Monday, September 21, 2009

Asus Drivers Update - Easy Motherboard Fixes

By: Logan Albright

When you are talking about the motherboard, what you are looking at is the core of the computer, and this is not the computing core of the computer, but the platform of which any computer is built. In fact, one would be safe to say that the motherboard is the genesis and the omega of the computer, without it , nothing can function and when you are looking at the range of motherboard markers out there in the world today, what you have a small list of trusted brands out there and one of them of course is Asus. Today we will talk to you about some of the more common motherboard problems, Asus Driver updates and some easy fixes that you can do on your own.

For one thing you need to know that the motherboard is really one huge landscape of hardware, and that everything that is done on the computer (in relation to hardware) is being monitored and mothered by the motherboard and that is why it is called the motherboard. One thing you need to know about this is that when you are considering the motherboard as a piece of engineering brilliance, don’t, because in the end of the day, there are so many things that can actually go wrong with it.

One of them is the driver issues, which happens whenever you there is a freak power surge or something goes wrong in the motherboard environment. Remember that you are actually playing around with a live electric middleman and you need to be able to know that the drivers which are installed in the bios might go a little awry when you are experiencing some sort of a glitch in the system. So what you need to do is to actually just reinstall the drivers and there are two easy ways that you can do this.

One is of course via the OS and what you need to do is to simply either reinstall the drivers that have been provided to you or download fresh and new ones off the website on the internet. I always recommend that you download new ones, because then you would be able to benefit from the added features and improvements that the design team takes into play. Another thing you need to know is that you might also want to flash the bios and install a new set of core drivers into the motherboard itself, and this is also done through the computer and is quite simple to do. Every mother board manufacturer would also leave you a set of instruction on how you can achieve this.

These are some of the ways that you can take advantage of the Asus Driver update and get your mother board back in working order. In other words, the steps you need to take to ensure that everything is in working order are pretty simple ones, and it can really help you to achieve some serious results and performance boosts at the end of the day.

Solving Printer Issues in One Minute With the Right Canon Printer Driver Update

By: Logan Albright

First of all, we really have to look at what the printer really is before we can actually diagnose anything about getting the right Canon Printer driver update for yourself. In the end of the day, no matter what the brand of the printer is, the results and the problems are always almost the same, and when you are doing this, you need to know what to do and how to do it.

But before we actually move on to these ways that you can solve all your printer issues, we should be looking at what printers are and what kinds of printers you have on the market. In data processors, a printer is a piece of equipment that accepts text and vivid output from a information processing system and transfers the information to paper, commonly to average sized sheets of paper. Printers are sometimes dealt with computing machines, but more oftentimes are bought independently. Printers diverge in size, velocity, sophistication, and cost. Generally, more costly printers are used for higher-resolution colour printing.

Personal computer printers can be recognized as impact or non-impact printing machines. Early impact printing machines processed something like an mechanistic typewriter, with a key striking an inked depression on paper for each printed type . The dot-matrix printing machine was a favourite inexpensive personal computing device printing machine. It's an impact printer that affects the paper a course at a time. The best-known non-impact printers are the inkjet printer, an example being certain distinct models of low-cost colour printers, and the more advanced laser printers. Inkjet printers work by having the inkjet spray ink from a cartridge at an extremely close point against the paper as the roller rolls it through.

The laser printer uses a laser beam mirrored from a mirror to draw ink (which is also called toner) to picked out paper areas as a sheet rolls over a wheel. Now how does the software portion of this comes in and why do we need to know so much about this. In the end of the day, the OS in your system needs to speak to the printer to be able to send the information back and forth and how this is done is through the use of a computer software driver, which is basically like a middleman that communicates the data between the computer and the printer.

Now the problems that can arise from there is simply that the driver gets corrupted or there is a problem when a software conflict comes about. One thing you need to know is how to troubleshoot these kinds of problems and when you need to, all you need to do really is to update the software of the driver or install some fresh ones. Anything above that requires that you actually contact the manufacturer or perhaps enlist the help of your local tech expert. In the end of the day, all devices and gadgets are built to eventually fail, so accept it and your best guard are driver updates.

