Articles and information to power your life!
My old Gateway desktop PC currently has 512 Megabytes of PC-2700 RAM (256 Megs each on two sticks). I’m wanting to upgrade the memory but PC-2700 sticks cost over twice as much as DDR3 sticks with higher capacities! Can I replace the old PC-2700 sticks with new DDR3 sticks or do I have to pay the higher price and stick with old technology? –Kevin B.
I have a 2 year old HP Pavilion p6610f desktop PC. The hard drive died a month after the warranty expired and I need some advice about installing a replacement drive. Speed is more important to me than cost when making the repair.
In a nutshell,would it be better to simply buy the fastest hard drive I can find or replace the defective drive with an SSD? Thanks! –Cameron L.
Cameron, I recommend that you replace the bad hard drive with a small SSD (say 64 GB) and then add-on a high-speed USB 3.0 external drive. Then install the operating system and swap file on the SSD to drastically speed up the boot process and overall operation while putting your programs and data on the external drive.
As you probably know, your Pavilion p610f doesn’t have native USB 3.0 ports, but you can easily install a 2-port USB 3.0 expansion card into an empty PCI Express slot. Although the USB 3.0 drive will be backward compatible with the PC’s existing USB 2.0 ports, installing the USB 3.0 PCIe card should be a no-brainer since it will only cost you around $30 and the speed increase for the drive will be substantial.
Everyone knows that buying used is a great way to stretch a budget, but is it really a good idea to buy a used computer? The answer to that question is “Yes, but…”.
First, a little background info:
Computer technology evolves so quickly these days that a brand new PC will become yesterday’s news in just a few months. A state-of-the-art system with all the bells and whistles – and selling for top dollar – will likely be equivalent to an entry level model in about a year.
If you have recently upgraded to Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) you’re probably wondering what happened to the “Find on this page” function that lets you search for a word or snippet of text on the currently displayed page. Well, it’s still there, but Microsoft has hidden it from us. You’ll find it under the “Tools” menu (which is also hidden now).
Here’s how to find and use the “Find” function in IE9:
1 – Open the “Tools” menu by clicking on the little “cog” icon in the upper-right hand corner of the IE window.
2 -Click File > Find on this page.
Monkeys are cute and all, but who doesn’t know what they love to throw? At the zoo, you see signs like, “Stay back from the monkey cage!….”
Like monkeys, even legitimate web hosting companies will toss numbers, deals, packages and a whole bunch of stuff at you. Unlike monkeys, web hosting companies make the crap they throw at you look really good…
Just the facts, please.
Make sure you keep a “just the facts” attitude. Don’t get sidetracked from your questions by slyly inserted sales talk. Better yet, before you go shopping for hosting grab a healthy Crap-o-Meter and turn it to “ultra-sensitive”. Some web hosting companies carry badges for U.S. Grade A crap.