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IT News - November 2007

Friday, 29 August 2008 12:39 Last Updated on Sunday, 26 October 2008 19:40

IT NEWS, TIPS AND ADVICE - NOVEMBER 2007

Welcome to the latest article:

Newsletters

IT News - October 2007

Thursday, 28 August 2008 00:00 Last Updated on Friday, 12 June 2009 18:31

IT NEWS, TIPS AND ADVICE

Latest Support Issues - Batteries Not Included!

The Problem

We must have all suffered at the hands of Iberdrola and from what I have seen recently things are not going to improve any time soon. The problems for many start before they even get electricity to their land but, from an IT support point of view, the problems start when the clients get their electricity. The supply suffers from irregular voltage input and power spikes; brief outages measured in seconds and total failure measured in hours.

My concern is how this affects the PC. The power supply takes the 240V power from the wall and provides the PC with the 12V, 5.5V and 3V that it needs to operate the different components. Any surge or spike from the wall socket will adversely affect the power supply. Sometimes the power supply will handle this ok but if it doesn't the problems can range from a blown fuse in the power supply to a 'burned out' PC.

The Consequences

IT News - August 2007

Tuesday, 26 August 2008 00:00 Last Updated on Sunday, 26 October 2008 19:41

WINDOWS VISTA - HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF IT

Do I Need Windows Vista?

Well, no you don't. If you have an existing PC running Windows XP for example, I would not recommending buying and installing Windows Vista for the following reasons:

There are not enough improvements to make the cost of upgrade worthwhile
If you do upgrade, some of your existing software may not work correctly (if at all)
It is likely that some of your existing hardware (such as printers) will not work
Windows XP will be supported by Microsoft "for some considerable time"
If your PC is more than 2 or 3 years old you may well need to upgrade the components

The problems with the software and hardware are being solved week by week and Vista itself has a number of 'workarounds' available - but, if you don't have to, DON'T.

IT News - September 2007

Wednesday, 27 August 2008 00:00 Last Updated on Sunday, 26 October 2008 19:40

IT NEWS, TIPS AND ADVICE

In this newsletter I discuss my latest support issues, some useful sites and software amongst others.

Latest Support Issues {What I have fixed lately!}

In the past month I have been to a couple of client's homes to deal with problems starting their PC or laptop that were hard disk related. The hard disk is where all the documents, photos, videos, music and programs are stored. Programs can be re-installed but the information is unique and needs to be looked after.

In both cases I was able to access the hard disk and recover the valuable (priceless!) and irreplaceable information. However, I would say that they were lucky because they didn't have a backup of this important information.

A backup can be made by simply copying the data to a CD or DVD (I wouldn't recommend using USB flash drives/sticks for long term storage). There is software that makes this easy and automatic but you still need to put the disk in the drive!

If you are not convinced that you need to backup your information then consider this: what would you do if your PC was stolen or never started again? Any information on the computer is now gone forever: how much time have you spent creating the files? How will you retake your photographs? How much will it cost to replace those files that can be replaced?

IT News - February 2008

Saturday, 01 March 2008 00:00 Last Updated on Sunday, 26 October 2008 19:39

IT NEWS, TIPS AND ADVICE - FEBRUARY 2008

Welcome to the latest article.

This month I am going to discuss 10 things you should NOT do with or to your computer. Computers are quite capable of going wrong on their own with no help from us, the poor victims of computer chaos. Nonetheless, many of us (me included) seem to insist on offering a helping hand to the gremlins.

On the plus side, apart from actually throwing it out of the window (I threaten this about twice a week but have resisted so far!) the consequences of our mistakes are not usually terminal.

I will point out some of the most common ways we help to mess up our computers (in no particular order!):