Change IP and Hide From Sniffers

By: Virender Labroo

Lots of Internet users choose to change IP in a bid to hide from what the Web community would call “sniffers.” Sniffers are an Internet user’s term of referring to the hacker tools that are used to pry out information and personal data from an online surfer. Hackers and other learned people use the sniffers to find out your IP address, your web browsing history, cookies, your computer system, and even your files. Knowing there are such things that are used to spy on your Internet habits, how could you not worry about your privacy whenever you surf online?

You will be surprised at just how much information about you is made available to other people, all from just your Web browsing habits. Companies and online business also employ such tactics in order to obtain information for their market research and customer database. There may be no bad intention in this case, but the thought of our personal information becoming open to the Web community is enough to make us worry about our security online.

Whenever we go online, our every action and every hit on the Enter key gets logged into the Web. For example, if we are searching for herbal medicine online, they keyword we typed in, our IP address, the time, our location, and other information will be recorded. If the site we stumble upon in search of the herbal medicine is conducting online surveys for their products, our information will also get to them with the help of the sniffers.

When this happens, you will start getting spam emails and pop-ups that will advertise different products and services. A more irritating scenario would be if they get a hold of your phone number and try to contact you into buying their products and services. The worst case scenario would be if you start getting junk mail at your home from other companies of the same nature. It is rather annoying knowing all this came from just surfing online for an herbal medicine.

An even worse case scenario would be if it is a malicious hacker that’s targeting you. This is perhaps the worst kind of predicament you will be in. A hacker sniffing out your IP address, your location, and your information could mean big trouble. This big trouble can equate to identity theft or the abusive use of your profile and your accounts, which can really spell out a huge loss for you.

This is why it has become such a big deal for knowledgeable internet users to changing IP. The basic idea is to protect ourselves from the Web and from the hackers. Our personal information should remain private and this cannot be possible if the online community can sniff out your IP address. When your real IP is out you can be tracked easily and hackers can gain entry into your computer system fast. Once they are in, your files and programs are at their mercy, and you’ll end up with your accounts touched and your computer crashed. The best solution to hide from the sniffers and the Web trackers is to change IP.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

What to Do When USB Device Driver Takes Too Long to Install

By: Logan Albright

The universal serial bus (USB) is the “old new wave” of plug and play capabilities of Windows and other operating systems. Now, installing new pieces of hardware is extremely easy, all you need to do most of the time is to plug in the device through the USB port and wait until Windows detects it. If you are using Windows XP or Vista, you will realise that Microsoft has made things even simpler by having a database of drivers for common products from a long list of manufacturers. So really, the whole process of installing something can take as little time as you plugging it in, Windows detecting it, finding the driver and installing it for you.

Most of the time, there is no need for a restart, because the USB is based on the ‘plug and play’ interface, which means that usability of the product is literally instant. The range of products that now use the USB interface has now spread to across all manners of hardware and peripherals, like the mouse, keyboards, printers, scanners, DVD drives, external hard drives etc., just to name a few. The USB has also taken over the aged IDE female/male port that your ancient printer would have used for data transfer.

With the USB, data transfer can be almost 4 to 5 times faster than those old ports at the back of your PC. One of the more common problems that people do encounter when they try to install a USB device is that the installation will sometimes take too long, and they never know why. This is especially true when they install small USB flash devices or devices from third party manufacturers that are none too familiar on the market.

One of the common problems of this is that there could be a problem with the driver itself, which means that Windows or another operating system has trouble checking the binary files and is confused as to how to register the product. It will try a system of matching and elimination as it tries to register your new USB hardware. Another reason could be that the driver itself is corrupt, which means any and all system communication cannot be processed and thus your product cannot be recognised by Windows.

