Laptop Batteries 101 - A Buyer's Guide
If you are among the increasing number of mobile executives who are switching from PCs to laptops, it is inevitable that you will soon face a situation where you will need to educate yourself about laptop batteries. And then, at some point, buy them. Here are some basic guidelines. More ...
Be the Master of Your Printer
Sometimes you need a print immediately, other times you need to continue working with your application while printing. You can make your printer accommodate your needs by configuring your printers 'Spool Settings' and 'Print Queue'. More ...
Printer Cartridge Price Fixing
The ink cartridge for a low end HP printer, containing only one tiny ounce of ink, costs a mind boggling $30.00! That's price gouging, and all printer manufacturers are doing it. That's called PRICE FIXING and it's illegal. More ...
An Uninterruptible Power Supply Can Save Your PC
You absolutely MUST have a surge protector to guard your system against electrical spikes and surges, and do NOT sacrifice quality to save a few dollars. Leaving your PC with inferior surge protection is tantamount to inviting unthinkable disaster. More ...
Printing Troubleshooting Guide
You troubleshoot printing issues like you would any other computer/network related problem. You start at a general point and rule out the possibilities until you have the specific cause. The first question that you need to answer is: 'Is the problem hardware, software, network or performance related?'. More ...
Vista Product Activation
If Vista Product Activation detects a licensing problem, Vista enters 'reduced functionality mode'. Reduced functionality mode doesn't affect your data, but it will not let you run many of your applications without first entering the product license key. More ...
A Guide to Cleaning Your Mouse
Have you noticed your mouse gets a bit erratic or unresponsive? The problem may simply be grit and grime - plain or dirt! Both optical and mechanical mice suffer from the accumulation of dirt and oils from our hands and dust on the mousing surface. Here are the directions you need to give your mouse a good bath! More ...
A Quick Guide to Wireless Networking
The first thing to do in setting up a wireless home
network is to get the correct equipment. A wireless home networking kit typically, these come with a firewalled wireless router (e.g. the immensely popular Linksys WRT54G). Some also bundle a wireless PC card for connecting laptops to the network, or a wireless USB adapter for connecting desktop PCs. More ...
How to Maintain Accurate Time on Your PC
PC's have internal real time clocks designed to maintain system time. The internal clocks rely on relatively low-cost crystal oscillators, which are notoriously inaccurate. In many cases PC system time can drift by several minutes each day. This article describes various methods of maintaining a highly accurate time on your PC. More ...
How to Backup Your Hard Drive
We all know that we should back up our system as soon as possible. But if you're like most of us, you will get to it tomorrow. Taking the time to backup your data or entire hard drive is not as painstaking as it may seem. More ...
Vista's New Boot Loader Architecture
The boot sequence of Windows Vista and later systems is slightly different from previous versions. For Windows Vista, the MBR instead loads the Windows Boot Manager (BOOTMGR), which accesses the Boot Configuration Data store (BCD). More ...
Using Your PC as a Home Theater
What could be better than relaxing at home watching a film, browsing the Internet, enjoying your favourite music or TV show in digital High Definition, or spending a couple of hours whacking your enemy in World of Warcraft. Once upon a time you needed at least half a dozen different expensive items of hardware in your home to do this, but not any more. More ...
