If you come about to have both Macs and PC (or a Mac and a PC), you can also connect them together in a network, although there are a few other considerations to bear in mind. It is highly recommended to install additional software either on the Mac or the PC. This will help for communicating clearly.
I have to admit, I haven’t cleaned my keyboard since I opened the box. No, don’t ask me how many months ago that was—it’s in years.
After reading this article I got scared pretty quick.
A desk is capable of supporting 10 million microbes and the average office contains 20,961 microbes per square inch, according to research.
The key offenders are telephones, which harbour up to 25,127 microbes per square inch, keyboards 3,295 and computer mice 1,676.
By contrast, the average toilet seat contains 49 microbes per square inch, the survey showed.
Immediately I googled the web like crazy until someone was able to show me how to PROPERLY clean my keyboard (that is if I ever bother to clean it at all). What? You thought your keyboard was self-cleaning? Time to get on your knees boy and start some scrubbing. Read this article
Did one of your hardwares suddenly fail? I’ve experienced a lot of hardware crash in the past. I remember one time, my personal computer would boot but the monitor is black. I checked the monitor but it is working perfectly. What I did is open up the CPU and inspected my video card. Upon opening the CPU, I noticed the great amount of dust inside it. If this happened to you too, here are some things you could do:
• Remove your hardware from the motherboard. Get a pencil eraser and run it through the tip connecting the hardware to your motherboard (the golden thing).
• Clean the inside of your CPU with a brush and a vacuum cleaner. Just be careful.
After doing the above, my video card worked again perfectly.
Image source: www.pcextreme.net
It’s not only start-up that you’d like to speed up; you can also make sure that your system shuts down faster. If shutting down XP takes what seems to be an inordinate amount of time, here are a couple of steps you can take to speed up the shutdown process:
Don’t have XP clear your paging file at shutdown. For security reasons, you can have XP clear your paging file (pagefile.sys) of its contents whenever you shut down. Your paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, information stays in the file. Some people prefer to have the paging file cleared at shutdown because sensitive information such as unencrypted passwords sometimes ends up in the file. However, clearing the paging file can slow shutdown times significantly, so if extreme security isn’t a high priority, you might not want to clear it. To shut down XP without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor (click Start > Run, then type regedit in the Run box) and go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management
Change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0. Close the Registry, and restart your computer. Whenever you turn off XP from now on, the paging file won’t be cleared, and you should be able to shut down more quickly.
Note: Please be careful when editing the Registry; you can do a lot of damage here. Don’t change or delete anything unless you know exactly what it is.
If you are running out of space on your hard disk and your personal computer is slowing down, you might want to consider cleaning your computer’s hard disk thoroughly. No, you don’t have to actually reformat your hard disk. Let me introduce to you CCleaner, a freeware that can do wonders on your personal computer. CCleaner removes unused and temporary files on your personal computer that will allow Windows to run faster. This will not only make your personal computer faster but will also free up your disk space tremendously. As I’ve said this is a freeware and you could download them on www.ccleaner.com.
Image source: www.vir4al.ru
The very nice thing about far-out video cards is the ability to run multiple monitors off of one computer, which isn’t a new thing, but think of yourself and the pleasures that it would give you, playing your favorite game, watching DVDs (hehe!).
Windows Vista, XP, 2000, ME, and 98, is natively supported so you can display your cool desktop on 2 or more monitors.But let me focus on two monitors. To enable dual display, navigate to the “Settings†tab of the “Display Properties†screen in Windows, and where most people are used to see the controls for one monitor, you will now see two. Those two monitors settings can be enabled/disabled, set to your preference to match the configuration that they physically occupy on your desk. select “Extend my Windows desktop onto this monitorâ€, to allow the cursor freely move from the primary display to the second if it was all one surface. You can move programs, icons, taskbars, and wallpapers onto the secondary monitor and start taking advantage of the increased desktop space. With this setup, you computer becomes more convenient and fun to use.
Personally, I love the extra space it gives me, I can spread my documents easy viewing without having to switch and tab back and forth. and being able to use one monitor for the browser, and the second one is to display my e-mails, instant messaging, Audio/video playback, and another important benefit of dual displays can be experienced in 3D games. As many of the games are now supporting multiple monitors in order to enhance the experience. In a business side of things, dual displays can also be beneficial In being able to view multiple documents at once,
The functionality of dual display is built into just about every operating system available. On the hardware side, is a funny thing. You need to have a pair of monitors (hahaha!). The second thing you have to connect the monitors to the computer, by using a dual-head graphics adaptor, such as the nVidia GeForce 6600 PCIe card. The connectors on this card allow for either one digital and one analog, or for two analog monitors to be connected to the system through the use of just one PCI Express x16 slot. There are also dual-head cards available for AGP and PCI.
For digital displays, one 15-pin VGA connection for an analog display, you can use them as a combo display of monitors by using a DVI to VGA adaptor. some cards offer two DVI connections or two VGA connections. A VGA connection is the 15-pin plugs that has been the default feature connection on computers.
For Notebooks, most modern notebooks feature a VGA connection that can either be used as the primary display or as part of a dual display arrangement with the notebook’s integrated display. But not all notebooks allow for this, as some will only mirror the display onto the attached monitor, so it is best to check the features and specifications before making any purchases.
via [PCExtreme]
AMI BIOS Beep Codes
Phoenix BIOS beep codes
They are series of beeps separated by a pause,
A 1-2-1-2 series would be like :
beep *pause beep beep *pause beep *pause beep beep
Award BIOS beep codes:
Observe the problem
Is it a Hardware problem or a software problem? What we’re you doing while the problem occured? Did this happen in sometime recently? Did you added or installed something in the computer? Did you install a new software ? Did you add a new Hardware device? When you restarted your computer, Did the problem go away?
Define the problem
Try to find out what is the cause of the problem by checking out possible problems by the process of elimination narrowing it down until you eventually find it. Does the problem occur in one program, but not others? If the computer is networked, is the problem system-wide, or specific to that machine? Does it happen every time, or only under certain circumstances? Do you get error messages that give you clues or tell you outright what the difficulty is?
Solve the problem
First , try by restarting the computer, then check the power cable connections. Listen to the beep the computer makes during boot up. Try to look for error messages
Before you tackle a more serious approach to troubleshooting check your computer’s warranty date. If it’s still under warranty contact the manufacturer for repairs, solutions and if need be replacement.
It has happened with Vista and is seemingly also being built into Windows 7, the ability to downgrade should the user deem it too stubborn or complicated to use. The beta-testing of Win 7 is already underway and it seemingly looks nice yet Microsoft is again taking no chances by building into the OS a downgrade feature should it suffer a catastrophic failure. Operating system’s are normally better as time goes by and as with Vista, time was not on it’s side that people simply refused to bite into their many advantages (if that’s what they called them). Read more »
If your PC’s not powering up, don’t immediately panic and run around the room while you’re shouting and tearing your hair out (obviously I’ve done this before). Here are some basic tips on how to seal with this problem before you call your local (and expensive) PC repair man.
Check if your PC’s plugged in. Yes, boys and girls, there’s been a lot of situation where the the computer gets unplugged when your electric-bill-crazy-mom would pull it out while you’re away from keyboard to save on the utility charges. Or you forgot that you pulled it out last night.
If it’s plugged, and the switch is in “on†position, check the following:
If that still doesn’t work then it’s time to open up your CPU. If your motherboard LEDs don’t light up then your power supply’s dead. However, if LEDS are lighting up then your Power button might be the culprit. If that’s the case you may need to replace the entire front bezel.
