Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Can I still buy a video card that doesn’t use a fan?

Posted on May 19, 2018

asus-ati-radeon-hd6450-silence-1gb-video-card — (#ad)

Question from Glen J.: I have what is probably a very odd request. I need a low powered video card that doesn’t use a fan.

The video card in my PC has always been very noisy, and now the fan has started making screeching noises and the blades are wobbly (bad bearings perhaps?).

My question is can I buy a simple low powered, fanless video card that will work in a PCIe slot? I don’t need anything fancy, just something to drive my 21″ LCD monitor. I wouldn’t even replace the bad card at all were it not for the fact that my motherboard doesn’t have integrated video.

Any help you can provide will be very appreciated. [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I stop the screen on my Surface Pro 4 from flickering?

Posted on May 15, 2018

Question from Dolly F.: I bought a Surface Pro 4 back in December and I recently started noticing a very faint, but irritating screen flicker.

I’ve tried changing pretty much all the available screen settings and installed all the latest updates but I just can’t get the flickering to stop.

This is absolutely driving me up the wall!

If you can tell me how to get this to stop you’ll be my hero lol. Thanks for your help in advance. Love your site by the way.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why am I getting a ‘Some settings are hidden or managed by your organization’ error in Windows 10?

Posted on May 7, 2018

Question from Kenny W.: I recently upgraded my HP laptop from Windows 7 to Windows 10, and I have a problem that I can’t figure out.

When I try to change some of the system settings the settings options are disabled and the screen displays this message:

“Some settings are hidden or managed by your organization.”

The thing is I’m not part of an organization. This is my own private computer.

How can I fix this so that I can make changes to the system settings on my PC?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: The guy at the computer shop stole my RAM. How can I make him give it back?

Posted on May 5, 2018

Question from Nikki W.: I have a terrible problem Rick. I took my HP desktop tower to our local computer shop because it wouldn’t boot up into Windows.

Long story short, the guy told me the hard drive was bad and he would have to replace it and then reinstall Windows 7.

I got the computer back yesterday and it seems to run ok, but after I use Chrome for a while I get a message telling me the memory is running low.

I looked at the System Information screen and it said there was only 3.4GB of RAM installed. I know for a fact that it had 8GB in it when I took it to the shop. Oh, and the sound isn’t working either.

My main problem is the guy stole some of my RAM and I need to know what I can do to make him put it back in since I can’t prove how much RAM was in it when I took it to his shop. And I hope you can help me get the sound working too. Can you give me some advice?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]