computer Repair Prices And Reassessment

You should keep reviewing computer repair prices frequently as your business continues to grow. Make sure your fees include items such as travel costs or materials, or you create those as a separate item when appropriate.

You should also consider making changes in your pricing if you ever notice customers are regularly confused. You should address computer repair price issues even if only a few clients seem concerned. Every client is important, and all should feel they are getting a fair and honest deal. Good feedback brings good referrals, which equals future business and your company's growth.

Copyright MMI-MMVII, Computer Consultants Secrets. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}

About The Author

Joshua Feinberg has helped thousands of computer consultants get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for Joshua's free Computer Consultants Secrets audio training at http://www.ComputerConsultantsSecrets.com/blog/

The 10 Most Rampant Computer Viruses

2009-04-25T00:19:00.000-07:00

Every day new computer viruses are created to annoy us and to wreak havoc on our computer systems. Below are ten viruses currently cited as being the most prevalent in terms of being seen the most or in their ability to potentially cause damage. New viruses are created daily. This is by no means an all inclusive list. The best thing you can do is to remain vigilant, keep your anti-virus software updated, and stay aware of the current computer virus threats.

Virus: Trojan.Lodear A Trojan horse that attempts to download remote files. It will inject a .dll file into the EXPLORER.EXE process causing system instability.

Virus: W32.Beagle.CO@mm A mass-mailing worm that lowers security settings. It can delete security-related registry sub keys and may block access to security-related websites.

Virus: Backdoor.Zagaban A Trojan horse that allows the compromised computer to be used as a covert proxy and which may degrade network performance.

Virus: W32/Netsky-P A mass-mailing worm which spreads by emailing itself to addresses produced from files on the local drives.

Virus: W32/Mytob-GH A mass-mailing worm and IRC backdoor Trojan for the Windows platform. Messages sent by this worm will have the subject chosen randomly from a list including titles such as: Notice of account limitation, Email Account Suspension, Security measures, Members Support, Important Notification.

Virus: W32/Mytob-EX A mass-mailing worm and IRC backdoor Trojan similar in nature to W32-Mytob-GH. W32/Mytob-EX runs continuously in the background, providing a backdoor server which allows a remote intruder to gain access and control over the computer via IRC channels. This virus spreads by sending itself to email attachments harvested from your email addresses.

Virus: W32/Mytob-AS, Mytob-BE, Mytob-C, and Mytob-ER This family of worm variations possesses similar characteristics in terms of what they can do. They are mass-mailing worms with backdoor functionality that can be controlled through the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) network. Additionally, they can spread through email and through various operating system vulnerabilities such as the LSASS (MS04-011).

Virus: Zafi-D A mass mailing worm and a peer-to-peer worm which copies itself to the Windows system folder with the filename Norton Update.exe. It can then create a number of files in the Windows system folder with filenames consisting of 8 random characters and a DLL extension. W32/Zafi-D copies itself to folders with names containing share, upload, or music as ICQ 2005a new!.exe or winamp 5.7 new!.exe. W32/Zafi-D will also display a fake error message box with the caption "CRC: 04F6Bh" and the text "Error in packed file!".

Virus: W32/Netsky-D A mass-mailing worm with IRC backdoor functionality which can also infect computers vulnerable to the LSASS (MS04-011) exploit.

Virus: W32/Zafi-B A peer-to-peer (P2P) and email worm that will copy itself to the Windows system folder as a randomly named EXE file. This worm will test for the presence of an internet connection by attempting to connect to http://www.google.com or http://www.microsoft.com. A bilingual, worm with an attached Hungarian political text message box which translates to “We demand that the government accommodates the homeless, tightens up the penal code and VOTES FOR THE DEATH PENALTY to cut down the increasing crime. Jun. 2004, Pécs (SNAF Team)”

About The Author

Anne Wolski has worked in the health and welfare industry for more than 30 years. She is the owner of http://www.mummansun.com, a discount retail outlet, and a co-director of http://www.betterhealthshoppe.com which is an information portal with many interesting medical articles. She is also an associate of http://www.timzbiz.com which features many articles on internet marketing and resources.

How To Recover After A Virus Attack

2009-04-25T00:16:00.000-07:00

PC viruses are more than just a nuisance; they can actually cause serious damage to your computer, just as a biological virus can cause damage to your body. There are many different types of viruses, some are just annoying and may cause a message to flash on your screen, while others are more malicious and can actually delete files necessary for your computerís operating system. There are others that can also leave your computer open for hackers to do as they please with your computer.

Viruses are for the most part easy to prevent. You should always have a trusted up to date anti-virus program running at all times as well as deleted emails with unknown file attachments. However, despite our best intentions it is still possible for your computer to become infected with a virus.

If you do get a virus, it is important to do a little diagnosis before trying to fix and eradicate the virus.

Firstly, you should try and find out what the virus is one your computer. Run a full virus scan using your anti-virus software. Make sure your software has the most current virus database and donít skip any sections of your hard drive or memory. This can take some time, but it should find it and recommend a course of action to get rid of the virus.

If your computer is not operational try and boot your computer using an anti-virus CD or diskette, you should have created one when you got your computer. Once you are back in your computer do the previous step and do a full virus scan of your system.

If you have only rebooted the computer once since infection and are running any version of Windows you can try to reboot from the Last Known Good Configuration. This usually doesnít help but it is worth a try.

If you canít discover the source of the virus take a look at your computerís operating files. Most of them should have the same date and one that is more current may be a virus. kernel32.exe and lsass.exe are two files that are often hit by viruses. If you find some discrepancy try replacing them with clean files.

If you find you're only having problems with one program try uninstalling it completely and reinstalling with a new copy.

If you have lost data that is vital to you and have no backup you may need to get professional help. While there is no guarantee that your data can be recovered it is possible. This may be an expensive lesson that you should frequently backup all important data.

About The Author

Paul Wilcox writes about internet security solutions for the TechnoSecurity website. Get more helpful information and advice at http://www.technosecurity.ca.

Properly Cleaning Your Computer

2009-04-25T00:13:00.001-07:00

A regular cleaning of your computer means a considerable improvement in its effectiveness. You should dedicate 20-30 minutes every 3 months to clean your computer. Here are a few tips:

- Computer keyboard cleaning. Your keyboard gathers a lot of dust and dirt. The keys become sticky and slow down your speed. First, unplug the keyboard when you clean it.

You can use a mild detergent for the cover. For holes at the back of the cover use an air can spray to take out dust. These vents should be cleaned to avoid overheating of the monitor.

About The Author

Alex Fir shares a wealth of information on his website Laptop Computers Center. If you want to learn more about buying a laptop go to http://www.laptopcomputerscenter.info/blog/

How to Set-up Operating System for windows XP?

2009-02-13T01:55:00.000-08:00

Opened the CMOS, in the main menu, check the bios to make sure all the components were showing up, the boot sequence was in the proper order, and that the time and date were set correctly.
I the first place go into the standard CMOS settings and check to make sure all the Drives were there. Then, set the date and time from the screen.
If all of the drives are not showing up, shut down the computer, disconnect the power supply to the computer and begin checking the drive(s) connections that are not showing up. Nine out of ten times it ends up being a connector that is not seated in all the way. After this is done, restart the computer and check to see if the drive is there. If it still is not being recognized, the computer will need further diagnosis.
After you make sure all of the drives installed are there, then move on to the Advanced BIOS Features Screen and check the boot sequence.
Once in the advanced BIOS screen, press enter to proceed to check the boot sequence.
The drive that used to install the operating system had to be first in the boot sequence. Always check and follow the user guide that came with the motherboard for further setup instructions.
Followed the user manual that came with the motherboard and set up the BIOS properly. saved the BIOS settings, now you are ready to install the Operating System. load the Operating System CD into the DVD drive that you set as number one in the boot sequence and restart the computer.

Here is the next screen; this is the welcome to the setup screen. It gives you in this case Three different options;

1) To set up Windows XP now press enter,

2) To repair windows installation using the recovery CD press “r”

3) To quit all together press F3.

If you do number 2 to repair Windows, it’s actually really, really technical and sometimes it doesn’t work. let’s get out of this you can press F3 but if you want to continue formatting the hard drive you would press enter. Once you press enter it’s going to come up with a license agreement, you can read it, decide if you want to or not want to do this, accept the agreements, you can do a page down to read everything but if you decide okay this is what I really want to do, you press the F8 key, on the keyboard and it will take you to the next prompt. What it’s going to do right now is search for previous versions of Windows. Now obviously if you’re formatting your hard drive you already had a previous version of Windows. This is going to say, two options here;

1) To repair Windows you can press “R”

2) To continue installing a fresh copy of Windows you can press escape.

If you’d like to, let’s say that you feel that or a tech told you maybe just re-installing Windows would be fine you can do the “R”, again, I’m not a big fan of that, if your computer has a lot of problems it needs to be formatted. You can just go ahead and go through the next step, which is pressing escape. Once you press escape you’re going to have some more options. Right now what it’s going to do is ask you which hard drive if you have many, would you like to put Windows XP on. In this case the “c” drive, which is what everybody basically calls their hard drive is the one that we want to do it to. You see that there, okay. Then you have these other options here. To set up Windows XP on the selected item press Enter which is this one here. To create a partition in an un-partitioned space press “c”, partitioning is basically taking your hard drive and cutting it into sections. In this case we are not going to do that. The last one is to delete the selected partition press “D”, again if you had a partition on your hard drive and you wanted to delete it, you could do that. So in this case what we are going to do is press Enter, because we want to install Windows on our “C” drive. The next screen comes up and cautions you, your two options are; to continue using Setup with this partition press “C”, to select a different partition press “Escape” again we’re not going to be dealing with partitions in this segment, we’re just going to be formatting the hard drive so to continue to setup using this utility press “C”, so we press “C”

Select a file system for the installation partition. After you create the partition on which you will install Windows XP Professional, you can use Setup to select the file system with which to format the partition. Windows XP Professional supports the NTFS file system in addition to the file allocation table (FAT) and FAT32 file systems. Windows Server 2003, Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000, and Windows NT are the only Microsoft operating systems that you can use to gain access to data on a local hard disk that is formatted with NTFS. If you plan to gain access to files that are on a local Windows XP Professional partition with the Microsoft Windows 95 or Windows 98 operating systems, you should format the partition with a FAT or FAT32 file system. We will use NTFS.

Setup will then begin copying necessary files from the installation point (CD, local I386 or network share).

The computer will restart in graphical mode, and the installation will continue.

The GUI-based portion of the Setup program

The setup process reboots and loads a GUI mode phase. It will then begin to load device drivers based upon what it finds on your computer. You don't need to do anything at this stage.

1. Click Customize to change regional settings, if necessary.

· Current System Locale - Affects how programs display dates, times, currency, and numbers. Choose the locale that matches your location, for example, French (Canada).

· Current Keyboard Layout - Accommodates the special characters and symbols used in different languages. Your keyboard layout determines which characters appear when you press keys on the keyboard.

If you don't need to make any changes just press Next.

If you do need to make changes press Customize and add your System Locale etc.

2. Type your name and organization.

3. Type the product key.

4. Type the computer name and a password for the local Administrator account. The local Administrator account resides in the SAM of the computer, not in Active Directory. If you will be installing in a domain, you need either a pre-assigned computer name for which a domain account has been created, or the right to create a computer account within the domain.

5. Select the date, time, and time zone settings.

6. Setup will now install the networking components.

7. In the Workgroup or Domain window enter the name of your workgroup or domain.

· A workgroup is a small group of computers on a network that enables users to work together and does not support centralized administration.

· A domain is a logical grouping of computers on a network that has a central security database for storing security information. Centralized security and administration are important for computers in a domain because they enable an administrator to easily manage computers that are geographically distant from each other. A domain is administered as a unit with common rules and procedures. Each domain has a unique name, and each computer within a domain has a unique name.

If you're a stand-alone computer, or if you don't know what to enter, or if you don't have the sufficient rights to join a domain - leave the default entry selected and press Next.

A username/password window will appear. Enter the name and password of the domain's administrator (or your own if you're the administrator on the target domain).

Note: Providing a wrong username or password will cause this phase to fail.

8. Next the setup process will finish copying files and configuring the setup. You do not need to do anything.

9. After the copying and configuring phase is finished, if XP finds that you have a badly configured screen resolution it will advise you to change it and ask you if you see the new settings right.

BTW, the minimum supported screen resolution in XP is 800X600.

10. Setup finishes and boots Windows XP.

11. A Welcome screen is the first thing you see. The computer checks your Internet connectivity (required for the mandatory Activation and voluntary Registration processes).

You will be asked to register your copy of XP. You can decline if you want.

12. XP will ask you for the default username that will log onto this computer. You can enter as many as 5 users, but you can create more after the installation is finished.

13. That's it! Now, you can run you're computer!

Basics Of A Router

2008-12-26T23:21:00.000-08:00

Router is a computer device that receives or forwards data packets to and from the Internet towards a destination in the process called routing. Router is the essential component of the computer networking that enables any sent data to arrive at the right destination.

As an illustration, imagine that the Internet is the world and one computer is one household. Other computers connected through the Internet are households around the world. Say one household will send a letter to another household in any part of the world. The letter has an address right? And that address would determine the destination of the letter. But without one reading the address, the letter would not arrive to the right receiver. The letter also would not be able to reach the intended receiver if there is not medium. This medium would be the courier. And the courier of the computer data is the router.

A router (broadband router) is also a device that enables two or more computer to receive data packets from the Internet under one IP address at the same time.

Remember that to be able to connect to the Internet, a computer must have an IP address unique from the rest of the computers. Therefore, every computer connected to the Internet has it own IP address. It is like having a fingerprint or ID as an access pass to be able to enter the web. With the presence of the router, this “fingerprint” or “ID” could be shared by two or more computer at the same time.

In simplest form, a router makes two or more computer use the Internet at the same with one access pass.

One more thing: a computer with cable modem could also be considered as a router. In this, the computer would do the process of routing like normal routers do. Other computers are then connected to the computer with Internet connection that would give it with the Internet connection. The computer with cable modem has the direct contact with the Internet and the ones connected to it are sharing the connection.

Why would anyone need a router?

For households with two or more computers who would want to have Internet connection to every computers they have, taking subscription for each would be too much. The solution is to buy a router that would enable every computer in the house to have an Internet connection. In the definition above, the broadband router would act as a hub to the existing Internet connection.

If the router is comparable to a hub, would it affect the Internet speed?

It should be taken into consideration that once a single Internet connection is divided, the connection speed is affected. But there are some broadband routers that would bring minimal slowdown to the Internet speed and the effect might not even be big.

Internet speed would also depend on the type of application used in a router. While some would inflict little effect on the speed like online games, others would terribly slowdown your connection and even hinder you to use the Internet at all.

Usually, offices use a more sophisticated router to redirect Internet connections to the large number of computers. These routers would give better data packeting compared to a typical router used at home that results to faster Internet speed.

About The Author

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides router resources on http://www.about-routers.info

The Types Of Computer Memory

2008-12-26T23:16:00.000-08:00

How can a computer be such an amazing gadget? To many people they just can’t be so amazed on how computers have changed the way we live. Computers can now be found in many sizes and shapes. Almost every home appliance seems to have their own mini computer located somewhere. From cars to buildings to almost every gadget there is, most of the time each one has a computer working to make them run and change the very way we live life.

First and foremost, the most important component of the computer is its processor. It is considered the heart of the computer that does all the calculating and processing. But with all that calculating and processing, the computer won’t be such a remarkable gadget if not for its amazing memory. Computer memory makes it possible to retain important information on a computer. Such data can be used again and again and retrieved when a certain stored data is needed. Without the computer memory, the processor will have no facility where to store its important calculations and processes, thereby making them useless.

There are different types of computer memory tasked to store different types of data. They also have different capabilities and specialties when it comes to storing necessary data inside the computer. The best known computer memory is the RAM, otherwise known as Random Access Memory. It is called random access because any stored data can be accessed directly if you know the exact row and column that intersect a certain memory cell. In this type of computer memory, data can be accessed in any order. RAM’s exact opposite is called SAM or Serial Access Memory, which stores data in a series of memory cells that can only be accessed in order. It operates much like a cassette tape where you have to go through other memory cells before accessing the data that you are looking for.

Other types of computer memory include the ROM or Read Only Memory. ROM is an integrated circuit already programmed with specific data that cannot be modified or changed, hence the name “Read Only”. There is also another type of computer memory called Virtual Memory. This type of memory is a common component in most operating systems and desktops. It helps the computers RAM to be freed up with unused applications to make way for loading current applications being used. It works simply by checking for data stored in RAM not being used recently and have it stored in the computer’s hard disk, thereby freeing valuable space in RAM for loading other applications. A virtual memory will make a computer think that it has almost unlimited RAM inside it.

Another type of computer memory that has made computers process tasks faster is what is called cache memory. Cache memory works simply by having current applications, calculations and processes stored in its memory instead of directly to the main storage area. When a certain process is in need of data previously used, it first will try to access the cache memory if such data is stored there before accessing the central memory storage area. This frees up the computer from looking for the data in a larger and bigger memory storage area and makes data extraction faster. Computer memory is in a constant state of development as more and more technologies are being developed. Who knows, maybe in the near future computer memory might also be fit for human consumption.

About The Author

Robert Thatcher is a freelance publisher based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and provides computer memory resources on http://www.yourcomputermemory.info/.

How To Change Your Computer's Heat Sink

2008-11-29T02:12:00.000-08:00

Everyone really want a fast hot computer when we want to do some business computing and when we want to play those high speed games.But we don't want a fast and Hot computer in the literal sense.

Heat will destroy any computer component if not removed in time.And the CPU Chip is one of the main components of your system that produces heat.

The heat sink has the all important task of keeping the CPU Chip cool so it does not overheat.And there may be times when the heat sink will fail to perform its job and must be changed.

Changing the heat sink on your central processing unit or CPU chip is a simple job.And the best part is that you only need a small screwdriver,cotton swabs,and some rubbing alcohol.

To change the heak sink remember to think safety first.This means that you want to be sure you have clean hands,a clean work place,and removing all static charge from your body by touching a door knob or any other metal object.

Once you have a suitable work area and clean hands you should now have a clean suitable mind as well.Allow this task to be both educational and fun.To change the heak sink perform the following.

Step 1.Unplug the computer and remove the cover from the System Unit case.

Step 2. Find the CPU Chip and the heat sink will be on top.Find the wires that go to the motherboard and very carefully unplug them.

Step 3. Remove the old heak sink and cooling fan assembly.Most Pentium based computers will have two levers that lock the heat sink in place.

On older Pentium computers,the AMD Athlon and the Duron processor,look for a ZIF or Zero Insertion Force socket where the processor is mounted.

Gently release the clips by sliding a very small screwdriver blade underneath it and lift the heat sink off the CPU.Take great care here do you don't damge the cpu chip in any way.

Step 4. Once the old heat sink has been removed, clean away the old thermal paste using cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol.Allow time for the CPU to dry.

Step 5. Grab some thermal paste and squeeze a little onto the top of the CPU.Only place enough to have a thin layer between the CPU and Heat Sink.

Step 6. Before installing the new heat sink, clean the bottom off with some warm, soapy water. Check to be sure the Heat Sink is dry before installing it.

Step 7. Carefully line it up over the ZIF socket and processor if so equipped.If the computer have the newer Pentium or Athlon based chip,lock the two clips holding the assembly.

Step 8. With the CPU and heat sink firmly in place, now its time to re-connect the fan wires for the collong fan.Plug the assembly into the motherboard.

Step 9. Check,double check,and after that,check some more to be sure all connections are in place.See if the heat sink assembly is well secured in its socket.

Step 10. Now replace the system unit cover,plug any peripherals you disconnected.Start the PC and the computer should now realize it has a new device in its system.

Once the computer has been booted up,check to be sure the Operating System is working.If possible, look at rear of the computer to see if the fan is operating as it should.

The Central Processing Unit is not the only heat producing component in your computer.But since its the brains of any computer,you want to be sure the heat sink performs at its best.

Take the time to learn this procedure in detail by removing the case and looking at the heat sink in your own computer.Knowing how to perform this task can save you money should you need to change your heat sink in the future.

About The Author

Otis F. Cooper is solely dedicated to boosting the knowledge and confidence of every computer user. Use his informative articles and videos to understand all about the drives in your computer.Learn and see more at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com form action="http://www.articlecity.com/cgi-bin/search.cgi" method=post>

How To Correct A Slow Running Computer

2008-11-27T02:29:00.000-08:00

You push the power button on your computer and 5 minutes later you're finally ready to start computing.It seems as though it takes forever and a day for your computer to get going,Why?

Most likely,the main reason your system is dragging the ground is because of all the junk that runs in the background that you don't see.These are applications you may have installed over time.

Such utilities as scanner drivers, and hard drive monitors can swallow up memory and cpu processes,not to mention adware and spyware creeping into your system.These affect both your computer's bootup process and performance during normal operations.

Another reason for slow pc bootup and performance may be the simple fact that your computer is aging. Computers running Windows 98 and Windows Me with cpu speeds of 500mhz or less are good candidates for slow operation.These system often have inadequate RAM Memory as well.

OK,so you,re no doubt asking, how can you correct this ever present,nagging problem.If your system was purchase when dinosaurs roamed the earth,consider upgrading by adding more memory,a larger hard drive,and if possible a faster cpu.

You can free up hard drive space by deleting files and applications you don't use often.Improve performance by not overlooking basic pc maintenance.Running scandisk and Defragment are crucial to pc preformance.And try third party memory management programs.

Running scandisk will find and attempt to correct errors on your hard drive.System Defragment will free up hard drive space by re-arranging files in an orderly manner.This allows the cpu to find files much faster and not have to roam all over the hard drive to load files into memory.

You can get more bang for your buck by purchasing a faster computer however.When adding the costs of components and the increase in speed and performance you will gain,you may come out better to purchase another system.

Windows operating system have a utility named Msconfig that can display programs that bootup and instantly run on your computer. To start Msconfig,select Start,Run,and type "msconfig" without the quotes,in the Run dialog box.Msconfig does not show all programs running in the background however.

If you have Windows XP as your operating system, try to delete all files in the prefetch directory. Windows XP Professional monitors files that are used when the computer starts and when you start programs.

