Tech Questions & Answers Archives

Q&A: How can I stop my PC’s hard drive from shutting down?

Posted on November 20, 2025

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Question from Amber: After my Windows computer has been sitting idle for a few minutes the hard drive just shuts down.

When I get back on the computer and press a key or move my mouse I can hear the drive starting back up again and I have to wait several seconds before I can do anything.

This is extremely irritating. I guess I’m just impatient and want my computer to respond as quickly as possible. [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I put more than one System Image Backup on the same drive?

Posted on November 18, 2025

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Question from Julienne: Hello, Rick. I’m a long time reader of your blog and I’ve read your posts about making System Image backups with Windows.

Your instructions are very good and easy to follow.

I’ve made three backups so far for my laptop but I just noticed that there’s only one backup on my external hard drive. I’m assuming it’s the last one I made?

My question is can I store more than one backup on the same drive? [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is my monitor shutting down while the computer is still running?

Posted on November 17, 2025

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Question from Myron: I have a 3 year old Dell desktop PC that I recently updated to Windows 11 and it started giving me a problem a couple of days ago.

Now when I turn on the computer it will run fine for a while and then the screen will go black and say “No Signal”. A few seconds after that it blanks out completely.

I hope you can help me figure out what’s going on. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I extend an Internet connection to a distant building?

Posted on November 14, 2025

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Question from Travis: I’m building a cabin on the back side of my parents’ ranch that my wife and I will be staying in several times a year when we visit them.

We’ll be staying several days on each trip so I’ll need to be able to work from the cabin. And it looks like that might be a problem. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I force Google to always show American search results?

Posted on November 12, 2025

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Question from Brett: I need your help with something if you don’t mind, Rick.

I just started a new job for which I’ll be traveling quite frequently, mostly to western Europe but occasionally to South and Central America as well.

I’m in the UK right now and every time I click on my bookmark to load Google it takes me to the British Google site.

I really need for my browser to load the Google search results for the United States at all times because only those results are relevant to the research I do for my job.

Do you know of a way to force Google to always show the American search results no matter which country I’m in at the time? [Read more…]