Q. I have a small drive, can iPhoto & iTunes go on an external?

Posted on July 21, 2012 by quill

While the programs themselves should remain in the Applications folder of your internal startup drive, the Libraries for iTunes and iPhoto can be placed on an external hard drive to save space on the internal drive.  Keep in mind that once you do this, you will only be able to view the library of items when the external drive is plugged in and turned on.

The technique is basically the same.  Make sure the external hard drive is formatted for Mac (Mac OS Extended in Disk Utility). Copy your library from the internal drive to the external – you will want the entire folder of User: Music: iTunes: iTunes Music  or User: Pictures: iPhoto Library

Then you redirect the program to use the external file as the default library. This can be done

  • by holding the Option key down while opening the program (certain versions only)
  • or by closing the program, renaming the Library folder name in the Finder on the internal drive.

Then re-open the program, which will then ask you to manually locate the Library folder which it now can’t find. Browse to the external drive folder you have set up.

In iTunes you can also set the location of the media in the Preferences: Advanced Settings: iTunes Media setting.

Finally you can get iTunes to move it for you

  • Use the iTunes Preferences: Advanced tab
  • Turn on the “Keep iTunes Media folder organized” checkbox.
  • Use the Change… button to choose a new location for the library.

To copy everything to the new location,

  • Use the Organize Library command under File: Library,
  • Check “Consolidate files”, then OK.
  • When it is finished, check it and delete the files from their original location

iTunes

http://www.apple.com/itunes/inside-itunes/2011/02/how-to-move-your-itunes-library-to-another-hard-drive.html

iTunes for Windows http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449

iPhoto

http://basics4mac.com/article.php/move_iphoto_lib

http://www.macworld.com/article/1141216/archive_iphoto_libraries.html

Or get the FatCat IPhoto Library Manager to manage multiple libraries http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/iplm/

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Q. Is a Quad Core processor better than a Dual Core?

Posted on July 20, 2012 by quill

While the answer might be obvious, it is not as straightforward as “more cores are better”.

First of all, we need to be on the same page when comparing CPU (Central Processing Unit) technologies. There are big differences in computing performance between different brands, different generations of processors, and between different model lines. So for the sake of this argument, we will compare the same brand processors within a single model line and generation.

The answer is – Maybe. Cores Vs. MHz depends on the software.

It depends on how efficiently the software that you are using can exploit multiple cores of processing power – that is, how well the program(s) can multi-thread.  If a program can use only one core at a time, there will be no or very little difference between that program’s performance on a dual core or 4 core or even 8 core processor. What small gains you will see would be from the operating system being able to take care of its business on the idle core(s).  In this scenario, a less expensive dual core processor like an Intel Core i3 running at 3.2 GHz may outperform the three-to four times more expensive Core i7 Quad core (8 with Hyperthreading) CPU running at 2.4 GHz.

Having multiple cores comes into play when you are using programs that can make good use of multithreading, or if you are multitasking many programs at once. So if you are writing a letter in a word processor, web browsing, calculating a big spreadsheet, and searching through emails all at once, theoretically your OS can hand each program its own core, so you can keep them all running at top speed.  (the perfornamce gains are not linear, however, because all the cores have to share the same memory, hard drive and interfaces).

More advanced programs, such as graphic and video production software, have been programmed with the ability to split their tasks up into smaller chunks, and hand each chunk to a different core for processing. Again, the performance gain is not 4x the original single core speed, because there is overhead to breaking it into chunks and recombining the results, and not all tasks can be distriubuted evenly but it can be substantially faster.

So if you mostly use one program at a time, then a higher clock-speed dual core processor will be best for you.  If you multitask several programs then look at a 4 core, and if you use heavy computation programs that can exploit multiple cores or if you are a professional creator, look for 4, 8, or more cores.

Articles:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2406293,00.asp

Programs that can use 4 or more cores fully (incomplete list, of course)

  • Many programs that do video rendering or file format conversion
  • Many engineering and scientific programs

3D Studio MAX using Mental Ray Renderer (>99 % of 4 cores)
Adobe Creative Suite programs – Since version CS4 some of the Adobe programs also benefit from video card acceleration
(Article http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adobe-cs5-cuda-64-bit,2770.html )
Adobe Premiere Elements v3.0.2 (52-85 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
AutoGK v2.40 (30-53 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
Cakewalk Sonar
Cineform: Aspect HD
Cinema 4d Rendering (>99 % of 4 cores)
Dr. DivX v2.0.0 (47-65 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
DVDShrink v3.2 (~90 % of 4 cores)
Lightwave 3D (>99 % of 4 cores)
MainConcept/Elecard: H.264 Decoder
MainConcept/Elecard: H.264 Encoder
Nero Suite 7.x (>90 % of 4 cores when encoding)
Noise Ninja v2.13 (~80 % of 4 cores when doing the noise reduction on an image)
Pinnacle Studio
Sony Vegas 7.0e (83-100 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
TMPG XPress v4.2.3.193 (65-100 % of 4 cores depending on source type, filters, etc.)
Winrar v3.70 (~85-90 % of 4 cores on benchmark; ~75% in practice)
x264 v0.55.663 (>99 % of 4 cores when doing the 2nd pass of a 2 pass encode)
Yamaha/Steinberg Cubase, Nuendo

Games:  Games are progressively getting recoded to use more than 2 cores effectively. Here is a partial list of games that have been reported to use 4 cores.

