Windows Vista & WiFi Saga Continues

That Gateway laptop with Windows Vista that I had so much trouble with was back under my typing fingers again today. I finally had it working perfectly with the new NetGear router, so it was time to see if it would connect to the older Dell WiFi router.
Drum roll, please…. No. Same garbage. Connect up, [...]

Faster External Storage for Your Laptop – eSATA II

For many laptop users, USB 2.0 or Firewire offer fast enough speeds for external storage. For others, though, 400mbps just isn’t fast enough.
My work with the MBox and ProTools is one example. ProTools recommends recording music to a non system hard drive – tough to do on a laptop unless you’re talking external. Yet tech [...]

How To Upgrade Memory in a Laptop – Video on Associated Content

I am very pleased to announce that my video How To Upgrade Memory in a Laptop at Associated Content has been on the front page for a couple of days now and appears to be pretty popular.
Check it and post a comment there (and here) if you like.

WiFi and Vista – Problems with basic hookup

My mistake. I told someone that hooking up a Vista Laptop to their WiFi should be a piece of cake. “It’ll prompt you for the key”, I told her.
A home user from one of my clients bought her daughter a laptop for graduation. I gave her the basic buying guide recommendations and she adjusted to [...]

MBox 2 Pro – Update – Hardware Profiles

Continuing our MBox 2 Pro and ProTools software discussion, my laptop configuration is a Pentium M 1.7Ghz with 1.5GB RAM and a 100GB 7200rpm hard drive.
The MBox tech support rep had me turn off several devices in order to get the software to run reliably. Naturally, it made sense to setup a hardware profile for [...]

One Laptop Per Child – The $100 Laptop

Because of my interest in the One Laptop Per Child initiative, I was suckered into watching the 1 minute 15 second video on Yahoo!. Normally, I won’t watch any videos on Yahoo! because:

Yahoo! bandwidth on videos stinks
You must watch a stupid commercial first
You cannot make up for the bandwidth problem (starting & stopping) by downloading [...]

Computer or Laptop Repair – Beware the Reformatted Drive!

Reason #7 to backup your computer. Ok, I made up the #7 thing, but don’t the guys on TV commercials make it up too?
When you take your laptop or desktop PC in to be repaired, make sure you have a good backup of it. Preferably an entire drive image with a product like Acronis True [...]

The $100 Laptop

One Laptop Per Child is a non profit organization whose goal is to give children in developing countries access to computer technology. It’s a noble goal.
These laptops, with wireless but without hard drive, are designed to be easy to use and help these under privileged people gain access to the worlds prosperity.
The laptops have a [...]

Who Loves Money? – Na, Just the Things that Money Can Buy!

Two themes I get barraged with over and over.

“You emphasize money too much”
“Tell me what you think of this laptop”

(I’m tempted here to do the “Hello, McFly!” thing from Back To The Future, but my loving wife tells me I over due it.)
I fully understand why people keep asking me about cheap laptops. Day after [...]

How to Buy a Laptop – 7 Areas to Cut Costs

I get asked time and again how to buy a laptop. Sometimes it’s for a student, other times for an adult who just wants the freedom to roam around the house while computing.
The best advice I can give is to consult my laptop buying guide.
But what if the advice there leads me to a $2000 [...]