Rick's Daily Tips

Q&A: Why am I getting an error message about an unsupported video configuration?

Posted on December 24, 2013

Question from Andrea W.: Please help me Rick!! I have an Acer Desktop computer running Windows Vista. I took the cover off of it and took it outside to blow the dust out of it.

After it was all clean inside I took it back into the house and connected everything back up. I turned the computer back on and everything seemed fine at first, but then it stopped cold and displayed an error message.

I took this picture of the screen with my camera:

It won’t let me do anything at all! I even turned the power off and unplugged everything, then plugged everything back in. I did this several times but I keep getting the same error message. Do you think I’ve messed up the video card? Your FAST help will be greatly appreciated!!!!

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Prevent your Android phone’s battery from being drained by a weak cell signal with NoBars

Posted on December 23, 2013

Important update: The NoBars app is no longer supported and it doesn’t work with the latest versions of Android.

Have you ever noticed how quickly your Android phone’s battery gets depleted when you’re in an area where there’s either a very weak cell signal or no signal at all? This happens because the phone’s radio will go into overdrive while trying to locate any trace of a usable signal.

An easy way to prevent this from happening is to simply place your phone into “Airplane Mode” whenever you enter an area where you know there won’t be a usable cell signal. But if you do that, you’ll have to remember to take the phone back out of Airplane Mode later or else you won’t be able to receive any calls or text messages. [Read more…]

Create your own ebooks for free with Papyrus

Posted on December 23, 2013

Have you ever wanted to create an ebook to sell or just give away to your friends? Most of us have, and there’s a great web tool called Papyrus that will help you do it for free!

Papyrus is a one-stop web shop that lets you do everything from edit and/or import the text and images for your ebook to create beautiful “covers”. They even assist you in selling your completed ebooks! You can easily create beautiful ebooks in kindle, pdf, and epub formats, which pretty much covers 95% of the ebook formats in use today. [Read more…]

Q&A: Does Windows 8 really come with a built-in Antivirus program?

Posted on December 22, 2013

Question from Caroline E.: I just bought a new computer with Windows 8 on it and the salesman told me it comes with a free anti-virus program that’s actually a part of Windows.

Is that true? And if it is, do I have to turn it on or is it already enabled? I’d really like to use it if at all possible because it’s free! lol

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

Review: HP Pavilion 17-e079nr Laptop

Posted on December 21, 2013

HP laptops have served me well over the years, and I’m always eager to check out the new models when they become available.

Today I’m going to be discussing the HP Pavilion 17-e079nr, a full-featured laptop that offers a lot of power and plenty of great features for the money.

The Pavilion 17-e079nr comes with a stunning 17.3 inch color display and an AMD A8 Quad Core CPU, which together make for an excellent user experience even when watching DVDs and playing games. You’ll also find the large screen quite enjoyable when surfing the Internet, checking email, and performing most any visually challenging task. [Read more…]