Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
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Question from Ariel: I have an HP dv6000t laptop that originally had Windows XP on it.
While my son was in for a weekend visit he installed Linux Mint on it after reading your article about replacing Windows with Linux.
I mainly use this laptop for reading my cooking groups on Facebook and printing the recipes that interest me.
The Linux is working out great but I’m having a problem with the USB ports.
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Question from Kenny: I have an Ultrabook that only has two USB ports, and I need those for my external hard drive and portable scanner.
I’ve been looking for a good Bluetooth mouse since they don’t need to be plugged into a USB port.
I’ve tried three different Bluetooth mice and found all of them to be too small to be comfortably used for extended periods of time.
I just can’t seem to find one that’s normal size. Do you know of one? [Read more…]
Question from Erica P.: Hi Rick! I have a question that I hope you can answer for me.
I have an older Seagate 200 GB external hard drive that has lots of wonderful family photos that I’ve scanned over the years stored on it.
The drive works fine when I plug it directly into a USB port, but it won’t work at all when I plug it into my 4-port USB hub. I really need to use the hub because my PC is under my desk and the USB ports are a pain to get to.
Do you think I need to buy a new hub? I don’t think the one I have is bad because I have my printer and webcam plugged into it, and they both work just fine. Thanks for any advice you can give me!
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]
Now that virtually all new external USB hard drives and USB flash drives can connect at blazing USB 3.0 speeds, a quality USB 3.0 hub is now pretty much a necessity.
And if you own an ultrabook or other small device that has just a single USB 3.0 port, it’s virtually impossible to get along without one.
And since we all seem to have multiple mobile devices these days, we also need a handy way to keep them all charged up and ready for use.
In an effort to simplify things and keep my desk from becoming cluttered with a dozen boxes of various types, I’ve been on the lookout for a high-quality USB 3.0 hub and charger combo unit. Well, I recently found exactly what I’ve been looking for, and more. [Read more…]