Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Should I replace a bad fan in my computer’s power supply?

Posted on September 13, 2018

Question from Dave H.: Hi Rick. About 18 months ago I bought the parts and built a computer by following a guide I found on Youtube. It works great and I love it.

But now the fan in the power supply has started making a loud clunking sound and I can see it wobble when it spins. The fan has obviously gone bad.

My question is can I replace the bad fan in the power supply or should I just replace the entire thing. It wasn’t a cheap power supply (approx. $125) and I’m hoping I can just replace the fan and save some money. I’ll take your advice though whatever it turns out to be because I don’t want to ruin anything else inside the PC.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Scam alert: If you receive a pop-up saying “Apple wants to make changes” on your Mac, it’s probably due to a malware infection.

Posted on September 10, 2018

Lots of Mac users have started receiving pop-up messages stating something like this:

“Apple wants to make changes. Type your password to allow this.“

Questions about this pop-up are currently being asked in most all the popular Mac support forums online, and as you can imagine these folks are quite concerned that something untoward is happening with their Macs.

Well, their concern is indeed warranted because the “Apple wants to make changes…” pop-up is likely being caused by malware. [Read more…]

BookBub: A great resource for finding free and deeply discounted ebooks

Posted on September 8, 2018

If you love to read, you’re probably a huge fan of ebooks. I sure am because they’re so convenient!

Ebooks are usually priced much lower than their printed counterparts (many of them are actually free), and you can download them at any time and be reading them within minutes.

Regular readers of this blog know that Amazon has a massive selection of ebooks and that you can read Kindle ebooks without owning a Kindle device, but many of you might not be aware that there are actually other great sources of ebooks besides just Amazon. [Read more…]

Want your PC to charge your phone a lot faster? Upgrade to USB 3.0!

Posted on September 4, 2018

Does it seem like it takes forever for your phone’s battery to fully charge when it’s plugged into your PC?

Well, it isn’t your imagination. If you have an older computer it probably has the older USB 2.0 ports, and USB 2.0 supplies a paltry amount of current to devices that are connected to it.

If you like the convenience of charging your phone by plugging it in to your PC, you can easily add several USB 3.0 ports to your existing PC and your phone will charge a lot faster. [Read more…]

Q&A: Will DDR3-1600MHz RAM work with my DDR3-1333MHz motherboard?

Posted on September 3, 2018

Question from Anthony J.: Rick, I have a custom built PC with an ASUS motherboard that supports DDR3-1333MHZ RAM. It’s about 5 or 6 years old as best I can recall.

I want to upgrade the memory from 4GB to 8GB, but the only RAM sticks I could find locally are DDR3-1600MHZ. Will they work with my motherboard without damaging anything?

Rick‘s answer: [Read more…]