Tag Archives: computer

troubleshoot

Learning How to Troubleshoot the Right Way

Playing around with a bunch of wires and fidgeting with the gadgets on the keyboard can not only be unproductive, but it can also be dangerous. When you want to know how to fix problems with your computer properly, what steps can you take?

Ask a Friend

Chances are, you know someone who graduated with a degree in Computer Science or who is working at a major computer store. Instead of fiddling around with the keyboard today, give that person a call. Find out when he or she is available, and ask this individual if a private tutoring session could be arranged. Let your friend know you want to learn how to deal with common troubleshooting issues when they arise, and, hopefully, this person will be happy to teach you.

Take a Course

Many people do receive their degrees in Computer Science and other related fields. As a result, most colleges, if not all, in your area will offer at least a handful of courses related to the subject matter. Over the summer or during a season when work is a little bit slow, enroll in one of these courses. You’re likely rather worried about the price. Fortunately, many community colleges also offer classes, and you can enroll in these for a fraction of the cost of what other universities would offer.

Read the Books

Whenever you purchase a new computer or a gadget for your computer, you are given a pamphlet. In this booklet, you’ll find an array of information about the device as well as details on how to deal with common troubleshooting issues when they arise. Generally, people tend to cram this booklet up into a drawer someone and completely forget where they put it in their times of needs. Make a nice little file of all of the booklets, and refer to them when your computer isn’t functioning properly. It’s quite likely you will find the answer for which you are looking in one of the chapters.

Using the Computer

Sometimes, the computer is not entirely beyond repair. For example, you might be able to turn it on, but, once you do, one of the programs you need for work will not function properly. Many computers have troubleshooting functions built right into them. As long as you are able to use the computer, look up steps on it to help you resolve the problem in a timely fashion. Sometimes, these tools can also check for problems on the system. Therefore, you will be able to find the root of the problem to address that as opposed to waffling around with issues that are not really problems at all.

The best way to learn how to troubleshoot on a computer is to have a professional or someone who works in the industry show you. If you have any questions, you can ask that person. However, when you cannot take a class or no one is available, other options exist to help you deal with the computer crisis.


This article was submitted through TechGeec’s article submission form.

Walter O’Neal writes about technology, education and more. Most recently, he has written a series of pieces on the best computer degrees.

encoder

Best Free Windows Screen Recorder – Microsoft Expression

Microsoft Expression is my personal favorite screen capture program for Windows. It may have an extra step (encoding the recording) but the final product is perfect as you’ll see in the sample recording at the end of the video. The free version is almost as good as the Pro version. The main difference is that you can only record 10 minute segments with the free version whereas with Pro, you can record for an unlimited amount of time; absolutely not worth the $199 price tag.

Encode a wide array of video file formats, stream live from webcams and camcorders or screen capture your PC. Make simple edits to video files and enhance your media with overlays and advertising. Choose encoding settings, choose from a range of player templates and publish rich media experiences

Customize your video to guarantee viewers a rich, pixel-perfect media experience. Expression Encoder allows you to add simple cuts to any clip, titles, pre-roll and post-roll advertising, captions, metadata and more. Capture computer screen activity for training or support needs.

Delivering a web-ready Silverlight experience is easy. Import QuickTime, AVI, MPEG, and other formats into Expression Encoder, leverage the latest quality and speed improvements to the VC-1 codec, choose your favorite Silverlight template, and publish directly to your web server using Expression Encoder Publishing Plug-ins.

Microsoft Expression 4 overview: http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Encoder4_Overview.aspx
Microsoft Expression 4 Free download: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24601

Question:
How many screen recording programs (free or paid) have you tried to use before?

revo uninstaller

Completely Uninstall Programs on Windows

Revo Uninstaller, developed by VS Revo Group, is a tool that allows you to completely uninstall a program from Windows. Often when uninstalling programs through the typical uninstaller, many registry files and directories are left behind. Over time these left over and useless files bog down your computer. By using a tool like Revo Uninstaller, it will uninstall the program like normal and then scan the computer for any additional files that were not removed. It allows you to select which files to keep and which to delete.

You can purchase the full version of Revo Uninstaller but I recommend just downloading the free version. It will still scan for leftovers after the standard uninstall, it includes eight additional cleaning tools, and free tech support is also included. There’s some nice features that come packed with the Pro version but nothing that I feel is worth the $20 – $40 price tag.

You can download Revo Uninstaller by clicking HERE.

Data Processing - red

Data Processing: Size Matters

An article about University of Illinois signing a $188 million supercomputer deal with Cray Inc. came out this month and a lot of people were amazed by the huge amount of data that these supercomputers can process. Computer processing is growing incredibly fast as the university is using 1.5 petabytes of information each day and a capacity of 500 petabytes.

500 petabytes! If you have no inkling of how enormous that data is, you can start computing in quadrillion bytes. Search engines like Google process an approximate of 24 petabytes every single day; that should give you an idea of how big a petabyte is.

But that is nothing compared to what IBM is planning to launch for Netherlands’ Foundation for Research in Astronomy. The $2.1 billion deal is talking not about supercomputers but about “exascale” computers. An exascale compute is a machine that can process an exabyte of data each day. And what is an exabyte? Just about 1000 petabytes; yes, start multiplying quadrillion bytes by one thousand.

