Tech Questions & Answers Archives - Page 196 of 258

Q&A: Why is Facebook posting my status updates with such huge text?

Posted on February 5, 2017

Question from Janna: I’ve noticed that many of the status updates appearing in my Facebook newsfeed are now being printed in huge, ugly bold letters.

And unfortunately, my own status updates are being printed the same way.

Several of my friends have even messaged me and asked me why I’m shouting at them!

I hate this large text and I’m not doing anything (that I’m aware of) to make the text size bigger.

My question is why is this happening and how can I make my posts be displayed with the normal text size?

Ricks answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Is it safe to run ‘chkdsk’ to fix a hard drive with bad sectors?

Posted on January 31, 2017

Question from Randy F.: My hard drive started making a combination of loud whining and clicking sounds last night.

I did some research (thanks Google!) and found a forum post that said to run chkdsk to see if the drive has any bad sectors. It then said if bad sectors are found to run chkdsk/r to fix them.

I ran chkdsk and it did find a bunch of bad sectors. I started to run chkdsk /r to fix the bad sectors but then I remembered reading a follow-up post that said running chkdsk /r can kill a hard drive outright.

What’s your advice on this? I’d like to fix the drive and not have to replace it if that’s possible, but I don’t want to lose my pictures and other files by killing the drive. I need some advice on how to proceed.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: What would prevent a home-built computer from powering up?

Posted on January 30, 2017

Question from Aaron P.: When my PC died I decided to build my own computer instead of buying one off the shelf to replace it.

This is a list of the parts I used in the build:

Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 Motherboard
Athlon X2 5200+ CPU
Kingston HyperX FURY 16GB RAM Kit
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC Gaming Video Card
2 Crucial MX300 1TB SSDs
Thermaltake Smart DPS G 750W 80Plus Gold Power Supply
Windows 10 Home Edition

After the parts arrived I put everything together but I can’t get it to power up. The screen stays blank and there are no beeps or sounds of any kind except for the case fans and PSU fan noise.

I’ve double-checked everything I know to check. Any ideas?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I remove the EXIF Data from my pictures before uploading them to Facebook?

Posted on January 13, 2017

Question from Mary: I just learned that every picture taken with a digital camera has something called EXIF Data embedded within it that includes the location where the picture was taken.

I have lots of family pictures that were taken at my house and I’d rather not have my physical address out there for all the world to see.

Is there any way to remove the EXIF Data / location info before I upload my pics to Facebook? My camera is a Nikon and my computer is an Acer laptop.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I remove the ‘Boot Menu’ from my computer?

Posted on January 9, 2017

Question from Kevin B.: When Windows 10 was released I installed it, but I also decided to also keep Windows 8.1 so I could boot into either version at any time.

I had been booting into Windows 8.1 every now and then to access some files I have on there, but I recently discovered that the Windows 8.1 installation is no longer activated because its product key was transferred to Windows 10.

I guess that means I won’t be using Windows 8.1 any longer.

How can I have my computer skip the Boot Menu and boot directly into Windows 10? I’d just delete the Window 8.1 partition but I have a bunch of files in there that I don’t want to lose.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]