Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
Question from Shawn: Hi Rick. Having recently read your post about adding RAM to speed up your PC, I just bought two 4GB Crucial RAM sticks to upgrade my Dell 755 desktop computer to 8GB.
This PC is running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit so it should recognize the entire 8GB, but for some reason it’s only recognizing 4GB. Do you think I have a bad RAM stick?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
A while back I wrote a post explaining how adding RAM to your computer can give it a major speed boost, but I inadvertently left out a very important detail…
If your computer is still under warranty when you upgrade its RAM, make sure you keep any old memory sticks that you remove from the machine as part of the upgrade process.
That way if something happens and you have to send the computer in for a warranty repair, you can temporarily remove the new RAM sticks and re-install the original ones. [Read more…]
Question from Mandy F.: I have a HP desktop computer that only came with 2 gigs of RAM.
I read that adding more will make my computer run better so I took the cover off and noticed that it had 2 empty RAM slots with 2 more already filled.
Best Buy had 4GB RAM chips on sale so I bought 2 of them and put them in. But the computer still only shows that it has 2GB of RAM instead of 10GB. What could be wrong? Thanks.
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Carolyn S.: Hi Rick. I have a 4 year old HP Desktop computer running Windows 7 – 32 bit.
I bought the Windows 8.1 DVD but I don’t know whether I should install it in 32 bit or 64 bit mode.
This computer has a 64 bit CPU but just 4GB of RAM that I plan to upgrade at some point. I’ve heard that the extra RAM won’t do any good unless I install 64 bit Windows.
If that’s true, do you think it’s worth installing the 64 bit version? What do you suggest?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Question from Eric B.: Rick, I’m getting ready to buy a new laptop for my son to use for his schoolwork, and I need some advice on a matter that is puzzling me.
I’ve narrowed down my choices to two models: One has a 2.2 Ghz CPU and 8GB of RAM. The other has a 2.4 Ghz CPU but 4 GB of RAM. Which of these laptops do you think will offer more bang for the buck given that the cost is virtually the same?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]