You need to check for either an alternative, more updated driver, or see if there is a copy you can download from the internet. Usually it is readily available in the tech support section of most manufacturers’ websites and they will often either post the driver or post a FAQ, where you should be able to find which problem you are experiencing and either a tech or user recommended solutions for it.

USB driver devices are still an easy alternative to complex data and installation for products and the plug and play viability of it still remains number one. With USB 3.0 on the horizon, most issues should be resolved by then, and you will get a much faster data transfer rate and maybe even greater functionality in future.

Corrupt CD Rom Drivers - 3 Troubleshooting Tips

By: Logan Albright

Buying a new CD ROM and finding out that it has corrupt drivers can be a real bummer, but do not fret; the solution can be found easily, as easy as logging onto the internet. Do not go rushing back to the store when you have a perfectly viable solution on the internet.

One solution you might want to consider is to obviously find new ones. The drivers that you have in your possession are probably corrupt or damaged. Normally when you get a CD ROM, you do not really need drivers for the simple models, but for the cutting edge selections that are on the market, you might need drivers for Windows or any other OS to be able to capitalise on their more advanced features. The problem with this is that having been mass produced to such a large scale, there would definitely be faults on the manufacturing side and one of these can come directly from the drivers itself. If they supplied you with a CD with the drivers (for a CD ROM you have not installed), then you might have a problem where the drivers might have been installed incorrectly, and are corrupted, so all you need to do is to contact the manufacturer and get a fresh set of drivers from them.

The other solution would be of course to download the necessary drivers from the internet, and this usually involves finding the manufacturers’ website and clicking on the technical support link. They usually will have the latest drivers there for you to download and a highlight of the previous problems of the older ones. Sometimes, it is not the case of the missing driver, but the case where there is an issue of incompatibility with your system and the drivers that you are trying to install. Sometimes this happens when the drivers are tested with older systems that have not been updated and since operating systems like Windows tend to update themselves regularly, you always need to have on hand the latest set of drivers on you. Downloading them from the internet is the easiest solution here.

What if the problem persists even after you replace the drivers? Well, before you panic and think that the problem might be with the CD ROM itself, you need to look through the help forums and technical help you can get online; there are plenty of people like you out there on the internet that might have the same problem as you. So you do not need to worry unnecessarily.

In some instances, it could be a problem with your motherboard’s onboard audio system, or even some other devices on your computer conflicting with your CD ROM. More than likely you will be able to find a solution to your problem posted by a tech guru or an expert on the subject and he or she will either post the solution or give you the necessary links you need to know to fix your problem.

If you ever encounter problems with corrupt CD ROM drivers, try the abovementioned solutions. What better way to resolve them than with hassle-free ways that do not require you to send the CD ROM back to the retailer which you may have purchased it from?

Two Homes? Movie Software Can Help Keep You Connected

By: Maxim Smirnov

Keeping track of your movies is hard enough, but when you're shuttling between two houses? That's nearly impossible. In order to keep your sanity as well as your film collection in tact, you need help. Though you'd like to think your brain could remember your important DVDs, sometimes it's not as easy as it seems. Instead of relying on your already overtaxed brain to remember where your movie collection is, it's time to look into movie software to take on the task for you.

Does Anyone Really Have Two Homes?

Though it seems like many more of us simply have one home to worry about, those children who are in divorce situations have two homes where they might keep half of their things. And understandably, things can get confusing in terms of what item is where. With movie software, children and their parents can easily note where movies are in order to get them where they need to be.

If a family has a summer home, movie software can help to keep things straight when it's time to entertain. Taking just a few hours at the start of the season to list the movies you have at the cottage will help you the rest of the year when you can't make it to the cabin, but you still want to watch a favorite DVD. When you're packing up for the season, taking inventory of the movies you have will also help you prepare for next year.

Using Movie Organization Software

To fully utilize your movie software, you will need to set aside some time to enter in your movie collection. Of course, if you a variety of movies, this might take a while so include the whole family in the effort. Together, you can pop popcorn, type in the movies you own, and then talk about which movies you love and which you can't stand. And why not watch a movie while you are completing this task as well? You will find that the time goes by a lot more quickly when you make this task a fun evening or afternoon with friends and family, after all.

