Computer Products or Services

If you purchase a new computer with software preinstalled, you are entitled to receive the CDs with that software in case you ever need to do a repair install, or fresh install. Lots of retailers are not supplying the CDs that you paid for, so that you will have to come back to them if you ever need service. You have paid for the software, insist that you get the software on CD, not just installed on the computer's hard drive. If the retailer tells you it's their policy to not give you the CDs for the software you paid for, buy somewhere else.

How To Clean Up A Sluggish Computer if you don't have the option of reformatting the hard drive & doing a fresh install of the Operating System & applications.

There are various software DVD players available for playing DVDs on a computer, in my experience the PowerDVD ver. 4 player made by Cyberlink is better because it uses less CPU resources than the WinDVD player made by Intervideo. That's especially helpful on an older computer or a laptop.

Service pack 2 for the Windows XP operating system is now out (summer 2004), but you might not want to install it just yet as it can make your computer unstable. On August 31/2004 I installed SP2 on Win XP Home edition laptop & it became so unstable I could barely keep it running long enough to uninstall it.

Uninterruptible Power Supplies

How To Minimize Getting Malicious Viruses, Worms Or Spyware On Your Computer.

Email Attachment rules to avoid viruses.

Unfair Software Upgrade Policies & Practices.

File Size Explanation.

SPYWARE: There are a lot of spyware programs (sometimes called Adware, Badware, Malware or Trojanware) installed when you install free programs you want & sometimes from malicious Java applet code on web sites you visit. These are not usually detected as a virus by virus checkers because technically they aren't viruses because we all don't read the "terms" when we install software & don't realize that we often agreed to install this software, but it can be just as damaging as a virus. All these small programs running in the background & calling home to report on your computer can rob the computer of resources, slow regular programs down, cause system and browser instability & cause crashes. Download Spybot (it's free) & installed it on your computer. I was amazed at just how much spy software or old registry settings were on my computers & you probably will be too. When installing Spybot you can untick the extra languages box. After installing, open the program & click on the "search for updates" button, then on the "download updates" button to bring it right up to date. Next click on the "check for problems" button & this will survey the computer (takes several minutes) & list in red all the problem spyware areas. I usually first go into Internet Explorer & delete all the cookies so that only spyware programs & registry entries are listed (tools/internet options/general/delete cookies). If you want to have Spybot purge these red highlighted problems & fix registry entries, click on the "fix selected problems" button. If you find that purging any of these spyware programs inadvertently caused a problem, you can undo this using the "recovery" button. You can also protect your computer from future installations of spyware by clicking on the "Immunize" button, then where it says "permanently running bad download blocker for Internet Explorer" menu to "ask for blocking confirmation" & then click on the "install" button. This will warn you each time you go to a web site that is trying to stealthy install stuff you don't want. October 4/2003 Another good spyware program that's free is Ad-Aware SE Personal.

PC PITSTOP: I came across a really useful free site that helps you check various aspects of a computer while online to see if it is in good health. You might want to give it a try to see if there is any aspect of your computer that has deteriorated into poor health. There is also a basic test here for viruses to see if you have any without having to buy the conventional anti-virus software. There is also & internet speed upload & download tester.

ATA 33 IDE CABLES: If you are having crashes when playing games, doing high data rate transfers, or burning from your CD or DVD player/recorder, make sure you have the correct IDE cable if your CD or DVD drive uses the ATA33 speed. If you are using an ATA66/100 type of cable on a drive which uses the ATA33 speed, it usually will fit & even work properly during low speed data transfer, but might crash the application at higher transfer speeds. The ATA33 cable has thicker wires & all 40 pins on the plugs are used. The ATA66/100 cable uses twice as many wires, hence they are thinner & one of the 40 pins on the plug is not used (one center hole is filled). Most computer stores don't know that the newer ATA66/100 cable is NOT completely backwardly compatible with ATA33 drives. Most current manufactures of drives that operate at the ATA33 speed, unfortunately put the ATA66/100 type male plug on their drive units (has one middle pin missing). If your CD or DVD drive came bundled with the IDE cable, chances are it is the correct cable, but if your CD or DVD drive was purchased not bundled with the IDE cable (as is the case with all OEM drives), then you could be using the wrong cable.

