What Do You Want To Know About?

Tim,
Great column as always – & thanks for the chance to suggest topics! Liked your ideas about cleaning and speeding up a PC, and would add these:
(1) Ways to keep your PC cool, clean & quiet (case choice, fans/CPU coolers, water cooling, etc);
(2) Building your own PC & choosing components – esp the CPU, mobo & PSU; and
(3) How to make your PC last & keep its value, including best upgrades.
Hope this helps!

@Garth: Thanks for the suggestions Garth. I do have a PC cooling article but that’s all I have right now – certainly needs some flushing out. I’m hoping to get that done before next summer (aka June in the Northern Hemisphere).

About.com also has a PC Hardware/Reviews site that’s run by Mark Kyrnin. He has a lot of the building/buying stuff you’re after.

A “making your computer last” series is a fantastic idea and definitely one to put on the agenda.

Congratulations for your excellent blog!

I would like to understand how a hard drive is so fast to find the file I have asked between between several hundred of Gigabytes disposed in a quite disordered architecture in just a few seconds. And which factors determine the searching speed of a hard drive.

Many thanks

@Jamie: I would LOVE to write more about some of the “geekier” things regarding hard drives and other hardware. That’s probably something I’ll do for fun as time permits and when it makes sense. But I’ll get it on my list!

Tim,

Thanks for all the great coverage!

One thing that comes to mind is:
With all the complaints about W8 not being suitable for desktop and lap tops, can some simple fixes to done to make it work on them better than
W7?

Brian

@brian: I’d expect to see a lot of sites cover that kind of thing as Windows 8 is released here at the end of October 2012. It might make sense for me to write about that but our About.com Windows site (which as of this comment is still looking for a writer) might be better suited for that. Tell you what, if I see anything like that from anywhere, I’ll blog about it and probably toss it in the newsletter as well.

great column–always helpful info–how about speeding up the computer–someone told me to tape a cat 5 cable to the existing cat 5 cable for double the speed. doesn’t work!

@bob: Speeding up your computer is high on the list… I hope to get a lot of that sort of thing written about Windows 7 especially. As far as the CAT 5 cable “trick” you’re talking about – I’d find another “someone” to get computer advice from! That’s one of the weirder things I’ve heard!

Tim,
I really enjoy your articles.

I would really like to see some articles on SSD drives and some tips and tricks for. Win8

Thanks
Will

@Will D: SSD drives are way up there on the list. Should be coming soon.

Great articals Tim, thanks.

1,) SSD drives, defrag, yes or no??
2,) The new BIOS, UEFI. I just built a new system, with an ASUS Sabertooth mobo, AMD 6 core Pythone. System works great, but the start screen flashes up 3 times on start up, most annoying, can’t figure out how to fix it, first two times it flashes up, says it can’t find a hard drive, third time is ok then it goes into windows.

thanks again

@Gordon Steeves: As I was just replying to @Will D – SSD drive stuff is way up there. Defragging them? Not needed whatsoever due to the different way in which they locate data.

You’re right in that I have very little mention anywhere on my site about UEFI so that’s certainly needed. As far as your issue – I have an ASUS board with UEFI on the computer I’m using now and the logo flashes three times for me too. It’s probably just something ASUS needs to polish up. The “can’t find hard drive” message might be referring to some controllers you have enabled but aren’t using, especially since Windows loads fine. So there’s one thing to look at.

Would like to learn more about using the Windows Event Viewer for troubleshooting.

@Morgan: I started looking at writing a lot about Event Viewer but my planning for it became so overwhelming (it’s a pretty big topic) that I put it on hold for some other (read: easier to conquer) projects. This is certainly something you should expect to see on my site and that I plan on getting to sooner than later.

What about a column about where and how to look for the best prices and deals on pc/laptops replacement parts of all kinds on the web?

Also ,besides reading your excellent emails where to go to find answers on the web to any pc/laptop hardware/software problem?

Thank you.

@Will: The About.com PC Hardware/Reviews site is your best bet on our network for expert advice on deals on systems and components.

As far as the “any pc/laptop hardware/software problem” searches: I say give my site a shot first! I have a lot of troubleshooting guides for common errors and symptoms. Otherwise, Google is probably your best bet. It’s all out there somewhere, just not on a single site.

Tim, I been reading your stuff for years and always find it interesting. I have a problem that is driving me nuts. That I wish you or K.K. would write about.

For no apparent reason music starts playing on my pc. Not music from any of my files. It’s coming off the internet somewhere. As soon as I start task mgr it stops. So I know it would like to remain hidden. And yes it will interfear with my audio/video files.