When Windows XP Professional monitor these files, it prefetches them.Prefetching data is the process whereby data that is expected to be requested is read ahead into the cache. Prefetching boot files and applications decreases the time needed to start Windows XP Professional and start applications.

These files if not deleted will lower system resources and slow pc performance by loading programs that are no longer being used.To delete these files,open C,your system drive, and go to windows/prefetch.Delete all files or at least those more than 3 weeks old and, reboot.

Try to check to see if your computer and the CPU Chip are not overheating. Excessive heat will cause your system to perform much closer.Make sure your computer is well ventilated.

A really neat and free utility that does a great job at displaying all programs is Merijins free startup utility which configure programs at http://www.mlin.net/StartupCPL.shtml.This utility is simple to use and should not add more burden to your computer.

Another utility called Process Explorer ,Sysinternals Tutoring at http://www.sysinternals.com/Utilities/ProcessExplorer.html can be used and this utility allow you to disable each program.

And when it comes to correcting slow computer performance, you can be your own worst enemy.And just how is this? The word procrastination means to put off today what we can do tomorrow. Such simple tasks as running scandisk and defrag are often put off until a more convenient time.

Don't let procrastination or anything else get in the way of boosting the performance of your computer. You'll thank yourself many times over when you see the results. You will also have the knowledge to help others boost their computer's performance as well.And that can always be a blessing to someone.

About The Author

Otis F. Cooper is the author of the award winning PC Super Pack,the Computer Training By Video course.For hundreds more free PC repair tips,sign up for his bi-monthly newsletter and learn the PC free at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com

How You Can Increase Your Computer's Speed Without Upgrading ?

2008-11-27T02:01:00.000-08:00

Every time I see the speed of my computer like the tortoise's speed I wonder if there are any ways to increase my computer speed without upgrading, and how can I speed up my computer although I'm a normal user and I don't have any programming skills?

The answer is very easy, just follow this ways:

1- Use Disk Cleanup to increase speed of Windows and the internet, how:

Start--->>All Programs or Program Files--->>Accessories--->>System Tools--->>Disk Cleanup then select the drive you want to cleanup and you should start with drive "C".

2- Use Scandisk to fix system errors and that make Windows run faster, how:

My Computer--->>click Right Click on drive C--->>Properties--->>Tools--->>Check Now then click on the first square to fix errors automatically then start.

3- Use Disk Defragmenter to increase the speed of your hard disk and applications, how:

Start--->>All Programs or Program Files--->>Accessories--->>System Tools--->>Disk Defragmenter, then select the derive you want to begin with but you should start with derive "C" then click defragment.

4- Speed up your internet connection immediately:

clean up your internet cache and your temporary internet files and cookies. Be careful because when deleting your cookies will also delete useful information from your computer. How can I speed up the internet connection: Start--->>Control Panel--->>Internet Options--->>Delete Cookies and Delete Files.

5- Don't let a lot of applications running when Windows starts, because you will make Windows run slowly. How to delete applications from Startup menu:

Start--->>All Programs or Program Files--->>Startup then "click Right click and delete" on any application you want to delete. Learn more about computers: http://www.ecomputerguide.com

About The Author

Abdelrahman Zohdy is the owner of http://www.HaaBi.com, a web hosting company which offers cheap web hosting plans & free domain name registration.

Incredible XP Tips You Wish You Knew Before You Read This, Part II

2008-11-25T03:07:00.000-08:00

In Part I, I wrote about using short cut keys while using XP. In this edition, I am going to be focusing on the “run line“. This is sometimes referred to as the “start run line“.

There are many “built-in” commands that may be run “out-of-the-box”. When these tips and tricks are employed, you will find yourself able to move through XP much faster and efficiently.

In order to find the “run line” (RL), you will need to click on the Windows Start Button.

From there, you will notice the “Run…” command a few lines up from the start button. Click it. You may also you the following combination of keys: "WINDOWS KEY" + r .

When you click the “Run…” line, a new dialog box will appear. This is the box where you will be typing in these shortcuts.

Useful RL commands for the novice and end-user: (These commands are every-day, useful commands that everyone can use)

CAPS Will only work if additional software has been installed

*Web-browsers:

explore Opens Internet Explorer FIREFOX Opens Firefox

*Applications:

calc Opens the Window’s Calculator EXCEL Opens Microsoft Excel FRONTPG Opens Microsoft Frontpage msimn Opens Outlook Express NERO Opens Nero notepad Opens Microsoft Notepad OUTLOOK Opens up Microsoft Outlook pbrush Opens Microsoft Paint POWERPNT Opens Microsoft Power Point tourstart Opens the Microsoft Tour WINWORD Opens Microsoft Word wordpad Opens Microsoft Wordpad

*Audio/Video:

QUICTIMEPLAYER Opens Quicktime’s Player moviemk Opens Window’s Movie Maker realplay Opens Real Audio’s Player wmplayer Opens Microsoft Media Player

*Games:

freecell Opens Freecell pinaball Opens Pinball spider Opens Spider Solataire

*Utilities:

clipbrd Opens the contents of the clipboard control Opens the control panel explore Opens Windows explorer logoff Logoff the current user magnify Opens the magnify utility osk Opens the on-screen keyboard printers Opens the printers panel shutdown Shutdown the computer

*Exploring the computer:

You may also enter simple “paths” into the RL. For example:

C: Will open the contents of your hard drive

A: Will open the contents of your floppy drive

D: Will open the contents of your CD/DVD drive (usually) ?: Insert a letter for “?”, this will open the contents of that drive

In addition, you may enter a full file path like C:\windows. This will open the windows directory. Also, if you are currently in an explorer window, you may enter an internet address and your default web-browser will open, and… vice-versa; You may also enter a local address, such as C:\windows , within your web-browser, and it will open the local path as well.

*Opening Web Pages:

By typing in a web-address using the RL, the default browser will automatically open. There is no need to start the web-browser first.

*Advanced RL commands:

CPL commands: (These are commands that open up specific control panels)

access.cpl Accessibility options

appwiz.cpl Add or remove programs

desk.cpl Display properties

hdwwiz.cpl Add hardware wizard

inetcpl.cpl Internet Explorer properties

intl.cpl Regional and language options

joy.cpl Game controllers

main.cpl Mouse properties

mmsys.cpl Sounds and audio device properties

ncpa.cpl Network connections

nusrmgr.cpl User accounts

odbccp32.cpl ODBC data source administrator

powercfg.cpl Power options properties

sysdm.cpl System properties

telephon.cpl Phone and modem options

timedate.cpl Date and time properties

.MSC RL commands: (These are commands that open up Microsoft Management Console Snap-ins. Some of these only work with XP Professional)

certmgr.msc certificates

ciadv.msc Indexing service

compmgmt.msc Computer management

devmgmt.msc Device manager

dfrg.msc Defragmenter

diskmgmt.msc Disk management

eventvwr.msc Event viewer

fsmgmt.msc Shared folders

lusrmgr.msc Local users and groups

ntmsmgr.msc Removable storage

ntmsoprq.msc Removable storage operator requests

perfmon.msc Performance monitor

services.msc Services

wmimgmt.msc Windows management infrastructure

There are others as well…

*Creating your own RL shortcuts:

here are many ways to make RL shortcuts to applications. Some involve changing the registry and some involve other complexities. The following are the two easiest methods:

Method 1 (easiest, little risk):

1. Create a windows shortcut of the application you would like to open by using the RL.

2. Save it to the “Windows” sub-directory. This is usually the file path:“C:\Windows”.

3. Now you should be able to open the application using the RL.

Using the method works 99.9% of the time.

Method 2 (a little harder, but still easy in comparison to others, some risk):

1. Open the control panel and choose Systems Properties.

2. Choose the Advanced tab and click Environment Variables.

3. From the “Systems variables” section, highlight “Path” and click edit.

4. Go to the end of the entry name “Variable value:” and insert this: ;c:\shortcuts

***Do not change anything else, or you may cause severe problems withother applications and their function!

***REMEMBER, YOU ARE ADDING THIS TO THE EXISTING LINE, NOT DELETING WHAT IS ALREADY THERE!

5. In the dialog boxes, click ok, then ok, then ok.

6. Create a directory (folder) called “shortcuts” in your “C:\ “, root directory. The address line should read, C:\shortcuts when you open it.

7. Create a windows shortcut of the application you would like to open by using the RL.

8. Save it to the “shortcut” sub-directory you just made in the previous steps.

9. Now you should be able to open the application using the RL.

Obviously, when you understand the above process, you may label and locate the directory anywhere you wish. By using the 2nd method you will be able to organize your shortcuts in a much cleaner fashion.

YOU MAY VIEW THIS ARTICLE WITH EXTRA PHOTOS BY VISITING: http://jpisano.com/blog/?p=54

Why Choose A Core 2 Duo For Your CPU In Your New High End Computer ?

2008-11-16T03:18:00.000-08:00

The Core 2 Duo CPUs should be a major consideration in your next high end computer purchase.

About The Author

Understand bootup process

2008-11-07T02:04:00.001-08:00

1. Booting Up

It is useful to understand what happens behind the scenes when you switch on your computer from a cold idle machine to an operable and functional system. There are essentially two forms of booting - the soft boot and the hard boot.

The warm boot or hard boot involves powering the computer up from an initial zero power supply.

A cold boot on the other hand takes place when a software application or operating system triggers the computer to perform a reboot.

A successful boot is dependent on 3 conditions - the hardware, BIOS and operating system files to function without errors. When an error occurs, you will be notified by error messages, beeping sounds or in the worst scenario, a blank screen.

Bootup Process The bootup process is a list of detailed procedures that the system undergoes to perform all system checks and load all necessary files to bring the computer to an operable state.

The Windows XP bootup process comprises of the following procedures:

a. The Power-On Self Test Phase

As soon as you power up your computer, a self-test is performed by the power supply to ensure that the volume and current levels are correct before the Power Good signal is sent to the processor. When this first stage is cleared, the microprocessor will then trigger the BIOS to perform a series of operations.

b. BIOS ROM Phase

The BIOS, also known as the Basic Input Output System is a firmware or set of instructions that resides on a ROM chip as contained in the motherboard.

It first carries out the P.O.S.T that performs and verifies all initial hardware checks, such as checking if the system is initialized by a warm or cold start, detecting the presence of peripheral devices and the amount of memory present. It then accesses the information stored in the CMOS chip, DIP switches, jumpers and assigns the necessary system resources.

After this, the hardware' firmware will individually carry out its own diagnostic test such as S.M.A.R.T.

The system will now attempt to determine the sequence of devices to load based on the settings stored in the BIOS to start the operating system. It will start by reading from the first bootup device. If it points to the floppy drive, it then searches for a floppy disk. If it does not detect a bootable diskette in the floppy drive, the system displays an error message.

If the floppy drive does not contain a diskette, it bypasses the first bootup device and detects the second device, which is usually the hard disk. It'll then start by reading the boot code instructions located in the master boot record and copies all execution into the memory when the instructions are validated and no errors are found.

c. Boot Loader Phase

Control is then passed on to the partition loader code which accesses the partition table to identify the primary partition, extended partitions and active partition which is needed to determine the file system and locate the operating system loader file - NTLDR. NTLDR will then switch the processor from real-mode to 32 bit protected mode which memory paging is enabled.

NTLDR will call upon the boot.ini file which is located at the root directory to determine the location and entries of the operating system boot partition. At this point in time, the bootup menu is displayed on the screen to allow you to select an operating system to start from if you have more than 2 operating systems installed in your computer.

NTLDR will pass all information from the Windows registry and Boot.ini file into Ntoskrnl.exe.

d. Operating System Configuration Phase

Ntoskrnl will begin to load the XP kernel, hardware abstraction layer and registry information.

After this is completed, the control is passed over to the DOS based Ntdetect.com program which collects and configures all installed hardware devices such as the video adapters and communication ports.

Ntdetect.com then searches for hardware profiles information and load the essential software drivers to control the hardware devices.

e. Security & Logon Phase

Lastly, Ntoskrnl.exe will start up Winlogon.exe which triggers the Lsass.exe or Local Security Administration which is the logon dialog interface that prompts you to select your user profile and verifies your necessary credentials before you are transferred to the Windows desktop.

For more information on Data Recovery Services, please visit our homepage of Adroit Data Recovery Centre Pte Ltd at http://www.adrc.net

PC Noise Annoys

2008-11-07T02:02:00.000-08:00

Computers and peripherals are noisy beasts, from the clack of keyboards, to the whirr of cooling fans, hum and whine of drives and motors, and vibration of chassis and panelling.

This can interfere with your concentration, and cause irritation and stress.

Unfortunately, the latest PC models are often noisier, because the extra processing power requires extra heat removal, hence more powerful fans. However, in older models, parts gradually wear and loosen, creating ever more annoying computer background noise.

The World Health Organisation recommends an ambient noise floor (background noise level) of 35dB(A) so we can speak and hear easily, and not have to struggle 'filtering out' background noise.

Most of us don't mind some sound in the background, but please, not this endless distracting machine noise!

Sadly though, it seems unlikely that manufacturers will be producing silent computers until they are driven to it.

You can buy 'noiseless' computers, but at present they are bulkier and much more expensive than standard 'noisy' PCs, and may also require specialist installation.

Therefore, here are 10 cheap and easy tips for reducing PC noise:-

1/ Place your PC on a hard reasonably thick surface. Angle the back (where the noisy cooling fans are situated) away from you if you can.

2/ Make sure the PC is standing level and flat on its feet. Mount the feet on a firm rubber base or rubber foot supports to deaden any vibration.

3/ Fix acoustic noise dampening pads on the walls around the PC. Concentrate on surfaces near it, that might amplify or reflect sound. You may also consider acoustic foam pads to block any unused disc bays, this will also reduce internal volume and promote cooling.

4/ Make sure outer panels aren't loose, and nothing is touching the PC casing. Bind any dangling cables into bundles with plastic coated wire ties or plastic cable tidies.

6/ Have your PC serviced and internally cleaned at least annually.Dust build-up inside a PC can cause fans to become louder, as well as being a potential source of allergen creation and early computer failure.

7/ Speakers often give out noises especially if other electronic devices like cell phones (mobiles) or baby monitors are near. Keep these devices well away, and/or the speakers turned off.

8/ You can reduce the sound overall with the Volume Control, (whether you use speakers or headphones) or mute the Windows sound files that you hear when you carry out virtually any task on a PC - see Windows Help. (Click on a blank area of the Desktop, press F1 key, then use 'Search' facility or 'Index' in the top bar. Look for 'Sounds and Audio Devices'. Follow the instructions)

9/ Most computer systems have power management features. Again look at 'Help'. You can reset the 'Standby'(low power - won't save data) or ''Hibernation'(low power - automatically saves data) features , so that the computer will slow right down after a period of inactivity. This will definitely save power and help reduce the noise level of the PC when not immediately in use.

10/ If you have a tower type PC, store the tower on the floor below you, making sure it isn't an obstruction, and air can circulate around it. Buy extension cables if you need to.

All the sound reducing equipment mentioned above is readily available off the Internet, or locally.

If you have a little more money or are buying computers, here are a few more options.

- You can buy new replacement PC cases designed to be quiet.They may be acoustically lined to cut sound or constructed so you can do away with any internal fans and so reduce noise

- Keyboard noise can be particularly wearing. Pick a model with the keys touch dampened.

- Consider a quality second hand or reconditioned model. Do you really need high processing power creating more background noise? Alternatively consider lower specification models, with (probably) smaller quieter fans.

- Ask for computers that comply with international noise reduction standard ISO 9626. If it also quotes sound pressure levels, this is a fair way of comparing the noise outputs of different PCs.

- Additionally, have a couple of new models run for you in the showroom. preferably in a quieter area. Or maybe you can get a home demonstration. All other things being equal, go for the quietest PC.

Whatever you plan, don't suffer- experiment to create a more silent PC environment. Remember, less PC noise can only boost your healthy computing through 2006 and beyond!

Help to choose your monitor

2008-11-07T02:00:00.000-08:00

Making the right choice in a computer display or monitor is an important part of involving yourself in today's web-browsing and multi-media technology. Right now, you are viewing this in a computer monitor (unless you've had someone print it for you and you're reading it on paper because your monitor made it completely unreadable) and how it appears to you depends entirely on the quality of your display.

What are the differences between an LCD screen and CRT monitors?
LCD screens are the current trendy looking; flat screen displays that are now sold with practically all bundles, whereas CRT screens are bulky older style technology. Apart from the space saving that the flat screen LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) offers, it also generates very little heat and radiation, uses considerably less power and is less reflective. LCD screens present excellent image quality. CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) monitors on the other hand, occupy a lot more space on your desktop, do generate heat and use more power and usually have a curved screen (although flat screen CRT monitors are available).

From a display point of view, the major difference between the two lies in how the image is created, and the resolution that the screen can accommodate. Each pixel in a LCD screen is produced by a tiny cell containing a layer of liquid crystals that bend light in response to electric energy. While they can be clearer than CRT screens, they are limited by only one optimal resolution. Setting the screen at a higher than optimal resolution reduces the overall screen image, and at a lower one causes the screen image to appear "pixelated".

A CRT screen creates its image through cathode ray emissions striking the phosphorous lining on the back of the tube glass. It offers more detail in images and colour at higher resolutions

One other difference to note is the display size. Display size is the diagonal measurement across the screen. A 17 inch (these have not been metricated yet) display is measured from one corner diagonally to its opposite. In a LCD display, this covers the entire framed display, but in a CRT monitor, the display image is usually 8%-10% smaller than the framed screen area, which means a 17" CRT monitor has to have a bigger framed screen than a LCD.

Compatibility
There are possibly two issues of compatibility to consider. One is the compatibility of the screen with your workspace and the work you want it to do. If you have a small space, then the slim features of the LCD will be a major part of your decision. It is better to buy an all-digital screen rather than one that plugs into a standard video card (which is analogue) and then translate an analogue signal to digital. An all-digital display will offer brighter images. Compatibility with your computer's video card is another consideration. You need to be sure that the video card you have in your computer will provide the screen resolution your require from your monitor and match the refresh rate.

Technical considerations
Dot Pitch. This is the distance between the same colour dots in any direction on a display. A smaller dot pitch enables easier reading of characters and better colour clarity. The maximum dot pitch you should consider for high quality graphics and text is .28 for a 17" monitor and .31 for a 21" monitor.

Screen resolution. The number of pixels a screen displays determines the resolution. A resolution of 1024 x 768 has 1024 pixels in the horizontal plane, and 768 in the vertical. The higher the resolution, the more detail is displayed. Be sure that your video card matches the resolution you require.

Refresh rate. This is the frequency at which the screen image is being refreshed to avoid flicker. A vertical refresh rate of 75 HZ (cycles per second) delivers a flicker-free environment and will reduce eyestrain and fatigue.

Cost
Of course it all comes down to what you can afford. But a good quality display is a good investment in your work environment. CRT monitors can be bought very cheaply. Digital LCDs can become very expensive. Manufacturers are now offering displays with inbuilt television receivers and speaker systems than can enhance your overall environment and improve the flexibility of your purchase. Ultimately, it depends on what you want to see on your desk as much as what youn want to see on your monitor. You can spend as little as $200.00 or well over $2,000 and you can do it all online. Myshopping.com.au offers you that special advanyage of being able to compare the specifications and prices of hundreds of different brands and vendors.

Harmful Secrets Of Computer Monitors

2008-11-07T01:57:00.001-08:00

If you use PCs, you are staring at that PC screen a lot. Therefore you need a correct screen setup as soon as possible,or your eyes,neck, shoulders and the rest of your body will suffer.

The trend in computer screens is to replace the box type computer monitor with a flat screen, saving weight space and power. However all the following tips apply equally to both types.

Suitable positioning of your monitor screen will cut back on unwanted exertion, and bad positioning, plus other possible health problems like exhaustion, eyestrain and related disorders like itching and styes.

Eyestrain, neck and back pain can be considerably reduced by proper selection of the monitor (or flat screen). The screen should be positioned in proper relation to other components like the keyboard, desk, and chair.

While using the computer monitor, ensure the following:-

The screen is in front of you and at least 20 inches (45 centimetres) away.

The screen should not be more than 40 inches (100 centimetres) away.

Ideal computer screen size is between 15 to 20 inches, (about 37 to 50 centimetres) measured diagonally.If the screen is very small, you�ll find it difficult to read the characters,while with a large screen,you may require too much space.

The ideal position is to have the screen directly in front of you. But, if that is not possible, the maximum �offcentering� recommended is 35 degrees to the left or right of you. Thats approximately...not very much!

The top line of the computer monitor screen should be at or below your eye level. If necessary raise your chair a little, so that your line of sight is also raised. (However if you do this, make sure your feet still get good support, and your thighs can move freely under the desk.)

Computer monitors should not be placed above or on top of other equipment like a CPU (central processing unit) or a surge protector. The screen would be then higher than your eyes. That might well increase strain on your eyes,neck, and back.

The screen should be placed at right angles to windows, so avoiding irritating reflections.

If your work is chiefly involved with printed matter, it is better to place the computer monitor a little to the side, with the documents on a stand just in front of you. There should not be too much distance between the screen and any printed matter you are working on.

Do not tilt computer monitors sharply either toward or away from yourself, as the objects on the screen may appear distorted, making them hard to view. Also, if the monitor is tilted back, there are chances of the overhead lights creating glare on the monitor, and a tilted or propped monitor may become unstable and fall over. You can tilt the computer monitor screen slightly - somewhere between 10 to 20 degrees - so that it is perpendicular to your line of sight. Always ensure that the angle and tilt of the screen can be adjusted without much effort.

For anything other than minor screen adjustment, it is better to have the computer monitor sitting on a a riser/swivel stand, available from any good computer accessory store, on or offline. To avoid glare, make use of a glare screen, available again from any suitable source of computer accessories...

Get your screen setup right and you've taken a big step towards healthy computing in 2006 and beyond!

Backing Up Data, An Essential Data Recovery

2008-11-07T01:54:00.000-08:00

The majority of people today utilise and therefore by default rely upon computers to go about their daily business with greater ease. Stored computer data will occasionally become corrupted, its an unfortunate fact of life. When this happens unprepared people often spend huge amounts of time getting the problem solved by paying specialists in data recovery or buying software that recovers data. Additionally, in the worst case scenario, not all data may be recovered! If you are prepared these frequently serious problems can be heavily reduced making your life easier.

