Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: How can I prevent Windows Update from automatically updating my computer’s hardware drivers?

Posted on June 25, 2020

Question from Paul: Back in 2013 I bought a custom built gaming PC from a guy I knew back then.

I’ve since lost contact with him (I think he moved out of state) and I can no longer ask him for help with things like this.

Anyway, this machine came with Windows 7 on it but I updated it to Windows 10 after Microsoft abandoned Windows 7.

Windows 10 works great on it, but ever since I installed Windows 10 the Windows Updates have been automatically installing new hardware drivers that keep causing the system to crash.

After almost every Windows Update is installed I have to manually reinstall the original hardware drivers from the CD to get the computer to stop crashing (glad I still have that CD!).

Is there any way to prevent Windows 10 from updating the hardware drivers every time it downloads and installs new updates to Windows? This is really frustrating!

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is my MacBook resetting the volume and screen resolution when I shut it down?

Posted on June 24, 2020

Question from Elizabeth: I’m having a problem with my MacBook, Rick. It just started last week.

Every time I shut it down the screen resolution is wrong and the volume is at full blast after I start it up again.

Do you know what’s causing this? Thanks in advance.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Save money by doing your own file recovery from a failed hard drive

Posted on June 23, 2020

It happens to most everyone sooner or later. You turn on your PC and discover that it won’t boot.

You hear a clunking sound from your hard drive and whisper “Oh, no!!!” after realizing that the drive has gone belly up on you.

All is not lost if you have a current backup that works. You can simply replace the bad drive with a new one and restore everything in short order.

But what if you don’t have a backup? Or what if you have a backup but it has somehow become corrupted and you can’t restore from it?

Well, that’s when you have a choice to make. [Read more…]

How to reset an iPad back to the factory default settings

Posted on June 22, 2020

A while back I wrote a post explaining how to reset a smart phone back to the factory default settings, and I have received a lot of positive feedback on that post.

Since then I’ve had several people ask me how to do the same for an iPad, so I thought I’d put the instructions for resetting an iPad back to its factory defaults in a post of its own. I hope it will help some folks.

It’s actually quite easy to reset your iPad. Here’s how: [Read more…]