@Debra McBee @jess lev @Greta @RT @VS Lingam @hukam sehgal @don drummond @Pat Hemphill: All of your issues are probably a bit specific for what I had in mind for future topic ideas (see my edit in this blog post). However, I’m sure myself or one of the other helpful folks in my PC Support forum would be more than happy to help you out with your problem. Thank you!

Is there a Spam button in 2007 MS outlook so I can select my e-mail messages as spam??

I’m wondering how to get my HP scanner to work (3970), and how to upload pictures onto my computer. The original adobe program stopped working as i did not register in time and now I don’t know what photo program to get and how to upload and organize my photos from an Easyshare Kodak camera with an SD card. I have the cables from camera to the computer, a Dell Dimension 4600 and an SD card reader which can be plugged into the computer. I have Flickr, and Picasa. Some photos are in the computer but I just don’t know how to access everything and upload and organize. I want to start a shop of Etsy and need these skills.

Hi Tim very good posts , and i look forward to them ,, for me personaly id love more posts on securety,,you can never have enough of that !!

@Harry Milne: We actually have a site that focuses on security: About.com Internet/Network Security. Andy O’Donnell, the guy that runs that site, is a smart cookie.

I love your post. I need more info on Windows 7 compatibility and what does this message mean “access violaton at 0x0305606E (tried to write to 0×00000000 program terminated) when I tried to install software from cd.

Does that make sense?

If you could talk about the following major concerns i have I would greatly appreciate your expertise.
1. Is it possible for some one else to see the page your are reading on your laptop when using the internet. How can this be prevented????

2. I would like more information on how to make a MS operating system more secure from hackers(Closing open ports of access) and key loggers.

3. Tell me ways to completely back up and restore my entire computer system in the event I have some major virus or security concern going on. If I could restore my computer to the way it was previously that would be nice for me.

4. Just more on security in general. Cause more and more people on using online banking and buying things using their credit cards kind of scary. I know some people care about upgrading and that is fine me I want locks not modifications, MAJOR LOCKS TO KEEP THE BAD OUT.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR ARTICLES I AM LEARNING ALOT.

@DAVID: Your first, second, and fourth questions are all more security Q&A related and not so much break/fix (my specialty). I’d suggest checking out Andy’s stuff on the About.com Internet/Network Security site.

To your #3 question: I have stuff on online backup services, System Restore, and some other related topics, but I don’t yet have a “master backup plan” piece. It’s in the works.

What’s the best way to move all your programs to a new laptop? I’ve used PC Mover before, but I don’t want the new computer to have all the junk the old one did. This time I’m building the new one manually, but it’s so tedious. Especially tracking down all the keys from downloaded apps…

@Carol Southern: My suggestion there is to do it the hard way, especially if you feel, as you seem to, that the “junk” on the existing computer should die a nasty death. So, I say reinstall everything from scratch. You do mention something especially frustrating about that process and that’s locating all those product keys and serial numbers. There are some programs that make that easier – they’re called key finder programs and they can extract the registration keys from the registry if the program is still installed. Since you might have all sorts of various programs (not just popular ones), I’d suggest using LicenseCrawler. It’s free.

I love your columns because they are so helpful and full of info
I would like to see a column about what’s the best laptop to go to college with. What should I look for? Memory and brand etc? Where can I get the best deal. How can I keep it running for years to come? What’s the best way to take care of a laptop? What programs should not be installed in a laptop?
Hope you can use these ideas

@Alla: Thanks for the suggestions! Keeping a computer (desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.) running for a long time is a piece I’ve been wanting (and preparing) to write for a while now. I’m sure I’ll promote the heck out of that when it’s done, as I’m sure it would be very helpful. General “care” and “what to avoid” sorts of things are right up that alley as well, so thanks for that.

As far as buying a laptop for college and all the details surrounding that, I’d suggest Mark’s PC Hardware/Reviews site. Specifically, his Laptop PC Buyer’s Guide and Back to School Computer Guide are both good resources.

THANKS FOR ALL THE GREAT INFO TIM.

I HAVE A BABY QUESTION HOW DO YOU GET THE SCREEN TO OPEN UP FULLY WHEN YOU TURN ON INTERNET EXPLORER ( WITH OUT ALWAYS CHECKING THE BOX TO EXPAND THE SCREENE. I HAVE XP, DELL DIMENSION 3000.
THANKS FOR ANY TIPS.
BILL

@BILL: Try this: http://www.theeldergeek.com/maximize_internet_explorer.htm

Hi there, I thank you for taking the time to hear about our inquiries. I have not found enough information about legal hacking technics. Specifically, one of my customers changed his router´s access codes, but yet it would have been a lot of problems to reset it. His ISP would not let make changes to modem so they would not provide default codes in case modem was reset.