�Prevention is better than a cure�with regards to computer data problems. By just backing up your data often in a sensible, logical, easy to find location you are able to massively increase your efficiently at resolving a data loss crisis. Time and stress with locating and re-loading your saved data will be far less than if you hadn�t taken the short time and effort to produce the back-ups and/ or programe files from the originals.

Files can be backed up onto any of the wide variety of media available today, e.g. CDs, external or internal hard drives, DVDs, tape drives or specifically designed removable media such as the Iomega REV drive. Usage of optical media (e.g. DVD�s, CD�s) is believed to be much less reliable in terms of a back-up. This media is far more prone to surface errors. The advantages and disadvantages (regards capacity/ ease of use, etc) of each particular media type should be chosen with regards to your situation. Importantly each media type will tend to perform efficiently, its best to try and stick to the media type that you find works best.

Many very reliable back-up programmes are in existance, one of the most well known is included with Microsoft Windows back-up software. Microsoft Windows XP users know this programme as NTBackup. If your computer doesn�t already have this installed all you have to do is simply place your Windows CD in your computer disc drive and locate the file called �ValueAdd\MSFT\ntbackup�. This is a file can that can then be run in the folder with which it was originally found, i.e. ntbackup.msi. Rapidly this file will produce the back-up software you so require, wizards ever present to help lead you through the file backup and resoration protocol.

With all the important backup software installed and fully functional it is vital that you make use of it frequently. Saving of your work should be done at least once per day ideally. If at all possible a separate back-up drive or disc should be used for every day of the week. This will provide that extra added security and peace of mind, allowing you to concentrate on more pressing issues. The large majority of businesses, from the large to tiny, adopt this basic and also fundamental data loss prevention method, and for a very good reason, it really works and can save a massive amount of stress, time and often vitally, money.

Time and money can be lost when computer data becomes corrupted, detrimentally affecting those persons involved. If you want secure data recovery information it can be found at http://www.easydatarecovery.info/Safe-And-Secure-Data-Recovery.php

What to do if you have random PC hang-ups

2008-11-07T01:49:00.000-08:00

Have you ever experienced your computer intermittently hangs-up, or may re-boot itself for no apparent reason. This is not only annoying, but in most cases it means you have lost valuable work that you were in the process of creating.

If this has happened once, then your chances of explaining the cause are remote in the extreme. If you find it happening regularly, then it is clearly in your best interest to find and fix the problem.

There are a few things you can check for yourself that may save you a trip to the repair shop and save yourself a few bucks. With most modern computers, the system comes with built in circuitry to monitor the state of the computer. One of the checks built into your system is to test the operating temperature. The computer may shut down if this moves outside the desirable operating range. For your system to run at the correct operating temperature it is important that air circulates freely in and around the case. If you have the computer case installed inside an enclosure, then this may be the first thing to consider changing. Similarly, I have seen computers covered with books, manuals and paper documents. These again can hinder air circulation, and these items should be removed.

Take a look at the slotted vents in the sides of the case. These slots can become blocked by an accumulation of dust. Because the computer is usually always drawing some power, it has a constant electrostatic charge. A computer is second only to a vacuum cleaner in its ability to suck in dust and fluff.

Removing the cover of the case will also show the dust build-up inside the computer. Be careful removing dust accumulations from internal components. This is best done with a soft artist�s brush or an aerosol can of compressed air.

Next, take a look at the internal cooling fans. Modern computers usually have a cooling fan perched on top of the processor. This fan should be clear of dust, and running freely, without obvious scraping noises, when the computer is operating. It is ok to start the computer with the case cover removed, just be careful not to poke things into the various components.

There will also be a cooling fan inside or attached to the power supply. This again should be free of dust and running freely. Some computers may also have an additional case fan. This will be screwed on over one of the slotted case vents, and typically be running from a cable connected to the mother board. Not all machines have a separate case fan, but if it is there, it is there for a reason. Apply the same checks to this fan.

If you have identified faults with your cooling fans, this may require a trip to your local repair shop. The repair technician may also suggest that the CPU heat sink be removed and re-placed with fresh heat transfer compound, which is a straightforward job for an experienced repairer. Get Free Tips, Information and articles on PDAS, Computers and Laptops at http://www.best-rated-laptops-and-computers.info

Computer Monitor Buying Guide

2008-11-07T01:45:00.000-08:00

Although a monitor makes some of the least difference in terms of your computer's speed, it can make some of the biggest differences in terms of comfort and productivity. This guide aims to give you the details you need to know to choose the best monitor for what you need it for.

LCD flap panel monitors have become all the rage, in a matter of just a few years, the old CRT monitors have nearly become obsolete, expecially on new computers. The old monitors are not bad. There is much to be liked, especially in terms of value for money, and in terms of performance. But you can't fight the change. We will focus on the LCD flat panel monitors as there is often more to be considered.

Firstly there is the connection to the computer. Older monitors utilised a VGA cable that carried the signal from the computer to the monitor. The signal that goes along there is an analogue signal and it can become slightly degraded, and is just an old technology. Many flat panel monitors support this old style, but that is usually just for backwards compatibility. The newer cable type is a digital kind which is designed to be used for LCD monitors. The performance from this newer kind is better, but if you are upgrading an old computer, make sure your computer can run that monitor.

Secondly is the screen resolution. This is how many pixels can be displayed on the monitor. The higher the resolution, the more can be fit on the screen. This means clearer images with much smoother textures, but it also means that things appear smaller as an increase in resolution does not increase the physical dimensions of the monitor. Usual nowadays is 1024 x 768 or even 1280 x 960. Computers used to have 800 x 600, but that has all but disappeared, except on very old computers or those that are not maintained properly. I run 1280 x 960 as it gives room for a lot of working space on the monitor, but with less than a 19 inch monitor, 1024 x 768 would be more suitable.

Screen refresh rate is another factor that comes into play. CRT monitors used a process of changing the pixels on the screen to show the new images, updating from top to bottom in lines, at a certain rate per second. With that old style 60MHz (60 refreshes per second) would be the minimum before the screen started to flicker. LCD monitors do not have this problem and will look fine at 60MHz.When running games a refresh rate higher than that is required, often up to 85MHz or more. Make sure the monitor you plan to use supports at least 60MHz at your desired resolution for normal use and 85MHz if you want to play games.

A specification that is new for flat panel monitors that didn't effect CRT monitors is latency. Although the refresh rate may be high, the table of little dots that make up the LCD panel take a small time to change, that change is the latency. Obviously if this latency is too high it is possible that you get shot in games before you even know it, which is no good. Latencies have improved, but only monitors claimed with 8ms latency have been really good for games. Latencies tend to be exagerated and a latency of 8ms actually averages out to 12ms. With most ratings multiply by 1.5 to get an average rating.

The actual brightness of the screen can vary from spot to spot on the screen. Certain monitors have obvious bright parts and dull parts while others are more consistent. Most have some variation, but the less, the better. Name branded monitors tend to give better results than cheaper no name brand versions.

Extras like little speakers are not worth talking about much. They have limited use and I would rather have seperate speakers and keep the monitor simple.

After considering these, you should have enough to make a good purchase decision. Remember that a little extra money spent on a monitor is a good investment, and unlike many other computer parts, upgrades are not needed that often.

Peter Stewart is a computer enthusiast, his interest in computers and focus on practical down to earth advice inspired his two websites.

http://computer-buying-guide.com - Practical buying tips

http://computer-reviews.net - Fair and honest reviews and opinions

Computer Parts - No More a Hidden Business

2008-11-07T01:40:00.000-08:00

Computer parts are an important peripheral for any business houses today. Computer hardware is the physical part of a computer, including the digital circuitry, as distinguished from the computer software that executes within the hardware.

The use of computer is endless you can use a computer for printing reports, documents, publishing newsletters or for just printing photos. The hardware of a computer is infrequently changed, in comparison with software and data, which are "soft" in the sense that they are readily created, modified or erased on the computer.

Most computer hardware is not seen by normal users. It is in embedded systems in automobiles, microwave ovens, electrocardiograph machines, compact disc players, and other devices.

PC hardware:

A typical personal computer consists of a case or chassis in desktop or tower shape and the following parts:

Motherboard: The Motherboard is possibly the most important part of the computer. The motherboard is the foundation of any PC. All the critical subsystems, including the CPU, system chipset, memory, system I/O, expansion bus, and other critical components run directly off the motherboard. Likewise, the interconnections among these components are laid into the motherboard itself.It slots for expansion cards and holding parts including :

- Central Processing Unit(C P U): It is the core of computer, it control the main processing process.

- Random Access Memory (RAM): It is for Program execution and short term data storage.

- Basic Input-Output System (BIOS): All Computer Hardware . has to work with software through an interface. The BIOS gives the computer a little built-in starter kit to run the rest of software�s from floppy disks (FDD) and hard disks (HDD). The BIOS is responsible for booting the computer by providing a basic set of instructions.

- Keyboard: The keyboard is one of the simplest parts of the computer to understand. This chapter goes beyond the keyboard basics, however, to show you how to do tasks such as inserting special characters or typing in another language. This chapter also looks at how to take care of your keyboard and how to take care of yourself when using it.

- Power supply - A case that holds a transformer, voltage control and fan.

- Storage controllers : It is of IDE, SATA, SCSI or other type, that control hard disk, floppy disk, CD-ROM and other drives; the controllers sit directly on the motherboard (on-board) or on expansion cards

- Video display controller: It produces the output for the computer display.

- CD - the most common type of removable media, cheap but fragile.

- CD-ROM Drive

- CD Writer

- DVD � DVD- ROM Drive, DVD-RAM Drive, DVD Writer.

- Tape drive - mainly for backup and long-term storage.

- Internal storage - keeps data inside the computer for later use.

- Sound card - It translates signals from the system board into analog voltage levels, and has terminals to plug in speakers.

- Networking - to connect the computer to the Internet and/or other computers, to connect one to other computers you required the following thing:

- Modem - for dial-up connections

- Network card - for DSL/Cable internet, and/or connecting to other computers.

- Other peripherals

- Hot Hardware - Popular forums for those interested in learning or exchanging info on graphics cards, motherboards, processors, drives and cases, or shoot the breeze in The Lounge.

The internet is the best place to buy cheap computer parts. Due to increase in demand for many parts in many suppliers find it profitable to sell their products online. The online dealers have their websites, which offer information on the various types of computer parts available for purchase. Whether you want to reviews computer hardware on water-cooling, flat screens, memory modules, video cards, and the latest in gaming and technology news, just go to http://www.dvwarehouse.com they have something you�ll enjoy. Shop by our busy computer hardware forum, where thousands of hardware enthusiasts participate in active discussion. Also try searching our hardware forum database, as well as our full network of sites, for answers to any computer questions.

DV Warehouse is one stop shop for the Video Editing Solutions, as we aim to provide the widest range of video editing products available nationwide. From the latest HD solution to the hard-to-find analog device for your studio, DV Warehouse should be your first stop. They offer a multitude of products from dozens of the industry's leading manufacturers, normally available at multiple vendors, under one roof. Visit them today for best buy Computer Parts.

Author: Monica Craft - I am computer part supplier. According to me http://www.dvwarehouse.com is (Best Online Computer Store).

Guide to buying Hard Drives

2008-11-07T01:26:00.000-08:00

Apart from being one of the most essential parts of your computer, hard drive storage is constantly updating, in terms of both capacity of disk space and in physical size. When it comes time to upgrade your disk storage, there are a number of factors for you to take into account. Once you've made basic decisions about size, connectivity, speed and data transfer rate, and whether you want an internal drive or external, you can search through Myshopping.com.au to find the most suitable brand, and model, and compare the prices of different vendors.

Hard Drives

How A Hard Drive Works

Your hard drive has a number of magnetized platters connected to a spindle. The spindle spins the platters at a very fast speed while a series of read/write heads scan over them both looking for and writing information. This information is transferred via a cable system, or through a wireless connection to a hard disk controller, which in most systems is built into the motherboard, or in some systems installed as an add-in card. The information that comes from your hard drive through its controller is then made available to the components of your computer. The effectiveness of your hard drive (its performance) depends on how much of its capacity remains unused, how well organised the data is (known as fragmentation) and its data transfer rate, which in turn is dependent on its connection type and the drive's spin rate.

Internal Hard Drives

Most computers from, the most basic home models up to the most powerful servers, have an internally installed hard drive. Technology today ensures that they are all generally fast, reliable, and offer dependable storage ability. Most modern computers have installation slots and cabling to enable you to install additional hard drive. This allows you to increase your storage capacity without giving up your existing hard drive.

Internal Hard Drives

External Hard Drives

These drives are essentially the same drives as ones installed inside computers, but cased inside a protective, portable case. This is a good solution for people who work remotely and need to transport large amounts of data. If an external hard drive is your choice, make sure your computer is compatible with the interface that the hard drive uses. An add-in card, such as a FireWire card can help to increase your computer's capabilities. You can compare different brands of external hard drives simply at Myshopping.com.au and search on the connection type, or other specifications.

External Hard drives

Laptop Hard Drives

There have been many advances in miniaturization of hardware components for laptop computing, and hard drive technology is not left out of this loop. Laptop hard drives function in exactly the same way as internal hard drives on other computers, only they are designed to provide maximum storage and efficiency in the smallest possible package. For added flexibility, some laptop computers come with removable hard drives that can be easily installed and removed. However, before you buy a hard drive for your portable computer, check that the hard drive's specifications will meet the standards of your computer, as many laptop hard drives are proprietary, and are not compatible with other brands and models.

Laptop Hard Drives

Size

Your hard drive stores your operating system, its programs (games and applications), your working data, and your digital music and movies. Most new computer purchases have a minimum of 80 GB of hard disk space; many have considerably more. Hard drive space is one of those things, once you have it, you'll find ways to fill it soon enough. There is no real rule of thumb, but consider the cost per gigabyte of storage as a way to guide your purchase. If you work with large files, such as music, video and graphics, it pays to have a big storage space for your work. It may pay you to have two hard drives, one that houses all your programs and applications, and another for storing your work and projects.

You may want to compare the price of say a 160GB drive against two separate 80 GB drives. If one drive fails all is not lost. Today's hard drives however, are fairly robust pieces of equipment and providing they are not abuse, will serve you well for a long period of time.

up to 32 GB Hard Drives

32-64 GB Hard Drives

64-100 GB Hard Drives

100 GB and more Hard Drives

Interface

One key distinguishing factor between hard drives is the way in which they connect to your computer. There are a number of basic types of connection schemes used with hard drives. Each connection type has a range of differences in performance.

IDE (INTEGRATED DRIVE ELECTRONICS)

This is by the most common connection methods. Because the hard drive controller is on the drive itself rather than on the motherboard, it helps to keep costs down. There different IDE standards available. Mostly, you will want to purchase the fastest possible standard that your computer can support. Most computers will support a standard that is faster than what the computer currently supports, so you can buy a faster drive, and update your computer at a later time. The different IDE standards, in order from most basic to fastest, are:

ATA (Basic). Supports up to two hard drives and features a 16-bit interface, handling transfer speeds up to 8.3 MB per second.

ATA-2 or EIDE (Enhanced IDE). Supports transfer speeds up to 13.3 MB per second.

ATA-3. A minor upgrade to ATA-2 and offers transfer speeds up to 16.6 MB per second.

Ultra-ATA (Ultra-DMA, ATA-33 or DMA-33). Dramatic speed improvements, with transfer rates up to 33 MB per second.

ATA-66. A version of ATA that doubles transfer rates up to 66 MB per second.

ATA-100. An upgrade to the ATA standard supporting transfer rates up to 100 MB per second.

ATA-133. Found mostly in AMD-based systems (not supported by Intel), with transfer rates up to 133 MB per second.

IDE / EIDE Hard Drives

Serial ATA Hard Drives

Ultra DMA 100 Hard Drives

SCSI (SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEM INTERFACE)

This is the hard drive interface standard used by many high-end PCs, networks and servers, and Apple Macintosh computers, except for the earliest Macs and the newer iMacs. While some systems support SCSI controllers on their motherboards, most feature a SCSI controller add-in card. SCSI drives are usually faster and more reliable, and the SCSI interface supports the connection of many more drives than IDE. While SCSI drives come in many different standards, many of them are not compatible with one another. So it's important be know that your computer supports the drive you plan to install. The different SCSI connections are:

SCSI-1. A basic connection using a 25-pin connector, supporting transfer rates up to 4 MB per second.

SCSI-2. Uses a 50-pin connector and supports multiple devices with a transfer rate of 4MB per second.

Wide SCSI. These drives have a wider cable and a 68-pin connection that supports 16-bit data transfers.

Fast SCSI. Uses an 8-bit bus but transfers data at 10 MB Per second.

Fast Wide SCSI. Doubles both the bus (16-bit) and the data transfer rate (20 MB per second).

Ultra SCSI or Ultra Wide SCSI. Uses an 8-bit bus and transfers data at 20 MB per second.

SCSI-3. Features a 16-bit bus and transfers data at 40 MB per second.

Ultra2 SCSI. Uses an 8-bit bus and transfer data at a rate of 40 MB per second.

Wide Ultra2 SCSI. Uses a 16-bit bus and supports data transfer rates of 80 MB per second.

SCSI Hard Drives

Ultra320 SCSI Hard Drives

FIREWIRE (IEEE 1394)

The FireWire standard is becoming popular in portable hard drives because it can be connected and removed without having to reboot the computer. It supports data transfer rates of 50 MB per second, which means it is ideal for video, audio and multimedia applications. FireWire requires a dedicated add-in card and the hard drives in use require an external power source, but the interface can support up to 63 devices simultaneously.

FireWire Hard Drives

USB 1.1 (UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS)

Pretty much all computers today include USB ports on their motherboards. (On older model, you can install an add-in card.) USB controllers can be used to connect external hard drives, and can support as many as 127 devices simultaneously either through USB port hubs or linked in a daisy chain fashion. USB controllers do delivery power to devices connected to them, but many hard drives still use an external power source. USB is limited by its data transfer speed, the maximum rate being about at 1.5 MB per second.

USB Hard Drives

USB 2.0 (HI-SPEED USB)

A more recently introduced and far better connection standard that offers backward compatibility and data transfer rates of up to 60 MB per second. USB 1.1 system can use a USB 2.0 device; it will need a USB 2.0 controller card to achieve the higher transfer rates.

USB 2.0 Hard Drives

FIBRE CHANNEL

Fibre Cabling is mainly used for high-bandwidth network servers and workstations, providing very fast data transfer rates (up to 106MB per second), and connection at long cabled distances, although it is expensive and you need to install a special interface card.

Spin rate

Data transfer rate is crucial to how well your computer performs for you. Apart from the connection types above, the performance of your hard drive depends on its spin rate, measured in RPM. Higher RPM generally means faster data transfer rate. The lowest spin speed that is acceptable in computing today is 5400 RPM. The common standard at present is 7200 RPM. But higher speeds are available in SCSI drives, and it is one area of computer system technology that is constantly being developed.

3600 RPM Hard Drives

4200 RPM Hard Drives

5400 RPM Hard Drives

7200 RPM Hard Drives

10000 RPM Hard Drives

15000 RPM Hard Drives

A larger capacity hard drive will not necessarily make your system function any faster unless you are low on available disk space with your existing drive. But a drive with Ultra ATA/100 or ATA/133 and a 7200 RPM spin rate will pretty much guarantee an improved hard drive performance.

Other considerations

CACHE

Cache (pronounces 'cash') is additional temporary memory that acts as a buffer between the system and the drive. Frequently accessed data is stored in the cache for quick access. Cache sizes vary from 512 KB up to 16 MB on some SCSI drives. The larger cache you have on your drive, the faster your drive will transfer data. If you are working with large files, such as video, images and audio files, it pays to have the largest cache you can get (8MB or more).

SEEK TIME

The data on your disk is stored in tracks and sectors and when you instruct your hard drive controller to retrieve some data, it goes looking. The seek time is a measure of how long it takes the hard drive to find a specific track on a disk. Seek times can vary slightly from disk to disk and a drive with a faster seek time will always perform better.

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL TRANSFER RATES

These two rates tell how fast a drive actually reads the data and passes it along to the system. Internal Transfer Rate refers to the time it takes for a drives heads to read data from the platter and pass it to the drive's cache. The External Transfer Rate (sometimes called the Transfer Rate or the Burst Transfer Rate) is a measure of the time it takes to send the data from the cache all the way to the computer's memory. Naturally faster transfer rates provide better performance.

S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology)

This is a nice built-in feature in some hard drives that can help alert you to a potential hardware problem. Your computer's BIOS must support this in order for the SMART function it to work, however the drive itself will still work in a system without it.

Buying and installing a hard drive has some technical aspects that you need to take into account. Use Myshopping.com.au to compare different hard drive makes and specifications to find the drive that will work best for your needs and computer. You can compare prices and service offers from different vendors.

Computer Repair And Cracking Passwords!

2008-11-05T01:45:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of time cracking passwords! No, not for stealing software or information, for doing computer repair! One of the most common home or small business computer service repair calls I get is that Bob, fill in the blank here – lost his password / forgot his password / left the company and never told anyone his password, and we can’t use the computer or software.

If you have physical access, most times you can reset a password on any version of Windows XP. Some vertical applications get a little trickier but I still can usually figure out a way to get in to clear the existing password and then let the customer reset it.

And no, I’m not going to teach you how in this article, sorry. But what I can do is help you figure out a way to never forget a password without writing down. An especially bad practice that I see all the time is someone will write down the password on a post-it note and put it on the monitor. Which is a particularly ugly breach in security.

But I can understand the problem. Chances are you have many passwords to remember if you use a computer at home or at work. And since many of the systems automatically force the user to change their password every 90 days, this becomes quite a challenge to remember them all.

There are some good ways to create a password so that you can’t forget it. And you can easily meet the minimum requirements of at least 8 characters with at least three being punctuation or numerals too. But the best is 15 characters (I won’t go technical on you but let’s just say that the stored password of over 14 characters are much more difficult to crack). I can’t even remember who taught me this method but I’ve been using it for years.

The first thing to remember is not to use children’s names, birthdays, or any information that someone might guess. This includes common names found in the dictionary or some other know source. The reason for this is there are many cracker programs out there that use these common sources to check against password to break them. So stay away from common words or expressions.

