Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Ethan K.: Hi Rick. My uncle gave me his old HP Pavilion dv4 1123us laptop because the hard drive died.
I have a hard drive to replace it with but I can’t get the old hard drive to come out of the laptop. I removed all the screws that hold the hard drive in place, but one side of it refuses to budge.
Is there another screw that I’m not seeing? I’d really appreciate any help you can give me.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Like it or not, the future of Windows computers lies in Windows 10.
After all, Windows 7 is scheduled to officially be abandoned by Microsoft in January 2020.
Windows 8.1 will be around for a couple years longer but it’s scheduled to be abandoned as well in January 2023.
Windows 10 has been slowly increasing its foothold in the marketplace for a while now, and according to the latest stats from NetMarketShare it’s now running on over half (50.99%) of all the world’s personal computers.
Do you still use a Windows 7 PC to play Microsoft’s popular Internet-based games?
If so, I’m afraid you’ll no longer be able to play them after January rolls around.
Microsoft has just announced they’ll be shutting down their Windows 7 Internet Games servers on January 22, 2020.
That means the following games will stop working on that day: [Read more…]
Question from Donna Q.: The wireless network adapter in my Gateway desktop computer has stopped working and I need to replace it. I looked on Amazon and BestBuy.com and there are so many to choose from!
I have a Netgear AC 1600 router so I’d like to get a wireless adapter than can connect to it at the fastest speed possible. I’m not all that concerned with price as long as it’s a really good product.
I would appreciate it if you could give me a recommendation. Thanks.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Regular readers of this blog know that you can use a wireless print server (#ad) to easily share a USB printer with multiple computers over your Wi-Fi network.
My friend Scott Bangs pointed out that you can also share an external USB hard drive, scanner or most any other type of USB device over your network by using a wireless USB print server/port sharing station. (#ad)
These nifty devices allow you to share your USB peripherals and gadgets among multiple PCs, Macs, Linux systems, and even most mobile devices without having to connect or switch around any USB cables. [Read more…]