Rick's Daily Tips

Review: Truffol Station 7 Aluminum Desktop USB 3.0 Hub and Charger

Posted on August 21, 2016

truffol-station-7-port-usb-hub-and-charger-1 Now that virtually all new external USB hard drives and USB flash drives can connect at blazing USB 3.0 speeds, a quality USB 3.0 hub is now pretty much a necessity.

And if you own an ultrabook or other small device that has just a single USB 3.0 port, it’s virtually impossible to get along without one.

And since we all seem to have multiple mobile devices these days, we also need a handy way to keep them all charged up and ready for use.

In an effort to simplify things and keep my desk from becoming cluttered with a dozen boxes of various types, I’ve been on the lookout for a high-quality USB 3.0 hub and charger combo unit. Well, I recently found exactly what I’ve been looking for, and more. [Read more…]

Q&A: Would adding flash storage to my Dell Inspiron 1300 improve its performance?

Posted on August 21, 2016

Question from Andy S.: My Dell Inspiron 1300 has only 512 Megs of RAM. The machine is now very slow, I suspect that it’s due to lot of paging.

Would it make sense if I buy an Expresscard to USB 3.0 adapter so then I can add a USB 3.0 SSD, Flash Finger or M.2 to the machine? Would it improve the performance?

Thank you very much.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: How can I prevent my iPhone from automatically syncing when I plug it into my computer?

Posted on August 20, 2016

Question from Carla V.: Every time I plug my iPhone into my computer it automatically starts syncing. I don’t want that because I have things on my phone that I don’t want on my other devices.

I know there has to be a way to disable the automatic syncing. Can you tell me how to do it?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Q&A: Can I use my second Windows 8.1 disc on a different PC?

Posted on August 20, 2016

Question from Chuck H.: A while back I bought a Windows 8.1 retail package (#ad) that contains two discs, one for Windows 8.1/64 bit and the other for Windows 8.1/32 bit.

I installed the 32 bit disc on my old HP laptop after Microsoft abandoned Windows XP. I have never used the 64 bit disc.

My question is can I install Windows 8.1 from the 64 bit disc onto my desktop computer? I had to replace the hard drive and I don’t have a set of recovery discs.

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

RicksDailyTips Weekly Newsletter for August 20, 2016 – Beware these current Facebook scams!

Posted on August 20, 2016

Hello again! I hope you had a great week!

As you probably know, Facebook is a virtual playground for scammers who are experts at finding new ways to separate you from your money.

While there is always a scam or two making the rounds, this is apparently an especially busy month for the scammers.

Today I’m going to tell you about several current Facebook scams that you need to be on the lookout for: [Read more…]