Even the programs that generate random characters can be beat by another program designed to emulate that type of software. The idea behind them is good and they can provide a stronger password but for most user that creates a bigger problem since who can remember W#8hY*2l-Km$!1d, let alone type it.

So what’s the secret? The easiest way I’ve found to remember a password is to associate it with a person or event that you’ll never forget. Something that even a good friend might not know but also something that you couldn’t forget even if you wanted to if you tried.

If the password is for windows or a windows program you have up to 127 characters most times. So use a phrase instead of just one word. So if you have a phrase (or song lyric) burned into your brain you could use it too. When I need a quick password when working at a client’s I normally look at the machine or something on the wall and use it for the password. One of my favorites is “I hate Compaq’s model 2780!” or use any computer name).

When I was five we moved to the corner of 85th street and pacific. Most people I know now don’t know that and I doubt it would come up in any conversation. So if I used 085TH@pacificst5 that contains something I can easily remember and also meets the high end password requirements.

Or how about the first love of my life (which dumped me in about 2 weeks)? I won’t use her real name to protect the guilty but here’s that one, http://2wKJeN06.OrG an, I added organ since she was organic (I think). See how this works? I’ll bet we all have lots of things, events, people, and the date or age we experienced them to use.

One weakness any password can have is if someone slips in a keylogger program on your computer. Keyloggers record all the keystrokes that a user makes and regardless how tough you make your password, if they can see the key strokes, they’ve got you. And it’s much easier than you think to do a stealth install.

There is one way to get around this issue, use extended characters. If you hold down the alt key, then press one or more numerals you get one of those weird characters with double dots on top or a symbol. But the keylogger still shows the character, but a way around it is to use Alt 0160. This extended character is a space and hides the fact that you used the Alt method to create it. So they won’t be able to duplicate it even if they see it.

There is no perfect solution for passwords. But you can and should take some steps to insure that you take the appropriate precautions whenever you create one. Keep it over 15 characters, use numerals, punctuation, and alphabetical characters. Combine elements that are easy to remember but not common information like birth dates or children’s names. Use associations that make it easy to remember.

And never communicate your password in any documentation or emails. Don’t display them on your computer or loan them to friends or associates. Random generators can be helpful but aren’t bullet proof. Change your passwords on a regular basis just in case. Always have a master or Administrator password that can be used to go in and change user’s passwords when necessary.

I’d much rather fix hardware or software problems than crack passwords on a computer repair service call. It makes my job a little easier and can save you a lot of money.

About The Author

John Dow owns http://www.PowerSolutionsCD.com, a website that specializes in computer troubleshooting, security, and repair utilities. Click here to learn more: Best Computer Repair CD.

How To Install A Motherboard

2008-11-05T01:38:00.000-08:00

(Important make sure you read through this guide before you begin installation of your new motherboard.)

The motherboard is the largest and one of the most important components of your computer. It’s reliability and health is utmost important.

Once you have picked out and purchased your motherboard you are ready for installation.

Carefully remove the motherboard from the box, do not remove it out of the ESD (electro static discharge) bag. Do a quick inventory to make sure you have all of your parts. Most likely you should have all of you IDE cables for the hard drive and cdrom, and possibly I/O plate. If you purchased a motherboard that support ATA hard drives you should have those cables.

Once you have verified that you have all the parts, pick up the user manual, and read through it, you don’t have to read it from cover to cover but you want to familiarize yourself with the motherboard, in addition many motherboard manufactures will also include a quick installation guide so take a look at that also.

Now you are ready, your work area should be clean and static free. Put on your anti static wrist band, if you have one. A anti static wrist band is just basically a cloth wrist band that has a snap on stretchable cable that is grounded, the grounded surface area helps keep electrostatic discharge in control.

Remove the motherboard from the box and all of the parts. Then remove the motherboard from ESD bag and lay it inside the empty box. Cut open your ESD bag on each side and turn it inside out so that you can lay your motherboard inside of it. Just laying your new motherboard on top of your ESD bag is not enough protection from electro static discharge.

Prepare your computer chassis. If you have already installed and mounted your power supply, tie the power cords out of your way with some wire ties, or some Velcro. You need a clear path from the opening of your chassis to the bottom of your chassis, where your motherboard will be mounted.

Something’s you need to think about before you drop your new motherboard into your chassis is, cooling. Depending on what type of processor you have purchased, the processor may run hot. So you have to think about good ventilation for your chassis. Heat can destroy your new investment in a matter of hours. If you do not already have at least two exhaust fans on your chassis you may have to think about actually cutting a hole either at the top of your chassis or on the side to mount the exhaust fans. Ok pick your jaw off the ground; it’s not as bad as it sounds. If you have a dremel with a cutting blade it can be very easy. Use an old CD as a template and draw around the CD with a washable marker. Then just follow the line with your dremel. Now you don’t have to do this, you can buy a chassis with plenty of exhaust fans already installed, so that is something to consider when you are in the process of buying all of your parts.

Now let’s get back to installing your new motherboard. Once you have a clear path to the bottom of your computer chassis, make sure that you have your bag of screws handy, and a long neck Philips screw driver. Take a look at the motherboard mounts, they are installed inside your chassis, these are the mounts that you will align with the holes on the motherboard. If you do not have any mounts you will have to installed them your self. The hardware should have come with your chassis if your chassis is new; if not make sure you save your screws, when you remove your old mother board.

Remove the old I/O plate and install the new one, take a look at the manual for reference. Make sure that it is secure. Look at the mounts that are on the bottom of your, chassis you want to make sure that you line up the mounts with the holes that are drilled on your mother board. (Important DO NOT DRILL ANY HOLES IN YOUR MOTHERBOARD) Angle the motherboard so that I/O ports will match with the holes on the I/O plate. There is a good chance that you might need to remove the break away pieces of metal the cover some I/O holes on the I/O plate. It is a good idea to check for proper match before installing the mother board.

As you angle the motherboard towards the I/O plates make sure that mounting holes on the motherboard are lining up with the mounts on the chassis. Gently push the motherboard towards the back of the chassis so that the I/O ports are snug against the I/O plate, and that all of the ports are protruding all the way out.

Once you have the motherboard correctly align with the I/O plate you are ready to mount the motherboard to the chassis with the screws provided. Tighten each screw down so that they are snug; do not over tighten the screws.

Use the manual as your guide and connect the power LED, speaker, reset switch ECT, coming off of the chassis to the F_panel (Front Panel) of your motherboard. Since each motherboard will be slightly different make sure to refer to the manual for exact instruction.

Ok well there you have it. You just installed your new motherboard. Need more information on motherboards, and motherboard form factor like the AT or ATX head on over http://www.amecomputers.com/form-factor-motherboards.htm

About The Author

Anthony Elias has been in the information technology field for over 10 years. If you need more information on computer software, hardware or networking please visit us at http://www.amecomputers.com

Defragging Drive May Work Best When Starting in Safe Mode

2008-11-05T01:32:00.000-08:00

The following is a question posed to Array Systems Inc. (http://www.arraysystems.com/), an IT outsourcing and Computer Network Support company serving Los Angeles:

"When attempting to defrag the C drive on my 333 E Machines PC using Windows 98 OS 6.1 edition, the first message I get is “Reading Drive Information. Defrag begins but will not go beyond 10 percent completion. Next a blank screen appears, th. This sequence recurs every 3 to 4 minutes."

What you’re experiencing is conflict/contention with another open program. When the defrag utility runs, it copies information (data, programs or files) from one area of your hard disk to a clean area. If a program is open or a file is being accessed by another program, the defrag utility will not copy it to the clean area. These programs probably are part of your startup process. For example, my startup process automatically opens my virus scan program so that when I get on the Internet I’m protected. If I want to run my defrag utility, I need to start my computer in safe mode.

Safe mode is a scaled down version of your Windows operating system and will bypass your startup process so that programs that are automatically turned on will not be initiated. You’ll notice a difference right away because your Windows desktop will look different and your icons will appear larger than normal. This is because the default screen resolution is larger than your normal settings.

For those who aren’t familiar with the defrag utility, let me take a few minutes to explain what what exactly it is. There are two programs you should run on a regular basis, which should be part of your disk maintenance program. These programs are disk defragmenter and scandisk.

I run my disk defrag once a quarter and my scandisk once a month. The disk defrag utility cleans up your hard disk to make it more efficient. Let me explain how your hard disk works and why it needs to be cleaned up periodically.

I’m writing my column using MS Word. When I open the file for my current column, I like to save it after 5-10 minutes of typing. When I save it, the Word document can’t be saved over the same spot on my hard disk. Therefore, a new spot on the hard disk must be found and the pointer (index) must be updated to reflect the new location. Sometimes, if the file is very large (novel or screen play), there isn’t enough clean space in one location so the file is broken up into several locations with several pointers. The old space is now unusable until the next defrag utility is run.

Sometimes, you’ll notice that your computer takes a long time to save a document because it is hunting around for some clean space. This is probably the No. 1 problem associated with computer performance. The defrag utility starts by copying all the files from the beginning of your hard disk to another location. Then it cleans the disk area and copies the current files back. It continues with each area/sector or your hard disk until it cleans the entire disk. This process can take up to eight hours, depending upon the size of your hard disk and the computer’s speed.

The next utility is called the scandisk. It resembles the defrag utility, but it updates only the pointer/index files. Every time a file is updated, the new location is updated in your index file. These files are the most active files on your computer because it tracks the location of everything. The scandisk also eliminates any corruption problems that have occurred when shutting down your computer improperly or when your computer hangs.

A well-maintained index also will increase the speed and efficiency of your computer. Got a question? Need Help? Please visit our website: http://www.arraysystems.com/ Email: skato@arraysystems.com Call us Toll Free: (877)412-7729

About The Author

Sid Kato is the president of Array Systems Inc. and author of the Daily Breeze "computer-wise" column. Array Systems is an IT Outsourcing and Computer Network Support company that aims to help small businesses throughout the greater Los Angeles area with all of their technology demands. In business for over 16 years, Sid knows where the pitfalls are.

Tell Me About Computers

2008-11-05T01:24:00.000-08:00

So you want to know about computers? The most important thing to remember, if you are new to computers, is not to be afraid of them. They are just another electrical appliance, and unless you do something drastic, I promise you they wont blow up in your face!

Trial and error is your best friend when learning about computers and a few tips on computer jargon will help a long way. I love jargon it is so creative- who on earth thought of "cookies"?

Lets begin with some basics, computers were first created in 1936, and Microsoft Windows was born in the 1980s. Since then computers, or should I say programmers, have become smarter and smarter, creating the wonderful array of program freedom that we now enjoy in our daily lifestyle of computing.

So lets get ourselves up to date with the meaning of some of the computer jargon, or what some of the bits are, and what they do in your computer.

The Computer Case

Computer cases are the outside casing of your tower, or box in your computer, these cases come in an array of different sizes and styles. Many people have their cases in fancy styles as a way of expressing themselves, or expressing individuality.

Depending on what you choose, will determine the price you will pay for a computer case. Before grabbing the fanciest thing you find, remember to take some note of what's 'inside' the box, make sure that you choose a tower or box that suits your requirements as well as your individuality!

CPU

A CPU (Central Processing Unit) is the component in a computer that sends instructions and processes information in programs. Since the 1970s single chip processors have been the main type of processor. Usually when people refer to CPUs they mean microprocessors.

The Mother Board

There are many different designs of mother boards available but generally they all look pretty much the same and do the same job. To look at, a Mother Board looks a lot like a green piece of plastic with a heap of wires and chips attached to it. Take care of your Mother Board as it is very sensitive. It is advisable to take precaution before touching it as you may damage the onboard components.

Power Supply

The power supply unit in a desk top computer is a component that converts AC voltage to DC. The ATX style is the most common nowadays, although there are several different styles of power supply units available on the market.

Hard Disks

I find hard disks funny, as they aren't really disks in the olden days sense, originally hard disks were disks made of hard plastic, and floppy disks were floppy if you shook them. Now a Hard drive refers to the storing capacity inside of your computer. All your files are written onto the hard disk and stored there for future retrival or modification.

Floppy Drive

Floppy discs aren't floppy at all! They are infant hard plastic square things that used to be a popular way of transferring data from one computer to another. The computer reads and copies the information to a small metal circular disk set in the plastic casing.

CD ROM

ROM means, Read only memory, ROM chips are used in many appliances not just computers, a CD ROM is a device that stores information or data permanently. Once it's on there you cant delete it like you can with your hard drive or floppy disk unless you are using a CD-RW.

CD's are a standard means for distributing large amounts of information easily, since CD's are so cheap. You can use a CD ROM on your computer to create your own music and photo CD's.

Now you know some 'inside info' you should be ready to go and explore the endless options of computers and devices that are open to you, just remember- To err is human, to mess things up requires a computer! Happy Computing!

About The Author

Khal Nuwar is the owner of http://www.tellmeaboutcomputers.com/. He's been working with computers since 19882, so hopefully he knows what he is talking about.

How To Do Data Recovery, Data Security, Data Backup The Right Way

2008-11-05T01:16:00.000-08:00

One of the most frightening things that can happen to a person is to lose the data off of their hard drive. Many of us store personal and business information on our computers. The thought of losing data due to a crashed or failed hard drive or perhaps a breach of data security sends chills down the spine of every grown man and woman. Once you except that you did not back up your data you need begin the data recovery process.

What exactly are your data recovery options once your hard drive crashes? First of all, stop using the computer immediately. It is not suggested that you run any data recovery software that came with your computer as this software can overwrite the original files. The next step is to allow a hard disk recovery company to restore your pertinent files. Contact a reputable company immediately. There are a few companies who come right to your home, but at-home data recovery computer services charge more. Certain computer files, such as DWG files (a complex graphics file format), require a specialist in order to be recovered. If there is damage to the hard drive you may not be able to recover your files. A hard drive crashing is an instance where data recovery is possible. If your data security is breached you may never recover what is stolen.

The best way to avoid compromised data security is to put safeguards in place. A few data security measures are encryption, antivirus and firewall protection. Data security such as encryption translates data into a secret code. To read an encrypted file you must have access to the key or password that enables you to decrypt it. There are many software programs and services that provide data encryption services depending on your data security needs. Additional data security measures such as antivirus and firewall protection provide further data protection. Some software programs have the ability to provide both antivirus and firewall protection for overall data security.

One way to avoid the mess of data recovery is to perform regular backups. Basic computer maintenance includes full and incremental backups. It is recommended that you perform a full backup once a week. An incremental backup is a backup that backs up only the files modified since the last backup and depending on your needs you can schedule this to run every day. It’s also beneficial if you have a copy of your data offsite. When you need to access this data you can either open the offsite data program and run it, or log on via the web to access your data. You will want to check with your service provider how to perform data recovery if needed.

Data recovery either from a crashed hard drive or lost through compromised data security can be a frustrating and devastating experience. The best situation is to avoid the loss of data all together. With regular computer backups and data security measures in place your computer data will remain where it needs to be, on your hard drive and easily accessible.

Some people balk at the cost of protecting their data, as well as the time involved in doing secure backups. But what they fail to consider is the cost of their lost personal and productivity time that is spent trying to recover data that could be recovered in literally MINUTES if they had properly safe-guarded the data in the first place! If your computer data files are the lifeblood of your business and/or personal life, the time and money involved in protecting that data adequately and properly cannot be determined by a dollar value.

About The Author

Jon Arnold is a computer engineer who maintains many websites to pass along his knowledge and findings. You can read more about data recovery, data backup and data security at his web site at http://www.all-about-data.com/.

Factors To Consider In Buying A Sound Card

2008-11-05T01:08:00.000-08:00

Computers are stepping in the multimedia entertainment zone more and more each year. They have begun to take over from the video player, the stereo, the karaoke machine and the television.

The motherboard of a computer comes with a basic sound component but because of the nature of the tasks involved these computers need higher quality components when it comes to sound and video cards.

Digital format

Before the eighties all audio was analog but with the advent of CDs on the market, the digital format began to take over. All information from a computer is digital including the audio. In order to hear a song it must be changed into an analog signal. Although there are attempts to improve the quality, the digital format has gaps in its information due to conversion.

An average CD contains 44.1 KHZ per 16 bits. That is every analog signal makes up one step and there are 44100 steps every second. The steps are given a number. This number ranges up to 16 bits (65536). A DVD has about 96khz at 16 bits and a DVD audio has 192 khz at 24 bits.

The digital audio is changed into analog using the Digital Audio Converter or DAC

The quality of the DAC is one of the determining factors when buying a sound card.

Types of Audio Cards

The motherboard has a sound processor called the AC 97. It can support a DVD at 96 kHz, 16 bits six channels but the quality is lacking. The sound is noisy and cannot support more complex applications.

It is better to get an external sound card that can be inserted into a PCI slot on the motherboard. The card you select will depend on the function it serves. If you want to watch DVD’s a basic card will suffice. If you are looking for something that will help you record music, or add a microphone you will probably need something more sophisticated and if you are a professional musician or video editor it would be best to get a card with multitrack recording and high sound quality.

What to look for

Take a look at the specifications of a sound card to find more about its quality. One number to take not of is the S/N or signal to noise ratio. This is the ratio between the audio sounds versus the background noise in a room. The higher this ratio is, the better the sound card quality. This number is measured in decibels (db). A db of 90 is good and for the professional it should be more than 100db.

The number of channels a sound card supports can be important. They can come in configurations of 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1. The first number indicates the number of satellite speakers you can place near the computer and the .1 is the subwoofer channel which is for low frequency sounds.

For those who are looking at professional grade sound cards, the input amount is important. A basic sound card has one for each stereo pair but a professional sound card will allow for ten. Price Prices vary; you can get a poor quality basic card for ten dollars. Most of the better cards are at least fifty dollars and if you are a professional the cards you are looking for can be four hundred dollars or more.

About The Author

Daniel Travers is a staff writer at http://www.computing-times.com and is an occasional contributor to several other websites, including http://www.entertainment-digest.com.

How To Build A Computer Without Really Trying

2008-11-05T01:01:00.000-08:00

I didn’t start out trying to build a computer. My CD disk drive stopped working and I kept getting an error message which said, “This drive is not available.” I went to the “my computer” file to check the status of the drive through the properties but the drive wasn’t listed.

I then went to the device manager to check the drives status but it wasn’t listed there either. Now I’m not a computer whiz or computer “geek” but I do have some knowledge, although limited, as to how a computer works. After spending literally hours trying to figure out what happened to my CD drive, I finally decided to cross the line and venture into the unknown. I took the cover off the computer case. I had no idea what I was looking for so I started tinkering around to see if maybe something had come loose. Sure enough, a cable going to the back of the CD player was unplugged. I plugged the cable back in, put the cover back on, plugged in the power cord and pushed the power button to fire her up. I was kind of surprised to see that it actually worked. This got me to wondering how hard it would be to build a computer from scratch. I went searching on line to see if this was possible, something that I could do. After reading various articles and visiting numerous web sites I decided to give it a try.

The first step was to determine what kind of computer I wanted. First and foremost it had to be fast. No sense going through all the trouble to build a dud. It also had to be capable of handling large video files, many photographs, and a vast amount of music (songs). And finally I wanted it to be a media center; capable of playing and recording music, playing and recording DVDs, downloading and playing games, and capable of playing cable television. I also wanted to be able to connect an overhead projector and have my wall as the screen while surfing the net. Once I decided what I wanted, I started looking for the components and or parts I would need.

The first thing I needed was a case, or tower. I found out that there are guide lines standardizing case such as ATX Form Factor. This is a standardized case designed to accept certain motherboards, and thus determining the layout of the inside of the case. I found a great source for the parts I would need, in a online store named Newegg.Com. Although I didn’t know it at the time, I quickly found out that in addition to a vast product selection, and very low competitive prices, their customer service was “top flight.” Yes I highly recommend these guys.

First on my list was a Rosewill R114A-SLV silver steel mid-tower computer case. This case came with a 400w ATX 20-pin main connector power supply. (See photo A). Next on the list was a motherboard. I needed an ATX Intel motherboard, (ATX meaning it would fit perfectly in my ATX mid-tower). For this I chose the ASUS P5P800 Socket T (LGA775) Intel 865PE ATX Intel motherboard. It is very powerful and affordable, and supports Intel’s Pentium 4 processor®. This processor supports Hyper-Threading technology which, according to Intel’s web site “results in more efficient use of processor resources, higher processing throughput, and improved performance on today’s multithreaded software.” This motherboard also comes with a 775 pin Land Grid Array (LGA-775) socket designed for the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor, and most importantly to me, a Users Guide.

Next on the list was a processor. I chose the Intel® Pentium® 4 processor; 530J 3.0 GHz, 800 MHz FSB in the 775 Land package. This super fast processor comes with a heat sink and fan assembly which uses push pin technology to install. For memory I decided on Rosewill’s 512 MB 184-pin DDR SDRAM DDR400 (PC3200), four times. For the hard drive I chose Western Digital’s WDC1600®, 160 GHz 7200 RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive. I chose a Mitsumi 1.44 MB 3.5 Internal Floppy, a Rosewill DVD burner; model RD-162, and Rosewill CD burner; model RR-52, (both retail). With the exception of the floppy, all of my components were retail, IE, in original manufacturers packaging, etc. Also on my list were 2 80mm Sleeve, Blue LED light case cooling fans, a Sound Blaster Live® sound card, an ATI All In Wonder 9600® 8X graphics/TV card, a Dell® 17” Ultra Sharp flat panel monitor, wireless mouse and keyboard, HP Photo Smart 7660® printer, and Logitech Z 2300® speaker system.

As you can see I did my homework. Before taking on this task, I didn’t have a clue as to what a motherboard was, what was a CPU’s function, what a hard disk was and what it was for, what if any compatibility issues I would encounter, and how all of this “stuff” worked together. So over the course of about three months I purchased all of these components. My very first mistake was that I ordered the ASUS P4P800SE instead of the ASUS P5P800SE. The P4P800SE is not compatible with the Intel P4 LGA-775 processor®. So here was a chance to test the service level of Newegg.com. I emailed them and explained my situation, and without hesitation they exchanged the motherboard and didn’t charge me a restocking fee or freight. They acted as if they had made the mistake. Needless to say, I was VERY impressed.

