Category Archives: Technical Tips

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When in Doubt, Restart

Technical Tips,

Perhaps the most basic computer troubleshooting principle, I find it generally under-used. My guess is there is no understanding of why or how the principle works. So here goes:

Those avid readers who have followed my articles will know that the data stored in the primary memory, where data used by running programs is temporarily stored (RAM), will not survive a “restart” (the process of shutting down all programs and reload the operating system into memory). In other words, it’s a way of resetting all information accumulated in memory, including errors normally accumulated when running programs.

An educated estimate would place the probabilities of a restart resolving whatever odd behavior your computer is exhibiting at 50%. So before you go trying to troubleshoot the problem, before you call your computer guy, before you do anything else, when running into unexpected erratic behavior with your computer… restart!

One last thing. There are two different levels of restarting in Windows. One is to actually select the “restart” button. That will restart the computer without completely shutting it off. The other one, more thorough, consists of selecting “shutdown” wait until the power is completely off, waiting 30 seconds, and turning the computer back on. Without getting into the technicalities of why, if you use the latter method it’s a more thorough reset, and it is therefore more effective.

And I guess I lied, THIS is the last thing: When your computer “freezes” (is unresponsive to mouse or keyboard commands) a forced shutdown is in order. Some computers have a “reset” button that will force a restart. Try that first if your computer has it. If it doesn’t have it or does nothing when you press it, press the power button and KEEP IT PRESSED for about 5 seconds. No matter how frozen or unresponsive, that will force a computer to shut off. Beware: that is only to be used if the computer is otherwise unresponsive, because shutting it down that way will not go through the proper shutdown procedure, and all unsaved information will be lost, and every now and then there is a chance of file corruption. But if the computer is frozen it’s the lesser of two evils.

Solid State Drives: Pros and Cons, and a Don’t

Technical Tips

First of all, what the hell is a “Solid State Drive”? (SSD) It’s a storage device, similar in function to your hard disk drive, although not in structure. So like your hard disk drive, it stores programs and files to be used by the computer on demand.

OK so now for the structure. Your typical hard disk drive consists of several rigid platters on a spindle that are read and written by magnetic heads that hover close to the platters. Hence, “hard disk” drive. The solid state drive has no moving parts and it would be best compared to the USB flash drive (a.k.a. thumb drive) that has become so popular in recent years. The main difference is the solid state drive is bigger and has more capacity. So instead of moving parts, it has circuitry to hold the information. Thus, “solid state” drive.

Knowing the above, the pros are evident: No moving parts mean a much higher shock resistance, which is especially key when it comes to portable computers. Also because of the way the data is stored, the access time is much faster. This is more important than you might think if you’re looking for performance. A computer is only as fast as its slowest component. It would not be an overstatement to say that nowadays that slowest component is the storage device. So by speeding that up, one is improving the overall performance of the computer. And last but not least, the added bonus of no spinning noise from a solid state drive.

Now for the cons: as with all emerging technologies, price is higher than your traditional hard disk drive. Also lifespan is generally lower. And although this is being remedied, as of recent times solid state drives’ capacity is lower than what you can find in the hard disk drive market.

One important “don’t” for those who have them: do not run defragmenting software on them. Because of their structure, there is no advantage in doing so, and it only increases the wear level of the drive, thus shortening its lifespan. And remember that in later operating systems like Windows Vista and 7, there are automatic defragmenting tasks scheduled to run in the background, so make sure you disable those as well. (N.B.: There is some controversy on the particular subject of solid state drive defragmenting. The statement in the above paragraph is the commonly accepted one, but Diskeeper, a software company specializing in storage performance technology, claims improved benchmark write times figures in solid state drives that use Diskeeper’s proprietary defragmenting technology for solid state drives.)

See my recent article on the performance test results with a new solid state drive installed in my laptop.

Transferring Data from Your Old Computer

Technical Tips

So you got a new computer, or are planning on getting it, and have to face the nightmare of transferring all your data from the old one to the new. The first thing I’d like to say about the subject is what I’ve found to be the most common misunderstanding: Normally speaking, you cannot just move your existing programs from the old computer to the new by copying over the program files. Why?

When a program is installed in your Windows based computer, there is more to it than just copying files into it. There is a series of operations that take place at the time of the installation to ensure the program runs correctly. So just copying over the files will do no good since that is just a part of what would need to happen for the program to work in your new computer. The right thing to do, providing the program is compatible with the operating system in your new computer, is to install the program in the new computer, and then copy over any files the program might use that is not included in the original install. Example: You have an email program. You install it in the new computer, and then export or copy over the files that contain the emails, contacts, etc. from the old to the new computer.

