For getting started or a quick review, this is the basics of how things work. I take tech down to the roots.
Sometimes you need to get inside your computer to check things out or to get rid of some dust, to keep the airflow clean. Whether it’s a laptop or a desktop, this shouldn’t scare you. Newer desktop computers are being built with easy-release mechanisms to allow you to take at least one side off….
If you know me—at all—you know that I use a lot of different forms of technology, from different providers. This gives me the foundation to be able to tell you authoritatively that it is not just Microsoft that keeps changing stuff. Let’s start by saying that, although a horse and buggy is an adequate…
Everything has a cost of some type. That’s basic economics. It’s not always a monetary cost; sometimes it’s a price paid in effort, and sometimes it’s an “opportunity cost,” which means that as a result of choosing one thing you can’t take full advantage of another opportunity. An example of that would be in how…
I want you to feel comfortable and confident in dealing with a lot of your computer conditions. But there is a point when you should NOT try to do it yourself. That point is where you don’t feel comfortable, and when there is too much to lose. Most computer problems that people have are…
The term BYTE in some form is probably the tech term you will hear most often, and without even realizing it, because it won’t always be used in it’s solo form or in its full form. Let me tell you first why this can get confusing: Because the very same words that describe how BIG…
PDF, or Portable Document Format, is extremely popular, because if you save a document as a pdf, it can be read by any operating system. The most popular and well-known pdf reader is Adobe Reader, but there are others as well, and you can find them by searching on “pdf reader.” PDF documents are identified…
I remember when there was no World Wide Web, when the Internet was not called the Internet. For today’s emerging generation of computer users, however, computer use IS the Internet or the Web. The journey from a room-sized machine churning out processed data to global information access from a handheld device weighing less than a…
I had a reader question on this subject, and this is a very good question. There are things that DO need to be on your computer, and things that DON’T. Knowing the difference between the two can determine whether or not your computer still runs after you’re done fixing it. These instructions pertain to Windows…
A motherboard is a printed circuit board that contains the stuff that makes up the computer, or it has slots to put some of that stuff in. Your computer is a box of electricity, and what makes it work and display stuff to you is the flow of that electricity. Each component in the computer…
Dust, in and of itself, is neither good nor bad. If you see dust sitting on top of your computer, that’s not a problem. The problem is when it gets inside, or when it obstructs the airflow generated by the fans. In the Tip on Airflow, I recommended not putting the computer directly on…