Once all of the parts and components were here, I laid everything out, identified everything, and read the users guide that came with the motherboard from cover to cover. Now was the “nuts and bolts” time, the time to put this thing together. The motherboard came with ten screws and ten felt washers which were used to attach the motherboard to the case chassis. I placed the felt washers over the holes on the chassis and placed the motherboard on top of the felt washers. Therefore the felt washers were between the chassis and the motherboard. I then secured the motherboard to the chassis with the ten screws. Next was installing the CPU. I found out real fast how sensitive a piece of equipment this was. There are 775 tiny pins or connectors that could easily get bent, and thus make the CPU useless. This I considered the most intimidating. However, I said a prayer, took my time, got the CPU lined-up correctly, and proceeded with caution. Perfect match! Perfect fit! The sweating was over. I then installed the heat sink and fan assembly onto the CPU with the push pins, (push down and twist clockwise). I then plugged the CPU fan cable into the connector on the motherboard labeled CPU_FAN. I then installed the Serial ATA hard disk drive into one of the internal bays. Then I installed the floppy disk drive. Next to install was the system memory. It’s very important that you first “ground” yourself by touching the metal chassis before handling the Dual Inline Memory Modules (DIMM). This motherboard comes with four DIMM sockets enabling the use of various configurations, based on the amount of memory to be installed. I chose four 512MB DIMM modules, which kept it simple. I just unlocked the DIMM sockets by pressing the retaining clips outward. Next I aligned the DIMM on the socket so that the notch on the DIMM matched the break on the socket. By pushing straight down, I firmly inserted the DIMM until the retaining clips snapped back into place. I then installed the DVD optical drive in the first bay, and the CD optical drive in the second bay. This particular case has flip up doors which conceal the optical drives. I then installed a network card into one of the five PCI slots and secured it to the chassis with screws. Next I installed the ATI All In Wonder9600® graphics card into the Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) slot. This motherboard only supports a 1.5v or 0.8v AGP card which is keyed to fit into the AGP card slot. Next, was time to set the “jumpers.” The jumpers are set to determine how a part of the computer will function. For example, there’s a three pin keyboard power jumper which lets you enable or disable the keyboard wake up feature. There’s a jumper cap that covers two of the three pins to determine the jumpers function.

Next came the fun part, the internal connections. I connected the FDD to the floppy disk connector with the FDD signal cable. Then I connected a power cable to the FDD. Next I connected the serial ATA hard disk drive to one of the two SATA connectors with a serial ATA signal cable, and then connected a power cable to the hard drive. I then plugged in the CPU fan connectors, the serial (COM) port module cable to the serial port connector, two USB 2.0 ports, and game module. I then connected power cables to the two optical drives. Next I connected the ATX power connectors (24-pin EATXPWR, 4-pin ATX12v), the internal audio connector (4-pin CD, AUX), front panel audio connector (10-1 pin FP-Audio), and last but not least, the system panel connector (20-1 pin Panel). The system panel connector is color coded so connecting it was fairly simple. I then replaced the system case cover, connected the monitor, the wireless receiver for the keyboard and mouse, the speakers, and the power cord. I then plugged the cord into a wall outlet. Now for the moment of truth! I pushed the power button. Nothing happened! No lights on system panel, no onboard LED light, no CPU fan running! Nothing! Needless to say I was crushed. All of this work for nothing. I started wondering what I could have done wrong, or was it some kind of compatibility issue. I went back to the beginning and retraced all of my connections, and they were all correct. After about an hour of tracing and retracing my steps it hit me. There was no power coming into the system! I then plugged in a lamp to test the outlet, and it worked fine. After going over everything again and again I realized that maybe, just maybe the felt washers were somehow preventing a connection. It was worth a try so I uninstalled everything, and I mean everything! I then took out the motherboard, removed the felt washers, replaced the motherboard, so that it was in direct contact with the case chassis, put the felt was hers on top of the motherboard, and then tightened the motherboard to the chassis with the ten screws. I realized that the only instruction not in the users guide was the correct placement of the felt washers! I then reinstalled everything. When I plugged the power cord into the wall outlet the onboard LED light came on! I pushed the power button and she came right on. It worked! Oh how happy I was. I then went into the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) and followed the steps to set the many different parameters to control the operation of the computer. With the users guide, these were pretty easy to set. Once I finished setting the different parameters I installed the operating system, Microsoft Windows XP® with service pack II. Seeing the ASUS logo followed by the Windows XP logo was one of the most gratifying parts of this whole ordeal. I was thrilled! My computer worked flawlessly the first time I used it, and has worked flawlessly every since. I can watch TV programs, search the internet at super fast speeds (with cable modem), download songs and create a play list, create photo disk, and albums, listen to AOL radio, watch videos, watch DVD movies, play games, Call Of Duty, The Big Red One®, and print excellent photos. This computer is awesome! Overall this was a very intense learning experience. Once I was committed there was no turning back, because too much money had been spent. By the way, I already owned a desktop computer system made by a highly respected manufacturer. I paid close to $1,100 for the complete system and it has no where near the capabilities of the computer I just built. There is just no comparison. And I spent a whole lot less building my own, actually saved hundred of dollars. I priced major name brand computers with the power and capabilities of the one I just built and the cheapest came to about $2,200. Unbelievable! Just goes to show, anything is possible if you stick to it, and more importantly, if you have the Lord on you side…

Darryl Griffin November 2006

http://www.thegadgetship.com

Ways To Hide Files On Your Computer

2008-11-05T00:55:00.000-08:00

At some point in time, perhaps on your family computer, or your own computer, you will develop, collect, and store some important personal files on your hard drive that are strictly for your needs and purposes. These digital files may be so important to you, that under no circumstances, should anyone ever be able to access and see them. Some of these personal and business files may include documents, spreadsheets, emails, pdfs, text files, invoices, pictures, videos, and mp3s. These files may be so sensitive in nature, that you realize a need to prevent your spouse, kids, friends, or anyone for that matter, from viewing and accessing them. Perhaps, you may even need to hide porn or other explicit files. Just imagine if your spouse, or little ones at home, did a file search for all picture files and movies that were on your computer. Hopefully the results wouldn't expose them to anything that you wouldn't want them to see. Just imagine what could happen, if your children at home decided to fool around with your work and files that was listed in the recent documents menu. Ok, you get the point. And thus, this question is raised: How do I hide files and folders so that they won't be discovered?

There are several ways in which you can hide files: You can put your files within a folder and apply the hidden attribute to the folder. You can bury your files deeply in subdirectories within subdirectories and hope that no one browses using Windows Explorer. You can change the file name and file extension of your file to something unique and strange, so that no one recognizes it, or you can purchase a file hiding software security application such as a folder lock or folder hider with password protection.

All of the above methods may be your solution to hide your important files. It simply depends on the significant importance of your files and level of security you need. You can apply the hidden attribute to a folder or file by choosing to do so within its properties. This is a simple way of hiding a folder in Windows XP. However, the files will still show up if a user sets the option "show hidden files and folders" within the folders options. Another way to hide a file is simply by concealing it by dumping it into a folder you think no one will ever access. However, you run the risk of it appearing within the results of a Windows Search and having it displayed in the documents list. Another way to hide a file is by renaming it along with its file extension so that no one recognizes it or is able to open it using its standard program. Although this method could possibly work for you, you would have to waste time renaming it and changing it back to the correct extension.

And thus, the following question is raised: What is a quick and sure proof way to hide files in windows so that they won't appear within Windows Explorer and won't be displayed in the results of a Windows search? Your solution: A simple and easy to use folder security software utility that will allow you to hide files and folders and make them reappear all with a simple hotkey. Supreme Folder Hider is such a solution that will save you time and will provide you with an extra added sense of security. Supreme Folder Hider prevents all file access from Windows Explorer, the command prompt, shortcuts, and most recently used document lists.

About The Author

Clinton Brown is a consultant for FileHidingSoftware.com, a well established file and folder security software company. He has been working in the tech sector for over 12 years performing duties such as tech support, technical training, application development, and internet marketing. Do you need to prevent anyone from seeing your files? Find out how to hide files and folders at http://www.filehidingsoftware.com

How To Back Up Files Correctly

2008-11-04T00:59:00.000-08:00

Throughout the world of computers, it’s simply amazing just how many people are scared to death of losing their data. Most of those who are scared, don’t give a second thought to backing up their data. Even though the thought may be the same, most people are worried more about losing their data than actually backing it up - which can prove to be a downfall in the face of disaster.

The process of backing up files is done by using servers, floppy disks, CD, DVD, external hard drives, or other methods to keep the data protected. This way, when something happens to your hard drive and you lose your information, you’ll have the information backed up so that you can easily access it again. Data that is important, such as tax files or business records should always be backed up, to ensure that nothing happens to it.

If you are using Windows as your operating system, it will be a lot easier to back up your files. Windows XP has a back up facility in it, so that it can make things a lot easier when you create your backups. If data that is stored on hard drives with XP becomes lost, Windows will immediately fetch the file from another drive or area where it has been stored as a back up. This is a very useful technique, although it still has to be practiced to ensure that you understand how it works. Although it may be very useful, it isn’t as safe as other options.

In order to back up your data and programs in a safe and efficient manner, you’ll need to use some of the more reliable methods, such as external hard drives or servers. Offsite backups are great as well, as the data you backup isn’t left around your office, it is instead entrusted with a company who will ensure that it stays protected.

No matter which method or methods you have decided to use for backing up your data, you’ll be happy to know that they are all easy to use. CD and DVD backups are easy to create, all you need is the software installed on your computer to create the backups with. Servers are easy to use as well, all you have to do is upload your data to a server, then log into the server anytime you need to have access to the data.

All in all, creating backups of your data and information is the perfect way to ensure that you always have it in the event of a disaster. Disasters can happen at any time, which is why you should always back up your data anytime you have something new or something that you haven’t backed up yet.

About The Author

John Ugoshowa. You are welcome to use this article on your website or in your ezines as long as you have a link back to http://www.quickregister.net/partners/ For more information on data recovery see the computer section of Quickregister.net Free Search Engine Submission Service at: http://www.quickregister.net/partners/

Recovery For Your Hard Drive

2008-11-04T00:54:00.000-08:00

These days, computers have become a must have for nearly everyone. Even though they are great to have around and make our lives easier, they are also known to crash as well. With computers being electronic, there really is no way to make them fool proof. The hard drives that hold all of the information have mechanical parts, which means that they can crash at any given time - resulting in a loss of information, and maybe even a ruined hard drive.

In general, hard drive recovery is the process you use to restore a hard drive that has crashed, been a victim of a virus, or possibly tampered with. Keep in mind that recovery isn’t just limited to restoring everything on the hard drive, but it is also useful for finding lost files, fixing corrupt hard drives, and even locating data that you may have deleted by accident.

For many years, hard drive recovery has helped those with bad hard drives or lost information to retrieve their data. What many people aren’t aware of, in the event of data that has been deleted by accident, is the fact that some data will remain on your computer even after you may have removed it from the recycle bin. Windows doesn’t always delete files completely, but more or less puts them to the side until it has the necessary data to overwrite the files.

If data was indeed gone forever, then it wouldn’t be possible to recover. Most files, even after your hard drive crashes and the data appears to be gone, are still there on your hard drive. All it takes is someone experienced with data recovery to retrieve the information. Although data recovery is an exceptional way to retrieve lost data, there is also a downside to using it as well.

The real downside to data recovery is the fact that most information can be retrieved. If you have data on your hard drive that you don’t want anyone to view, deleting it from your hard drive doesn’t always get rid of it completely. Hackers can easily retrieve the data as well, if they are experienced enough. For this very reason, computer experts and avid computer geeks will tell you that erasing a file doesn’t always remove it from your hard drive.

The way that hard drive recovery works is by reconstructing the lost data on your hard drive. It doesn’t matter if your files were deleted by accident or the result of a crash, most data can be reconstructed and brought back to life so that you can access it. Although most crashes are due to the PC failing or a virus, there are some instances that are due to hardware failure, such as the actuator arm or platters not working properly. You won’t be able to use the hard drive if this happens, although hard drive recovery can fix the problem.

No matter what type of problem you are experiencing with your hard drive, recovery can normally fix the problem. Whether it is hardware malfunction, crash, computer virus, or accidental deletion, you can normally almost always retrieve your files. Keep in mind that you’ll normally have to take your hard drive to a specialist, either locally or by mailing it to them. Computer technicians that are experienced with data recovery can bring back your files and make your hard drive appear to be new again. This way - the loss of data won’t slow down your performance.

About The Author

Data Recovery Over Hard Disk Failure

2008-11-04T00:40:00.000-08:00

Hard Disk: An Introduction

Hard Disks are used to store information. All information on computers are stored in files. Hard disks store the majority of information on today's modern computer. Hard disk drives (HDDs) can be critically damaged by static electricity, shock, and other factors, often resulting in failure or the loss of valuable data. In many cases it may become necessary to recover information from your hard drive. Such retrieval is quite possible.

Hard Disk Failure

*Physical Failures

Physical failure occurs from sudden switch off, power failure, sliding them off desks and cheap components. As for data loss, data is only magnetic impulses on the surface of a hard disk. And ridiculously small bits of magnetism at that! When the magnetic impulse fades, or changes position, trouble starts.

Drive Alignment Drift is another cause of problems. Mechanical devices are subject to wear and tear, heat and cold, loosening tolerances etc.

The small changes in the read/write heads wouldn't matter usually, as data still gets written in the same place as it will be read later. However, there is some data that hardly ever gets re-written, and that is the Sector ID Headers.

*Logical Failures

Master Boot Record Failure

Technically, when the Master Boot Record is working correctly, the master boot code scans the partition table for the active partition, finds the starting sector, loads a copy of the boot sector from the active partition into memory and then transfers control to the executable code in the boot sector. If the master boot code cannot complete these functions, the system displays a message similar to the MBR error.

*Boot Sector Failure

The boot sector is a region of a hard disk, floppy disk, and other similar data storage device. It is loaded to memory and executed as a part of the bootstrap sequence. The boot sector contains a small computer program that is loaded on the operating system into memory and transfers the control.

Most boot sector failure occurs by the defection of boot sector virus. Boot sector viruses are usually spread by infected floppy disks. In the past, these were usually bootable disks, but this is no longer the case. A floppy disk does not need to be bootable to transmit a boot virus. Any disk can cause infection if it is in the drive when the computer boots up or shuts down.

*Accidentally Deleted Data

Some time some how you may delete a file thinking we don?t need it any more, but in a week or or two you may realize that it is a needed one. It happens to the best of us, but fortunately there are ways to get these lost files back.

When it comes to data on your computer, it is almost impossible to accidentally remove it beyond recoverability. Even if you are intentionally trying to completely wipe a file from your hard drive it is exceedingly difficult.

*Cross Linked Files

A file system error that corrupts the contents of an existing file by writing data from another file into the same cluster. Running Scandisk or a similar program cleans up the problem, but one of the files is no longer usable.

*Bad Sectors

It is a portion of the Hard disk that cannot be used any more. If a part of the disk get bad sector which contains data then those data is to be recovered before use. When you format a disk, the OS will mark all the unusable sector as bad sector, however, this does not affect the overall performance of the disk as the damaged space is considered unusable.

Hard Disk Data Recovery

*Replace the (Circuit Board) PCB

Upon a Hard Drive circuit board failure, it is possible to get back the data by carefully replacing the PCB of the hard drive.

*Replace the Firmware

Hard disk firmware is the information that is used by the computer that allows it to correctly interact with the hard disk. It may be replaced or updated by the matching firmware.

*Replace the Head Stack

There are common situation that may be due to head failures. There is a small chip located in the head stack that is called PREAMPLIFIER. Working with preamplifiers always includes some difficulties, because, practically, they can not withstand static discharges. If re-soldering is needed, one should follow a number of rules to protect a preamplifier from static damage caused by careless finger touching. Although this task is very risky and it should be done in a high secured lab specially created for this task.

*Move the disk to another Drive

In some cases complete functionality of the Hard drive may be disabled while only the internal disk plate is without any damages or errors. In those situations, it is possible to move the disk to another drive.

*Spin-Stand Testers

Hard drive manufactures and their head media; preamplifier and read channel suppliers do have very accurate, very expensive "magic machines" called Spin-Stands. These are used for testing and experimenting with heads and disks. They are used mostly by researcher and development departments.

*Magnetic Force Microscopes (MFM)

Magnetic force microscopy is a powerful tool for high-resolution magnetic imaging of most data storage media. As the density of magnetic media is higher, the bit becomes smaller than the wavelength of light, so optical techniques can not resolve it. General MFM is capable of imaging the magnetic domain of several tens of nanometers. Also, MFM is almost simultaneous with measuring the surface characteristics of topography and roughness of the same area with sub-angstrom vertical resolution.

Recovery Softwares

*SpinRite 6.0

SpinRite is a stand-alone DOS program designed to refurbish hard drives, floppy disks and recover data from marginally or completely unreadable hard drives and floppy disks and from partitions and folders which have become unreadable.

*Ontrack data recovery software

Ontrack Data Recovery offers the industry's highest quality and cost-effective do-it-yourself data recovery software solutions for almost any data loss situation covering servers, desktops or laptops for all media, operating systems and file types. Ontrack's EasyRecoveryTM family of products is unmatched in its ability to recover/repair from all causes of lost data.

*Recover My Files

Recover My Files data recovery software will easily recover deleted files emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin, or lost due to the format or corruption of a hard drive, virus or Trojan infection, and unexpected system shutdown or software failure. For more Data recovery topics http://www.pc4safe.com/

About The Author

Admin & Publisher PC4safe http://www.pc4safe.com/

How To Change Your Computer's Heat Sink

2008-11-04T00:29:00.000-08:00

Everyone really want a fast hot computer when we want to do some business computing and when we want to play those high speed games.But we don't want a fast and Hot computer in the literal sense.

Heat will destroy any computer component if not removed in time.And the CPU Chip is one of the main components of your system that produces heat.

The heat sink has the all important task of keeping the CPU Chip cool so it does not overheat.And there may be times when the heat sink will fail to perform its job and must be changed.

Changing the heat sink on your central processing unit or CPU chip is a simple job.And the best part is that you only need a small screwdriver,cotton swabs,and some rubbing alcohol.

To change the heat sink remember to think safety first.This means that you want to be sure you have clean hands,a clean work place,and removing all static charge from your body by touching a door knob or any other metal object.

Once you have a suitable work area and clean hands you should now have a clean suitable mind as well. Allow this task to be both educational and fun.To change the heat sink perform the following.

Step 1.Unplug the computer and remove the cover from the System Unit case.

Step 2. Find the CPU Chip and the heat sink will be on top.Find the wires that go to the motherboard and very carefully unplug them.

Step 3. Remove the old heat sink and cooling fan assembly.Most Pentium based computers will have two levers that lock the heat sink in place.

On older Pentium computers,the AMD Athlon and the Duron processor,look for a ZIF or Zero Insertion Force socket where the processor is mounted.

Gently release the clips by sliding a very small screwdriver blade underneath it and lift the heat sink off the CPU.Take great care here do you don't damage the cpu chip in any way.

Step 4. Once the old heat sink has been removed, clean away the old thermal paste using cotton swabs and rubbing alcohol.Allow time for the CPU to dry.

Step 5. Grab some thermal paste and squeeze a little onto the top of the CPU.Only place enough to have a thin layer between the CPU and Heat Sink.

Step 6. Before installing the new heat sink, clean the bottom off with some warm, soapy water. Check to be sure the Heat Sink is dry before installing it.

Step 7. Carefully line it up over the ZIF socket and processor if so equipped.If the computer have the newer Pentium or Athlon based chip,lock the two clips holding the assembly.

Step 8. With the CPU and heat sink firmly in place, now its time to re-connect the fan wires for the cooling fan.Plug the assembly into the motherboard.

Step 9. Check,double check,and after that,check some more to be sure all connections are in place.See if the heat sink assembly is well secured in its socket.

Step 10. Now replace the system unit cover,plug any peripherals you disconnected.Start the PC and the computer should now realize it has a new device in its system.

Once the computer has been booted up,check to be sure the Operating System is working.If possible, look at rear of the computer to see if the fan is operating as it should. The Central Processing Unit is not the only heat producing component in your computer.But since its the brains of any computer,you want to be sure the heat sink performs at its best.

About The Author

Otis F. Cooper is the author of the award winning PC Super Pack,the Computer Training By Video course. For hundreds more free PC repair tips,sign up for his bi-monthly newsletter and learn the PC free at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com/

How To Correct A Continually Rebooting Computer

2008-10-29T03:48:00.000-07:00

When you sit down at your computer desk and press the power switch on your desktop, the last thing you want to experience is a continually rebooting computer.

There are a variety of causes that contribute to this problem, from something as simple as a stuck power button to a much more serious problem as your power supply slowly failing. Other causes for this problem may be overheating PC components, or viruses affecting your system.

Now, if you’re like the rest of us, having a computer that reboots constantly is not our idea of a productive day. So how do you diagnose this problem and where do you start to to make corrections. Here are some common but often overlooked causes and solutions that will get your system running again.

First take a look at the power button and see if its stuck in the socket. If so, you may be able to simple tap the front of the case to release the button. In some cases, you may have to remove the system unit cover to get the button to return to the out position.

If you cannot stop the computer from rebooting by pressing the power button and releasing it, turn off the power switch in the back of the computer next to the power supply. If your power supply do not have a power switch, you will have to unplug the system from the wall outlet.

This must be done as soon as possible so that the constant rebooting will not damage components such as the hard drive. Constant rebooting also have the danger of power surges that can further damage larger components such as the motherboard.

Second you check your computer’s software by checking to be sure no virus or malware have not effected your hard drive. Virus and malware are small software that is downloaded along with other files that is designed to cause mischief.

To remove any viruses and malware, use a anti-virus program that will search your hard drive and remove these file quickly. These files can cause such damage as wiping your hard drive of all data or hijacking your web browser so you have no control over your online surfing.

If you find no malware on your computer, take a look at your BIOS to see if it has become unstable or has been changed. BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System and is a small program designed to check all components for proper operation when the computer is turned on.

If your BIOS has been changed or if you’re not sure if its been changed, try to reset the BIOS settings to the default settings after you access the BIOS as the computer reboots.Once inside the BIOS, you should have the option to load your default settings, save the change, and reboot the computer.