Of course there is a way copying the program files could work, but it requires special programs that can create an exact copy (clone) of your old hard disk into your new one. But that normally is unpractical when migrating to a new computer since all the computer settings that apply to the old computer rarely apply to the new computer.

Windows offers an easy transfer tool that can be used to assist in this process. If the old and new computers are both up and running , the easiest way is to connect them through a local network and run the transfer wizard.

The process of migrating the data from an old computer to a new one is only apparently complicated. If done in a systematic, step-by-step way it’s hassle-free and can be done by virtually anyone. But if this is your first time you might want to get expert help to make sure is done right on the first try.

WiDi – What is it? What Can I do With it?

Glossary, Technical Tips

While recently working on setting up a laptop to be connected to a home theater system, I realized I haven’t talked about WiDi. WiDi = Wireless Display, a new technology that allows high definition content to be transmitted wirelessly between a computer (usually a laptop) and a high definition TV.

That means you can use the TV as an external monitor and play movies from the laptop, play music through your home theater system,  show picture galleries, or simply browse the internet in your laptop and display it on your high Definition TV. Of course that also means being able to stream movies from services such as Netflix from your laptop to your high definition TV, wirelessly.

This new technology is available only in the newest generation laptops, with the newest CPUs from Intel (the i3, i5 or i7 family), and Windows 7, 64-bit operating system. It requires a receiver that attaches to the High Definition TV.

Even if you don’t plan to have such setup, at least now you know what WiDi means 🙂

Installed Programs, Running Programs, How Exactly Can They Slow Down Your Computer?

Technical Tips

Every user is probably aware, to one degree or another, of the fact that programs run in his/her computer. But what are the effects of an installed program? what are the effects of a program running actively? Does having a program installed mean it takes CPU power or RAM space?

Let’s start from the beginning. When you power up your computer, it first loads a series of basic programs that comprise the Operating System. These are the programs that allow you to interact with the computer and control it, initiate new programs, etc. Next, there are a number of programs that are flagged to start when the computer boots up. The computer looks up that list and loads those programs in memory as part of the startup process. Logically, the longer the list (and the bigger the programs) the more time it takes for your computer to finish the startup process. Also the more RAM the computer will use and therefore the less it will have available if you need to start new programs like a word processor, a web browser, or an email application.

Now, the fact that a program is installed in a computer does not mean it takes CPU power or RAM space per se. The program needs to be invoked into action by either the computer from a preset list of programs as covered above, or by user intervention as in the example of the word processor. Up until then it will certainly take hard disk space (storage) but that’s it. When a program is started it will take RAM space, and depending on what is doing in real time, it will take more or less CPU power. Therefore it’s a basic maintenance task to check what programs run at startup and shave from that list any unneeded ones (especially if the computer is new or this maintenance routine has never been performed) for you’ll find a lot of times computer have unnecessary programs set to run at startup that don’t need to be and just eat RAM space and CPU power.

Generally speaking, a computer with only the needed programs running at any given time is a mean lean machine that operates faster.

How Browsing the Internet Affects Your Computer

Computer Security, Technical Tips

Cookies: Delicious, yes. But computer cookies, not always. A cookie in computer terms is a file written to your computer by a website you have visited. Sometimes cookies can have a good purpose. Like storing information that can be used to speed up the next time you visit that website. But sometimes cookies are used to keep track of what websites you visit. So they sort of spy on you. Thus, when used that way they’re considered spying software, or spyware. Cookies are not the only type of spyware and not all cookies are spyware.

Now, you might have also heard about temporary Internet files, stored in your computer. What are they? when you visit a website, more often than not, there are graphics (pictures, drawings) and other files that your computer’s web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, are example of web browsers) must download and open for the website to display properly. The computer keeps some of those files in a local cache folder, the temporary Internet files folder, to be able to display the website faster the next time you visit it. In other words, instead of having to access and download those files from the Internet again the next time you visit a website, it simply accesses them from the computer’s storage. As a concept that’s good and useful, but it opens the door to your computer collecting the wrong types of files from the internet, thus infecting your computer – This is known as a drive-by-download infection.

The application of the above theory is immediate. It tells you that a sound action, if you suspect the possibility of an infection in your computer from having visited a malicious website, is to delete all cookies and temporary internet files. How do you do that? it depends on the browser you’re using. You can always search the help file for your browser, or ask an expert for specific instructions on how to do that in your particular browser.

