Installing a New Flatscreen TV?

This may be worth a look.

Using Google Chrome? Big Flaw!

Go here for the patch, and do it now!

Also: I scour the geeksites daily for my own edification and to ensure protection of my 4 PCs. I wonder, does this thread help anybody - and does anyone read it?

quote:

Originally posted by Rusty:
I wonder, does this thread help anybody - and does anyone read it?

Sure. I think it's very informative. Some of it's over my head, but still interesting.

Keep scanning and posting, Ol' Boy. I read them although, most of the time I don't know what the hell it's all about.

Rusty, you're doing us all a great service. I'm sure that if we had not followed your advice many different times, our computer would have crashed and burned. Please keep it up.
Jim

Rusty, once you go to the link on Google Chrome thing, what do you do next? What thing do you click on to get the patch installed?
Thanks
Jim

Yes I follow this tread and yes it helps

Thanks

Mike

quote:

Rusty, once you go to the link on Google Chrome thing, what do you do next? What thing do you click on to get the patch installed?

Here, or you can click the arrow next to the wrench in the upper right, in the drop-down, select "About Google Chrome"; in the popup window is a choice to update.

Defragmentation (a/k/a "Defrag"): What it Does and What It Don't

Defrag is frequently misunderstood. What happens is that hard disk drives (HDDs) are controlled by two things:

1. The HDD onboard controller, and

2. The file system. Users on Win 98SE and prior will be using FAT32 (File Allocation Table 32-bit). XP and Win NT users have a choice between FAT32 and NTFS (New Technology File System). NTFS, because of built-in safeguards is preferable to FAT32.

So what is "fragmentation"? When data is written to the HDD, the file system will look to see where the "open spaces" are, and write to what's available. Simplifying, the file system will write to what space is readily available, and generally (although NTFS is more refined than FAT) store data where it's convenient. The HDD onboard controller has no vote in the process; the file system controls.

But that may mean a file is stored over several spots on the HDD, rather than in a continuous string. When the HDD has to load that file, the head has to go to several physical locations to pick up all the pieces. That takes time.

Defragging takes those vagabond pieces and puts them in contiguous blocks, so that the HDD head only has to hit the start and ride out the load.

So, the only thing defragging will do is to speed up the loading of files. Period. It won't free up more than a very tiny fraction of HDD space. One of the things System Mechanic (you did scarf up that Wal-Mart deal I mentioned back in March, didn't ya', Bippy?) will do that conventional defrag routines won't is to defrag system files. These files are locked to most defrag routines (including Windows' own), and only a few defrag apps will address them, but the Registry, an huge system file (containing Everything Windows Thinks It Needs), is a major fragged file as bits and pieces get dropped in here and there. System Mechanic will Defrag this, and will have a noticeable impact on boot times.

Further, System Mechanic has a separate routine to internally defrag and compact the Windows registry, speeding boot times even more.

Running a Wi-Fi Network?


First, you should run it encrypted, and use WPA Wi-Fi Protected Access) rather than the frail WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy).

However, white hats (good-guy hackers) have cracked WPA-TKIP (Temporal Key Integrity Protocol) as noted here.

If you're getting a new wireless router, set it up on WPA2 and use AES (Advanced Encrytion Standard).

Folks living in isolated areas can probably feel secure with WPA-TKIP, but those in suburban or urban areas, or near a public street, should use WPA2-AES.

This is Why Folks Still Insist on Bringing PCs to Me for Repair

There are still two aging geeks in my area, Dan and me. Two local shops that did really nice work (Mr.Data and Electronics Plus) have shuttered. I got out of the sideline some years ago (thanks to Dan's taking over); Dan's now trying to retire.

Like stray kittens, PCs constantly show up on our doorsteps (Dan's more than mine, since he's on a main thoroughfare and no one ends up at my house unless they know where they're going or are lost). I have one in the shop now; I told the woman to expect at least 3 months before I could get to it; "That's fine," she said. Dang.

But we find we can't get away...

This is one of the reasons.

Rusty,
Jim & I had a similar experience as the one you linked us to & we pursued it in small claims court. We had a 5 yr old laptop that crashed & if I had not jumped to conclusions & had downloaded important stuff regularly to a stick(pictures, documents etc)we could have probably fixed it ourselves.

We sued an individual who over charged us around $1700, went to court & got back $1000 but had to pay for an expert witness $400 & attorney fees of $800 to get the 1K back. Over all it ended up being closer to $1500 & 4 months of time, energy, stress, etc.

Then when we did find an honest computer geek we had to pay him $700 to fix the problems the other created. Can you imagine how many new computers we could have bought for all this? The honest geek said if we had brought it to him right off the bat it would have been less than $500.

