computer hardware Archives - Page 6 of 10

Should you completely drain your laptop’s battery before recharging it?

Posted on July 13, 2021

Rick’s Tech Tips Newsletter

I’m often asked whether laptop batteries need to be drained completely before recharging them.

My answer? Well, it depends on the type of battery that it uses.

Early laptops used nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries which were subject to a “memory effect”.

If NiCads weren’t allowed to discharge all the way before being recharged they would eventually “remember” the level of charge they fell to before recharging and act as if they were completely drained every time their charge decreased to that level. [Read more…]

Q&A: Why is one of my PC’s RAM sticks running faster than the other one?

Posted on May 26, 2021

Question from Calvin: I have two 8GB DDR4 RAM sticks in my computer. They are identical to one another in every way (I bought them a while back as a 16GB kit).

When I log into the BIOS it says one stick is running at 2400Mhz and the other one is running at 2133Mhz.

I’ve always heard that all the RAM sticks in a PC should operate at the same speed or your system might crash.

[Read more…]

How to clone the contents of a hard drive onto a new hard drive or SSD

Posted on November 29, 2020

There are times when we need to copy the entire contents of one hard drive onto another hard drive.

This process is called “cloning”, and it is most often done when upgrading to a larger drive or replacing a drive that is about to fail.

Cloning a hard drive isn’t all that difficult. All you need is both drives connected to the computer at the same time and a copy of a good hard drive cloning utility (I use and recommend Clonezilla because it works well and is available as a free download).

Here’s how to use Clonezilla to clone the contents of one hard drive onto another: [Read more…]

Review: ASUS VS228H-P 21.5-Inch Full-HD LCD Monitor

Posted on March 11, 2019

Although a fast CPU and plenty of RAM and hard drive space are important, the monitor is arguably the most important part of any computer system.

After all, you’ll be staring at the screen virtually the entire time you’re using your computer.

I recently received an ASUS VS228H-P 21.5-Inch Full-HD LCD Monitor (#ad) for review, and after working out a minor quirk I quickly came to realize that I really love this monitor! [Read more…]

Q&A: Do I need a new battery for my laptop?

Posted on March 23, 2018

Question from Ann H.: Hi Rick. I have an 8 year old HP ENVY 14 laptop.

It worked fine until a few days ago when it stopped charging the battery. The computer works fine as long as it’s plugged in, but dies immediately if I unplug it.

How can I figure out if it’s the charger or the battery that needs to be replaced?

Rick’s answer: [Read more…]

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