Some antivirus products will inspect every file your computer accesses to display a website, and IF it can recognize it as malign, it can stop it from infecting your computer and alert you to the fact. Of course that is IF. Some products keep lists of known malicious websites to prevent you accidentally accessing one of them and thus infecting your computer.

Well, now you know more about what these computer security products do and why, and what can you do about it as well.

How Fast is a Fast Computer These Days?

Technical Tips

In other words, what’s considered a top-of-the-line computer in present day? Knowing that would give you a measuring stick you could use to measure your computer, or a potential new computer, and so forth.

Now, even though laptops have come a long way in terms of performance in the last few years, and even though a top-of-the-line powerful laptop will outperform most desktops, a top-of-the-line desktop will still outperform its equivalent in laptop form.

Due to its performance-demanding nature, computers designed to run high-end games are the best performance computers. Therefore top-of-the-line computers are synonym with gaming computers. Two brands are generally agreed upon as being the best gaming computers: Sager, and Alienware.

I’m slightly slanted towards Alienware, so let’s see what their top of the line gaming computer is like: first, the current fastest CPU is the Intel i7 980X. It boasts six cores. If you don’t know what that means, let me give you an idea. You have probably heard about the dual-core CPUs that came out a few years ago. They were succeeded by quadruple core CPUs not too long ago. The i7 980X CPU, which came out late last year has, not two, not four, but six processors clocked at 3.73 GHz. That’s an immense amount of processing power. So, the Alienware Area-51 model can be configured to have the i7 980X CPU. It can also be configured to have up to 12 Gb of RAM, a dual dedicated graphics processing unit cards setup, a dual solid-state drive hard disks setup (a solid-state hard disk drive doesn’t have moving parts like a conventional hard disk drive and its access time to read and write is far superior than traditional, spinning hard disks),  Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit operating system (regular, 32-bit operating systems cannot handle more than around 3 Gb of Ram so a 64-bit version is what’s needed to be able to handle the 12 Gb of Ram).

So there you have it. How much for the above monster? at the time of this writing it retails for about $5,800.

Of course an expert could build a custom computer from scratch and get the same performance specifications for less cost. But with no disrespect to custom builders, I’ve found from experience that custom built computers are harder to provide support to than mainstream systems. And generally speaking, there is a well-known triangle in the custom builders’ world (and not just on building computers; I learned it while indulging in the hobby of custom car modifications) that has Performance, Reliability and Cost at its vertexes. In other words, The more performance, the less reliability. Lots of performance while maintaining some reliability will give you high cost. With little expense, don’t hope for much performance or reliability. You get the idea.

OK so now let’s see if you actually read this article. How many hyphens in it? 🙂

How Exactly Does My Computer Connect to The Internet? (The Innards of Your Home Network in Plain English)

Technical Tips

So you have a laptop connected wirelessly to a mysterious box that a technician from your Internet Service Provider company came and installed, and ever since you’re able to check your email online or browse websites. Or perhaps a desktop computer with a wire that connects it to said box, with the same result. That’s all good and dandy but what if something goes wrong and your computer can no longer connect? here’s a couple of tips for what you can do yourself to attempt and solve the situation before you have to call for help from an expert. But first, some theory.

IP addresses, IP addresses. You might have heard that one before, maybe once, maybe many times, but what the bleep is an IP address? IP = Internet Protocol. Hence, think of an IP address like you’d think of a real world physical address. How does somebody send you a letter? they address it to 123 Main St. Anytown, Anystate 55555, and it gets to you. Well, in the computer networking world, that’s exactly what the IP address is – an address by which your computer can be reached. If there is more than one computer in your house, each one  has its own individual IP address. Also, every house with internet connectivity has an IP address, facing externally to the Internet universe, so to speak. Imagine you live in an apartment building. Now mail has to have the apartment number for it to reach you – simply addressing mail to your apartment building address is not enough. Same thing with IP addresses.

That box that the Internet Service Provider installed at your place has an IP address, but if there is more than one computer connected to that box, then each computer in turn has its own unique IP address, different than the box’s one. That box (for more information on what that box is see The Basics Elements of Your Internet Connection) is normally in charge of dishing out IP addresses to the computers at your place. The IP address assignment normally occurs when the computer is first connected to the box. The box says something like “I hereby give you the IP address of…  ” and it assigns it.

