Tag Archives: Windows

Q. What will adding more RAM to my computer do?

The key to computer performance is having enough RAM memory. RAM doesn’t speed a machine up, however. Rather, adding RAM removes a barrier to speed.  It’s like your car – taking your foot off the brake doesn’t speed it up, … Continue reading

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Q. Every time I go to a website from Google, it sends me to some different website with advertising

You have a Google Redirect Virus.  It is a type of virus called a Rootkit, and can be missed by antivirus programs. Restart your machine in Safe Mode with networking (hit F8 at start time) Disable SpyBot TeaTimer if you … Continue reading

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Q. I have an antivirus message popping up on my machine and it is not letting me use programs or download antivirus tools.

Antivirus 2012, Win 7 Antivirus 2011, Win 7 Total Security 2011, XP Security 2011, BitDefender 2011 Antivirus (some of these viruses use the same names as legitimate programs) and many other variants of these names are fake antivirus scanners that … Continue reading

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Q. I have some RAR files that were sent to me, What do I do with them?

RAR is a compression format, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAR, and the files you have are compressed archives of one or more original files.  First, you have to decompress the RAR archives. Here are some utilities that can do that 7-Zip (Free, Windows) http://download.cnet.com/7-Zip/3000-2250_4-10045185.html?tag=mncol;1 … Continue reading

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Q. I downloaded Audacity to edit MP3s, now how do I use it?

Audacity is a great open source audio editor program, available for Windows and Macintosh http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Here are some learning resources for it Audacity Tutorials http://audacity.sourceforge.net/manual-1.2/tutorials.html Wiki http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Category:Tutorial Tutorial Videos on YouTube Removing vocals with Audacity http://wiki.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Vocal_Removal Mixing two songs together … Continue reading

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Q. What is the fastest disk setup for Photoshop

Photoshop (as well as other high-end graphic and video production software) is a heavy user of hard drive access.  The speed of the hard drive in a machine and the way that hard drive use is organized can have a … Continue reading

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Q. I’ve just done a restore on my machine, and the (DVD, printer, video) doesn’t work

Go to your manufacturer’s website, support, drivers and downloads section, and download all the latest drivers for your specific model and install them. Run all the Windows (or other OS) updates. When you do a restore, you are resetting the … Continue reading

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Q. Will this new video card work in my machine?

The questions you always have to ask when installing a new video card in a desktop or tower machine are: Is there an available PCI-e x16 slot with space beside it for the video card’s fans? Is there physical room … Continue reading

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Q. How can I tell if my hard drive is failing?

If you suspect that your disk is having trouble, make sure you back up your data files to another drive or to DVD-R as soon as possible. One symptom of a failing drive is long pauses to do anything. Another … Continue reading

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Q. Will my Intel d945gcl motherboard work with a Seagate 1 TB SATA hard drive?

Yes, as long as a motherboard has a SATA connector it will support any SATA drive up to 2 TB. Here are the support documents on this motherboard www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/highlights/dsktpboards/d945gcl Your board has ” Four SerialATA (SATA) channels (3.0Gb/s),via the ICH7, … Continue reading

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Q. Can I put a 3 TB SATA hard drive in my computer?

Motherboards with a standard BIOS will not support single SATA drives larger than 2 TB, support for 3 TB hard drives requires the new motherboards with UEFI firmware www.bit-tech.net/hardware/storage/2010/06/01/are-we-ready-for-3tb-hard-disks/4 If you have an earlier motherboard, an option is to install … Continue reading

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Q. I have a drive I have been using on a Mac, I plugged it into a Windows machine and it can’t read it, there’s no data.

The hard drive is formatted as a Mac HFS+ volume.  Windows can’t read it without some third party software MacDrive www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive Paragon HFS+ for Windows www.paragon-software.com/home/hfs-windows/ HSF Explorer (open source, read only) www.catacombae.org/hfsx.html Although both Windows and Mac can read … Continue reading

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Q. I need to get my Outlook Express email files to import into Outlook on another machine

You have to dig for the Outlook Express files. They are inside C:\Documents and Settings\<your user folder>\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\<big long string of numbers>\Microsoft\Outlook Express The Local Settings folder is normally hidden, you have to go to Show Hidden Files and … Continue reading

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Q. I got a “Windows Recovery” virus – I removed it but now all my data folders are empty.

It sounds like you may not have completely removed the virus,  it doesn’t delete the files, but it hides your data folders and shows you fake empty folders. Follow these instructions to remove and repair Windows Recovery, SmartHDD, HDD Recovery, … Continue reading

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Q. Photoshop keeps coming up with message “scratch Disk Full on C:”

First of all, how much free space do you actually have on the C drive? Photoshop requires a considerable amount of free drive space on the hard disk that is designated as the Scratch drive, to write temporary files. Back … Continue reading

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