Whenever a movie changes to a new location, the change just needs to be noted in the database. In just a few seconds, you will be able to know where a movie is, which helps you always have what you need when you need it. These lists can even be sent over the Internet to give you an electronic copy of the movies you own, in case you want to bring anything with you to your 'other' home.

With movie software, you don't have to worry about misplacing your movies or keeping track of your DVDs. All you need to do is to enter in the titles of the movies you have, where they are located right now, and then update the lists from time to time. The next time you want to watch a movie, all you'll need to do is to turn on your computer, not wrack your brain for answers.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Do You Need to Remove Duplicate MP3 Files?

By: Maxim Smirnov

Many of us take our computers for granted. We use these wonders of technology so often that we forget what marvels they are. But while they might be able to calculate the airspeed velocity of an African swallow and help you find the latest Brad Pitt movie, computers still need some help from their owners. This is especially the truth what you have a large music collection on your hard drive. Those duplicate mp3 files may not seem like a big deal, but they should be removed as quickly as possible. Why? Keep reading to find out more.

Is Your Hard Drive Wheezing?

When you've been noticing that your hard drive is running a little slower than it usually is, it usually means you have duplicate mp3 files to remove. These files, though small at first, add up when you have numerous repeats. If you've begun to see basic computer programs work less efficiently or you've begun to experience the dreaded drive crashes, you might want to look at ways to lighten the load of your computer system. Using duplicate song finder software, you will be able to remove the files which are similar, which is going to free up your hard drive for more important tasks…and for more music. And you don't even have to be a computer whiz to use the software. Just turn it on and let it tell you what it's found. Then you can delete what you want to delete and find a much happier computer greeting you when you're done.

Do You Have Troubles Finding What You Need?

Of course, if you have many thousands of songs on your computer, it can be hard to remember what you own, much less find what you need. Instead of struggling, why not clean up the extra files you know are slowing down your search? When you remove duplicate mp3 files, you will begin to see what songs you actually own and what you might want to play or burn into a mix. This step is especially important when you use music for your job and need to be able to sort through your music quickly. You might have numerous repeats which are making things harder for you and more time consuming than they need to be.

Is Your mp3 Player Full?

Sometimes you might just put all of your music onto your mp3 player without even thinking about it, and then the player is full. Instead of trying to assemble a new set of playlists, you might want to run software to remove duplicate mp3 files. This way, you can clear away the excess without losing the files you love. Just run the software, then reload the files you want on your mp3 player – sans the duplicate files.

Duplicate mp3 files seem like a minor annoyance until you realize how much they hinder your technology experience. By removing them, you will make your life more efficient, your computer more effective, and your music collection more useful.

Buying a Computer Online

By: Amy E Nutt

Buying a computer can be a tricky prospect because there are so many things to consider before making the final purchase. You have to take into account how quickly technology changes and decide what you’ll need to satisfy your computer needs for a few years. There are also some computers that are easier to upgrade than others which could factor into your overall decision. On top of the already confusing decisions, there are a lot of technical terms that explain how a computer works and if you don’t know what they mean you could have no idea what you are buying. Shopping online for your new computer can help make things a lot simpler.

Most computer manufacturers have set up websites that make searching through their products easier than ever. You can decide whether you want a desktop or laptop and even choose from a list of possible things you will be using your computer for to narrow down your search. The options are usually casual computer use, work, and gaming and selecting from those choices will give you a list of computers that will already have the right components in them to do what you want to do. As an example, a gaming computer will have a better than average graphics card and more RAM, both of which are needed to play games.

Shopping for a computer online also gives you more personalized customization. You can choose the color of your computer, although some websites will give you more options than others. You can also upgrade the components yourself so that you get exactly what you want. Most manufacturers will have steps through the possible upgrades directing you to the part of the computer that can be upgraded and what options they have for it. You may even be able to get software pre-installed on your computer from programs like Photoshop to the latest Call of Duty game.