  • Activision: Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3
  • Atari/Warner: Witcher 2
  • Capcom: Lost Planet: Extreme Condition
  • Codemasters: Race Driver 3
  • EA: Battlefield Bad Company 2, Crysis 2, Dragon Age II
  • Eidos: Deus Ex
  • Koch Media / Sunflowers: Anno 1701
  • NCSoft/NetDevil: Auto Assault
  • Primal Software: Heavy Duty
  • Rockstar: Grand Theft Auto IV
  • Sega: Empire Total War
  • THQ/Gas Powered Games: Supreme Commander
  • Ubisoft: Farcry 2
  • Valve Software: Half Life 2; Episodes, Team Fortress 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

  • Duke Nukem – 3 core
  • Bulletstrorm – 3 core
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Q. What do I need to burn DVDs and CDs?

Posted on July 20, 2012 by quill

DVD-Rs are a good format for backing up data files and for distributing data and software. Because files on a DVD-R cannot be changed once burned (and therefore cannot be deleted or affected by viruses or hard drive breakdown) I recommend that people periodically burn a DVD-R of their data files as a “snapshot” in time — of their business, accounting or personal data.  I also recommend DVD-Rs as a secondary backup media (after the all-important online backup to an external hard drive) for data, especially photo and music libraries that have historical files which do not change often.

To burn DVD-Rs or CD-Rs, first you need an optical drive that is capable of burning data onto blank disks. You can tell by looking at the faceplate of the drive, or looking in your system properties; the acronyms for drives that can burn are “DVD-RW” “DVD-R” or “CD-RW”  The RW stands for ReWriteable, the R alone stands for Recordable.

If the drive is only capable of reading, it will be labeled “DVD-ROM” or “CD-ROM”  The ROM stands for Read Only Memory.  Occasionally you will see a label like “DVD-ROM/CD-RW” which means it will read DVDs only, but is capable of reading and writing CDs, this is sometimes called a “combo” drive.

Blu-Ray is another case, you can have a drive that is a “BD-ROM” for reading Blu-Ray disks only. A “BD-R” or  “BD-RW” drive can write Blu-Ray. A Blu-Ray BD-R or BD-RW drive will also be able to read and write DVD-R and CD-R formats.

Second, you need blank disks of the correct type for your drive.  There are a variety of disks available:
DVD-R DL: DVD recordable Dual Layer, a high capacity 7.9 GB DVD disk that is write-once
DVD-RW: DVD ReWritable, an eraseable disk format that otherwise can be used as a standard DVD. DVD-RW disks occasionally have problems being read by DVD video players. 4.3 GB capacity

ReWriteable disks had a market when the blank disks cost several dollars each, which made it worth the time to erase a disk to reuse it. Now that the disks are pennies each, few people bother to erase and rewrite.

DVD+R: DVD “plus” recordable write-once media (cannot be erased) 4.3 GB capacity
DVD-R: DVD “minus” recordable write-once media (cannot be erased) 4.3 GB capacity

Somewhat bizzarely,  the early DVD Recordable drive market fractured into two opposing camps that used slightly different recording methods and media, which came to be known as DVD+R (or DVD Plus R) versus  DVD-R (or DVD Minus R).  Drives from the manufacturers would only work with their particular flavor of blank disk.  Fortunately, reasonableness won out, and all manufacturers produce drives that are compatible with both the -R and  +R formats, so the distinction between the two is academic for all but those who have early machines.

CD-RW: A CD ReWriteable format that can be erased and written over CD-RW disks occasionally have problems being read by CD audio players 700 – 800 MB capacity
CD-R: CD Recordable write once format 700 – 800 MB capacity

Other formats that most people don’t need to worry about: HD-DVD, Double Sided DVD, DVD-RAM, MiniDVD

Most modern machines come with the ability to burn data CDs and DVDs, and the software is included with the operating system. In most cases burning a data disk is as simple as plugging the blank disk into the machine and following the operating system’s prompts.