@Leo: “Legal hacking” can be a touchy subject. I do have some get-out-of-your-forgotten-password mess pieces that are very popular (and legal) but are focused mostly on Windows. I feel comfortable writing about those because they can’t be performed remotely. I figure if you have to be at a computer to unethically hack it, and that happens to you, the real issue is that you need better locks on your doors. So the router stuff I usually leave to “sorry, you’ll need to return it to factory defaults”.

Now as far as “default passwords” – yes, that’s all public information for most of the networking hardware out there. Next time, search for “[make] [model] default password” in Google and you’ll probably find what you want, some of it may even be on my site. All of those passwords are contained in freely available product manuals from the hardware maker so you can look there if you ever have trouble finding a straight answer from a search engine.

I always read your mailshots. Very interesting and a must for any computer user. The only trouble is that when there is a need for some help, the article either was discussed ways back or has not been a subject of interest.
My present problem is that my son got hold of my laptop and smart as kids are, entered a password for the bios. Trouble is that he does not know what he entered and we have tried everything under the sun but nothing works.
How to get into a Bios that is password protected and the password is lost? What possible tools can be used to overcome the problem?
Any help is very welcome.

@Bernhard Pahl: The “get past a BIOS password” piece has been sitting in draft for a long time. I just need to polish it up and get it up. FYI: most of the time you can just clear CMOS (jumper or battery removal method) and that’ll do it.

To your first comment about the newsletter having older or no-interest content, please know that the newsletter I send out is a promotional tool: in other words, I put stuff in there every week that I think is either timely or interesting or often simply the latest thing I’ve been working on. All of content that’s ever been in my newsletter, and lots more, you can find here on my actual website: About.com PC Support. You can search for whatever you like at the top of the page. Hope that helps!

Hi Tim, please advise, I used a SD card on my tablet running android 2.2 and now can no longer use the SD card on my windows laptop. I can not even format it, a message comes up stating that the SD card is locked.
What needs to be done to make the SD card again usable for windows?
thanks

@Bernhard Pahl: In regards to a “locked” SD card, my first thought is that the slide-lock on the card is slid to “locked” assuming of course the SD card in question has that feature. Here are some other ideas.

Hi, First of all, thanks SO much for all info.I read almost all of them and learn more and more.I would like to learn more about Remote desktop (full Control) and if possible,also about connecting remotely between Mac and Pc.(file transfer over Internet) thanks again and Wish you the best.

@Mohsen: Thanks for the Remote Desktop suggestions! I’ll get them added. This is a topic I love talking about (yes, I just said that) and I’m looking forward to writing about for About.com.

I have a desktop PC with a HDD that has Vista installed on it. Can I install a SSD, install the same Vista OS without removing the OS from the HDD, and will the system function properly?
If this is not possible, how do I delete the OS only from the HDD?

Thank you for considering this request.

John S.

@John Stewart: Do you mean migrating the existing installation from the SATA (assuming) drive to the SSD drive? Or do you mean just install it without disconnecting? Why don’t you head over to the forum, if you haven’t already, and post this question there. Address the post to me and I’ll get emailed. We can work it out there. Thanks!

Thanx Tim for all the help you give to everyone both directly and indirectly.

There are two topics that I’d like to learn more about:

Virtual computing
Networking

@zepe: Virtual computing is an interested topic but may be a bit outside my scope of fixing/preventing/maintaining computers. Though I can’t think of a topic area on the About.com network that might handle that either. Let me look into that.

Networking: we have a site here dedicated to that: About.com Wireless/Networking. It’s run by Bradley Mitchell and has been since 1999 (dinosaur times in Internet-years). While I certainly could beef up my network/Internet troubleshooting stuff, Bradley has you covered on the topic in general.

I note that defrag software is on your list. My local computer engineer says defragging isn’t necessary these days. Do you agree?

@Laurie Whelan: “Traditional” hard drives (the PATA and SATA kind) do still benefit from being defragged. Yes, newer PATA/SATA drives are very, very fast and so finding fragmented data is faster than on older (and slower) hard drives but you will still see a benefit from doing so, especially on heavily fragmented drives and when loading large files like videos, etc. Newer SSD drives (like giant USB sticks) do not need to be defragmented because they locate data differently than on PATA & SATA drives.

Hello Tim Fisher,

Firstly, I must thank you for all your emls. I read all of them. They are very interesting and helpful. Moreover, they are wriiten in layman’s language, in plain English, without too much tech jargon, and are easy to understand for ppl with just basic PC skills. This is probably your strong skillset. Keep em emls coming.

