Hardware Tips

Stop a document from printing – Video Tip

We all run into a problem sooner or later where something we printed didn’t print correctly or we want to stop it from printing. In today’s tip, I explain how to stop the printer from printing and then clean the print job from your computer.

Turn off your printer using its power switch
Immediately watch for a message by your clock that has anything to do with your printer
Click the little bubble message (if you see it)
If you don’t see the options in steps 2 & 3, then:
1. Click Start –> Control Panel
2. Double-click Printers
3. Double-click your printer
When the printer queue dialog box appears, click one time on the document you want to delete
Click Document from the menus, then Cancel (If you have multiple documents, click Printer –> Cancel all documents from the menus)
Once the documents disappear (should be just a few moments), you can close all open windows and turn your printer on again.

I have a few more little tips and you can see this technique in action by watching the video below (2 1/2 minutes):

Cell phone quick tip – How to quickly silence ringer

We all inadvertently leave the cell phone ringer in the on position in situations where it would be courteous to be off. For those times when you don’t want the world staring at you and listening to your “Baby’s got back” ring tone, take a deep breath, then just push the volume button on the side of your phone. Almost every single cell phone on the market will immediately silence the ringer by pushing the volume button…either the up or down volume button, it doesn’t matter.

The next time this happens to you, remember the volume button and you can silence that ringer before the second syllable in baby!

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30
Jan 09

Laptop Battery Life

Since laptops now out-sale desktops, I decided to bring this tip out of the archives.

We had a call last weekend, and I get the same question from many laptop users: “Why is the battery life on my laptop so poor?”. The biggest reason is that the battery doesn’t get enough exercise. Most rechargeable batteries today don’t have the memory problem like they did eight and ten years ago. However, unless the battery does get used on occasion, it tends to lose its ability to hold a charge.

Even if you don’t take your laptop outside of the home, I recommend that you run your laptop off of the battery at least twice per month. You don’t have to drain the battery all the way down (some battery experts say not to let it completely deplete ever), but use it until it’s pretty close to empty then plug it back in to recharge. Cycling the charging and depleting of the battery will give your laptop many more productive hours of battery time.

laptop battery indicator

When running from the battery, your laptop will show a little blue battery icon by your clock that shows the approximate batter life remaining. The time shown isn’t 100% accurate, but gives you a quick place to eyeball the remaining time you have on your battery.

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5
Jan 09

Another dead hard drive

External hard drives are spacious, cheap and relatively easy to use, but…

I resisted talking about backup this early in the year, but a phone conversation I had today illustrated my philosophy about backup perfectly. The gentleman I spoke with suffered an external hard drive failure, and he used it as the sole storage of his digital photos. Once again, my heart sank with his story of woe. He didn’t want to spend the hundreds of dollars it would require from a data recovery company (he also, unfortunately, opened the drive and tried to manually spin the hard drive platters), but was hoping for some sort of magical tech pixie dust that I might be storing in my pocket.

The point of the story is to scare you into backing up your data. Backing up your data means that your important data exists in at least two different locations. By different locations, I’m referring to two different digital media. Hard drive, and external hard drive. Hard drive and CD or DVD. Hard drive and USB flash drive. Hard drive and online backup. External hard drive and CD or DVD. You get the picture.

Exceptional backup systems would include having important data copied on at least three different mediums and one of those mediums being physically off site or at least placed in a fire proof, locked box in a basement or garage. You can learn more about backup by simply searching my site. Make it a new year’s resolution (or just smart computing practice) to start and maintain a good backup system starting today!

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10
Dec 08

Netbooks – What are they really designed to do and for whom?