Windows: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/burn-a-cd-or-dvd
Windows Media Center: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/burn-a-cd-or-dvd-in-windows-media-center
Windows iTunes http://support.apple.com/kb/PH1659
Windows DVD Maker: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-vista/burn-a-dvd-video-disc

Mac OSX 10.7 http://support.apple.com/kb/PH3971
Mac iTunes: http://support.apple.com/kb/PH1746
Mac iDVD: http://www.apple.com/support/idvd/

If you don’t have DVD burning software, or need additional features, there is a wide variety of commercial and free software. One special case, Macintosh OS does not support Blu-Ray format, so to burn Blu-Ray disks, you have to have third party Blu-Ray support. The standard is Roxio Toast Titanium with its Blu-Ray plug in. http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/toast/titanium/overview.html

Free Windows burning software http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=burn%20dvd&rpp=10&searchtype=downloads&filter=licenseName%3D%22Free%22%7Cplatform%3DWindows&filterName=licenseName%3DFree%7Cplatform%3DWindows

Mac burning software http://download.cnet.com/1770-7970_4-0.html?query=burn%20dvd&rpp=10&searchtype=downloads&filter=platform%3DMac&filterName=platforms%3DMac

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Mac questions, Software, Windows questions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. Are there free alternatives to Photoshop?

Posted on July 19, 2012 by quill

Photoshop is the top professional image editing / photo retouching program, but it is expensive.  There are some cheap and free alternatives available:

Adobe Photoshop Express (online image editing, requires sign up at Adobe’s site) http://www.photoshop.com/tools/overview

The GIMP is open source software http://www.gimp.org/

GIMP Installer for Windows http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/
GIMP Installer for Macintosh http://gimp.lisanet.de/Website/News/News.html

Seashore for Mac OSX http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/About.html

Photoscape for Windows http://download.cnet.com/PhotoScape/3000-2192_4-10703122.html?tag=mncol;1

Google Picasa http://picasa.google.com/
Picasa Mac

List of free image editors at C|Net download.com
Windows Digital Photo Software
Windows 7 Image Editors
Mac OSX

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, General Computer, Mac questions, Software, Windows questions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Add an SSD drive to a MacPro for fast booting and loading times

Posted on July 12, 2012 by quill

The MacPro Xeon tower machines are incredibly fast workstations. You can make yours even faster by adding a Solid State Drive (SSD) as a boot drive and/or as a scratch file drive.  An SSD equipped machine boots very quickly and loads applications faster than a hard drive.  A SSD used as a swap or scratch disk for Photoshop, Final Cut, and other media production software can improve the speed of the program when you are doing intense work.

One issue is that the MacPro drive bays are not compatible with the 2.5″ format of SSD drives, and conventional 2.5″ to 3.5″ mounting brackets do not work.

The solution is the IcyDock MB882SP-1S-2B , a caddy for the SSD drive which has SATA connections in exactly the right place to mate with the MacPro backplane.  Install the SSD into the IcyDock, and then slide the IcyDock into the Mac just like a full sized drive.

CanadaRAM.com stocks the IcyDock and a wide range of SSD drives.

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Hard Drives and SSD, How-To, Mac questions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Western Digital sees Red, releases new line of NAS storage hard drives

Posted on July 12, 2012 by quill

Western Digital has made an addition to their drive line up, adding a Red series of 3.5″ SATA hard drives to complement their Blue (standard), Green (low power consumption) and Black (high performance) series. At the same time, they are dropping the Caviar moniker from their desktop drives.

The Red series of drives is targetted directly at NAS (Network Attached Storage) devices, which are gaining in popularity as shared storage units and networked backup for both small offices and home networks.  Western Digital see the NAS segment as a growing market, while the growth in desktop computer and notebook computer drive sales is flattening.

The Red drive combines the lower spindle speed of the Green drive (called “Intellipower”, variable from 5400 RPM to 7200 RPM) with the RAID optimized firmware of their RE4 Raid Edition drives.  It is the firmware which differentiates the Red from the Green drives;Western Digital Greens have been shunned by manufacturers of NAS devices and builders of internal RAID (arrays of hard drive) systems, because the Green drives have been inconsistent performers in RAIDs.  The Red drives change the firmware to provide consistent performance in a RAID environment and lower vibration – trading off raw performance for 24/7 reliability. The Intellipower system runs the drive motor at slower speeds when under low demand, with the aim of saving power and generating less heat – which are both concerns when you are running an array of three to five drives in a single enclosure.

They have backed the Red drive line with a 3 year warranty (compared to 2 years on the Green and Blue lines) and a dedicated 24/7 customer support line (1-855-55-WDRED).

Interesting that Western Digital sees this opportunity in the lower spindle speed market at the same time that Seagate has discontinued their ‘green’ Barracuda LP 5900 RPM line, stating that the hoped for power savings were not significant enough to be worth continuing the line.

