Rick's Daily Tips

Review: Dell Inspiron i5447-6250sLV 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop

Posted on November 21, 2017

This is an interesting era in the world of laptop computers. Gaming and business laptops just keep getting faster and more powerful while ultrabooks keep getting smaller, thinner and lighter.

And at the same time, it seems that the laptops in the middle are becoming more or less forgotten.

That being said, I believe these mid-range traditional-style laptops still have a valid place in the world. I recently had the opportunity to check out one such laptop, and came away thinking pretty highly of it. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why won’t my PC connect to Wi-Fi automatically after installing updates?

Posted on November 20, 2017

Question from Lois P.: My computer (HP laptop with Windows 10) was working fine until it installed an update about a week ago.

Ever since that update was installed the computer won’t automatically connect to my Wi-Fi network when I turn it on.

I can connect to the network manually and it works perfectly until I shut the computer down. It just won’t connect automatically no matter what I do and I really miss having it do that.

I’ve searched Google from top to bottom and I haven’t found a solution to this that works. I even used System Restore to remove the update but that didn’t help either.

A friend told me about your website but I couldn’t find anything you’ve written about this topic on there. Do you know of a fix for this? You’re my last hope!

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is my new custom built PC shutting down almost immediately after turning it on?

Posted on November 18, 2017

Question from Kenny V.: I watched a Youtube video that showed how to build a gaming PC and it really intrigued me.

I decided to build one for my son so I asked the guy at Fry’s Electronics for recommendations on the parts. This is what he recommended (and what I ended up buying):

ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E Gaming Motherboard

Intel i7 7700k LGA 1151 CPU

4 Corsair Vengeance 8GB DDR4 3000MHz C15 RAM sticks – (32GB total)

EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti SC GAMING, 4GB GDDR5 Gaming Video Card

Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD

Corsair RMx Series, RM850x, 850W Power Suppy

I put everything together according to the instructions but when I turn on the computer a light on the motherboard flashes and then everything immediately shuts down. According to the manual the light that flashes is the “CPU Warning Light”.

Just to be sure it’s not a bad connection I re-seated the RAM sticks and CPU. There were no bent pins that I could see. I also disconnected and reconnected all the power cables.

Do you think I might have received a bad CPU? That’s the only thing I can think of that could possibly be wrong. I don’t want to go back to Fry’s claiming they sold me a bad CPU unless I’m sure they really did.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Review: ASUS ZenBook Flip UX360CA-DBM2T 13.3″ Touchscreen Laptop

Posted on November 16, 2017

Laptops are getting thinner and lighter all the time, and that’s a great thing. After all, when it comes to portability, smaller and lighter is always better.

That being said, PC manufacturers face a real challenge when trying to find ways to keep reducing their latest laptops’ size and weight without drastically sacrificing features, performance and durability.

With their fantastic Zenbook line, ASUS seems to be meeting that challenge better and better with every new laptop they design. [Read more…]

Scam alert: Beware the insidious ‘Amen’ scam that’s targeting Christians on Facebook

Posted on November 16, 2017

As you probably know by now, Like and Share Farming is a popular method used by scammers to quickly build successful Facebook pages that they can use to scam other Facebook users.

In a nutshell, the scammer uses innocent-looking (and often heart-tugging) posts to attract thousands of “Likes” and “Shares” to a new page to make it “popular” among the Facebook community.

Well, there’s a rather insidious form of “Like and Share Farming” taking place right now, and it’s targeting Christians.

These posts are simply another variation of the “Feel Good Posts” that I have written about in the past.

The current scam typically works something like this… [Read more…]