Now, I have a unique problem. I am using Win7 Home Premium. How do I prevent Microsoft from reminding me of certain updates yet remind me of others. Let me explain. I keep getting a download reminder called “Microsoft Security Essentials Client Update Package – KB2691905″. I have NEVER been able to successfully download and install it after several attempts over the last several weeks. This is an issue which many ppl faced. Someone suggested to completely uninstall MS Security Essentials and reinstall it. I tried but it did not work. I can’t uninstall MSE completely. I can’t install a fresh copy of MSE. I can’t instal the update paskage. I’m stuck any which way I go. I have given up on MSE and am now using another product.

I see 2 possible solutions:-
(a). I don’t mind using MSE if the problem can be fixed, but I don’t know how. If not possible, then
(b) I don’t want to be reminded about MSE (and its updates) as I suspect it is not running anymore on my PC. How to do this?

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Tks.

How to network my three computers (XP, XP, VISTA).

@John: In regards to networking, my site is better suited for troubleshooting a networking issue like a slow Internet connection, a lost file share, etc. We do have a dedicated networking site here – About.com Wireless/Networking – that’s run by Bradley Mitchell. He has all sorts of basic networking information that should help.

I learn a lot from your tutorials, thank you.
1. A one stop tutorial on optimizing a SSD, including moving DATA and programs to a second HDD.

2. Although Google is your friend, something many seem to forget, a tutorial on searching so that when I look for “Intel Sandy Bridge 2500K review” I don’t get, (About 1,080,000 results (0.40 seconds)

Cheers

@iammykyl: Thanks for the SSD tutorial idea. That would be a good one. I know how exhaustive that “optimization” process can be with SSD drives. So many settings to doulbe check, etc. I’ve done it several times and should certainly document it for the rest of you.

As far as the Google search stuff: in general, that’s outside my realm. However, I can see something about ‘how to search for your computer problem’ or something like that. Interesting. I’ll put some thought into that; could be a really good idea! Thanks!

I am a beginner. I love your blog , very helpful to me. help in removing “babylon search” from mozilla tab and “avg secure search.” thanks.

Well I seen a lot of great guides. Nice information from you. You mention a lot of nice ideas such as defraging, cleanup and speeding up programs. I think my main idea would be is how to back up your windows with all of it updates or any program for that fact. I run older computers (4 at this moment in life) and I use a lot of use equipment. I hate to see any thing just throwed on the junk pile. Naturally I occur quite a few hard drive errors and have to reload a lot of programs and sometimes operating systems. I have the original programs. I have read tons of articles about backing up your software and data. but what I never found is how you can find and Identify what the file or files of the update is . For that matter where they are located on the hardrive! Futher example I switch from 98 to Windows XP in October of last year. I start with Xp Service pack 1. I have a ton of updates and I am now up Service pack 3. So there has been a lot of updates! This has been done online. What if these updates are no longer avaible on line. If I had a hard drive failure I could reload the original program from disk but the not the updates. A lot articles out there but most just rehash the same old jibberish they don;t really touch bases on the how to backup the real important updates or drivers. That would be a lot to digest so I check you out on Mars when I get there : )

@Michael: Thanks for all of that. I see what you’re getting at. To ease your concern a little, know that Microsoft does “retire” operating systems but they don’t typically remove service packs or previously released updates to those operating systems. They simply stop producing new ones: first non-security updates stop, then security related ones.

I recently decided to increase my memory from 4gig to 8gig. Got on to the crucial site to find out what was required and printed it off. Not being a trustful soul I do not like making purchases over the net so I went to PC World and produced the printout. I was supplied 4x2gig Integral modules to the specification printed. Took them home and installed them next day.BIG MISTAKE! After logging on it was one BSOD after another. I tried umpteen different suggested cures for this but to no avail and eventually took them back to PC World. I had assumed that they were faulty so they were put on test, as I live 16 miles from the store it can be very inconvenient travelling back and fore. Later that day I received a call saying that no fault could be found and was invited to visit the store next day which I did. DUE TO AN AWKWARD STORE MANAGER I was not going to get a refund. The tech guy informed me that despite his instructions he refunded me the money I had spent. The reason he did this was because Integral are 800 mhz and my system was 400mhz and Integral are not backward compatible! He advised me to order from Crucial and have received and installed the modules with no BSODs and so far everything is working well and the increase in speed due to the upgrade is tremendous. The moral of this epic is simply this, if you are upgrading your memory be very careful what you buy. Ipersonally will be very careful what I buy in future.

how about spreading a little info on tablets..like reloading flash drive with operating system (android). i have a MID (chinese) model 10″ 800MHZ tablet that i tried to format a 32gb micro drive for music purposes and it copied my operating system files to edrive and erased flash drive…any help would be greatly appreciated…don

How about discussing the pros and cons of various commercial software programs designed to assist in repairing computer problems.?