Customer support is also an added benefit of buying a computer online. Unlike going to a store where you may have to compete to get the attention of one of the employees, websites have multiple people online and ready to help you with any questions you might have about your new computer purchase. Often the customer support will be available as a chat window that you can look at while going to different sections of the website, making it possible for you to discuss specific things about what you are looking at.

Every website that sells computers has specials going on all the time and you can take advantage of the ones that work for you. Usually they are discounts or free items such as a printer when you buy a certain model computer. Since most of the models are upgradeable then you will be sure to get a good deal. Once you’ve got everything you need in your cart you can pay online with your credit card through a secure area and have your computer shipped right to your door in as little as a few days.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Compare Mini Laptops to See How They Rate on Features and Value

By: Brenda Ballentine

The new mini laptops that have come on the scene recently are gaining in popularity as more and more people discover that they can have the same benefits as a larger laptop, without all the hassles of carrying around an 8 pound battery hog.

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s lots to love about regular sized laptops. For one thing, they’re just like using your typical desktop PC, which is nice when you want to do some high-powered computing on the go.

However, do you really need all that computing power most of the time?

This is the main question you’ll need to ask yourself when determining if a mini laptop is right for you or not. Depending on your needs, a small, netbook computer may be just the thing you want to do many of the tasks you now use a larger laptop for.

Another benefit to using the mini laptop is that they’re very economical. While your average laptop runs around $1500, the average netbook computer is around $375. That’s quite a price difference when you realize that the netbook performs many of the same basic functions as the laptop.

Right now, the leader in the affordable netbook field is Acer Aspire, however, there are several big brand names nipping at their heels. The main brands you’ll want to compare are: Acer Aspire, Asus, Samsung, HP, MSI Wind and Toshiba. While there are other big names just now entering the mini notebook arena, the above brands have a big head start and are already very popular.

Okay, so what do you need to consider when buying a mini laptop?

Here are five things you want to compare:

Price – this is one of the most important concerns for many people looking to invest in a netbook. While it’s accepted that you’re already getting a great deal when purchasing a netbook over a regular sized laptop, there are still some great deals to be found on price. Of course, you can just go with the cheapest, no matter what the brand. However, it’s best to look at features and think about whether or not a particular netbook meets most of your needs.

The last thing you want to do is buy the cheapest netbook computer, only to find that you’re not happy with it. There are other things that determine value besides price – remember that.

Screen Size – You’ll find that some popular models have an 8-inch screen size, which is okay, but the average screen size now is 10-inches. So, this may affect your choice and the amount you pay. If the netbook is for a child, then the 8-inch may be just fine. If it’s for an adult, then the 10-inch screen is probably best.

Keyboard Size – This is where many people have issues with netbooks. You see, in order to squeeze all the essentials into such a small space, manufacturers often make compromises when it comes to size of the keyboard. Most netbooks are 80 – 90% smaller than regular laptop keyboards. If you have large fingers, then touch typing will be difficult on a small keyboard. Some keys may be in different locations, and track pads can be a bit testy on some models. Make sure you read reviews on the keyboard for each model since this affects how comfortable you will be using the netbook.

Battery Life – Most netbooks will have a battery life of around 6 to 9 hours, which is great. You’ll need to read reviews to see if this is really the case or in reality, it’s much shorter. Often the battery life the manufacturer states is only under optimal conditions. In real world use, you may have to turn off certain functions to get close to the higher end lifespan. Still, most people seem to enjoy longer usage than on regular laptops.

Performance – In all the excitement over netbooks, the one thing that many people forget is that these are not the same as owning a regular full-sized laptop. Netbooks have their limitations, this is totally due to their small size. It’s just not possible to fit everything onto a tiny hard drive, so you shouldn’t purchase one thinking you can run high-powered applications and games on it.

They’re much cheaper than laptops because they do less.