However, there are times when a continually rebooting computer will not allow you to access the BIOS. You can then reset the BIOS by removing the system unit cover and locating the jumper on a three pin header.

You must consult your computer or motherboard manual to properly perform this procedure and it should be done as a last resort. Before making any changes to your BIOS, you should backup your BIOS if your computer reboots at long intervals.

After checking your computer’s software for its rebooting problem, you must check to be sure hardware is not at fault. This problem may exist because one of your memory modules are unseated from its socket . Memory modules are long, narrow sticks that attach to the motherboard.

Remove any static electricity from yourself, remove the system unit cover and check these memory modules to be sure they are secure. Check the connections to the hard drive and the connections leading from the power supply.

Power supply connectors should be checked if you’ve done work inside your computer recently. Power Supplies are known to slowly fail and lead to rebooting problems. There is no way to check an ailing power supply and this should be considered the problem as a last resort.

Following these steps will help you correct any computer that continually reboots itself. If no virus or malware is found, carefully and thoroughly check all connections. And if the problem still exist, the most likely cause would be the Power Supply.

About The Author

Top 10 Ways To Make A Computer Run Faster

2008-10-29T03:38:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to be talking about different ways you can make a computer run faster. There is actually a lot you can do yourself that will boost your PC's performance. So lets take a look at different ways we can remedy that slow computer of yours!

1. Free Up Disk Space

A great way to make a computer run faster is to free up some disk space. Windows comes with a disk cleanup tool that helps you free up space on your hard disk. The utility identifies files that you can safely delete without messing anything up, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.

How to use disk cleanup tool.

* Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.

* In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list. (If you have multiple hard drives you will have to select which one to scan.)

* Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.

* When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click OK.

2. Use Defrag Tool

When you add a file or a new program to a new computer, the hard drive is relatively empty so new data is saved to the hard drive in one whole block. When you need to use that information, the computer can quickly access it because it is all in one place. Defragging your system is definitely a way to make a computer run faster.

How to use defrag tool.

* From the start menu point to "all programs" * Point to "Accessories"

* Point to "System Tools"

* Click on "Disk Defragmenter"

* The disk defragmenter will display the hard drives on your computer. Just select and click Defragment.

3. Get rid of spyware

Definition

Spyware is software with malicious intent - by design; it does something bad to your computer. Usually, it gets installed without your knowledge. It sometimes takes advantage of the fact that most people click "I Agree" to software licenses without reading them.

The only way to get rid of spyware is to have some kind of scanner, sort of like an anti-virus. In order to make a computer run faster and keep it safer your going to need an anti-spyware program. This is tricky, a lot of the spyware programs out there are malicious and will actually add viruses and spyware to your computer by using the "spyware scanner and blocker". So please remember to be very careful when choosing your anti-spyware program.

4. Find and repair disk errors

Detect and Repair Disk Errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility. How to run the error checking utility.

* Click Start, and then click My Computer.

* In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.

* In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.

* Click the Check Now button.

* In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.

* If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them. Tip: Only select the Automatically fix file system errors check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.

5. Get an external hard drive

Adding an External Hard Drive to your computer will allow you to clear out a lot of the things you don't need to be storing on your normal hard drive.

A great example would be your music or pictures. All those songs and pictures are sitting on your computer making it go slower. You will see a decline in your computers performance as soon as you use over half of your hard drive space.

Moving all your songs or pictures to your external hard drive will free up a lot of space on your main hard drive. You can even move applications such as photoshop or games.

An external hard drive is also handy because it is portable. You can unplug it from your computer and take it to a friends house and plug it in there, sharing photos and pictures very easily.

This is truly a great way to make a computer run faster.

About The Author

My name is Brooks Carver and I am a pretty die hard computer tech. I have been working with computer directly for over 20 years now. I have a beautiful wife and daughter, and when I am not programming or fixing computers I enjoy spending time in the out doors.

If you like these tips then you will love my website. It gives the top 10 ways you can speed up your computer. It is very user friendly, it has pictures going along with every step to show you exactly what I mean. I also give out valuable information about what anit-virus and spyware programs that are safe to buy and really work. There are other fun things there too, such as top fastest things on the internet that you can vote on. If your looking to make a computer run faster this is your #1 resource! Click below now! http://www.squidoo.com/makecomputerrunfaster/

How Can You Protect Your PC From The Attack Of Virus?

2008-10-29T03:23:00.000-07:00

If you find a virus in your system and can establish precisely what it is, it is a time to remove it from your system. Having procedures in place to detect viruses is important is a plan for how you will remove what ever you find.

you must remember that the majority of virus alarms turn out to be false alarms, and are the result of some user , software ,or hardware error , proceed with your detection assuming that although it may be a virus , it just as likely to be something else , so note all symptoms carefully and see what the combination point to.

If the problem turn out to be a virus, it is still important not to panic. You need a cool head to minimize further damage and to remove the virus as cleanly and efficiently as possible, don’t just get out your copy of FORMAT or FDISK and start formatting the hard disk.

Using an Anti-Virus Product

Most antivirus products offer virus removal capabilities. Usually these functions are built into the scanner, giving you the option to remove a virus from a file the moment it is detected in the file. Removal of some viruses is fairly straightforward for antivirus products can remove some viruses, but can’t remove very many. When choosing a product, ask whether the product can remove all common removable viruses.

Some viruses can’t be removed, no matter how clever the author of the antivirus software. This is because the virus has overwritten some of your original program, effectively erasing it. Without knowledge of what was supposed to be where the virus “sat down” all an antivirus product can do is offer to delete the entire program.

Virus Detection Strategy

If the virus is detected in the memory, but not in any file, and if the virus detected is an extremely rare virus, ask yourself whether another scanner that leaves in memory the scan string it was using can produce a false alarm when another scanner runs.

If the virus is detected in only one program on your hard disk , ask your self how often you have used this program ,If you have used it several times in the past , then any virus it has had an opportunity to infect other files, if it has not done so yet, it probably a false alarm , don’t delete the single program in which the virus was reported and don’t attempt removal, instead , reboot from an uninfected , write protected floppy disk and run another scanner to determine if it too finds something in this file . If it doesn’t assume that it is a false alarm.

If the virus is detected in several programs you use commonly, you almost certainly have an infection. Do not attempt to remove the virus product yet! You may cause irreparable harm to your files.

Protecting computers from viruses

Simply, do not give out your email address to widely, and never access a floppy disk given by someone you don’t know. Plus there is a load of antivirus software available which can help detect and clean out viruses, but then remember, virus programmers are driven

By the desire to stay ahead of this kind of software.

PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE OF COMPUTER SYSTEMS

There are three things one can do to prevent viral infection in a computer system. These are:-

1) limited sharing of software

2) limited transitivity

3) limited functionality

One can limit sharing by limiting information flow so as to form a post office set of communicating information domains in a network system , in such a system , a virus will spread only to those domains which are in the transitive flow path from its initial source.

In a system with unlimited sharing by limited information paths, limited transitivity may have an effect if users do not use all available paths, but since there is always a direct path between any two user , there s always the possibilities of infection . as an example , in a system , with transitivity limited to a distance of 1, it is safe to share information with any user you trust without having to worry about whether the user has wrongly trusted another user.

About The Author

Rajdeep kaur is a student of computer operator and programming assistances and enjoy writing about computer tips. For more information please visit: http://www.100computertips.com/

Upgrade Windows XP

2008-10-29T03:20:00.000-07:00

If you upgrade it would be a very good choice: it would speed it up, but you should use the free tools windows have, such as disk cleanup, disk defragmenter, get a registry cleaner and use scandisk to fix errors that can cause slow boot time, just for the basics. The list of such programs builds up over time and we need a windows registry cleaner to clean the registry of these redundant files and programs. Besides finding incorrect or obsolete information in the registry, most registry cleaner utilities provide backup or restore function, allowing users to backup the whole Windows Registry so that they can use the backup to restore the registry to the current status in case they encounter serious system failure.

This information is recorded in the registry and needs to be cleaned with a windows registry cleaner regularly. The investment in a good registry cleaner can do the most good for your computer, as it will allow you to concentrate on actually using your PC instead of spending time reinstalling windows in an attempt to eliminate errors and make your computer faster.

Sometimes using the System Restore feature in Windows can fix problems, so for the less technically experienced this might be the more painless route to go if the above scanning solutions don't work and you don't want to play around with the registry. If you are having problems in running any particular task or program, try bringing up the Windows Task Manager screen by pressing the Ctrl (control), Alt and Delete buttons at the same time, and check to see if you are running any programs that you did not actual start or do not recognize. Given that scenario, it is not a stretch of the imagination but in fact a point of logic to conclude that the broken windows theory should be applied to business, as it was to the problems of crime in urban areas.

The windows registry often encounters problems, but it is programmed to automatically back up essential data that can be restored automatically at a later time when a critical error manifests itself. Registry cleaner software not only scans and fixes Windows Registry, but also provides advanced diagnostics tools for locating serious computer problems before they happen.

About The Author

Soli Katir http://www.solikatir.com/XP-Repair-Try-It-Absolutely-Free.html These websites will introduce you on how you can repair your XP, absolutely free!

10 Simple Ways To Speed Up Your Windows XP

2008-10-29T03:06:00.000-07:00

1. Defrag Disk to Speed Up Access to Data

One of the factors that slow the performance of the computer is disk fragmentation. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. To speed up the response time, you should monthly run Disk Defragmenter, a Windows utility that defrags and consolidates fragmented files for quicker computer response.

* Follow Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter

* Click the drives you want to defrag and click Analyze

* Click Defragment

2. Detect and Repair Disk Errors

Over time, your hard disk develops bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing difficult or even impossible. To detect and repair disk errors, Windows has a built-in tool called the Error Checking utility. It’ll search the hard disk for bad sectors and system errors and repair them for faster performance.

* Follow Start > My Computer

* In My Computer right-click the hard disk you want to scan and click Properties

* Click the Tools tab

* Click Check Now

* Select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box

* Click Start

3. Disable Indexing Services

Indexing Services is a little application that uses a lot of CPU. By indexing and updating lists of all the files on the computer, it helps you to do a search for something faster as it scans the index list. But if you know where your files are, you can disable this system service. It won’t do any harm to you machine, whether you search often or not very often.

* Go to Start

* Click Settings

* Click Control Panel

* Double-click Add/Remove Programs

* Click the Add/Remove Window Components

* Uncheck the Indexing services

* Click Next

4. Optimize Display Settings

Windows XP is a looker. But it costs you system resources that are used to display all the visual items and effects. Windows looks fine if you disable most of the settings and leave the following:

* Show shadows under menus

* Show shadows under mouse pointer

* Show translucent selection rectangle

* Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop

* Use visual styles on windows and buttons

5. Speedup Folder Browsing

You may have noticed that everytime you open My Computer to browse folders that there is a little delay. This is because Windows XP automatically searches for network files and printers everytime you open Windows Explorer. To fix this and to increase browsing speed, you can disable the “Automatically search for network folders and printers” option.

6. Disable Performance Counters

Windows XP has a performance monitor utility which monitors several areas of your PC’s performance. These utilities take up system resources so disabling is a good idea.

* Download and install the Extensible Performance Counter List (http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/techinfo/reskit/tools/existing/exctrlst-o.asp)

* Then select each counter in turn in the ‘Extensible performance counters’ window and clear the ‘performance counters enabled’ checkbox at the bottom button below

7. Optimize Your Pagefile

You can optimize your pagefile. Setting a fixed size to your pagefile saves the operating system from the need to resize the pagefile.

* Right click on My Computer and select Properties

* Select the Advanced tab

* Under Performance choose the Settings button

* Select the Advanced tab again and under Virtual Memory select Change

* Highlight the drive containing your page file and make the initial Size of the file the same as the Maximum Size of the file.

Windows XP sizes the page file to about 1.5X the amount of actual physical memory by default. While this is good for systems with smaller amounts of memory (under 512MB) it is unlikely that a typical XP desktop system will ever need 1.5 X 512MB or more of virtual memory. If you have less than 512MB of memory, leave the page file at its default size. If you have 512MB or more, change the ratio to 1:1 page file size to physical memory size.

8. Remove Fonts for Speed

Fonts, especially TrueType fonts, use quite a bit of system resources. For optimal performance, trim your fonts down to just those that you need to use on a daily basis and fonts that applications may require.

* Open Control Panel

* Open Fonts folder

* Move fonts you don’t need to a temporary directory (e.g. C:\FONTBKUP?) just in case you need or want to bring a few of them back. The more fonts you uninstall, the more system resources you will gain.

9. Use a Flash Memory to Boost Performance

To improve performance, you need to install additional RAM memory. It’ll let you boot your OS much quicker and run many applications and access data quicker. There is no easiest and more technically elegant way to do it than use eBoostr (http://www.eboostr.com).

eBoostr is a little program that lets you improve a performance of any computer, powered by Windows XP in much the same way as Vista’s ReadyBoost. With eBoostr, if you have a flash drive, such as a USB flash thumb drive or an SD card, you can use it to make your computer run better. Simply plug in a flash drive through a USB socket and Windows XP will use eBoostr to utilize the flash memory to improve performance.

The product shows the best results for frequently used applications and data, which becomes a great feature for people who are using office programs, graphics applications or developer tools. It’ll surely attract a special attention of laptop owners as laptop upgrade is usually more complicated and laptop hard drives are by definition slower than those of desktops.

10. Perform a Boot Defragment

There's a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.

On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defragment is enabled: * Run the Registry Editor * Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction * Set the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y. * Exit the Registry * Reboot Hope you find these 10 tips useful. Have a nice day!

About The Author

Andrew Zarudnev is the CMO at eBoostr, the software tool to boost your Windows XP performance http://www.eboostr.com

How To Wipe Disk Drives, And Why

2008-10-29T03:01:00.000-07:00

Data security has become a bigger concern as the information age goes into full swing. Computers are becoming more and more commonplace as versatile tools for a wide variety of tasks and uses. This has made digital storage increasingly the data storage format of choice, since digital information is easily accessed and processed by computers.

This has led to a rise in interest in digital information and data storage systems. Apart from developments in hardware technology that allow bigger capacity devices with faster access times, security has also become a prime consideration. Most software and programs nowadays come equipped with varying levels of security options. For instance, it is now possible to protect almost any file with a password such that only those who can provide the correct password would be able to access the information within the file.

However, these software security measures would not stand up to dedicated data extraction efforts, in particular those involving the actual physical hardware. Physically securing the hard drive (or other data storage device) under consideration may not always be possible or practical. Another way of ensuring that important data is not placed at risk is to wipe the disk.

Simply deleting the contents of a hard disk is not enough to ensure that they are not recovered. In fact, there are software utilities that allow the recovery of deleted data. This possibility is because when a file is deleted, it is not actually overwritten or removed from the hard disk. Instead, a marker is just associated with the file to say that it has been deleted, and the space it occupies on the disk is marked available for use. This means that the data in the file remains on the disk for the knowledgeable hacker to extract and view.

Wiping a disk, on the other hand, is a much more thorough process. In a disk wipe, all data to be wiped off is actually overwritten with random data. This eliminates almost entirely the traces that a normal deletion leaves behind, and makes recovery of data practically impossible. (In theory, it would still be possible to reconstruct the data lost after a hard disk wipe, but this would require high-powered microscopes and would proceed much too slowly to be useful!)

Performing a disk wipe is facilitated by the many disk wipe programs available. There are many free options, as well as commercial software options, which may differ in terms of functionality and documentation. The majority of these are available online, which makes it quite easy to browse through and find the most appropriate program for the specific task. Some programs are designed for use on a single personal computer, while others may be designed for use on batches of computers.

Confidential data that needs to be kept from being exposed may best be hidden by using a disk wipe. This simple additional security measure makes the recovery of deleted data nearly impossible. With the many disk wipe programs available, it is easier than ever to perform a disk wipe, even for casual users, making this a real data security option.

About The Author

Sam Miller If you are interested in wipe disk, check this web-site to learn more about disk wiping. http://www.wipe-disk-with-file-shredder.com/

How To Troubleshoot Your Computer Hardware

2008-10-29T02:39:00.000-07:00

There could be many reasons why you’d want to troubleshoot your computer, well, one actually and that’s because something is not working right. The process of troubleshooting is something you learn after working for a long time with computers. Often enough when there’s a problem, nothing is going to explicitly tell you what is causing the problem and how you can fix it. By taking logical steps and walking through the process of troubleshooting you should be able to solve almost any computer problem, software or hardware related. It involves identifying the problem(s), finding the cause of that problem, determining the solution, executing that solution, and testing and checking that solution to see if it solves your problem.

As an example let’s say one day while using your computer the screen suddenly turns all black and you can’t see anything. We found a problem now what would be the first step to take to fix it? First check to see if the monitor is on and is receiving power, most monitors when they have power, but no connection or connection problems with the computer will display a message that says this monitor is working, but make sure you check your cables. So the next logical step to take would be to check the cable to make sure it is properly connected and secured to the VGA slot behind your computer case and to make sure the monitor cable is plugged into the monitor. Now, here’s where you have to decide what would be the next best course of action to take. you could either swap out your monitor with another monitor that you know is working to see if the problem is the monitor itself and nothing else or you can try to see if the problem is your graphics card. If your replacement monitor works, good, then you know your culprit is a bad monitor and you’ll most likely have to get a new one, because monitors are dangerous and too costly service. If the replacement monitor you used shows up a black screen as well, the next thing you’d do is check to make sure the graphics card is properly seated in the motherboard, if it is and the display is still not showing up, then swap out the graphics card to see if your problem is fixed.

Generally there are only so many steps you can take before you solve the problem and everything is back in order. Make sure that before you start testing and swapping out parts that the problem wasn’t caused by you changing a software setting in Windows or some ambiguous option in the motherboard’s BIOS that causes your problem.

Motherboard

The motherboard is the heart of the computer, every part of the computer relies on the motherboard to function correctly. It maintains connection between every PC component and ensures that things are operating smoothly between them. Many signs of motherboard failure is that the computer won't boot up, not reaching the POST test, erratic system behavior, different combinations of components not working. Because everything is connected to the motherboard certain parts may or may not work correctly if the motherboard is faulty so be sure to test those parts before thinking they're dead and getting new ones.

Be sure to do a visual inspection of the motherboard to make sure all cables are seated properly, the fans are spinning, and that the CMOS battery is in it's proper place.

Also check for any broken or leaking capacitors, those can immediately render a motherboard dead.

Make sure that all of the jumpers are set correctly as well, you should be able to find jumper information in your motherboard's manual, and if you don't have the manual you should be able to find the manual on the Internet at the motherboard manufacturer's website.

Many of the problems caused by a bad motherboard is also similar to problems caused by a faulty or dying power supply, so be sure to check if the power supply is faulty or swap it out for another to see if your problem is fixed. If you have a spare motherboard you can try swapping out the motherboard to see if that solves your problem, if that's the case then the motherboard is most likely faulty. If you think the motherboard is faulty and it is still in warranty you should be able to send it back to the manufacturer for a new one with no hassle, sometimes they might even pay for the shipping & handling if it is a big problem that is happening with a certain line of motherboards. Make sure that when you open a motherboard you keep all of the packaging and the box, and if there are any stickers that will void the warranty if removed make sure you do NOT remove them, so that way it is easier to send back.

Power Supply

If you suspect your power supply is giving you trouble, make sure you check it out fast, because power supplies can make trouble with the rest of your system as well. Irregular voltages sent from the power supply can short circuit and overheat your components thus frying them and making them unusable. Some faulty power supplies have even caught on fire, but if you’re lucky it might just smoke a little and start to smell. A few signals that your power supply is bad or is going bad would be erratic and seemingly random system behavior like system hangs and crashes, and burning smells along with smoke.

If you recently upgraded your system or added new hard drives, disk drives, a graphics card or anything for that matter, be sure to check if your power supply is being overloaded with hardware. A good way to check is to use a power supply calculator. One time when I upgraded my system with a new fancy PCI Express 16x Graphics card, well it was fancy back then, I had problems with the graphics card performing while in 3d games, it was all due to my power supply being unable give it enough juice on the 12v rails so it performed poorly and didn’t act as it should have, I even swapped out the graphics card for another one believing it was bad, after checking the manufacturer’s forums it seemed like a lot of people were having problems with faulty cards, so I figured mine must have been faulty too. After getting the new card it seemed like it performed better for a little bit longer, which could’ve just been some optimizations they did to circuit board. Seeing how they sent me an upgraded version of the same card, but it wasn’t until I checked my power supply wattages that I found the real culprit.

The first thing to do to diagnose your power supply is check the power supply connectors, make sure everything is plugged into the motherboard and the power cable is plugged into the power supply, you wouldn’t believe how many people forget to plug in their computer. Many power supplies also have a power switch on them so check to make sure that no one accidentally or purposefully switched it off maybe for a prank. Check the fan to see if it is spinning at the correct speed and if it’s dusty vacuum it out. Determine if the power supply cables are giving out the right amount of voltage, if you computer will let you boot you should be able to check them in the BIOS menu to see if the correct voltages are being given. Normal power supplies give +3.3 volts DC, +5 volts DC, -5 volts DC, +12 volts DC, and -12 volts DC.

Memory

Faulty RAM can have many adverse effects on your system. Constant lockups, computer rebooting, memory error message (duh), system crashes, and sometimes refusing to boot up are all signs of memory errors. Though, these are also signs for motherboard, hard drive, and power supply problems too. Luckily for you if you think your memory is subject to causing a disruption in your system there are programs that can check the memory for it's performance and to see if it is generating any errors.

Memtest86+ is an amazing memory diagnostic program. It is based off of the original Memtest86 that has been around since 1994 and is used by system-builders, average joes, and professionals in the IT world. It's a standalone memory check test which means it can be easily run without a bootable operating system, that's good if you can't just seem to get your PC started and want to rule out your memory as quickly as possible.

How To Use Memtest86 With Your Floppy Drive To Test Your Memory

First go their website at www.memtest.org and select the most appropriate version to download. You can download the bootable iso or the Pre-compiled floppy drive depending on whether you want burn a CD or use your floppy drive. We're going to go into details on floppy method.