@Steve: Oh my, that’s a good idea, and something I play around with. The magnitude of a project like that scares me. I realize I don’t have to tackle it all at once, but I like to try when I can. There are SO many programs that say they do that and SO many of them are a scam. This is something I really want to work on and I’m sure would be helpful. It probably deserves a move up the priority list.

Hello Tim,

Thanks for you great articles. The two things I find difficult in W7 are security settings and searching the HD for ‘lost’ files.

Regard,
Ed.

@Ed: Do you mean like browser (IE?) security settings or some of the complicated stuff you’ll find in the Windows Firewall? And lost files – as in finding things you know are there but just can’t find, or recovering thing’s you’ve deleted?

Hi Tim
We would appreciate your thoughts oa Modem Selection and set up
for both wireless and cable.
I personally have difficulty remembering the steps for my Simple
Connection to my ISP and so do most of my mates.
Your assistance will be appreciated together with the Set Up instructions
for Connection to our PCs, LAN and Public Networks.
Thank You,
Glynn.

@Glynn: You might find a lot of what you’re after on the About.com Wireless/Networking site.

You need to broaden your horizon. Your columns are read also outside the US, where Latin script is not common. You should cover developments relating to these languages, especially those written right to left. For example, Arabic script is used by over 50 languages. Urdu, the second biggest language in the world, has been supported in Windows 7 but there still many bugs and only a few fonts are supplied.

@M A Hameed: Agreed that’s an issue and I know I have readers outside the US. The Windows shortcomings in this regard are probably better discussed on the About.com Windows site, unless there are specific user-solvable issues, in which case writing about that would be a very good idea. You can contact me directly if you think that would be valuable to that audience.

Hi Tim…..I recently did a full recovery on my laptop and did a save a back-up on to an external harddrive. I now wish to put my Contacts List back on to my laptop, how do I go about doing this please? Also before the recovery I was running Windlows Live Mail…..now only Windows Mail is default on my computer…..I have tried to download ‘Live Mail’ but have repeatedly been told that I must download Service Pack 2 (which had been updated again anyhow) and another update……as much as I could try to get this all sorted out…I STILL can’t download ‘Live Mail’ again. Amy help wlecome. I do not find Windows ‘Help’ Website helpful at all, for an amateur like myself.

I have enjoyed your newsletter and have used the info . In reference to this issue. Have you considered writing some to help older and partially disabled users?
I for instance have terrible vision and that in only one eye. That is not a complaint, but information to show what many people have to deal with. I have ordered the easy see keyboards and mice for both my pcs and I am currently experimenting with using one of the high contrast color schemes .
I hope that you would consider this as I after using a computer since my first kit in 1981, still just stumbled on the sight helps in windows 7 and xp

@Lawrence Dougherty: There may be some opportunity on the PC Support site for some information about that. However, for right now, you might find it very interesting that we have a new About.com Assistive Technology site that’s very good and probably touches on a lot of things you deal with.

What section of your PC support newsletter would I go to if I need info on understanding Security Settings for my Windows 7 Libraries?
I find them confusing.
Thanks

I lost the horiuzontal line in OE 2007 separating my e-mail from a short explanation of the contentds of the incoming e-mails. How do I get this separtion (line) back????
Thanks!

Hi Fisher,
I need to free the hard disk cause everytime I started my disktop, I found that the computer is runing on low disk space, while I alaways perform disk cleanup and also delete temp internet files….

I took the advice fpr free anti-virus AVG software. Now it won’t let me remove it from my system. Norton did this to us years ago and then we lost windows live. Couldn’t remember our windows sign in name and password recovery told there wasn’t one, but I know there was one. Every one allows for forgetting log-in name and password, not windows. So we bought a new win7 HP and I thought I’d try AVG ( on the old pc first) not it won’t leave.

Please, could you share some light on “wireless” setup at home. I’m older and have always used “wired” and do have my home network setup to connect my notebook, tablet, and desktop computers, up and down stairs with AT&T wired phone/DLS internet, plus Netgear Wireless router. How do I stop using my “wired” phone and internet service and go “all wireless”. Will all my computers work from just a Wireless Router? This seems to be what everyone is using now days, but I don’t understand it all.