Today, I demo’d the original EeePC from Asus and the new Dell Mini 9. These Netbooks and all the others on the market from nearly a dozen companies have the following characteristics in common:

9″ or less screen size (there are some 10″ screens, but I start to put those in the category of ultra portable notebooks instead of netbooks)
All cost less than $400 and some less than $300
Weigh less than 3.5 pounds (anything over that weight goes into that ultra-portable category). Many of the netbooks weigh closer to 2.5 pounds.
All have small keyboards – between 70 and 80% of normal size keys
All have wireless capability to connect to wi-fi hot spots
All have a minimum of 3 USB ports and 1 SD card slot

Depending on the netbook, you might find these differences:

Some are pre-installed with Windows XP
Some are pre-installed with a version of Linux customized for the small platform and screen
Most come with 4-20 GB flash memory for the hard drive, thus requiring less weight, power, and space.
Others come installed with an 80-160 GB hard drive.
Many of the netbooks, but not all, come with a decent webcam built into the lid.

What functions and uses are best performed on a netbook?

Traveling. There is no better current option for portable computing as a traveler than a netbook.
Email. Some people feel that smartphones like a Blackberry or iPhone are sufficient for traveling and they work quite well, but for responding to lots of email and comfortably composing and reading those email, a netbook makes a lot of sense.
Skype video phone calls. You can’t make video phone calls in a hotel, campground, or coffee shop with a smartphone.
Word Processing and spreadsheets. You won’t write a novel or build a complicated multi-sheet spreadsheet on a netbook, but you certainly can edit and view them on one.
Digital photography while traveling. Install Picasa on one of these little gems, and you can use it to download, view, and email your photos easily while traveling.
Maps. The screen is small, but much bigger than a cell phone and makes looking up destinations and info about them convenient.
Games. Sure, you can get your solitaire fix or play a number of online games on them.
Music. Using an Internet music site like Pandora.com works well on these devices…providing you have an Internet connection.

What is a netbook is NOT designed to do?

Replace a desktop computer. They are too small for long periods of use…your hands and eyes will cramp up before it does.
Replace a laptop for those who need to travel with full office capabilities and proprietary programs installed to perform work and travel with large amounts of data.

Who can make the best use of a netbook?

Because of their flexibility and portability, I think anyone with an interest of staying connected while traveling would be happy to have one of these netbooks.
Anyone who wants to stay connected but doesn’t want to carry 7-10 pounds of computer and has no need for that kind of expense, upkeep, and bulk associated with a laptop.
Someone who recognizes that these units do have small screens and keyboards and respects that trade off for its portability.
Children. Since netbooks are pretty durable (especially the Linux ones), inexpensive, and yet powerful, students who could use their own computer to compose short documents, learn to use email and the Internet, and play with their digital cameras make good candidates for a netbook.

Where can you get a netbook?

Any number of retailers now carry them or you can click on these netbooks listed here for the ones I recommend.

Acer Aspire One – $325

HP Mini Note- $299

Asus EeePC 900 – $320

Asus EeePC 1000HD – $360

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 – $375

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4
Dec 08

Does that computer have enough hard drive space?

hard drive properties While counseling a customer on buying a new computer recently, the customer asked if a 500 gigabyte drive was ok compared to another a computer that had a 640 GB hard drive. Other than hard drive capacity, the machines were pretty equal. Unless the person plans to store their 2000 album music collection, edit feature length movies, or are designing the next skyscraper for Dubai, I have them go through this simple exercise:

Double-click My Computer
RIGHT Click the Hard drive icon (usually designated as the C drive)
Click Properties

When the pie chart appears, I ask them to tell me what the total capacity of the drive is (in the woman’s case I was helping today, it was 20 GB), then I ask them to tell me how much of the drive is being used (the blue part of the chart and in this woman’s case it was 8 GB). Then I ask them how long they have used the computer and in her case it was 6 or 7 years.

The demonstration solidifies the answer for them and will for you too if you need to decide what kind of hard drive capacity is needed when buying a new computer.

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14
Nov 08

Netbooks are NOT made for Windows XP or Vista

EeePC One year ago, ASUS started a fire storm of new computers that now go by the name of netbooks with the release of their EeePC. I wrote about this subject just a few months ago, but with the holidays approaching and netbooks are high on gift giver’s radar screens so I want to explore netbooks a little more in depth.

Netbooks make attractive gift giving ideas for a few reasons:

They are inexpensive; usually cost less than $400.
They are extremely portable (2-3 pounds).
They are cute.

