Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Kyle: I won a storage auction and there were four identical desktop computers in there.
I hooked them up and found they all work.
I know these are old, slow machines. That got me to thinking.
Would it be possible to install the motherboards from two of these computers in a custom case and have them work together as a single computer that runs twice as fast as one of them runs? [Read more…]
Question from Bill: Yesterday morning I took the cover off my computer to see if the fans were running because the machine has been sounding quieter than usual.
They appeared to be running just fine but I think I might have really messed up. I dropped a screw onto the motherboard and the computer immediately shut down.
I removed the screw and pressed the power button and Windows started to boot up. But then it gave me an error message stating that Windows didn’t shut down correctly. It did finish booting up though and everything seemed to be working ok.
Should I be concerned? [Read more…]
Question from Sharon: Back in 2020 I bought a custom-built PC from a computer store that’s about three hours away in another city.
My daughter lived there at the time and she had recommended them to me after buying one from them.
Anyway, I received an email from them saying some of the motherboards they had used during that time have been recalled due to a potential fire hazard.
They asked me to send them the serial number of my computer’s motherboard so they could check to see if it’s affected by the recall. Can you help me retrieve it? [Read more…]
Question from Mike: I bought a custom-built PC from a local computer shop back in February 2017.
I recently found out there’s a major UEFI firmware update available for this computer’s motherboard, and I’d like to install it.
I asked for advice and tips for installing the update on a computer forum that I’m a member of and several people recommended that I don’t update the firmware because it’s dangerous to do so.
They all said I should take it to a computer shop and have them update it for me.
I’d take it to the folks who built the computer but they shut down a while back and they’re no longer in business. The closest computer repair shop is now located over 40 miles away.
I’d really like your opinion on this. I want to install the update but not if there’s a real chance that I could mess something up. Do you think there is?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
I often receive questions about updating the UEFI BIOS firmware on a computer’s motherboard.
Horror stories abound about firmware updates that went bad and bricked the devices so many folks are understandably nervous about attempting to update the BIOS on their own motherboards.
In a nutshell, the UEFI BIOS firmware is a basic set of instructions and settings that inform your CPU about the various hardware components that are inside your PC and how it should interact with them.
If this firmware get’s corrupted somehow one or more of your computer’s hardware devices could fail to operate correctly. [Read more…]