Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
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There was a time when it made sense to buy the most powerful computer you could afford.
Back then, advances in software often made computer hardware obsolete long before a component failed, but that’s typically not the case anymore.
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Question from Oliver: I have an old Dell XPS 17 laptop that’s now running Ubuntu Linux.
This machine still works perfectly but the battery won’t hold a charge anymore.
Since it’s so old I don’t really want to buy a new battery for it.
Would it be ok if I just removed the battery and ran it straight from the charger?
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Question from Kristen: The hard drive in my laptop has stopped working and I need to take it somewhere to have it fixed.
I’ve been taking your advice about creating regular System Image backups and I have a fairly recent backup they can use to restore everything once the bad hard drive is replaced.
What worries me is I have a lot of really personal photos that were backed up along with everything else. Will a tech be able to see them? [Read more…]
Question from Amanda: I need your advice, Rick.
My 14 month old laptop has started acting really weird and the warranty expired two months ago.
If I open the lid past half way the screen goes black just like I had turned it off. The computer is still running though.
The really odd thing is the screen doesn’t come back on until the lid is almost completely closed again.
I have three questions for you. [Read more…]
Question from Callie: I bought a new Acer laptop that has a camera built into it.
I don’t ever plan to use the camera for anything and I’d like to completely disable it.
Everything I’ve read so far just explains how to prevent apps from accessing the camera, but I’m wanting to disable it completely.
Can you tell me how to do that? [Read more…]