Western Digital is releasing 1 TB (WD10EFRX), 2 TB (WD20EFRX) and 3 TB (WD30EFRX) versions of the Red drive. All of the drives will come with 64 Mb on board cache, and SATA 6.0 Gb/s interfaces.  (Keep in mind that many motherboards and drive enclosures earlier than 2011 will not support 3TB drive directly connected to the SATA ports. Motherboards with UEFI BIOSes are fine with 3 and 4 TB drives.)

Here’s a quote from StorageReview.com

“Every home user who values their digital assets should have an aggressive redundancy and backup solution in place. A 2-bay NAS is a great starting point but larger 4 and 5-bay systems are gaining ground as well due to the expanding girth of our digital collections. When it comes to what drives to put inside a small NAS, the WD Red is a purpose-built drive that solves the NAS storage problem like no other drive does, instantly setting the standard for small NAS storage. “

CanadaRAM will be listing the Red drives as soon as they start shipping in Canada.

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Hard Drive News, Hard Drives and SSD, News | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

New Java based Trojan attacks Mac, Windows and Linux

Posted on July 11, 2012 by quill

Updated August 27 2012

Computerworld has published an article about new Java based malware which can infect Mac, Windows and Linux machines through a vulnerability in Oracle’s Java 7.

OSX 10.7 and OSX 10.8 come with Java disabled by default, so you are safe unless you have installed it.
Mac OSX 10.6 and earlier have Java enabled in the default configuration so you are at risk if you have it still enabled and have Java Runtime Environment 1.7

The first line of defense is to DISABLE JAVA.
Either Globally:

Go to Applications > Utilities > Java Preferences and turn it off,

or

“Go to Folder” from the Finder’s “Go” menu, enter
“/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/”
and drag the file “1.7.0.jdk” into the Trash.

or, within each of your web browsers:

Safari: click Preferences, then Security tab  uncheck “Enable Java”.
Also uncheck the “Open ‘safe’ files after downloading” box in Safari Preferences > General tab.
Google Chrome: open Preferences, type “Java” in the search text box. Scroll down until you reach Plug-ins, click “Disable individual plug-ins.” If Java is installed, you’ll see a “disable” link for it.
Firefox: While in Firefox, from the top menu, choose Tools, Add-ons, disable the Java plugin(s)
www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_disable_java_your_mac_web_browser

The exploit is apparently usable by malware as a “drive-by download” which could be launched by a poisoned website.  On a Mac it will pop up a message asking permission to download Java software from Oracle.  Make it a policy to never let an installer or website download and install Java.

July 2012

Another Trojan horse program has been discovered that uses the Java language to insert spyware on multiple operating systems including Macintosh OSX.  F-Secure Blog Post
The trojan horse is contained in a Java Applet which attempts to install when you visit a compromised website. The first website was identified as a Colombian Transport site. It attempts to install a back-door program on the machine which would allow the malware writers to view and copy the contents of the machine or control it remotely.

There are two lines of defense:

First, never download or install any program that you do not know 100% for sure is reliable. Do not proceed with an install that says the source is untrusted or the security certificate is invalid.  Trojans like these rely on ‘social engineering’ to trick you into installing them and bypassing your machine’s security.

Second, consider disabling Java in your browsers, because it is a vector for viruses – it allows programs to run in your browser which can modify your drive and system. Not many people require Java for day to day use, if you have a web application that requires Java and you have turned it off, the web page will inform you that Java is required.

  • In Internet Explorer, go to Tools: Internet Options: Advanced and uncheck the Sun Java add-in
  • In Firefox, go to the Firefox or Tools menu, choose Add-ons: Add-Ons Manager; PlugIns, select the Java Platform item and click Disable
  • In Chrome  you can either block plug-ins, which allows you to permit them to run selectively, or you can disable plug ins, which stops them permanently. To disable Java, go to the Plug-ins page by typing in your Location bar chrome://plugins/. Find the Java plug-in and click Disable.

Note: Java and JavaScript are two different things, and not related in any way. JavaScript is required for many web page features to work.  For both Windows and Mac you can control which JavaScripts run on a specific web page by using Firefox as your browser and installing the NoScript extension

Mac OSX:
This trojan requires legacy PowerPC software components, so OSX 10.7 Lion and the upcoming Mountain Lion are safe, as there is no support for Rosetta, which runs the legacy PowerPC code.  OSX 10.6.x made the Rosetta install optional, so it is not at risk unless Rosetta had been installed to run older programs. Do not authorize Rosetta to install if you are prompted for it and are not installing a known program.

For OSX 10.5.x  and earlier, Rosetta is on by default and the trojan masquerades as a program that must be downloaded to the Mac. The user has to issue permission for it to install, and the OSX installer warns that it is from an untrusted source.

