Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Anyone who has used a Microsoft Windows based PC for more than a few days has probably experienced the dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” at one time or another.
When one is greeted with a “BSOD”, the screen turns blue and displays a cryptic error message that even Bill Gates himself just might need an interpreter to understand. Oh, and then your PC sort of locks up on you, requiring a reboot before you can do anything else with it! [Read more…]
Question from Brandon H.: The other day I checked to see if there were any Windows Updates available for my PC and saw that there was an optional update for my video card available.
I installed the update and immediately after the reboot my PC began running very slowly. Programs take forever to load, web pages open slowly if at all, and none of my games will run correctly.
Is there any way to uninstall a bad update or will I need to reinstall Windows 7? What really sucks is this was an optional update which means I didn’t really have to install it in the first place!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
I have worked on several Toshiba laptops recently that seem to share a common problem: The function keys that lower and increase the screen brightness (usually Fn+F6 and Fn+F7) have stopped responding.
If the brightness controls on your Toshiba laptop are non-responsive, the procedure described below will most likely fix it:
1 – Shut down the laptop and unplug all cables and external adapters, including the AC power adapter. [Read more…]
Does anyone besides me lie in bed at night and ponder the amazing wisdom of our elected leaders and their appointed helpers?
In case you haven’t heard, the powers that be in Washington decided that since there is currently no funding for the USDA, the National Aeronautical and Space Administration (Noah) and other “non-essential” government departments, their websites would need to be shut off.
The only problem with this thinking? It cost those departments more to take their sites offline than it would have cost to simply leave them up with all updates temporarily suspended! [Read more…]
Question from Melissa B.: I bought a new Acer laptop about a month ago, and now I can’t see the mouse pointer. It was working fine till my 4 year old started pressing keys and then all of a sudden it was gone.
I hope you can tell me how to restore my missing mouse pointer. If you can I’ll be forever in your debt! LOL
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]