Open up the .zip and extract the files to a folder, then click on install.bat, you will be asked to “Enter target diskette drive:”. Type A and hit enter then it will ask you to insert a formatted diskette into drive A: and press -Enter-: after you hit enter it will write some files to your floppy so you can boot your computer with the floppy to test for errors. After the floppy has been formatted with Memtest86+, leave the floppy in your floppy drive and reboot your computer. Remember to set your floppy drive as the first boot device in your BIOS menu.

The program will automatically load and perform the memory diagnostic tests on your computer. During the testing if there any errors they will show up and at the end of the test it will tell you how many errors you've had.

After testing your memory if you receive any errors you should make sure that your memory is okay either by swapping it out and seeing the problems still occur or try your memory in another system. If the memory passes the tests then you proceed to troubleshoot something else with good faith that your memory is fine.

Hard Drive

The hard drive is that ultimate safe to everything important on your computer. It keeps all of your information, files and folders, music, videos, favorite websites, and programs. With a bad hard drive there's no reason to have a computer. In terms of fixing a computer if the hard drive isn't salvageable then most people don't even want to bother with the rest, because their computer is probably a piece of junk that has been handed down from time to time. Generally when a hard drive is about to fail it's usually years down the road from first acquiring the computer. So the next best option rather than replacing the drive is to just buy a new computer, or build a new one, because your old one sure is probably not running as fast as it used to.

Luckily before your hard drive kicks the bucket there is usually a few warning signs:

Abnormally slow file transfers

Problems with booting, especially when Windows is being loaded

Corrupted files

Disappearing files or folders

Loud hard drive noise is a good sign that there is a mechanical problem going on inside

If your hard drive exhibits any of these signs be sure to transfer all of your files to another source immediately, and do not continue to do day-to-day activities with that hard drive. If it doesn't show any of these tell-tale signs, however you have a gut feeling that your hard drive is on the brink of destruction you can try using many different drive testing utilities available on the internet. The hard drive manufacturer usually has at least one qualified tool that you can download from their website and run. Other ways to check the health of your hard drive involves running the Windows Error Checking tool by right clicking on your hard drive in 'My Computer' then selecting 'Properties' and going to the 'Tool' and clicking on “Check Now”, or checking the SMART status located in your motherboard's BIOS. SMART stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology. Most motherboards nowadays has this technology. It should be automatically enabled in your BIOS, if it's not then your hard drive won't get checked. What it does is on boot up it will perform quick tests on your hard drive to ensure it is running correctly and it will continue to monitor it for any errors or abnormal problems that may occur as long as the computer is turned on.

Monitor

Watching movies, videos, playing games, and looking at NSFW material are all amazing things we can do on our computers. Yet there may come a day where you just want to get on your computer and relax in your computer room looking at all that NSFW material you have bookmarked under the “Special Sites” category, but you can’t because your monitor won’t turn on. No, you don’t frump and punch holes in the walls to look for an outlet for your rage. You troubleshoot it, and hope to god that your monitor isn’t broken!

When diagnosing a screen problem, half the time it’s usually something very easy, like a cable coming loose, or the monitor getting unplugged accidentally; unfortunately the other half the time it’s probably a problem that’s related to your monitor being old, or a problem that’s related to your graphics card instead. So you may have to diagnose both items at the same time to see which solves your problem.

First, check all your cables, I know this is probably getting a little old with the checking connections and everything, but so many computer problems can be avoided if people just remember that their computer isn’t always going to stay the same way they left it. A foot could kick out a cable, a dog or a cat that got to curious, or almost anything can render half your hardware useless.

After checking all your cables, make sure your screen has power, if it has power and shows a message such as “This monitor is working correctly please check your cable” and shows bars of color on the screen, that means that your monitor is not getting a signal from your computer. Try swapping out the monitor for another one to see if it still says that message. If it does then that means the problem is most likely something to do with your graphics card not seated in the motherboard, or just isn’t working properly, you may want to try swapping out another graphics card to see if that solves your problem.

Generally monitors don’t have that many diagnosable problems. Either they work and they work well, or they don’t work and you have to replace them. When working on a monitor you should never open them, they aren’t meant to be serviced and contain high charged capacitors that hold lethal doses of electricity. We wouldn’t want to read about a computer guy in the obituaries now would we?

Graphics Card

The glorious graphics card, it’s an amazing thing really. It makes all those pretty HDR (High Dynamic Range) pictures look just that good, it keeps your games running smoothly, and your videos in HD. Yet these things can be pains when they’re just not working right, because if something is wrong there’s not a strict hardware or software solution, you have to analyze the current situation to see what’s up.

First and foremost if you’re having any problems with your graphics card, probably the best thing to try to do first is see if there an updated driver for it at the manufacturer’s website that may solve the problem, or if there isn’t an update try uninstalling your graphics drivers and reinstalling them this little action can solve so many problems.

If there’s little jaggies or weird colorful mishaps known as artifacts appearing on your screen you may want to check the temperature of your graphics and make sure is getting enough cooling, and that the fan is working properly. If the cooling checks out okay you may also want to check your power supply ratings to see if it is giving enough juice to your graphics card. Nowadays most graphics cards need a lot of power on the 12v rails, make sure your power supply can give you that power that the graphics card needs.

Sound Card

Some of the typical problems people have with sound cards is either A) no sound or B) no sound. Sounds card typically aren't very expensive so having to replace one if the current one isn't working is no big deal. However, if you're one of those audiophile types who expect 100% original recording quality with your $300 sound card replacing one of those is as expected a lot more harder to do.

Sound Card Troubleshooting

Check speaker cables make sure they're all connected and plugged into the right spot on your sound card. Also check the speaker's power cables.

Make sure windows volume is turned up and the volume is not muted, also make sure that you have all the wave and playback volume turned up and not muted. If you have 'Digital Output Only' checked in your Advanced Controls for Playback Controls, try unchecking it to see if that solves your non-sound problem. I found that if I have that checked my sound card won't give me any sound.

Try reinstalling your sound card drivers, also try checking on the internet at the manufacturer's website for any updated drivers that may be available. They increase your sound card's compatibility with your system.

If the previous tips didn't help, then you may just have to replace your sound card, or atleast swap it out for another one to see if it might be a problem related to your sound card's connection to the motherboard instead.

Processor

The processor is the actual thinking part of the brain of the computer. It does all the calculations needed to make a computer run, and does them all in split second timing. It determines how fast your computer generally runs, and most of the time is a bottle neck for systems that have had everything upgraded except the CPU.

If your processor’s not working, it’s not the end of the world, generally most processors that work correctly for a few weeks, should work correctly for the rest of it’s lifespan, which varies from 5-10 years or so. As long as you’re not overclocking the processor or letting it overheat too badly your processor should be fine, and it could just be a BIOS setting that’s messed up, or a jumper setting, but for kicks just check to make the processor is seated properly and the heat sink is attached to the processor and the motherboard. The heat sink should be attached tightly to the motherboard and not have room to move about, you should be able to pick up your motherboard by grabbing onto the heat sink without any problems. Check in your motherboard manual to make sure all the jumpers are set correctly for your type of processor. Any jumpers set incorrectly can cause the processor to not work, or function correctly or at it’s optimal speed. Also check the heat sink to see if it is cooling off the processor, if it’s not doing a very good job you may want to look into investing in a better one that gets the job done.

About The Author

Steven Stoddard Steve's Tech Guide - A blog that helps you scratch your tech itch with computer guides, informative how-tos, and important news events. http://stevestechguide.com

5 Powerful And Free Methods That I Use To Speed Up My PC

2008-10-29T02:24:00.000-07:00

Many of my friends say that I am obsessed with techniques on how I can speed up my PC.

Whether I’m doing some work with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe InDesign all running at the same time, or whether I’m playing Gears of War while World of Warcraft in windowed mode is minimized, I always want my PC to perform as fast as possible. Yes, I am a speed junkie. I easily get frustrated with the slightest hint of a load time.

Hence, I am always on the lookout for ways to speed up my PC.

Here are 5 such methods that I use to speed up my PC and to ensure that it will always run at optimum performance with very minimal hiccups.

Speed Up My PC, Technique No. 1: Download The Latest Drivers

The physical components of your PC stay the same, unless you remove and replace them. But the software they run? They constantly change. The programs sold today will fall pale in comparison with the programs that will be made available next week. The websites we visit will evolve based on the internet technology that will be introduced.

And how are our systems supposed to cope up?

When I want to speed up my PC, the first thing I do is to download the latest drivers for the physical components of my rig. Graphic card, motherboard, modem… you name it, I download it! I make sure that nothing but the latest driver is installed in my system.

Speed Up My PC, Technique No. 2: Keep Your Registry Squeaky Clean

Does it take forever to boot up your system? Chances are, your registry is bogged down by useless leftover files from the programs you have installed, even if you have already uninstalled them.

Whenever I want to speed up my PC, I open my favorite registry cleaner to scan my system for some redundant, and sometimes harmful, leftover files. Then I let it do its thing, deleting the non-essential files whenever it could.

Reg cleaners really help speed up my PC, and there is no reason why they can’t help you speed up yours. Speed Up My PC, Technique No. 3: Your System May Have Been Infected By Spyware And/Or Adware

Sometimes, slow boot up time and slow processing speed are caused by the infestation of spyware and/or adware in your system. Spyware and adware are forms of malware that surreptitiously find their way into your PC, often through the websites you visit or the email attachments you open.

If I am infected by spyware and/or adware and I want to speed up my PC, I simply open my most trusted spyware remover – Search & Destroy – a free utility that is powerful enough to wipe out all the known spyware and adware variations today.

Speed Up My PC, Technique No. 4: Scan For Viruses And Kill Them

Slow PCs may also be caused by viruses, the most popular of which are Trojans – wicked programs that keep hammering our systems their evil deeds.

There is only one way to determine the existence of a virus in your system, that is, by running a complete diagnostic scan using an anti-virus software. The best anti-virus software I can recommend is AVG, a free, open source program that is regularly updated with the latest virus descriptions which allows the program to run a really comprehensive examination of your system.

Thereafter, the anti-virus program will eliminate the threat and I’d be able to speed up my PC with no hassle at all.

Speed Up My PC, Technique No. 5: Defragment Regularly

One of the really under-appreciated features of a Windows-based PC is the Disk Defragmenter. Basically, the Disk Defragmenter will eliminate useless and redundant files in your entire system, not just your registry.

I swear to God, defragmenting your disk is THE best way to speed up my PC. Defragmenting may take a couple of hours or more, but the end result is very much worth it.

To access the Disk Defragmenter, go to START, then ALL PROGRAMS, then ACCESSORIES, then SYSTEM TOOLS, and voila! You’d be able to speed up your PC as efficiently as I can speed up my PC!

About The Author

Mehmet Onatli You can download a free trial of a http://www.registryheal.com/ from Mehmet website. He shares some of his things he learned in 10 years experience.

Windows And Software Installation Automation In An Enterprise

2008-10-29T02:11:00.000-07:00

IT department automation in an enterprise.

Recommended: for the heads of enterprises, IT departments, system administrators

This article will tell you:

How to quickly install Windows on all computers of an enterprise.

How to quickly upgrade software on all enterprise computers without losing any data.

How to automate all kinds of routine processes in an enterprise.

How to increase the productivity of system administrators in an enterprise.

Any company faces the problem of timely software update on all computers as well as the problem of the quick recovery and configuration of an employee's working environment. To solve this problem we offer our product: Almeza MultiSet.

A company before using MultiSet:

The software is installed/configured manually with the employee working with this computer being idle at this time.

Databases are updated, computers are configured, software is set up - all that is also done manually and requires the administrator to be present at every computer.

Every remote office requires system administrators to be employed

The IT staff has to be arranged to be on duty 24 hours a day.

Expenses on business trips made by technical specialists are necessary.

You get the following benefits after you deploy MultiSet in your company:

You will need only 1 administrator at any point on the network to update any amount of software on any number of computers. Note that the time needed to update software on all computers will be approximately equal to the time needed for one computer!

It is possible to quickly change the configuration on multiple or separate computers throughout the entire network. Note that the administrator has to be physically present at one computer only.

It is possible to quickly and safely reinstall WindowsXP without losing any current data!

It is possible to create a master disk for the standard automatic installation of a set of software on any number of computers.

It is possible to automatically install Windows together with drivers, service packs, any types of tools and applications.

It is possible to quickly update databases, configuration files on client computers.

Using MultiSet dramatically increases the effectiveness of using the office hours of the IT administration department.

Why particularly MultiSet?

Reliability. MultiSet reliably runs on any type of Windows operating system.

Quickness. Due to its innovational algorithm, MultiSet performs its functions fast, exactly and, which is most important, reliably.

Trustworthiness.. Among our clients there are banks, government organizations, customer support services, large corporations, which proves the actual usefulness of MultiSet in practice.

Flexible pricing policy. We offer a very flexible pricing policy that allows you to cover a large number of computers at minimum cost.

Low system requirements. MultiSet has minimum system requirement for its work. MultiSet supports the following operating systems: Windows Vista/XP/2003/2000 (32-bit) and Windows Vista/XP/2003 (64-bit).

SOLUTIONS FOR SMALL BUSINESS

Small organizations often do not have enough funds to employ an administrator and it often happens that regular employees have to update and configure software.

MultiSet will allow you to reduce expenses on calling administrators for every client computer, save a lot of time for everyone and therefore provide more time for employees to spend on their direct duties.

Download Free 30-day Trial:

http://www.almeza.com/download/multiset.exe

Web:

http://www.almeza.com

About The Author

Ivan Abramovsky is cofounder of Unattended Installation Systems. The company's flagship product MultiSet has become a "must-have-software" in homes and offices in more than 60 countries. http://www.almeza.com

How to Clean Disc Drives

2008-10-29T02:04:00.000-07:00

When your CD or DVD (disc) drive starts giving you problems, your first thought may be to replace it or take it to the repair shop, but a good cleaning may be all it needs.

Below are three methods to clean the disc drive. The easiest method is the least effective. The hardest method is the most effective. Since the hardest method takes some time to do, I recommend that you start with the easiest method. If it solves your problems, congratulations. If not, try the next method.

The Cleaner Disc method - this, the easiest method, uses a special cleaner disc which can be purchased in computer stores. The disc usually comes with a little bottle of cleaner solution. Apply a few drops of the solution to the disc and insert it in the disc drawer (be sure to read and follow the instructions that come with the cleaner disc). The drive will turn the disc and clean the lens. Unfortunately, this only works adequately about half the time.

The Cleaning Stick method - this is what I do in desperation when the cleaner disc does not work and I don't want to disassemble the drive. Since all that is needed (at least in my mind this is true) is a little more pressure applied to the lens, I start out in search of a thin, flexible stick of some type which is at least six inches long. It should not have sharp or rough edges that would scratch the lens. Next, get a soft, thin cloth and put water or rubbing alcohol in the middle of it. Place one end of the stick under the wet part of the cloth and slide it into the opened disc drawer. The goal is to rub the wet cloth on the lens to clean it. Do not apply so much pressure that you will scratch and ruin the lens. Also try blowing into the disc drive to remove any dirt that may have accommulated in it. If you do not succeed at this, proceed to the next method.

The Disassembly method - this method should work but it requires you to disassemble the drive. So if you are not comfortable with taking the drive apart, please take it to a computer repair shop and let them do it.

Sometimes a disc drive malfunctions because there is too much dust or debris in it, so be sure to clean out the inside with either compressed air, a soft cloth, or a cotton swab. Reassemble the disc drive, put it back in the computer case, and cross your fingers. Hopefully, it will work when you turn on the computer. If these methods work, you just saved yourself some money. If not, you needed a better disc drive anyway.

About The Author

Ray Geide writes a free weekly newsletter called Ray's Computer Tips and moderates a discussion board answering computer questions called Computer Q&A.

He is an experienced computer programmer who has been writing top-rated software for over a decade. Though he has written for some big-name companies, he prefers to write for his own company, Super Win Software, Inc. http://www.superwin.com/

Operating Systems: File Systems

2008-10-29T01:49:00.000-07:00

File systems are an integral part of any operating systems with the capacity for long term storage. There are two distinct parts of a file system, the mechanism for storing files and the directory structure into which they are organised. In mordern operating systems where it is possibe for several user to access the same files simultaneously it has also become necessary for such features as access control and different forms of file protection to be implemented.

A file is a collection of binary data. A file could represent a program, a document or in some cases part of the file system itself. In modern computing it is quite common for their to be several different storage devices attached to the same computer. A common data structure such as a file system allows the computer to access many different storage devices in the same way, for example, when you look at the contents of a hard drive or a cd you view it through the same interface even though they are completely different mediums with data mapped on them in completely different ways. Files can have very different data structures within them but can all be accessed by the same methods built into the file system. The arrangment of data within the file is then decided by the program creating it. The file systems also stores a number of attributes for the files within it.

All files have a name by which they can be accessed by the user. In most modern file systems the name consists of of three parts, its unique name, a period and an extension. For example the file 'bob.jpg' is uniquely identified by the first word 'bob', the extension jpg indicates that it is a jpeg image file. The file extension allows the operating system to decide what to do with the file if someone tries to open it. The operating system maintains a list of file extension associations. Should a user try to access 'bob.jpg' then it would most likely be opened in whatever the systems default image viewer is.

The system also stores the location of a file. In some file systems files can only be stored as one contigious block. This has simplifies storage and access to the file as the system then only needs to know where the file begins on the disk and how large it is. It does however lead to complications if the file is to be extended or removed as there may not be enough space available to fit the larger version of the file. Most modern file systems overcome this problem by using linked file allocation. This allows the file to be stored in any number of segments. The file system then has to store where every block of the file is and how large they are. This greatly simplifies file space allocation but is slower than contigious allocation as it is possible for the file to be spread out all over the disk. Modern oparating systems overome this flaw by providing a disk defragmenter. This is a utility that rearranges all the files on the disk so that thay are all in contigious blocks.

Information about the files protection is also integrated into the file system. Protection can range from the simple systems implemented in the FAT system of early windows where files could be marked as read-only or hidden to the more secure systems implemented in NTFS where the file system administrator can set up separate read and write access rights for different users or user groups. Although file protection adds a great deal of complexity and potential difficulties it is essential in an enviroment where many different computers or user can have access to the same drives via a network or time shared system such as raptor.

Some file systems also store data about which user created a file and at what time they created it. Although this is not essential to the running of the file system it is useful to the users of the system.

In order for a file system to function properly they need a number of defined operations for creating, opening and editing a file. Almost all file systems provide the same basic set of methods for manipulating files.

A file system must be able to create a file. To do this there must be enough space left on the drive to fit the file. There must also be no other file in the directory it is to be placed with the same name. Once the file is created the system will make a record of all the attributes noted above.

Once a file has been created we may need to edit it. This may be simply appending some data to the end of it or removing or replacing data already stored within it. When doing this the system keeps a write pointer marking where the next write oparation to the file should take place.

In order for a file to be useful it must of course be readable. To do this all you need to know the name and path of the file. From this the file system can ascertain where on the drive the file is stored. While reading a file the system keeps a read pointer. This stores which part of the drive is to be read next.

In some cases it is not possible to simply read all of the file into memory. File systems also allow you to reposition the read pointer within a file. To perform this operation the system needs to know how far into the file you want the read pointer to jump. An example of where this would be useful is a database system. When a query is made on the database it is obviously ineficient to read the whole file up to the point where the reuired data is, instead the application managing the database would determine where in the file the required bit of data is and jump to it. This operation is often known as a file seek.

File systems also allow you to delete files. To do this it needs to know the name and path of the file. To delete a file the systems simply removes its entry from the directory structure and adds all the space it previously occupied to the free space list (or whatever other free space management system it uses).

These are the most basic operations required by a file system to function properly. They are present in all modern computer file systems but the way they function may vary. For example, to perform the delete file operation in a modern file system like NTFS that has file protection built into it would be more complicated than the same operation in an older file system like FAT. Both systems would first check to see whether the file was in use before continuing, NTFS would then have to check whether the user currently deleting the file has permission to do so. Some file systems also allow multiple people to open the same file simultaneously and have to decide whether users have permission to write a file back to the disk if other users currently have it open. If two users have read and write permission to file should one be allowed to overwrite it while the other still has it open? Or if one user has read-write permission and another only has read permission on a file should the user with write permission be allowed to overwrite it if theres no chance of the other user also trying to do so?

Different file systems also support different access methods. The simplest method of accessing information in a file is sequential access. This is where the information in a file is accessed from the beginning one record at a time. To change the position in a file it can be rewound or forwarded a number of records or reset to the beginning of the file. This access method is based on file storage systems for tape drive but works as well on sequential access devices (like mordern DAT tape drives) as it does on random-access ones (like hard drives). Although this method is very simple in its operation and ideally suited for certain tasks such as playing media it is very inneficient for more complex tasks such as database management. A more modern approach that better facilitates reading tasks that arent likely to be sequential is direct access. direct access allows records to be read or written over in any order the application requires. This method of allowing any part of the file to be read in any order is better suited to modern hard drives as they too allow any part of the drive to be read in any order with little reduction in transfer rate. Direct access is better suited to to most applications than sequential access as it is designed around the most common storage medium in use today as opposed to one that isnt used very much anymore except for large offline back-ups. Given the way direct access works it is also possible to build other access methods on top of direct access such as sequential access or creating an index of all the records of the file speeding to speed up finding data in a file.

On top of storing and managing files on a drive the file system also maintains a system of directories in which the files are referenced. Modern hard drives store hundreds of gigabytes. The file system helps organise this data by dividing it up into directories. A directory can contain files or more directories. Like files there are several basic operation that a file system needs to a be able to perform on its directory structure to function properly.

It needs to be able to create a file. This is also covered by the overview of peration on a file but as well as creating the file it needs to be added to the directory structure.

When a file is deleted the space taken up by the file needs to be marked as free space. The file itself also needs to be removed from the directory structure. Files may need to be renamed. This requires an alteration to the directory structure but the file itself remains un-changed.

List a directory. In order to use the disk properly the user will require to know whats in all the diretories stored on it. On top of this the user needs to be able to browse through the directories on the hard drive.

Since the first directory structures were designed they have gone through several large evolutions. Before directory structures were applied to file systems all files were stored on the same level. This is basically a system with one directory in which all the files are kept. The next advancement on this which would be considered the first directory structure is the two level directory. In this There is a singe list of directories which are all on the same level. The files are then stored in these directories. This allows different users and applications to store there files separately. After this came the first directory structures as we know them today, directory trees. Tree structure directories improves on two level directories by allowing directories as well as files to be stored in directories. All modern file systems use tree structore directories, but many have additional features such as security built on top of them.