If you followed the instructions from the Java trojan warning in April, you will have turned off Java in your browsers already.  If you have not, do so now.  Most individuals do not need the ability to execute Java programs, and turning Java off removes this vector for malware.

Make sure that your Apple Software Updates are current, and if you must run Java, Sun had announced that you will be able to get the Macintosh Java software updates directly as well.

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Mac questions, Security, Viruses and malware, Windows questions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Q. On July 9th, my machine stopped finding websites. What’s wrong?

Posted on July 7, 2012 by quill

There was a nasty piece of malware a couple of years ago called DNSChanger, which redirected your web browser to advertising sites instead of where you wanted to go. It did this by changing the DNS Server defaults of your Windows machine to remap the domain lookups to their own sites.  The rogue DNS servers were identified by the authorities and shut down.  Because over half a million machines were infected, the internet authorities ensured that real DNS servers were put into place at the addresses of the rogue servers, so that infected machines would still work normally.

But now, on July 9 2012, these temporary servers will be shut off.  Everyone who had been infected and still had the rogue DNS numbers in their Network settings will now get errors when browsing the Web or sending and receiving EMail.

Here is a check to see if your machine is infected.  Green bars mean you are OK. Red bars mean that your machine still has the wrong DNS settings. Note, some problems have been reported with some brower versions, if the Canadian or US sites don’t load, visit the European one:

Canada www.dns-ok.ca
USA www.dns-ok.us
Europe http://dns-changer.eu

If you are infected or have the wrong IP addresses, check here for removal tools

http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/em/ccirc/2011/in11-002-eng.aspx

http://www.dcwg.org/fix/

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, Internet and Networking, Viruses and malware, Windows questions | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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

Posted on July 7, 2012 by quill

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 you upgrade a component, the program will speed up only as far as the next-slowest component.

A CPU (processor chip) bottlenecking a GPU (video card) would mean that the GPU is so powerful that the game play frame rate is being held back by a CPU that can’t keep up – and a more powerful CPU would result in an increase of frame rate up to the GPU’s capability.

In practice this almost never happens, except in scenarios where a $50 CPU is paired with a $400 GPU.

Assumptions:
We will assume that the machine has enough RAM, hard drive space and that the CPU and GPU are roughly the same age. If the machine has under 4 GB of RAM, or a hard drive that is almost full or having speed issues, then these problems must be addressed first before we can discuss GPU and CPU performance.

The reason:
Programs do not use all components of the machine equally. For most games, performance is heavily dependent on the GPU. The CPU plays a role, but as long as the CPU is at least adequate, the video card GPU performance determines up to 90% of the frame rate capability of the machine.

This means that for most games, any four core or higher AMD FX- or any four core Intel i5 or four core/8 hyperthread i7 CPU is going to keep up — even with a high end card like the Radeon HD7970. Even a dual core i3 at a good clock rate will perform well on games that don’t multithread heavily. There will be a tiny difference in performance, but in the test here

http://www.guru3d.com/article/radeon-hd-7970-cpu-scaling-performance-review/

all of the CPUs tested drove the top-end HD7970 card with playable frame rates even at the highest resolutions. There was a difference between CPUs in some tests, but really – are you going to quibble with the difference between 110 and 120 fps? Not if it costs $600 more to get a CPU that will give 5 – 10% increase in the already-fast framerates. It’s only when you get into dual high-end video cards (in Crossfire or SLI mode) that you would need to consider a higher end i7 CPU.

In this test, the Unreal Engine 3 at maximum settings was tested against a range of processors with the same Radeon HD 7970 video card.
http://www.techspot.com/review/507-mass-effect-3-performance-test/page5.html
The dual-core AMD Phenom II 3.3GHz got 88 fps, the six core Phenom at the same clock rate got 94 fps (illustrating that the engine is not using multiple cores effectively) while the top end i7-3960K at the same GHz got 127 fps.   That is a $100 CPU up against a $1,000 CPU for an increase of 39 fps. In other words it took a 1,000% increase in price for a 44% increase in frame rate.  For a $900 savings I’d be happy at only 88 fps, thanks. And the difference between the two would be less on a video card that cost less.

Have a look at the $120 AMD FX-4170 4 GHz at 98 FPS 833% jump in price for 29% improvement.  CPU price does not scale well against game framerate performance increase.

What to get:
My processor of choice for all around power, 3D gaming and value for money is the third generation quad core Ivybridge i5-3xxx series, teamed with a Radeon HD7870 / HD7950 (or higher) or NVidia GTX580 / GTX670 (or higher) GPU, in around the $400 – $450 price point for the GPU.