Here are some facts you need to know about netbooks:

Netbooks run on an Intel Atom processor that has roughly half the power of a typical laptop Intel or AMD processor.
Netbooks utilize a very basic graphics system.
Maximum RAM is 1 GB (very few exceptions)
Hard drives are usually solid state flash memory ranging from 4-16GB. More expensive models have small hard drives with up 160 GB of space)
Screens are no larger than 10″
Keyboards are 80-90% of a typical laptop keyboard.
They do not have CD or DVD ROMs.
Prices range from $300-700
Most have built-in web cams
All have wi-fi capability and Ethernet as well
Some models run a Linux operating system, some Windows XP, and a few attempt to run Vista.

Netbooks are in no way meant to replace a desktop computer or even a laptop. Instead, netbooks are designed to be used as a second or third computer for traveling, Internet or email access in another room of your home, light word processing or document creating/editing, making Internet phone and video calls, instant messaging, and even listening to music.

Because netbooks run on tiny batteries and less powerful processors, trying to run a large operating system like Windows XP and especially Vista is completely impractical. Windows XP with all its updates and service packs and security software requires a strong processor and a minimum of 512mb of RAM or 1 GB of RAM on a slightly older processor. Also, Windows XP, and especially Vista) require above average graphics processing to function with any oomph. Vista barely crawls on dual core processor with 1 GB of RAM and is completely useless on a netbook.

Linux, on the other hand, can be completely customized for a less powerful computer like a netbook and doesn’t need to be burdened by excessive updates and security software. This makes Linux a perfect fit for the netbook Plus, Linux laptops come pre-installed with complete office compatibility, games, multimedia software and more…all things you need to spend extra for with a Windows install plus you need to have an external CDROM to install all of these things on a netbook since it has no CDROM.

If you are in the market for a netbook for yourself or to give as gift this Christmas, by all means go for it. I love my little Asus EeePC and think they make the best travel companions and work great for getting a small amount of work or email done while watching TV or sitting outside. But know up front their purpose and don’t expect more from them. Here are my recommendations when shopping for a netbook:

Do NOT spend more than $400.
Get one with a Linux operating system, NOT WINDOWS.
Make sure it has a built-in web cam. You will like having the ability to make video calls while on the road.
Purchase a 4-16GB extra SD Card for storage, but realize that it isn’t meant to be storage machine.

If all this still makes your head swim a little, here are my top 5 netbook suggestions (in no particular order):

Again, keep in mind that netbooks are not meant to be a replacement for a desktop or a full-time laptop, but an adjunct to them for traveling and quick access to a computer. If you already own a netbook, leave a comment below sharing how you use yours and what your experience has been with it.

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31
Oct 08

Microsoft Arc Mouse

My old cordless mouse quit on me this week. It was a simple Logitech 2 button scroll mouse (optical). I’m not a big fan, actually I’m not a fan at all of mice with all the extra buttons and features. I want a simple 2 button mouse with a scroll wheel. As I was shopping, I noticed that the only simple mice were either cheap crap, corded (I wanted cordless), or came bundled with a keyboard. Since I didn’t need a keyboard, I thought I was out of luck. There are simple 2 button laptop mice, but for everyday use that’s a little too small for me. After almost giving up, I spotted and tried out the Microsoft Arc Mouse. It’s a futuristic looking rodent, cordless, has a micro USB adapter, and has only one extra button (a back button on the left side that is easy to avoid). I tried it side-by-side with one of the simple mice bundled with the keyboards and it felt good.

The arc seems to provide three functional purposes:

Less surface are contacting the desk or mouse pad making it extremely easy to move around
Much lighter than a conventional mouse, again making it move around effortlessly
The slightly taller profile makes the hand fit more comfortably with it than a traditional mouse.

I’m on day 3 with the Microsoft Arc Mouse and am extremely pleased with the purchase. At around $50-60, the Microsoft Arc Mouse costs about 20-40% more than other good mice, but for the comfort, unique and functional design, and lack of too many extra buttons, I think the cost is justified.