The key is to do a lot of research on best local computer companies. Someone who will ask lots of questions about what you really want because from my experience I didn't know what I wanted to accomplish until it was all said & done. Now I know the questions to ask, the answers to the questions & another suggestion is to put it all in writing. The computer expert we used was the owner of the company we found who fixed the problems the guy we sued screwed up. His policy was to put everything in writing for his customers. From what was asked of him & every step he took to complete the repairs. He would have also advised us to whether to keep what we had vs get new based on charges accrued.

$$$$$ saver-Now we ask how they charge for time. the first fellow we found charged for time the computer is on verses time the actual application took. Example- 1st guys time - turn on computer @ 12:00 start app. that takes 28min to download but the computer is on for 3 hours (while he is working on other things)We get charged for 3hrs not 28min. The honest company charged for 28min for the same app.

BACK UP YOUR STUFF Daily/Weekly
Could save you big bucks!
Security, Security, Security
Don't let a computer crash bring you out of denial that it won't happen to you.
Tere

I am going to get System Mech 8. Office Depot has it for $49.95 w/$20 mail in rebate.

We have dial up, how much faster is it going to be?
Worth it?
Tere

I charged only for the time I was working on the PC. Partitioning and formattin a HDD could take a few hours, but only about 1/2 hour hands-on. Installing Win XP was usually 2-5 hrs. due to the places it stops and requires input, the need to install firewall, anti-virus, and anti-malware, and the need to get updates and patches, and the latest drivers.

System Mechanic does have a connection optimizer, but for downloads, the best is Download Accelerator Plus.

What System Mechanic does best is to clean up clutter and optimize things, but its other utilities are pretty good also. It occasionally will erase a wanted cookie, but its registry cleanup and optimizer have never caused me a problem.

Jim and Tere bring up a critical issue, that of loss of data.

So, From the Department of Redundancy Department, I'll once again address the issue of data salvation.

Data integrity consists of two elements:

1. Mechanical Failure Control, and,
2. Data Corruption Control

Mechanical Failure is the failure of the PeeCee or its components to successfully store data. If the CPU or motherboard (mobo) fails while a file is being stored, you're screwed - but only for that file. However, a major failure of the CPU or mobo is extremely rare. Most storage failures are caused by a busted hard disk drive (HDD). That issue can be overcome by using redundant HDDs in a "RAID" (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). RAID requires either a mobo that supports RAID or an external RAID controller, that takes up residence in one of the mobo's slots.

RAID come in a few flavors, and the selection of the right one (most controllers offer a choice):

RAID 0: Data is stored partially on one drive and partially on its twin. Failure of one drive loses all data. Not recommended, but the RAID 0 drives manipulate data far faster than a single drive, so it has limited uses. Capacity is the sum of the drives. If a drive fails, everything has to be reloaded when the replacement drive is installed.

RAID 1: Data is stored on two drives, both mirror images, so if one drive crashes, no data is lost. A replacement drive can be installed, mirrored, and the system is restored to normal. Data capacity is 1X the smaller drive.

RAID 5: Uses 3 or more drives; has nearly the speed of the RAID 0, with the redundancy of RAID 1. "Active Spares" can be installed with most RAID 5 controllers; this allows an additional drive to automatically pick up the slack of a failure. RAID 5 can operate off 2 drives if a third fails. In my syatem, if a drive fails, the active spare is sucked in, and the dead drive can be reinstalled later. Capacity is the number of drives, -1, times the capacity of the smallest drive. In my system, there are 3x500GB drives, yielding (3-1)x500GB= 1,000GB, or 1TB.

JBOD: "Just a Bunch Of Drives"; technically not a RAID, and pretty much an oddity, but operates like RAID 5.

Backup Routines: Use of backup programs, backing up to CD, DVD, or external drives for redundancy saves data, but doesn't eliminate the need to reinstall everything; this can run well over 25 hours. A HDD failure under RAID 1 or 5 allows the PC to run normally, and restoration to full redundancy is handled in the background, or at worst about an hour (for older RAID controllers).

Data Corruption: A feature of RAID protection is that the redundancy feature operates faithfully. If a file is corrupted, it will be faithfully duplicated on the redundant drives. This is why backup is essential. I back up files daily to an external HDD (saving the deleted files for a couple of weeks) and about monthly to another PC on the network (which has RAID 1 installed). Backup of the operating system (i.e.,Windows), drivers, etc., is unnecessary, as those CDs are around. Only your personal data need be backed up: Photos, databases, text message, email, word processer documents...you get the idea. However, I maintain a separate folder with drivers on it, making rebuilding the system quick in the event of a major crash. BTW, I'm on the PC From Hell - which I finished last year and which has suffered:

2 mobo failures
1 HDD failure
1 video card failure
0 data loss