The exception to this scenario is if you do a lot of media production (video, audio, graphics) or scientific or engineering applications as well as gaming, where the programs can aggressively use all 4 cores (8 virtual cores) of the i7, then get an Ivybridge i7. Most game programs do not effectively use all cores of the CPU, and most do not offload enough physics computation to the CPU to make a difference. If you have one of the rare games that does use an exceptionally high amount of CPU computation, then research the exceptions and buy accordingly.

Benchmarks:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-cpu-review-overclock,3106-5.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html

What programs can use 4 cores effectively: https://computer-answers.ca/2012/computer-questions/q-is-a-quad-core-processor-better-than-a-dual-core/

How can I upgrade the video card in my machine? https://computer-answers.ca/2012/computer-questions/windows-questions/q-can-i-upgrade-the-video-card-in-my-machine/

Making a computer run faster https://computer-answers.ca/2011/computer-questions/windows-questions/q-how-can-i-make-my-machine-run-faster/

Posted in Computer Questions and Answers, How-To, Performance, Windows questions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Q. My documents are gone on my Mac and the Dock is back to default?

Posted on July 4, 2012 by quill

Just about every time that we have customers call saying that their documents, settings and Desktop on a Mac have disappeared and gone back to the Apple default, there is one cause: The user has renamed their User folder in the Finder.

One rule with computers is: Do not move, rename or delete any of the folders that the operating system creates.  If you do, unexpected things will happen, or the operating system will stop working.

In this case what happens is if you rename your User Home folder from, say, Frederick to Fred, the next time you restart and log in as Frederick, the OS will say “Hey, there’s no Home folder named Frederick, I better create one.” and you end up with a new User folder with nothing in it.  It looks like all your files have gone — but they haven’t. All your documents, emails, photos, music, Desktop pictures, Dock settings etc. are still in the folder which is now named Fred.

To get your documents back, make note of exactly how the new blank Frederick folder is named, rename the new Frederick folder to Oops  and then rename the Fred folder to the exact name of the Frederick folder that was created.  Reboot the machine.  In 99% of cases this will put you back to where you want to be.

In a few cases, other folders have been moved or renamed, and you have to do more extensive repairs http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/renamehomerecovery.html

Sometimes, User folders and Library folders can be hidden:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1526
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20082044-263/os-x-lion-where-did-my-library-go/
http://osxdaily.com/2011/08/17/mac-os-x-10-7-1-hides-user-library-folder-again/ 

If you really, really want to rename the username of an existing user on a Mac, follow these instructions to the letter.  Do not proceed if you don’t understand the instruction. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1428?viewlocale=en_US

If you don’t know where the User folder is (if it has gotten moved) then do a Find (Command – F) or a Spotlight search for a filename that you know is in the Documents.

In the case where a user account has been deleted and doesn’t show up in the System Preferences: Users, you can re-link an account with the User folder
For 10.6 and earlier http://www.burramundi.com/2049

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Q. Can I use USB2.0 peripherals on a USB3.0 port?

Posted on June 30, 2012 by quill

Yes, USB 3.0 has been designed to be backwards compatible with, and the USB 3.0 A type connectors (computer) and B type connectors (peripheral) are plug compatible with USB2.0 A type and B type cable ends.

The USB 2.0 A type female connector will also accept a USB 3.0 A type male cable end.

All that will happen if you plug a USB 2.0 device into a USB 3.0 port is that the connection will run at normal USB 2.0 speeds.

USB Cable connections

 

 

 

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-things-you-should-know-about-usb-20-and-30/1265

http://www.usr.com/education/peripherals0.asp

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Q. How do I upgrade the hard drive in a Windows laptop?

Posted on June 30, 2012 by quill

Most modern notebook machines have hard drives that can be replaced with a larger, faster 2.5″ SATA hard drive or upgraded to a 2.5″ SATA Solid State (SSD) flash drive.

Older notebooks may have 2.5″ IDE (Parallel ATA) hard drives, they can still be updated but supply of new IDE drives is drying up. Netbooks, Tablets and Ultra portable machines may have mSATA or 1.8″ SATA ZIF or PATA ZIF drives, call a dealer for compatibility information.

I recommend that along with your new hard drive or SSD drive, you purchase a USB – SATA 2.5″ drive enclosure for about $20. This makes transferring your data from the original drive very easy.  Before removing the old drive, install the new hard drive into the external case and attach it by USB. Then clone the internal drive to the external, which will copy the operating system, programs, data and everything.

Instructions for cloning the drive https://computer-answers.ca/2012/computer-questions/windows-questions/q-how-do-i-clone-my-windows-7-drive-to-a-new-hard-drive/

Then physically swap the two drives, installing the new drive in the notebook, and putting the old drive into the USB case, for use as a backup or data transport drive.