You probably know how much information is being processed in the internet on a daily basis. Well, an exabyte is twice as much that information. Colossal is an understatement! But it appears mankind isn’t happy with that yet, we’re just getting started.

The National Security Agency is planning to build a $2 billion facility in Utah that will process and store the entire agency’s data. We’re talking yottabyte of information to be stored in this facility. What is a yottabyte you may ask? It’s just equivalent to quadrillion gigabytes and just about the ceiling for data measurement (for now) as no word has been coined yet for the next higher degree. With this staggering amount of data comes a plan for a highly productive computer that can execute a petaflop. Petaflop is a term coined for quadrillion operations in a second.

These are indeed mind-blowing pieces of information and some people might be thinking what kind of technology these computer makers will be using to be able to efficiently process data as big as the ones previously mentioned. The power alone is staggering – 200 megawatts – which can power up to 200,000 homes. So how on earth can an enormous and yet efficient machine be built and maintained?

Knowing that the more data you store in your computer means using up essential resources that if depleted, may mean poor performance, it would be interesting to see how the abovementioned projects will come to life. When it comes to data processing, size does matters and you’ve probably had a dose of irritating problems that come with processing huge amounts of data.

Just think that with personal computers, many users already experience poor PC performance with just hundreds and maybe less gigabytes of data. Some users often find themselves using optimization tools such as PC Speed Up to improve their computer’s speed and performance.

Now we’re talking thousands and quadrillions of gigabytes. It’s safe to assume that these supercomputers and exascale computers will have (should have) their own built-in optimization tools so as to avoid performance issues in the future.


This article was submitted through TechGeec’s article submission form.

txt to computer

How to Transfer/Backup Text Messages from iPhone to Computer

For 30% off of your DigiDNA purchase, download DiskAid from http://www.digidna.net/techgeec.

To download DiskAid click HERE.

tuneswift

How to Transfer iTunes Library from One Computer to Another

Now that more and more people are switching from PC to Mac more and more people are losing their iTunes libraries. CopyTrans TuneSwift from WindSolutions solves this problem easily and efficiently. The program has an easy to follow, simple UI from which you can choose to backup, restore, or transfer your iTunes library and all you need is an external hard drive or flash drive. This video will demonstrate how the program works:

Activation Code: TUNESWIFT-TECHGEEC-ROCKS


TuneSwift: http://www.copytrans.net/copytranstuneswift.php
TuneSwift for Mac: http://www.copytrans.net/support.php?action=showEntry&data=1600
Support for TuneSwift: http://www.copytrans.net/support.php?action=GoToCategory&data=240

boxee box release 2

Boxee Box Has Been Released – Buy Yours Now

For those who have never heard of the computer software, Boxee, it’s a free program that brings all of your favorite shows that are available online all to one place where you can manage what shows you want to watch now, watch later, or never watch at all. It takes the time you spend searching for your favorite TV shows online out of the equation and it does the work for you. You tell it what you watch, it finds it for you (so long as the TV show has episodes online).

Boxee just recently (November 10, 2010) released what I feel to be the missing link in the “TV box” line. In this day and age when the internet is at the center of almost all of our lives and when almost everything is available online, not one company has yet to release a product that allows the consumer to watch TV shows that are online on their TVs – until now.

The Boxee Box by D-Link is a product that will most likely cause many TV service providers to lose business. If all of the shows that you watch on your TV are available online, then there is absolutely no need for you to spend the money for cable or satellite when you can use Boxee for free. The Boxee Box essentially takes everything from their computer application to your TV, all through a small “box”.

Many might ask themselves, “I’m not going to cancel my service with my cable/satellite provider because I still want to watch live TV and I have a DVR to record all my shows so why would I need a Boxee Box?” That’s a fantastic and extremely easy question to answer. I recently switched from Dish Network to DirecTV and while all of my favorite shows recorded onto the Dish Network DVR, there was no way for

me to transfer those episodes to a computer or to the new DirecTV DVR. I didn’t have the time to watch my recorded shows which resulted in me missing a whole week worth of television shows. Some shows have story lines which carry over to the following week’s episode and I didn’t want to be lost when that time came around. Luckily all of the TV shows I watch are available online. So instead of endlessly searching on the web for the episodes I missed, I went onto Boxee and all of the episodes were right there waiting for me in my queue.

But how does the Boxee Box compare to other TV “boxes” such as the new Apple TV, Google TV, or Roku? You’ll have to wait for our review of the Boxee Box coming in December.

You can pick up your own Boxee Box at Amazon.com for a list price of $229.99. As of November 14, however, Amazon is offering a 13% discount making the price $199.99. If you use Boxee of you already have a Boxee Box, let us know what you think about it my leaving us a comment below this article.

DigiDNA Exclusive Coupon Code – 30% OFF

DigiDNA, the makers of DiskAid, have given TechGeec.com an exclusive coupon code for 30% off your purchase from DigiDNA.net. To use the coupon, simply download DiskAid from http://www.digidna.net/techgeec

Our YouTube channel has a video tutorial on transferring music from your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to your computer using DiskAid. Give it a watch below and let us know what you think about DiskAid in the comments below. Happy transferring!