Tech Questions & Answers Archives - Page 160 of 258

Q&A: Do you think I should have a 7 year old TV repaired?

Posted on May 8, 2020

Question from Marie P.: I have a 7 year old Sony 55-Inch Sony LCD TV that I like better than any TV I’ve ever owned.

The 55 inch size is just perfect for my living room, but now I can’t use it because it’s torn up.

My kids were horsing around and knocked it to the floor and now there’s a long crack across the screen.

The TV will turn on but there’s no picture. The screen just stays black. I can hear the sound though.

My question is do you think it would be cost effective to have this TV repaired or should I just grit my teeth and buy a new one?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: What is a WordPress Child Theme, and do I need one for my blog?

Posted on March 11, 2020

Question from Anika G.: Hello Rick. I want to thank you for sharing all of these wonderful tips with us. You have helped so many people by answering their questions, and now I have a question of my own.

A few weeks ago I followed the steps listed in your post explaining how to build a WordPress blog and built one to showcase my photos.

I’m already hooked on WordPress and I’ve been reading everything I can find about it. But there’s something I’d like for you to clear up for me if you don’t mind.

I’ve been reading a couple of WordPress forums and I’ve read several posts where people talked about using “child themes”. I can’t figure out what they’re talking about and I was hoping you could tell me what child themes are? And do you think I need one for my photography blog?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: How much faster is 4G LTE than 2G?

Posted on March 10, 2020

Question from Roberta L.: I closed my T-Mobile account yesterday and bought a Straight Talk phone because I wasn’t happy with the service I was getting from T-Mobile.

So far the Straight Talk service seems to be a lot better in my neck of the woods.

When I bought the new phone I also bought one of the cards for Straight Talk’s $35 plan.

Now I’m thinking that might have been a mistake because when I put the Straight Talk app on my new phone it said the first 3GB of data I use will be “high speed” 4G LTE but after that it’ll switch to 2G speed.

What exactly does that mean? Is there a huge difference in the speeds of 4G LTE and 2G? I do a lot of video streaming and I’m pretty sure I’ll use more than 3GB every month.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I disable a forgotten BIOS password on my old Dell PC?

Posted on February 4, 2020

Question from Charlene R.: I have an old Dell OptiPlex GX280 desktop computer that I used for several years before I bought the one I have now.

I recently found out that I need to copy a couple of very important files off of that computer so I brought it up from the basement and hooked it up.

My problem is it has a BIOS password on it and I can’t remember it!

I tried every possible password I could think of that I’ve used in the past and nothing works.

I REALLY need to get to those files if there’s any way possible. Do you know of a way to disable the BIOS password so the computer will boot up into Windows?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]