Tech Questions & Answers Archives - Page 138 of 258

Q&A: Can you recommend a really good mouse that doesn’t cost a fortune?

Posted on July 25, 2021

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Question from Lindsey F.: Hi Rick. I’m hoping you can give me a recommendation for a really good mouse that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

When I bought my first computer I was told to always use a really good mouse.

I was also told that I needed to stay away from cheap ones because they don’t last very long and you end up spending more money in the long run.

Long story short, I’ve bought 3 mice in the last 5 years and none of them lasted very long at all. The last one I bought cost me over $70 and it only lasted about a year!

Can you recommend a really good mouse that costs less that $30? I don’t need a bunch of bells and whistles, just a mouse that works well and won’t stop working after just a few months.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is my PC giving me a ‘Disk Boot Failure’?

Posted on July 15, 2021

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Question from Oliver: I bought a new graphics card and the guy at Best Buy told me I’d need to replace the power supply in my computer before I install it.

The power supply that was in there was 350 watts and the one I replaced it with is 750 watts.

Everything seems to be powering up correctly but now I’m getting a “Disk Boot Failure” message.

How can I fix this? Do I need to change a BIOS setting or maybe move a jumper somewhere to get the hard drive to work with the new power supply?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Would it be worthwhile to double the amount of RAM in my PC?

Posted on July 14, 2021

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Question from Pete: I have a Dell desktop computer that came with 8GB of RAM and Windows 7. I have since upgraded it to Windows 10.

Per your recommendation I went to Crucial.com and ran their System Scanner on this machine and it says it can use up to 16GB of RAM.

I know that adding more RAM to a computer makes it run faster. My question is would doubling the amount of RAM in this particular computer to 16GB make it run a LOT faster?

[Read more…]

Q&A: Why are my AirPods dropping their Bluetooth connection?

Posted on July 14, 2021

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Question from Kim: I have a pair of AirPods that I love dearly.

I’ve used many different kinds of headphones and earbuds and the AirPods have the best sound quality of any of them.

I’ve recently started having a problem with them though. At random times the Bluetooth connection drops out and it interrupts my music.

This usually happens several times every time I listen to music on my phone.

Do you think I need a new pair of AirPods or is there something I can do to fix this?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Is ‘Runtime Broker’ a virus?

Posted on July 12, 2021

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Question from Garland L.: I recently noticed there’s a process called “Runtime Broker” always running when I load Task Manager.

My McAfee antivirus doesn’t flag it as a virus, but it still sounds fishy to me.

I called Office Depot and asked the tech guy about it but he refused to give me an answer about whether this is a virus or not. They said I’d need to bring my computer in and pay them to run a virus check on it.

I ran across your website on Google and saw where you answer people’s questions.

So what’s the deal? Is “RunTime Broker” a virus or not? [Read more…]