Protection can be implemented in many ways. Some file systems allow you to have password protected directories. In this system. The file system wont allow you to access a directory before it is given a username and password for it. Others extend this system by given different users or groups access permissions. The operating system requires the user to log in before using the computer and then restrict their access to areas they dont have permission for. The system used by the computer science department for storage space and coursework submission on raptor is a good example of this. In a file system like NTFS all type of storage space, network access and use of device such as printers can be controlled in this way. Other types of access control can also be implemented outside of the file system. For example applications such as win zip allow you to password protect files.

There are many different file systems currently available to us on many different platforms and depending on the type of application and size of drive different situations suit different file system. If you were to design a file system for a tape backup system then a sequential access method would be better suited than a direct access method given the constraints of the hardware. Also if you had a small hard drive on a home computer then there would be no real advantage of using a more complex file system with features such as protection as it isn't likely to be needed. If i were to design a file system for a 10 gigabyte drive i would use linked allocation over contigious to make the most efficient use the drive space and limit the time needed to maintain the drive. I would also design a direct access method over a sequential access one to make the most use of the strengths of the hardware. The directory structure would be tree based to allow better organisation of information on the drive and would allow for acyclic directories to make it easier for several users to work on the same project. It would also have a file protection system that allowed for different access rights for different groups of users and password protection on directories and individual files.Several file systems that already implement the features ive decribed above as ideal for a 10gig hard drive are currently available, these include NTFS for the Windows NT and XP operating systems and ext2 which is used in linux.

About The Author

Sam Harnett MSc mBCS

Pixeko Studio – Web Developers in Kent

http://www.pixeko.com/

How to Clean Disc Drives

2008-10-12T05:02:00.000-07:00

When your CD or DVD (disc) drive starts giving you problems, your first thought may be to replace it or take it to the repair shop, but a good cleaning may be all it needs. Below are three methods to clean the disc drive. The easiest method is the least effective. The hardest method is the most effective. Since the hardest method takes some time to do, I recommend that you start with the easiest method. If it solves your problems, congratulations. If not, try the next method.

The Cleaner Disc method - this, the easiest method, uses a special cleaner disc which can be purchased in computer stores. The disc usually comes with a little bottle of cleaner solution. Apply a few drops of the solution to the disc and insert it in the disc drawer (be sure to read and follow the instructions that come with the cleaner disc). The drive will turn the disc and clean the lens. Unfortunately, this only works adequately about half the time.

The Cleaning Stick method - this is what I do in desperation when the cleaner disc does not work and I don't want to disassemble the drive. Since all that is needed (at least in my mind this is true) is a little more pressure applied to the lens, I start out in search of a thin, flexible stick of some type which is at least six inches long. It should not have sharp or rough edges that would scratch the lens. Next, get a soft, thin cloth and put water or rubbing alcohol in the middle of it. Place one end of the stick under the wet part of the cloth and slide it into the opened disc drawer. The goal is to rub the wet cloth on the lens to clean it. Do not apply so much pressure that you will scratch and ruin the lens. Also try blowing into the disc drive to remove any dirt that may have accommulated in it. If you do not succeed at this, proceed to the next method.

The Disassembly method - this method should work but it requires you to disassemble the drive. So if you are not comfortable with taking the drive apart, please take it to a computer repair shop and let them do it.

Take the cover off your computer, unplug the cords from the back of the disc drive, remove any screws holding it in, and slide it out (you may need to remove the face plate on the end of the drawer to get the drive out). Remove the screws in the drive housing and take the cover off. The bottom side of the drive is a circuit board, so if that is what you see when you take the cover off, figure out how to access the other side. On the correct side, you should see a lens that runs on a track (there is no harm in moving the lens along the track but do not touch the lens itself). Use a wet, soft cloth to clean the lens. Sometimes a disc drive malfunctions because there is too much dust or debris in it, so be sure to clean out the inside with either compressed air, a soft cloth, or a cotton swab. Reassemble the disc drive, put it back in the computer case, and cross your fingers. Hopefully, it will work when you turn on the computer. If these methods work, you just saved yourself some money. If not, you needed a better disc drive anyway.

About The Author

Ray Geide writes a free weekly newsletter called Ray's Computer Tips and moderates a discussion board answering computer questions called Computer Q&A. He is an experienced computer programmer who has been writing top-rated software for over a decade. Though he has written for some big-name companies, he prefers to write for his own company, Super Win Software, Inc. http://www.superwin.com/

Operating Systems: File Systems

2008-10-12T05:00:00.001-07:00

It needs to be able to create a file. This is also covered by the overview of peration on a file but as well as creating the file it needs to be added to the directory structure.

When a file is deleted the space taken up by the file needs to be marked as free space. The file itself also needs to be removed from the directory structure.

Files may need to be renamed. This requires an alteration to the directory structure but the file itself remains un-changed.

About The Author

Sam Harnett MSc mBCS

Pixeko Studio – Web Developers in Kent

http://www.pixeko.com

How to clean your Mother Board

2008-10-12T04:53:00.000-07:00

If you have not done the inspection mentioned in the previous article - How to Clean your Case, now is the time to do so. Look at the blades of the fan in the back of the computer. Also look at any vents. Is there clusters of dust there? Is there grime caked on to it? If so, the inside needs to be cleaned. If the fan blades are clean but it has been several years since you have cleaned the motherboard or if the computer is around cigarette smoke, it probably should be cleaned anyway. Dust and particles in the air (like cigarette smoke) can build up on the circuitry of the motherboard and cause it to heat up and/or corrode.

The first thing that you need to do is unplug your computer. Then open up the case to get access to the motherboard. Cases open differently. If you don't know how to open your case, look on the back of your computer along the edge for some screws. These screws may hold on side panels or an upside down U shaped panel that covers the sides and top. Removing the screws will allow you to take off the cover. Other cases have the screws on the front of the computer. To get access to these screws, you must first remove the front panel by pressing a hidden latch. The cover is there to give easy access to the inside of your computer, so if you look hard enough, you should be able to figure out how to remove it.

Remember that if you touch anything on the motherboard, you should be grounded by either touching the metal frame of the computer with your other hand or by wearing a special grounding device.

The goal of cleaning the motherboard is to remove all dust and debris from the motherboard and all components inside of the case. This can be done using one of three methods.

The preferred method is to use a can of compressed air to blow it out. Always hold the can in an up-right position to prevent the propellent chemicals which can damage or corrode components from coming out. Dust and dirt should be blown away from the motherboard and out of the case.

Another way to remove dust is to use a vacuum. The common advice is to only use a battery operated vacuum because an AC powered vacuum causes static and static can ruin the motherboard. I have used an AC powered vacuum (before I knew that it was not recommended) to clean my motherboard many times and it has never caused any problems, but I may have just been lucky. When using the vacuum, keep the nozzle a couple of inches away from the motherboard or any other components so that it does not come in contact with them and so that any small parts are not sucked into the vacuum.

If you do not have a can of compressed air or a vacuum, you can use a dry cloth and brush to clean the motherboard. Be careful not to dislodge or break anything using this method.

While cleaning the motherboard, be careful not to unplug any cables or connections or to dislodge any loose components, such as, jumpers.

Methodically clean the whole inside of the case going over all of the motherboard from one end to the other and all other components. Don't forget to clean the fans and heat sinks. Do not open up the power supply box or stick anything in it beyond the fan. If you do, you could get a shocking surprise and ruin your computer.

If your computer does not work when you put it back together, something was obviously dislodged during the cleaning. Open the case back up and push all connections and cards into their slots. Look for anything that may have become disconnected.

Cleaning the motherboard is probably the most dangerous form of cleaning but it is necessary to prevent an early death of your computer.

About The Author

Ray Geide writes a free weekly newsletter called Ray's Computer Tips and moderates a discussion board answering computer questions called Computer Q&A.

How To clean your Case

2008-10-08T05:09:00.000-07:00

There is nothing wrong with leaving spills, dirt, and stains on your computer case. After all isn't that what the case is for, to protect the electronic components inside from spills and dirt? This is true, but there are still parts of the case that need to be cleaned and checked if you want your computer to live a long and prosperous life.

. Unless you like looking at dirt everytime you look at your computer, you should go ahead and clean those spills, stains, and dust off of the case. You can do this with just about any cloth and cleaner. Do not use highly abrasive cleaners that might ruin or mar the surface and do not use solvents on plastic. A wet sponge will even work. Just make sure that the cleaner or any liquid does not seep into the inside through cracks and vents. If there is any possibility that you are going to get that messy, turn off and unplug the computer first and wait to turn it back on until any liquid has had a chance to fully dry.

. . After you have wiped off the outside, it is time for a little inspection. Look at the blades of the fan in the back of the computer. Also look at any vents. Is there dust there? Is there a lot of dust and grime caked on to it? If so, that is an indicator that the inside also needs to be cleaned (I will tell you how to do that in next week's article - How to Clean your Motherboard).

. . Some clean environments never have to have the inside cleaned. Some need it cleaned monthly. When I lived in Russia, even though I didn't notice it, the air was not clean. The fan on the computer would cake up with dirt and grime after about a month of use. And so I would have to clean the fan, vents, and inside monthly. If I had let it go for several months without cleaning, the fan would have stopped working and the computer would have overheated. Where I now live in the US, the air is clean and I have gone years without having to clean it. Again, the indicator of this is the blades of the fan and the vents. If they are dirty, they need to be cleaned.

. . You can do some of the cleaning from the outside. First, turn off the computer. Then get out the vacuum sweeper and using the hose, vacuum out the vents and the fan(s). If you have compressed air (you can purchase compressed air from your computer store), you may want to blow air in through the vents (or intake fan if you have one) to loosen the dust and suck it out using the vacuum. If there is still dust or dirt in the vents or on the blades of the fan, you can use a Q-tip to clean them.

. . If you do not have a vaccum, you can use compressed air alone. Always use short bursts to avoid moisture buildup. Start with the computer off and blow into every hole and vent. Then turn the computer on and blow everything except for the exhaust fan once again.

. With the case clean, your computer will look nicer and with the fan and vents cleaned out it will breathe easier and run cooler.

. About The Author .

How to Clean your Keyboard- Part 1

2008-10-08T04:44:00.000-07:00

I know most of you will not heed this advice, but KEYBOARDS CAN MAKE YOU SICK (how's that for tactfulness?). Germs live on your hands and fingers. When you type, many of them jump on to the keyboard. When someone else types on your keyboard, those germs transfer to their fingers. Or when you later type on the same keyboard, those germs reconquer your fingers. Regularly disinfecting the keyboard can prevent this.

To disinfect the keyboard, turn off the computer. Then spray disinfectant on a cloth. Be sure to use disinfectant and not just any type of cleaner because not all cleaners disinfect. Also do not spray the disinfectent directly on the keys. Spray it on the cloth. Wipe down the top and sides of the keys. Give the keys a few minutes to dry off before turning the computer back on.

Now that you know how to do it, you should make it a regular practice to disinfect the keyboard. It's one step towards a healthier you.

So you have your keyboard disinfected and life is great. Then your child spills koolaide all over it. What do you do? There are certain steps that you should take when something, like pop, beer, wine, coffee, milk, or kool-aide, is spilled on the keyboard.

The first thing to do is immediately unplug the keyboard from the back of the computer and turn the keyboard over so that its keys are down. This will allow the liquid to drain out. You will probably want to put a cloth under the keyboard or at least make sure that the surface you have put it on is washable.

Then use the mouse to shut down Windows and turn off the computer (this is important because later you will have to plug the keyboard back into the computer and you should never plug any device into a computer while it is on).

While the keyboard is upside down use a cloth to dry as much of the liquid off as you can. If you have a can of compressed air or a vacuum, while the keyboard is upside down blow or vacuum it out. Then let the keyboard set upside down for at least a night so that it can adequately dry out.

If the liquid that spilled on it was sticky, you may want to follow the extensive cleaning procedure explained in the next article, How to Clean your Keyboard - Part 2.

Liquid spilled on a laptop keyboard can easily reach the hard drive, so turn it over immediately and leave it in that position until it dries.

Keyboards are quite resilient and so it should work when you turn it on again. But if not, another attribute of keyboards is that they are cheap and so it won't cost too much to buy another one. With these pointers in mind and a quick reaction, you just may save your keyboard from total destruction the next time it gets coated with coffee.

About The Author . . Ray Geide writes a free weekly newsletter called Ray's Computer Tips and moderates a discussion board answering computer questions called Computer Q&A. He is an experienced computer programmer who has been writing top-rated software for over a decade. Though he has written for some big-name companies, he prefers to write for his own company, Super Win Software, Inc. http://www.superwin.com/

How to Clean your Keyboard-Part 2

2008-10-08T04:24:00.000-07:00

When it comes to cleaning your keyboard there are many methods that can be used, some harder and more effective than others.

The easiest method is the Shake Method. It is so easy that you can do it right now. Pick up your keyboard, turn it over being careful not to press any keys, and shake it. See all of that stuff fall out? It is dirtier than you thought, isn't it? You can use one of the following methods to clean it further.

The Blow Method - You can buy cans of pressurized air at the computer department or computer store which are made especially for cleaning your computer. They usually have either a hose and nozzle or a tube extending from the nozzle. Hold the keyboard up vertically (that means that end of the keyboard is up and the other end is down), aim towards the keys and press the button. Keep blowing until all of the debris is blown out. Be sure to get around and in between all of the keys. This can be done with the computer on, but it is better if it is off so that you do not have to worry about pressing the keys and coming up with a page of aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa's.

The Vacuum Method - This is just like the Blow Method except that a vacuum is used instead of a can of pressurized air. It is quite simple. Just turn the vacuum on, pull out the hose, and run the nozzle over the keys. Before doing this make sure your keyboard does not have any loose pop off keys that could be sucked into the vacuum.

The Cotton Ball Method - This can be done in addition to the above methods and in lieu of the following methods. Take a cotton ball or cloth and wet it with rubbing alcohol. It should not be so wet that the alcohol runs down into the cracks of the keyboard. Wipe the tops and sides of the keys.

The Dishwasher Method - I hesitate to tell about this method because there is the possibility that it could fry your keyboard. When I had less experience with computers, I dunked my keyboard in a sink full of water to clean it. It did work afterwards, so I don't doubt those who say this method will not mess up your keyboard, but if it does, don't complain to me. I warned you. If your keyboard is not the standard membrane type of keyboard or if it is on a laptop, do not even think of trying this.

This is how you do it. Unplug the keyboard and place it face down in an empty dishwasher. Do not disassemble the keyboard and do not put it in a dishwasher that has dirty dishes in it. Some say to add soap, some say not to. Run the dishwasher through a regular cycle. Take the keyboard out, shake the water out, and stand it on end until it is completely dry (this may take several days). If it does not work after doing this, it may not be dry. Let it stand another week and try it again. If it still does not work, I warned you.

The Disassembly Method - This is the most thorough method, but it should not be done on laptop keyboards or non-standard non-membrane keyboards.

Turn off the computer and unplug the keyboard. Turn the keyboard upside down. You may want to get two books or short boards to place the keyboard on. Position them so that they hold up the keyboard on the edges when it is turned over. This should leave the keys dangling and not touching the books or the floor. This is especially needed when the keyboard's back is off; otherwise the keys will be lifted out of their position by the floor (or whatever surface it is laying on).

Get a screwdriver and remove all of the screws from the back of the keyboard. Lay the keyboard down on the books and carefully remove the back.

Take everything apart and clean thoroughly. It is better to take the keys out one at a time and clean them so that you do not put them back in the wrong place. Wipe each one down with a wet cloth and then with a dry cloth. Any keys that may be hard to put back in, can be cleaned in place without removing them. Wipe around the keys as they sit in place and blow any debris out with your lungs (using compressed air or a vacuum may upset the keys). If you are really brave, you can remove all of the keys at once and give the frame a good wipe down too.

Do a once over and make sure that you have cleaned everything. Then reassemble it all. Don't forget the keyboard's cable. Wrap a wet cloth around it and wipe it down. It may have an accumulation of grime that needs to be scrubbed off. Also if any of the letters on the keys have rubbed off, you can use a fine point permanent marker to draw the letter back on the key. Use these cleaning methods and your keyboard will last a long time and be something you can be proud of.

About The Author

What is a Hard Drive?

2008-10-07T05:04:00.000-07:00

A hard drive is an essential piece of hardware for every computer, it actual name is Hard Disk Drive (HDD), other more common names are hard disk and fixed disk. A hard drive is a non-volatile data storage device; using two rotating disks, known as platters, that have magnetic surfaces, the hard drive digitally stores encoded data. While modern day Hard drives are a completely sealed unit (aside from the ventilation hole), the original hard drives had removable media. The term "Hard" was meant to be a substitute, temporary slang, for the term "rigid" before a universal name had been agreed upon. A rigid-disk drive is a hard drive essentially, but that name is rarely used.

Hard Drives were first introduced for data storage in an accounting computer in 1956 and were developed for general purpose computers. Non-volatile storage means that unlike RAM, which is volatile memory, the information will not be deleted when the computer is powered off. The hard drive is where firmware and program files, along with other types of information, are stored so it can be accessed at any time.

The data is stored in the computer language known as binary code; information is recorded as a series of zeros and ones and is retrieved by detecting the magnetized material. Covered in a thin layer of magnetic material, the platters themselves are non-magnetic usually made of aluminum or glass. Earlier hard drives used iron oxide for the magnetic material, but now a cobalt-based alloy is used.

A typical hard drive for a desktop computer holds somewhere between 120 and 500 GB of digital data, rotate at 7200 RPM (Rotations Per Minute) and transfers 1 Gbit per second. As of July 2008 the largest capacity of a hard drive became 1.5 TB, with an RPM of 10 thousand or 15 thousand and has a transfer rate of 1.6 Gbit per second. Hard drives with RPMs of at least 10 thousand are the gamers' choice for their computers because of the high data transfer rate, which cuts down on the game start up time and decreases game loading time.

Modern day hard drives cover a variety of digital applications, such as video recorders, audio players, personal assistants, cameras and video games consoles. Samsung and Nokia added hard drives to their phones for the first time in 2005 and revolutionized the market. The size of the hard drive stays the same, but the amount of data that can be stored upon them is ever increasing because of data compression research. The original hard disk drive held 4.4 megabytes (MB) of digital data as compared to the newest hard drive today that can hold up to the 3 terabytes (TB) of digital data. (1 thousand bytes = 1 MB; 1 thousand MB = 1 gigabyte (GB); 1 thousand GB = 1 TB) The 3 TB hard drives are not yet available for public purchase but the 2 TB external hard drives are, and they sell for a minimum of $454.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for computer memory, PC supplies, and computer games. When shopping, we recommend the best online stores for PC supplies, Hard Drives, computer memory, RAM.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victor_Epand

Speed Up Your Computer Today

2008-09-29T01:27:00.000-07:00

No matter what types of problems you are experiencing you can learn how to speed up your computer today. Is your computer constantly freezing up or kicking you off the internet? Are you frustrated with it and does it seem as though purchasing a brand new one seem like the only thing that is left to do? Well this article may be the most important read that you do; we may be able to save you thousands of dollars or the payments of getting a brand new system.

First of all you have to understand that your PC is no different than your automobile in the fact that it requires certain maintenance to keep running smoothly and efficiently. If you fail to provide the maintenance then you will notice that your system will become slower. The answer is not always that you need a new computer; while you may need to get a new computer you still should learn what it takes to keep a computer running efficiently.

Even if you get a top of the line PC; in a couple of months it will be outdated because technology seems to change so fast. So you want to learn how to speed up your computer today. One of the most important things that you can do for you computer is to clean out the registry.

The PC registry is the back bone to your system; it is where all the files, programs, software and everything else that you have ever downloaded onto your computer is stored. If your computer is a couple years old; then most likely you have downloaded several files and programs onto your computer. Well what you may not be aware of is that your PC registry can only expand so far. As you continue to add programs and software to your computer; then it causes it to expand too much.

Eventually the only choice your computer has is to become slow and stagnant. When I was experiencing computer issues I notice that when I took the time to clean out the systems registry; my computer was running at least 75% faster than it was before I cleaned it out. If you have never cleaned out the registry; then you may want to perform this task and you will discover that you will be back online in no time.

Before you run out and purchase a whole new system you want to make sure that you clean out the registry and do some of the steps above as this may increase you computer's performance. You can also visit our site below and get some other valuable information that will help you get the most of your system.

How To Fix A slow computer Free Computer Scan To Check For Invalid Files; Make Your PC Run Faster! Prevent Your Computer From Experiencing PC Errors, Constant Crashes And General System Slowdowns!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Willie_Stanford

Why Does My Computer Freeze?

2008-09-29T01:18:00.000-07:00

When a computer freezes up all of a sudden it is very frustrating and a sign that there is trouble. Sometimes it can happen without any apparent warning, whereas sometimes there have been indications that there has indeed been a problem there for quite a while. Whatever the case maybe, a computer that is freezing must be handles promptly before the trouble becomes even worse.

The first and most obvious thing to do is run a virus scan. Quite often a virus can cause abrupt trouble in a matter of seconds. Scanning the computer is your first action in narrowing down the problem. If you find no indication of any viruses, or if you do find a virus and your computer still continues to freeze, then go on to the next step to find the problem. Do not get discouraged, you will find out what the matter is if you dig deep enough.

The next step would be to remove any spyware that may be lingering on your machine. This is recommended to be performed even if your computer has shown no trace of a virus, or if a virus has been annihilated. These pesky spyware can wreak havoc on your computer and also make it freeze , or worse, cause your system to crash. After you have performed these tasks you are still having problems,or if you feel your computer is still misbehaving slightly, you should clean out your registry.

A registry cleaner will sort out the registry and put things back in their proper place. Quite often what happens is that after a virus or spyware has imposed itself on your unsuspecting computer, the registry has become slightly out of whack and could use a good tuneup. Cleaning your registry may also completely fix any freezing issues, or any signs of slowness when you are working on it. A registry repair can often give new life to your computer, and make you wonder how you ever put up with it acting so slowly for so long.

Cathy Adamo invites you to go to registry problem and take a free introductory registry scan.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cathy_Adamo