In most machines, the hard drive is accessible behind a trap door on the bottom of the machine, held in place by one to four small Philips #00 screws.  Slim notebooks and aluminum bodied machines may need to be disassembled more thoroughly, please refer to your owner’s manual. If you are not confident, take the machine to a competent tech.

On the original drive you may find that the plug-in pins on the hard drive do not match the standard SATA power and data connectors.  If this is the case, more than likely there is a proprietary adapter attached to the SATA connectors to make the drive fit the machine’s data and power sockets.  This adapter and any other caddy or mounting hardware that comes out with the old drive, will have to be transferred to the new one. Gently pry the adapter straight back from the hard drive to release it from the SATA connectors.

You may need a Torx screwdriver or a hex key for the drive mounting hardware, depending on the model of machine.

 

 

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Q. What is my router’s address?

Posted on June 29, 2012 by quill

There are two addresses associated with a router, there is the external WAN (Wide Area Network) address that it  gets from the broadband modem, which is what webservers and the outside Net sees.

To find your WAN IP address, you can type “What’s My IP” in a Google search in your Web browser, and Google will display it at the top of the search results. Or for more detailed information http://www.whatsmyip.org/

Then, there is the internal network number that it has on the network created for your household or office.  The internal network uses reserved IP address blocks, and the router (also called a Gateway) is usually the .1 machine of that block.  So for example, the router may be 192.168.0.1 – therefore all of the devices on that internal network would need to be in the range of 192.168.0.2 through 192.168.0.255  Note that the first three numbers are the same, this defines these addresses as being in the same sub-net.

The default IP address of the router is set at the factory, below is a list of common default IP addresses from http://www.techspot.com/guides/287-default-router-ip-addresses/

Keep in mind that the router’s IP address can be changed in the administrative settings. Another way to find your router’s internal IP is to check the network settings of a machine that is connected to it (in Control Panels, os System Preferences, or at the commandline C:>ipconfig  {return}). The Router or Default Gateway address is the IP of your router.

To adjust the settings of the router, you need to log onto the Administrative interface. This is done through a web browser by typing in the router’s internal IP address. It will challenge for a username and an Admin Password.  This is not your WPA wireless password. The factory defaults are usually some variation on admin or administrator for the user and blank for the password or vice versa. Check your router’s Owner’s Manual.

The Admin password however should be changed as soon as a router is installed, so yours may be different.  I tell my clients to write the new Admin password into the inside cover of the router’s manual.  If it is your router, and you don’t know what the Admin password was changed to, or for links to instructions for changing it, go here.

Common Default  router IP addresses:

3Com 192.168.1.1
Apple 10.0.1.1
Asus 192.168.1.1, 192.168.1.220
Belkin 192.168.2.1, 10.1.1.1
Buffalo 192.168.11.1
Dell 192.168.1.1
D-Link 192.168.0.1, 0.30, 0.50, 1.1, 10.1.1.1
Linksys 192.168.0.1, 1.1
Microsoft 192.168.2.1
Motorola 192.168.10.1, 20.1, 30.1, 62.1, 100.1, 102.1, 1.254
MSI 192.168.1.254
Netgear 192.168.0.1, 0.227
Retail Plus 192.168.1.254
Senao 192.168.0.1
SpeedTouch 10.0.0.138, 192.168.1.254
Trendnet 192.168.0.1, 1.1, 2.1, 10.1,
TP-Link 192.168.1.1
U.S. Robotics 192.168.1.1, 2.1, 123.254
Zyxel 192.168.1.1, 2.1, 4.1, 10.1, 1.254, 10.0.0.2, 0.138
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Q. Can I replace the drive in my 2012 or earlier MacBook / MacBook Pro?

Posted on June 27, 2012 by quill

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 to a 2.5″ SATA Solid State (SSD) flash drive.

The models vary a bit in how you access the drive.  In general you will need a Philips #00 screwdriver and a Torx #6 (for newer models) and/or Torx #8 screwdriver (for older models). The latest MacBook Pros may require a TriWing screwdriver as well. There are take-apart instructions for all Mac notebook models at ifixit.com.

I recommend that along with your new hard drive or SSD drive, you purchase a USB – SATA 2.5″ drive enclosure for about $20. This makes transferring your data from the original drive very easy.

Note: The instructions below will NOT transfer a BootCamp installation or any of the Windows data. For instructions on copying a BootCamp Windows installation to another drive, go here for instructions on using WinClone ($20).

