The Cost Of Replacing A Motherboard by robert on November 24, 2007
Q: How much should it cost to replace my motherboard if I have someone do it for me?
A: Building a PC requires a “geek” to follow a 23-step procedure, according to a PC Mechanic article entitled Build Your Own PC. While replacing a motherboard is not quite as intense as building an entire PC, it [...]
Converting Commercial VHS Tapes To A Digital Format by robert on November 23, 2007
Q: What device can be used to convert VHS tapes to digital? I have over 300 commercial VHS tapes. I know that the VHS/DVD recorder does not copy copyright protected tapes.
A: Warning: what you want to do is illegal in the United States and many other countries! The most common copy protection used on [...]
Burning High Definition Video To A DVD by robert on November 23, 2007
Q: If I buy an HD camcorder and a hard drive, can I burn a video to a 4.7GB +/- disk on my PC? Or, do the disks have to be HD? Thank you for your help.
A: Great question! I have been able to find two methods for getting high definition video onto a DVD. [...]
800MHz RAM Being Reported As 667MHz by robert on November 22, 2007
Q: I have a Dell XPS M1730 with a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme processor and 4GB of 667MHz speed RAM running Windows Vista Business. I recently changed my RAM to 800MHz but in the BIOS it only displays 667MHz, is there any way to unlock this on Dell XPS laptops?
A: I have some [...]
Recovering Data From A Failed Laptop Hard Drive by robert on November 22, 2007
Q: I have a Dell Latitude D800 Laptop. This past weekend the hard drive failed without warning. I’ve removed and re-seated it but it still does not work. Is there any hope of saving the data that’s on it?
A: I am sorry to learn about your problem. Some or all of your data is probably [...]
Opening Office 2007 Files In Older Versions Of Office by robert on November 21, 2007
Q: If I am using Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, can people using Office XP and an earlier version of PowerPoint view my slide show on their computers?
A: Excellent question! The answer is yes. Office 2007 uses a new standard called Office Open XML for saving files. Microsoft has created a program that can convert Office [...]
Transfering files from XP to Vista by robert on November 21, 2007
Q: How do I transfer my Windows music files from my Windows XP computer to my Windows Vista computer?
A: There are many ways for you to transfer your music from XP to Vista, although I don’t recommend using Vista. XP is much more stable! Microsoft has created a program called Windows Easy Transfer that is [...]
Accessing Data From A Mac Hard Drive In Microsoft Windows by robert on November 20, 2007
Q: I have an external hard drive that was formatted with a Mac. I downloaded music to it. I had to turn the Mac back in to school and my PC won’t read the music on the hard drive. What can I do?
A: The easiest solution is to find a friend who owns a Mac [...]
Hard Drive Makes Noise During Defrag by robert on November 20, 2007
Q: I am unable to defrag my main hard drive past 24%. I am running Windows XP pro (sp2) fully updated. The system is an old AMD Athlon Socket A board. The hard drive in question is a Western Digital 160GB drive (model WDC WD1600JB-32FUA0). Also, sometimes at random intervals, the system “blue screens” (on [...]
Small Wallpaper, Tiny Text, And Other Screen Resolution Issues by robert on November 19, 2007
Q: When I increase my resolution from 1024×768 to 1600X1200 on my laptop I can fit more on the screen but it is much harder for me to read the text and see the icons. What can I do to resolve this?
A: Text/Icons/Pictures appear smaller as your computer’s display resolution is increased. This is why [...]