Tech Tips, Tricks and Tutorials
If you ever press the power button on your laptop and it fails to power up, there’s a good chance that you won’t need to replace it or pay for an expensive repair.
A “dead” laptop can be caused by several different issues, but one of the most common causes is a simple transient power issue.
If you ever find yourself facing a laptop that won’t turn on when you press the power button, try this before trying anything else: [Read more…]
Well, it’s August, and that means schools all around the country are starting back up for their fall classes.
In fact, several of the school systems in my area have already welcomed their students back into the classroom!
The start of a new school year always means shopping for items like notebooks, pencils and such, but nowadays many schools have added a notebook computer to their back-to-school shopping lists.
If you’ve been shopping for a new computer for the student(s) in your family, you’ve no doubt noticed that there are a ton of laptops to choose from.
Picking the perfect student laptop can be a daunting task, but I hope to make it a little easier for you by recommending three of my favorites. [Read more…]
If you tend to post and interact with others a lot on Facebook, you’ve probably noticed all the audible notifications you receive when there’s a lot of activity going on.
At times it can sound like you’re in the middle of an arcade!
If you’d prefer some peace and quiet over the endless barrage of Facebook’s notification sounds, you can easily turn them off. [Read more…]
A while back I wrote this post that explains how to convert an unused internal hard drive into an external USB 3.0 drive.
That has turned out to be one of the most popular posts I have ever written, but a lot has changed since then.
Solid State Drives (SSDs) are quickly replacing traditional hard drives in many newer desktop computers and laptops.
What’s more, the newest MacBooks and many of the latest tablets and smartphones now come with the much smaller USB-C 3.1 ports.
If you own a computer or mobile device that supports USB-C 3.1, it makes sense to use an external drive enclosure that also supports this modern connection type.
Luckily, the awesome new USB-C external drive enclosures don’t cost any more than their USB 3.0 predecessors and they work perfectly with both traditional 2.5 inch hard drives and SSDs! [Read more…]
One of the things I like most about Microsoft Windows is the ability to create shortcuts on the Windows Desktop that simplify the execution of common tasks.
For example, I find myself creating a lot of System Restore Points on my computer so I created a handy desktop shortcut that creates a new Restore Point every time I click on it.
This particular shortcut makes it easy for me to quickly create a Restore Point at any time without having to wade through a series of menus.
As you can see, desktop shortcuts can really come in handy. However, they do have one rather irritating limitation. [Read more…]
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