Alright, I know your fingers are itching to be able to do something with the above data, so let’s get to it. There are specific circumstances where Internet connectivity is lost because of problems related to IP addresses. Enumerating all the possible problems and their causes is beyond the scope of this article, but let’s say you’re trying to access the Internet, and you can’t.  Well, there is a method of resolving it by “renewing” the computer’s IP address – a repeat of the ceremony where the gateway/router says “I hereby give you the IP address of…”. There are 3 ways to do it, and I’m going to cover them going  from simple to complex. You can choose the method that best suits your level:

Method 1: Turn off your computer, turn off your router/gateway/modem, wait for a minute, and turn them back on in this sequence: First modem/gateway, wait a couple of minutes, then router if there is one, wait for a minute, then computer.

Method 2: Go to Start, Control Panel, Network Connections (may have slightly different name depending on which Windows operating system your computer has), locate the network connection that is being used to connect to the internet, right click on it with your mouse, select “Repair”. Wait for the repair to occur.

Method 3:

a. If your operating system is Windows XP, Go to Start, Run, type “cmd” (without the quotation marks) and press enter. At the command prompt, type “ipconfig  /release” (without the quotation marks) and press enter. Wait for the command to execute and then type “ipconfig  /renew”. Wait for the command to execute and then close that black window where you typed all that.

b. If your operating system is Windows Vista or 7, click on Start, type “cmd” in the search box, locate “cmd.exe” at the top of the start menu, right click on it, choose “Run as Administrator”. At the command prompt, type “ipconfig /release” (without the quotation marks) and press enter. Wait for the command to execute and then type “ipconfig /renew” (without the quotation marks). Wait for the command to execute and then close that black window where you typed all that.

If you have internet connectivity now, pat yourself in the back. You did it.

Why is The Hard Drive in My Computer Called “c:” ?

Technical Tips

Well, I’m glad you asked. The first personal computer, the grand-grand-grandfather of the computer you’re using to read this, had  “floppy disk drives”, that used a thin magnetic disk for data storage. Sometimes a computer had two floppy disk drives, one for holding the operating system files that enabled the computer to function, and another for storing documents and other files. These 2 drives were labeled “A” and “B”. If there was a hard disk present as well, its designated drive letter would then of course be “C”.

OK but what’s with the colon after the letter? To be honest, I don’t know.  This is what I do know: back in the pre-Windows days, it was part of the path that showed where you where in a particular drive, in the tree directory. Don’t get confused. It’s very simple.  If  you have ever seen this in a computer monitor:

c:\>

You get the idea. “c:” indicates the drive, “\” indicates that you are at the root directory, the first most basic directory, and “>” is an end symbol which indicates that after that comes whatever you as a user type. Typically a blinking cursor shows after that, so it looks like

c:\>_

(You’ll have to imagine the above cursor is blinking) 🙂

In modern Windows computers you can invoke a small black screen with the command prompt mode as described above by clicking on Start, Run, Command, or for Windows Vista/7, Start, typing “cmd” in the search box and pressing enter. Of course, the command prompt will probably look something like:

c:\Users\Username>_

Or perhaps

c:\windows>_

Want it to look like “c:\>”? at that command prompt, type cd\ and press enter. Voila!

Anyways, when you open My Computer to look at files and whatnot, normally you will see under it a (C:) and under there, in a tree directory fashion, a number of folders. Well, now you know what that (C:) means.

Emails – Secure Method of Communication?

Computer Security, Technical Tips

To use a common comparison: Plain, unencrypted email is like a postcard with its message written with a pencil. It can be seen while in transit, and it can be modified as well. Since more people than not seem to be unaware of this fact, this is my contribution to changing that.

OK so now, what in the name of all that is holy can we do with that datum? well, you know now that if you are having correspondence by email, you shouldn’t write anything you don’t mind being seen by anyone other than the counterpart of your correspondence. Another thing you can do is implement email encryption, whereby the email is not in plain text anymore, but transformed into unintelligible characters so that it can’t be read or changed by unintended recipients while in transit, and then decrypted at the receiving end so the actual intended recipient can read the original message.

As far as encrypted email  goes, there are two main ways to go about it. One is web-based, meaning you have to set up an account on a website (just like you would do with a Yahoo or Hotmail account) and then use that account when you want to generate secure emails. Hushmail (http://www.hushmail.com) is a good example of that. Others exist as well. the second way is implementing encryption in your computer’s email client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora are some examples of email clients). By installing a program such as Comodo’s Secure Email (http://www.comodo.com/home/internet-security/secure-email.php), this can be achieved.

Whichever method you want to use, encryption is the standard solution to ensuring privacy when it comes to emails.