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7
Oct 08

Set up a home network – Part I

Home Network Home computer networks used to be just for geeks, there was no practical reason to setup a network at home because most people only had one system and the Internet was only accessible through a dial-up connection that couldn?t be shared.

Today that has all changed. Computer networks are not only practical but they are also easy to setup and in many cases they are absolutely necessary. Over the next few weeks, we will breakdown the process of building a computer network into simple steps that will guide you through the entire process of setting up either a wired or wireless home computer network.

Before we get into the logistics of a network setup, we should cover some quick terminology. Here are a few terms you absolutely need to understand to build a computer network.

Ethernet ? This is the kind of cable that you use to build a wired network. You will recognize it by the large RJ-45 ends that resemble large telephone jacks.

Router ? This is a device that monitors the complex network transmissions and acts as a traffic cop to decide what communications are safe and what are potentially bad guys trying to get in. A router is a kind of hardware firewall.

Switch ? Often people use the terms switch and router interchangeably, but a switch is actually the device that controls how communication takes place within the network. For example a switch acts as a hub where all of the computers come together to share files, printers and other devices. Typically a router will come with a switch built-in, but not always, especially on wireless networks.

Wireless/WiFi ? Also called 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi is a special frequency that allows you to setup a network with minimal wires. Sometimes wireless networks are setup for complex jobs like file and print sharing; sometimes they serve only one purpose such as sharing the Internet with nearby computers. This type of wireless should not be confused with wireless cell phones or high speed Internet offered via wireless microwave technology.

Broadband Internet ? Only broadband Internet access can be shared on a network. There are two ways to connect to the Internet ? dialup or broadband. In order for an Internet connection to be called broadband it must meet four criteria:

It is fast, very fast.
It is always on, no dialing required.
It doesn?t occupy a phone line ? you can talk on the phone while you surf.
It can be shared among multiple computers at the same time. The whole family can be on the Internet at the same time on each computer.

There will be more terms defined in future articles, but these terms and concepts should be a good start and get you ready for the next articles.

You can read all the tips in this series here:

Set up a home network – Part II

Set up a home network – Part III

Set up a home network – Part IV

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25
Sep 08

Setting up a new computer

new computer box Prevention is the best medicine when it comes to avoiding illness in ourselves. Prevention in the computer world is no different. And like a newborn baby, a newly purchased computer is subject to many terrible diseases and problems if not properly cared from the moment it is taken from its cardboard box. I follow these steps when setting up a new computer system for my clients, and recommend this methodology for all new computer setups:

Before setting up the new computer, back up all of your data to CD’s, DVD’s, external hard drives, or flash drives for transfer to the new computer Make sure you get not only your obvious data like documents, pictures, and financial data, but also your address book, email settings, favorites, etc. Remember, you can backup data, but not programs.
Make note of your email settings and configuration (if you didn’t back them up).
Download a copy of a AVG Antivirus and have them on a CD or flash drive at the ready.
When setting up the new PC, DO NOT connect printers, scanners, cameras, and especially the Internet until later.
Once at the new desktop, the first place to head is the Control Panel and Add/Remove programs (Programs and Features in Vista). Remove all trial software that you don’t plan on purchasing (Quicken, Quickbooks, Office suites, etc). Also remove any <!–break–>Internet provider software that you will not use like AOL, Earthlink, NetZero, etc.
Now go back to Add/Remove programs and uninstall any trial security software that came with the machine.
If you uninstalled the pre-installed security software (recommended), install the AVG antivirus program you have at the ready.
Now, you can hook up your Internet connection. Once you have a connection established, update your anti-virus software immediately.
Setup your email program and accounts.
Install your peripherals (scanners, printers, etc) per your manufacturers instructions.
Install any programs that you want on the new system
Transfer your data from their backup locations.
Strongly consider downloading and using Mozilla Firefox as your primary browser.
Create your Recovery CD set found in your manufacturer’s options or utilities folder (if required).

Enjoy your properly setup and safe, new computer!