Ask A Geek

Q: I’m ready for a new laptop soon to replace my Compac Presario V5105us. I’m looking at primarily HP’s & Sony. Really need a much better machine now for dealing w/ Photoshop CS4, Office, Internet but no gaming. I’ve looked into HP dv7-1270us, 2170us, 2180us, HDZ16-1370, HDX 16t. In Sony line Ive seen FW 460-J/t, 460 J/B, and NW 150 J/S. I’ve looked at several others & am open to suggestions/recommendations. I’d like at least 4 mb (expandable to ?), good graphic card w/it’s own mwmory like ATI HD 3xx or InVidia GeForce, preferably Intel core 2 processor (duo would be nice), 15+” screen up to 17″. I have a budget of $900-1200. Is there something decent that I can get that’s in that range? I’d really like to move on this purchase soon.

Q: I am having color issues with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0, my printer, and my digital camera. The picture on my computer screen is completely different than the one that comes out of the printer and the camera. How can I fix this?

A: Since the Camera and the printer show the correct colors then I would suggest we concentrate on the monitor. The best option would be to get a hardware based calibration system like the ColorVision Spyder2 Express or the Pantone huey. These devices are easy to use and will automatically calibrate your system so that the colors are correct. The Pantone huey stays connected to your system so that it can constantly update your settings based on the change in light in the room.

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Q: I am having color issues with Photoshop Elements 6.0, Kodak All-In-One printer, and my Nikon d80 photos. The picture on my computer screen is completely different than the one that comes out of the printer. How can I fix this?

Q: How can I tell how much hard-disk space is available on my computer? I am running Windows XP Professional Operating System Version: 5.1.2600. The reason I ask is that I want to install Photoshop CS4, and their system requirements say, “1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices)”.

Does my computer have enough juice to run Adobe CS4 Design Premium? I am running Windows XP Professional, with the following specs:

Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 3.06GHz
Processor Speed: 2.99 GHz
Memory (RAM): 1024 MB
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Operating System Version: 5.1.2600