Rick's Daily Tips

Are your surge protectors giving you a false sense of security?

Posted on July 3, 2025

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You’re probably aware that lightning and power surges can damage electronic devices such as computers and TV sets.

I’m also guessing that you have your expensive tech gear plugged into surge protectors.

But did you know that surge protectors don’t last forever?

[Read more…]

Q&A: Will a ‘Modified Sine Wave’ UPS damage a computer?

Posted on July 2, 2025

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Question from Celina: I have a question about battery backup devices, Rick.

I went to our local office supply store to buy a battery backup for my iMac and the man I talked to said I needed to pay extra for one that provides “pure sine wave” AC current. The one he tried to sell me costs over $100 more than the one I had planned to buy.

He said the cheaper “modified sine wave” models can damage my iMac because it was designed to only accept only a pure sine wave signal. Is that true? [Read more…]

Q&A: Would moving the Page File to a RAM Disk make a PC run faster?

Posted on July 1, 2025

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Question from Ethan: I was reading an article last night that discussed using part of a computer’s unused RAM as a RAM Disk, and it got me to thinking.

I have a 6 year old desktop computer that’s running Windows 10. It has 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive.

This machine runs really slow, coming almost to a crawl at times. After doing some research I’ve determined that it’s likely sluggish because it’s doing a ton of swapping back and forth with the page file.

Do you think moving the Windows Page File to a RAM Disk would help speed it up? [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I convert an old Windows laptop into a Chromebook?

Posted on June 30, 2025

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Question from Carl: I have 2 year old laptop that had Windows 10 on it before the hard drive died.

I bought a new Windows 11 desktop machine but I’d like to replace the bad hard drive in the old laptop and experiment with a different operating system.

I read your post about installing Linux in place of Windows but I’ve been reading a lot about Chromebooks lately. I stopped by Best Buy yesterday and tried one out, and I really like it.

My question is can I install ChromeOS on that laptop and use it as a Chromebook (after I replace the hard drive of course)?

[Read more…]