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Category Archives: General Computer
Q. How to set up a new external hard drive on a Mac?
A. When you plug in a new external hard drive to a Mac, it will either be formatted for Windows (in which case you may have trouble writing to it from the Mac) or it will be unformatted. An internal … Continue reading
Posted in General Computer, Hard Drives and SSD, How-To, Mac questions
Tagged Apple, Disk Utility, Erase, External drive, Format, GUID, Initialize, Internal Drive, Macintosh, Partition, Repair
1 Comment
Q. What does it mean to clean a cache?
Your web browser caches (keeps local copies on your hard drive of) many of the pages and graphics it downloads as you are browsing the Web. This makes it faster to reload the same page when you return to it … Continue reading
Q. How can I add “DRAFT” or “COPY” to printouts of my Word document?
You want to print a message on all printed copies of a document, such as “Draft” or “Confidential” or “Copy”, and you are using Microsoft Word. What you are looking for is a “Watermark”, which is done by modifying the … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, How-To
Tagged Confidential, Copy, Draft, Microsoft Word, Print, Printing, Watermark, Word Processing
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Q. What is a Retina Display?
“Retina” is Apple’s marketing name for a high resolution LCD display for smartphones (iPhone), tablets (iPad), media players (iPod Touch) and future products such as computer monitors and iMacs. What does “Retina” mean? The term Retina refers to the assumption … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac questions, News, Smartphone News
Tagged Apple, Computer, Display, iMac, IOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, LCD, Liquid Crystal, Macintosh, Monitor, Panel, pixel, Realistic display, resolution, Resolvability, Retina display, Screen, Smartphone, tablet, Touch screen, Video, Vision
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Q. What are the most useful keyboard shortcuts?
Most computer programs have keyboard shortcuts – these are key combinations that substitute for commonly used commands – this avoids having to grab the mouse and taking the cursor up to the menus at the top of the screen. Learning … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, How-To, Mac questions, Software, Windows questions
Tagged Commands, Keyboard, Mac, OSX, Shortcut, Time saving, Windows
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Q. How do I make my notebook battery last longer?
First of all, how old is your battery? Batteries last from one to three years on average, and it would be expected that the capacity is down by 40 – 50% after three years. So if you have an old … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Mac questions, Performance, Windows questions
Tagged Battery, Laptop, Notebook, Performance, Runtime
1 Comment
Q. What is happening with OEM hard drive warranties?
Hard drive warranty coverage has been reduced by the major manufacturers, and competition in drives is consolidating around just three companies. All Seagate bare (internal) consumer level drives have 1 year warranty in North America (down from three years). Some … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Hard Drive News, Hard Drives and SSD
Tagged Coverage, Drive, Hard Drive, Hitachi, OEM, Repair, Samsung, Seagate, Warranty, Western Digital
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Q. What is the difference between SATA and PATA?
Serial ATA (SATA) and Parallel ATA (PATA) are two different (and incompatible) connection standards for hard drives, optical drives and other storage media. PATA is also called IDE, EIDE, ATA-5, ATA-6 and UltraATA. It uses a 40 pin (desktop) or … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Hard Drives and SSD
Tagged Drives, Hard Drive Interface, IDE, Interface, Parallel ATA, PATA, Ribbon Cable, SATA, Serial ATA, UltraATA
1 Comment
Q. Someone called me from my internet provider and told me my machine needed to be fixed?
Hang up the phone immediately. This is a scam. (Never believe a phone caller. If your service provider really needed to contact you, you could hang up and call them back on their support phone number, which you can easily … Continue reading
Q. How do I get the data off my hard drive so I can reformat or replace it?
The easiest way is to buy an external hard drive. Yes, it will cost some money but you really need to have a backup drive for your data. Don’t ever trust your data to one media device only. Every hard … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Hard Drives and SSD, Mac questions, Windows questions
Tagged Back Up, Data, Hard Drive, Recover, Reformat, Upgrade
1 Comment
Q. Can I hook my computer up to my TV?
It depends what outputs you have on the computer, and what inputs you have on the TV. If you have a VGA output on the compter only, then you will have to have a VGA input on the TV. There … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, How-To
Tagged Cable, Component, HDMI, Mini-DisplayPort, Mini-DVI, Monitor, S-Video, Thunderbolt, TV, VGA, Video
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Q. My hard drive is running out of space – why?
The space used on your hard drive is data that you have put on it, plus the operating system, plus any programs you have installed and the data files they generate. Have you Emptied your Trash? When you throw files … Continue reading
Q. Why won’t a microphone work when I plug it into my Mac Mini?
This is because the Mac Mini’s input jack is a Line input not a Mic input (this is true of some other models as well). A microphone produces a signal that is many times weaker than a line level signal. … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Mac questions
Tagged Audio, Input, Jack, Macintosh, Microphone, Mini, Sound
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Q. Can I build a gaming computer under $2000? (Dec 2011 edition)
Updated December 2011 A few things have changed since our last article. Hard drives are way up in price, and SSD drives and RAM have come down in price. Let’s see how this affects our sub-$2000 gaming machine build. Once … Continue reading
Q. Can I build a gaming computer for $1000?
An exercise in budget computing is to build a computer that will give acceptable gaming performance for under $1000. The biggest bang for the buck component in a gaming computer is the video card, so sacrifices will have to me … Continue reading
Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, How-To
Tagged Build your own, Computer, Gaming, Performance, Windows
1 Comment