Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Renita: Rick, I have a Dell Inspiron 620 desktop computer with 4GB of RAM in it. It’s running Windows 7.
A friend told me that I should upgrade the memory to the maximum that it’ll hold because it’ll speed up my computer. I actually have two questions:
1 – Is he right?
2 – If he is, how much memory will this computer hold? [Read more…]
Question from Jennifer K.: Hi Rick! I have an older Dell desktop PC running Windows XP that I absolutely love, but due to a virus I had to re-install Windows from scratch. Now when I try to use Windows Update it fails and I get this error message:
“The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view.”
I’m stuck at Service Pack 2 and I get any updates to download at all. I can’t even get Bitdefender to install because it says I need Service Pack 3, so the computer is currently running without anti-virus protection. Can I fix this or should I just recycle the computer and use my laptop for everything (NOT my first choice!)? [Read more…]
Question from Camille: I have a 2 year old Sony Vaio Z laptop that works great but I recently noticed that the fan never comes on anymore. It does seem to get hotter than usual but it never gets too hot to touch. Since it’s over 2 years old I hate to spend a lot of money on getting it fixed. Do you think it’ll be ok to run it with a bad fan?
Rick’s answer: Camille, if I were you I’d spring for the repair bill and have the fan checked out and replaced if it indeed turns out to be defective. My guess is that it is, but there are other problems besides just a bad fan that can cause it to stop spinning. [Read more…]
Question from Elizabeth A.: I’m thinking about upgrading my computer to Windows 8 but I have a question first. If I try Windows 8 for a while and don’t like it will I be able to go back to Windows 7 without losing my files?
Rick’s Answer: Elizabeth, the short answer is yes, but you’ll have to prepare for the potential downgrade from Win 8 to Win 7 before you install the upgrade by creating a System Repair Disc and Backup Image for your current Windows 7 installation (click the link for instructions).
You should create this backup set right before starting the Windows 8 upgrade process to ensure that none of your user-created data files will be lost if you end up deciding to downgrade back to Windows 7 later. [Read more…]
Question from Sean W.: I have an HP laptop running Windows Vista. Now all of a sudden it won’t turn on. When I press the power button some of the LEDs light up then go right back out and the system is dead. Do you think my computer is fried? Or maybe the power adaptor?
Rick’s answer: Sean, I don’t think anything is “fried”. I believe a hard reset to the machine will probably get you back up and running. Try this: [Read more…]