SONY CD-ROM BURNERS: I just learned that Sony has a policy to intentionally NOT support the use of rectangle shaped 50 MB business card shaped CD-Rs. Apparently they claim that they often jam the burner, are hard to read & cause other problems. Unfortunately nowhere in any of the sales literature of the DRU-500a does Sony mention that they don't support this increasingly popular business card shape of CD-R. Of 7 different brands of burners we tried, 5 of them DO support burnable 50 MB business card shaped CD-Rs. If you can find a different brand of CD or DVD burner that has the features you want, buy it instead of the Sony. You would be far better off using the miniature round 150 MB CD-Rs because nearly all burner brands will work with this size including Sony burners. Granted the round size isn't as popular with your client as the rectangle size, because it doesn't look like a business card, but at least the round miniature CD-Rs should have a higher compatibility with CD players. June 18/2003

IBM HARD DRIVES: Recently I've had two different models of IBM IDE hard drives go defective on me & lost all or most of the data in them. I seriously question whether some recent batches of IBM hard drives are up to industry standards. I originally purchased IBM drives because I found their customer support to be good & they had a cross shipping policy, but IBM has now handed the administration of all warranty work over to Hitachi & they do not have a cross shipping policy. Check in your area to see which brands of hard drives still have a cross shipping policy, should you need warranty work. In my area only Seagate still offers cross shipping. April 23/2003

MEMOREX CD-RW: In my experience, the Memorex brand CD-RW 650 MB discs (part # 3202 3123)(silver in color) simply do not work in the Yamaha CRW4416SX SCSI burner or LG (Goldstar) burner (model CED-8120B) I've tried. When I try to burn data using Easy CD Creator 4.03 or Veritas Record Now 2.0, the data gets written but hangs for awhile at the 100% done mark & takes quite awhile before it goes on to "close the session". Finally it tells me that the disc has been successfully burned, but in fact it hasn't closed the session, so the data is not available. Other brands of CD-RW work fine. The Memorex CD-RW does work in my Pioneer A03 burner.

ICQ: In my opinion, the ICQ Instant Messaging software is a very insidious software to have on your computer, although it can be very handy for large file transfers across the internet. In the past it has been difficult to uninstall ICQ, although it now seems to come with an uninstall utility. I would avoid installing ICQ on your computer. If you do install it, make sure you check the preferences box so only those who are on your contact list can send you messages, otherwise you'll get swamped with Spam messages enticing you to porno sites.    Feb. 12/2001

PROGRAMS THAT USE RAM UNNECESSARILY: For those who don't have a lot of extra RAM in your computer, you should be aware that if you install the RealMedia movie player it will use roughly 3664 kilobytes (3.5 MB) of RAM even when the program isn't being used. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Easy CD Creator, ICQ & many other programs also use up ram whether the program is being used or not.  May 11/2001

ASPECT CORRECT SCREEN SIZES: Did you know that if you set your computer screen display resolution to 1280 X 1024, the screen aspect ratio does not conform to the 4X3 size of your screen (it's 4:3.2) & everything will appear 8.54% too wide, unless your physical screen size is also 4:3.2 such as some LCD screens? If you're editing pictures or artwork they will not look aspect correct (faces too fat). A display resolution of 1280 X 960 or 1312 X 984 would have been aspect correct on a 4:3 monitor, but graphics card manufacturers don't give you this choice. Likewise a computer screen display resolution of 1152 X 882 is 2.08% wider than it should be. Other computer screen display resolutions are aspect correct when viewed on a 4:3 monitor, such as 640 X 480, 800 X 600, 1024 X 768 & 1600 X 1200.

Old Articles:

Maxtor Hard Drives.

Canadian blank audio recording Media Levy updated April 2002.

Canon BJC-6000 bubble jet printer.

CanoScan FB620P Canon Scanner (nice scanner).

Beware of buying inexpensive Umax scanners.

Intel DK440LX motherboard.

Intel Ram Scam.

My opinions on Apple Quicktime3.

Old Hard Drive Test Graphs.

Beware of buying Toshiba products.

By Doug Hembruff.