How to Use a PC Graphics Card with a Laptop

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When it comes to a power comparison between a gaming laptop and a gaming PC, the PC is generally going to come out on top. The problem with laptops is that, since they’re portable and mobile, parts have to be tailor-made for them, and generally have to be a lot more compact than their desktop [...]

Is The Extra Cost Of A Document Scanner Worth It?

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The first question most of you have is, “What’s the difference between a document scanner and a regular scanner?” Answer: A document scanner usually doesn’t have a bed on it; it usually operates in sheet-feed-only mode where you place the paper in the thing, it’s auto-fed through, and the scan is sent out afterward. Think [...]

Working Parts: A Closer Look at your Hard Drive

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A lot of people don’t realize how glorious and complex computers really are. I mean, I’m sure they know they’re complicated, to a point, after all they’re pretty complicated machines to master, but it never really occurs to them just how complex they really are. Today, we’re going to delve into that complexity a bit- [...]

Maximizing Laptop Battery Life

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One thing that most all laptop users lack: a battery that will stay charged long enough for all their uses. When your battery seems to have crapped out on you, do you buy a new machine? Absolutely not! All you really need to do is learn to manage its resources better. To learn more, read [...]

Does Anyone Use XM Satellite Radio Anymore?

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XM Satellite radio has had a rather tumultuous history. You can click that link to read up all about the rollercoaster of events, ending in 2009 where XM was planning to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy. You will absolutely not believe all the cash that was thrown around concerning the service over the years. Everyone took [...]

I’m not dead yet! 13 inch Macbook Pro overlook

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Every year Apple hosts several events to announce their new hardware or software. Go back in time a little bit, 2010 was a big year for Apple across the board in my eyes. They announced the iPad, where they are clearly dominating the market. They announced the iPhone 4 with its retina display, which alone [...]

How to Clean a Laptop Keyboard

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The problem with laptops is that, as a result of their portability, they tend to get quite a bit of use outside of your typical computing environment. As a result, their keyboards tend to be subjected to a lot more dirt and grime than usual. Unfortunately, the fact that the keyboard’s embedded in the system [...]

Can You Build A “DIY Tablet”?

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Tablets are much like laptops in the respect they’re not meant to be taken apart. And while with most laptops you can upgrade the RAM and primary storage device (HDD or SSD), with a tablet it’s basically “what you get is what you get and have to live with”. Where you can get creative with [...]

5 Ways To Get Maximum Life Out Of A Laptop Battery Charge

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When you’re out and about with your laptop, you obviously want the battery to last a long as possible. There are many ways to eke out more battery life, and I’m going to list five of them below. You’ll know some of the tips very well, while others are not-so obvious. We’ll start with the [...]

Troubleshooting Sound Card issues on a Toshiba Satellite

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While the Toshiba Satellite line of laptops are fairly high-quality and packing some reasonably high-end components, they aren’t exactly perfect. One of the most common issues I’ve come across involves the sound card. For some reason, after coming out of sleep mode, the system will occasionally forget that it can play sound. The card simply [...]

Windows 8 Surface: What you need to know.

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In 2002, Microsoft had a vision. They had the idea of the Tablet PC. They could use touch with a stylus and have that as their main input device. They had the software ready to create an entire ecosystem. Relying on PC OEM’s to produce a tablet computer did not pay off. Fujitsu and HP [...]

It Is OK To Downgrade A Wireless Router’s Firmware?

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When it comes to motherboards, many motherboard manufacturers will openly state in very plain sight (usually right next to the download link) that if the BIOS is in good working order and you’re encountering no problems, don’t upgrade. When it comes to wireless routers on the other hand, we’re instructed to always keep the firmware [...]

5 Easy Ways To Tell If Your Flash Memory Is Failing

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Most of you use flash memory in the form of USB sticks, SD cards and CompactFlash cards. Unfortunately there isn’t any test you can run that will absolutely say whether a flash stick or card is going to fail, so you have to use common sense. Here are 5 easy ways to tell if your [...]

Possible Quick Fix For A Randomly Disconnecting Laptop Wireless Card

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If you have a laptop running Windows 7 where the wireless card disconnects for seemingly no reason, it may be your power options settings causing the problem. Before continuing, when I say “disconnects”, I don’t mean that the wireless card is having problems connecting. I mean that at some point after using your laptop for [...]

The 3 Things That Should Be Plugged Into Your UPS More Than Anything Else

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If you’re like most computer users, you have a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply); these are available at all office stores. Most of you know these things as “the huge brick-like power strip that beeps really loud when the power goes out”. Chances are that most of you have an entry-level UPS with 6 power outlets [...]

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