  • First, download CarbonCopyCloner from http://www.bombich.com/  Consider dropping a donation to Mike while you are there, trust me the time this software will save you is worth a few bucks.
  • Install the old drive into the USB enclosure, install the new drive into the Mac, and attach the USB enclosure with the old drive to the machine.
  • Boot OSX with the old drive. If necessary, hold the Option key down at startup to select the startup drive.
  • Use Apple’s Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities folder) to format the new drive. Choose Partition, and decide at this point whether you want to make any separate partitions on the drive. (For most people, it is preferable to leave it as one partition.) Under the Options, choose GUID as the partition type, and choose Mac OS Extended as the formatting type (see this post for detailed instructions)
  • Fire up CarbonCopyCloner and have it make a bootable clone of your internal hard drive to the new drive.
  • Once the cloning is finished, restart the machine holding Option key down, and select the new drive as the Startup Disk.
  • You can now use the older one in the USB enclosure, as a backup or for transportable data.

The other thing you can do with a MacBook Pro that has an optical drive, is to replace the optical (DVD) drive with either a hard drive or a SSD drive.

In order to do this surgery, you need to have a optical drive bay bracket that is correct for the machine. There are two varieties, the PATA connect version is for early MacBook Pros, and the SATA connect version is for the Unibody MacBook Pro models and later.  The brackets run between $40 and $65, you will need to specify your Mac identifier when you order. (The Mac Identifier will look something like “MacBookPro5,2” – this can be found under the Apple Menu > About this Mac > More Information > Hardware)

MacBook Pro SATA optical 2.5″ drive bay with optional USB external optical drive enclosure.

The optical drive bay data connector in the MacBook and MacBook Pro may not be as fast as the connector for the main hard drive. What you can do if you are installing a SSD drive as a boot drive, is to install the SSD into the main hard drive spot, and relocate the hard drive into the optical bay.

You an also get an external USB enclosure for your DVD drive, so you can continue using it.

List of drives and RAM compatible with all models of Macs

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Q. I can only get one machine to work on the Internet through my DSL modem?

Posted on June 26, 2012 by quill

A broadband account, whether it is a DSL modem or a Cable modem, usually only gives you one IP address, so only one machine can go on the internet.

The answer is to get a router.  A router takes the single WAN IP address that the Internet service provider (cable or phone company) gives you, and creates an internal network for your house, with your own internal IP addresses. It then allows all of the computers and smartphones in your network to share the single connection provided by the internet provider.

Almost all modern routers have four ethernet network jacks built in (4 port switch) and virtually all of them have WiFi Wireless Internet for WiFi equipped laptops, tablets, smart TVs, media streaming boxes, printers and smart phones.

When you set up a router, you need to set up some security. You don’t want neighbors and passers-by to be able to hook up to your internal network. It is important that you choose WPA or WPA2 as the wireless security method, and enter a strong password – one with a combination of letters and numbers, at least 10 characters long, and not any easily guessable words (like your street address or name).  Write this password down, it will be needed by every device that connects wirelessly in your household.

Your choice of security setting depends on what your household devices are compatible with.  Older game consoles use WEP security, which is very weak and will lower the security of your whole network. Avoid using WEP if at all possible.

You also want to establish security on the router itself, by setting an administrative password, turning off remote administration, and disabling SSID broadcasting.  Refer to the owners manual of the router for instructions, and write these passwords and settings down for future reference.

Once you have the router installed, once it it powered off and on again it should automatically pick up the Internet settings from the broadband modem. In a few cases, the ISP may have to provision the account for the router, contact the ISP if you have any problems.

The router should be set to serve DHCP (automatic address settings) so each of your devices can be set to DHCP or “Get Settings Automatically”, so when your machine connects with the router, it will ask the router for the appropriate settings.  The router will assign an IP address to each device in turn, within the internal network range of IP addresses, it could look something like 192.168.0.2, 192.168.0.3 etc.

The base internal IP address of the router is set by default, and can vary by brand.  It should be noted on the bottom of the router or in the user manual.  For example, the router may have a base address of 192.168.0.1   If you are setting up the Network settings of a machine manually, then this is the number to use as the “Default Gateway” or router address.  The IP addresses of the devices in the network would then need to fall into the same range of 192.168.0.xxx with each device having a unique number in place of the xxx from 2 to 255.

A router provides a basic level of security by insulating your machine from the open internet with NAT (Network Address Translation) and through the administrative interface of the router you can block certain types of incoming traffic, but you still do need to have ant virus and firewall software active on each machine.

 

Setting an administrative password – instructions for the most popular brands of routers

Remember to set an administrative username and password immediately, so it can’t be hacked:
Netgear: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1024
Cisco/Linksys: http://www6.nohold.net/Cisco2/ukp.aspx?pid=80&login=1&app=search&vw=1&articleid=19584
D-Link: http://www.dlink.com/support/faq/default.aspx?question=password
Belkin: http://en-us-support.belkin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/30/~/setting-the-router%27s-administrator-password

Asus support http://support.asus.com/Download/options.aspx?SLanguage=en&type=8

Note: some DSL modems have to be provisioned for the device that is connected, so you may have to call your ISP to set the modem up for your router.

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