Category Archives: How-To

Q. What does it mean when a video card is bottlenecked by a CPU?

Short answer – it doesn’t mean anything.  Read on for the longer answer: What is bottlenecking? The concept of bottlenecking is that a program will only run as fast as the slowest component that it uses in the computer. When … Continue reading

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Q. Can I replace the drive in my 2012 or earlier MacBook / MacBook Pro?

The MacBook and MacBook Pro Mid 2012 and earlier models (excluding all MacBook Airs and the Late 2012 and later Retina MacBook Pro) have hard drives that can be replaced with a larger, faster 2.5″ SATA hard drive or upgraded … Continue reading

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Q. My USB memory stick won’t let me save a 4.2 GB file?

You are finding that individual files larger than 3.99 GB are failing when you copy them to a USB memory stick (or a camera memory card, or an external hard drive). The simple answer is that the memory stick is … Continue reading

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Q. I have a file on my Mac that won’t open the correct program

What type of file is it? Most files have a file name with a three or four letter extension which tells the machine what program it belongs to. For example, a .XLSX file is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file. This … Continue reading

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Q. Can I upgrade the processor or the graphics card in my laptop?

The short answer is No. The longer answer is that many laptops have the CPU soldered into the motherboard. Even where the CPU is socketed, the motherboard chipset and BIOS would have to specifically support the new CPU, and laptop … Continue reading

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Q. Where can I get free music?

Copyright and you: To start with, all music is covered by national and international copyright law which covers the music composition, the lyrics, and the recorded performance. Copyright covers the creator’s Right to control how their work is Copied, and … Continue reading

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Q. How do I install RAM in a PC Notebook?

The RAM memory in most notebook computers is user-upgradeable. Almost all notebook machines use SODIMMs (Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Modules). Part of the trick is to discover where the memory modules are located in a notebook machine. The best … Continue reading

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Q. What memory fits my Apple Xserve server?

Model/ Identifier CPU/ Speed/ Screen/ Date/ Designation RAM Type & Speed Maximum RAM Hard Drive/ SSD XServe G4RackMac1,1 G4 1.0 GHz (4 RAM sockets Mid 2002, M8627LL/A ) DDR-266 DIMM 2 GB (4x512MB) 3.5″ PATA hard drive XServe G4/DPRackMac1,1 G4 1.0 … Continue reading

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Q. How do I set up a website? Is it free?

To create a website, you will need to know a few basics about how Web (HTML) pages work, or use a website service or blogging service that gives you templates and allows you to create a web site just by … Continue reading

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Q. How do I clone my Windows 7 drive to a new hard drive?

For this solution, we are assuming that you have a bootable Windows 7 installation on your working C: drive, and that you want to put a newer/faster/larger drive in as a new C: drive with the same Windows and programs.  … Continue reading

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Q. How do I install RAM in a Mac?

Memory in most Macintoshes is user-upgradeable. The bottom of this post has links to the Apple instructions for specific models.  Here are general instructions for installation on modern Macs. In machines with SODIMMs, there are two main ways to insert … Continue reading

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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

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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

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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

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Q. What memory and hard drives fit my iBook G3/G4?

There are several models of iBook, the G3 models use PC66 or PC100 memory and the G4 models use DDR memory. Below is a list of all models. iBooks take 2.5″ IDE hard drives up to 120 GB in capacity. … Continue reading

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