Now, if you want a mini laptop to do basic word documents, spreadsheets, email, web surfing, music downloading and the like, then netbooks are a great value. One thing that is not included, in order to save space, is a CD/DVD drive. However, you can still download movies from reputable online sources and watch them just fine on your netbook.

For the money, a netbook computer is one of the greatest values you’re going to find that will allow you the same on-the-go freedom that you get with a regular laptop. Netbooks are cheap, lightweight and fun to own. Remember to compare before you buy and you’re bound to get one that you’ll enjoy using for a long time.

Troubleshooting USB 2.0 Driver Problems the Easy Way

By: Logan Albright

The USB or Universal Serial Bus is an invention that was made to take over the aged printer port data cable solution, which had dominated the PC market for a very long time. While we were satisfied with transfer rates, when compared to today’s technology, seemed a bit dismal, innovations like the USB and the Fire Wire port have revolutionised offline data transfer and the computer’s plug and play potential.

Previously, there was no easy way we could install any new piece of hardware, and all of our solutions seemed to be only internet and hard wired to the motherboard, and this is because there was no viable consumer method to connect hardware easily to the computer from an external source.

One of the issues of course was power; and the only power source was the PSU unit inside the PC casing, and power units (till this day) are not designed with external output sources where you can plug in your devices. All power would be routed to the motherboard in the form of expandable slots like the AGP (which only came later), the PCI (which was the most common place to install new hardware) and of course the RAM slots, where you could place in more memory.

Of late, the options for expansion have of course been changed drastically, no longer with simple IDE solutions inside the motherboard. Now, you have high speeds like SATA, which tripled the potential speed of SATA based hard drives, obliterating the use of IDE cables and clunky power unit dongles. The AGP was done away with and the PCI was upgraded to the PCI express, which seemed to be the all in one solution for installing new hardware like modems, sound cards, graphics cards, independent multimedia solutions for the computer.

One of the most beneficial technological moves the computing world did was the introduction of the USB port, which allowed the user to install any piece of hardware that was USB enabled; which of course now covers anything from external hard disks, printers, scanners, sound devices, DVD roms etc - the list is endless.

You can even convert your PC into a design studio with USB attachments. With USB 2.0, it is an upgrade with better power management and of course, higher transfer speeds for data, which opened up the market to new mobile phones, PDAs etc. When using the USB 2.0, you might be encountering driver problems, especially when you are installing one fresh from the counter and not incorporated into the motherboard.

Usually, there are very easy ways you can do this and it either is actually a simple task of downloading fresh drivers from the internet or, if you have Windows, allow it to override the manual driver installation and install it based on its own database. Many of your USB 2.0 driver problems will be done away with easily. So there you have it; a brief explanation on the USB, its functions and how to do away with those pesky driver installation problems that people always encounter.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Common DVD Drivers Problems and Easy Fixes

By: Logan Albright

It is always a good feeling when you throw away your old CD ROM drive in favour of a brand spanking new DVD player for your computer. Now not only do you have a much larger capacity drive, you are also able to enjoy all the new DVD games, DVD movies and much more content which has been squeezed into its 4 plus gigabyte storage capability. If you are purchasing a good drive, you will be able to take advantage of DVD-RAM discs and also dual layer DVDs, which give twice the capacity of the normal, single layered drive options. There are many manufacturers to choose from and in the market, very little separates them in price and performance.

You will find that a DVD drive is quite affordable compared to the prices a few years ago. The general advice is to stick with an internal drive, as external drives are not only more expensive, but they tend to give more problems due to the fact that they are not specifically designed to survive the external environment. But the choice is of course yours, especially when you have a PC tower with no more free drive bays to load your DVD drive or you need a backup drive to run different content at the same time or to perform DVD to DVD or CD backup and burn.

In any case, whichever you do choose, you might not always have a smooth sailing installation as other people might have. Installation of a DVD drive is actually quite simple; all that would be required of you is plugging in the data cable (IDE or SATA) and the power dongle to the PSU core of your PC.

Once that is done, your computer should automatically detect the drive and the indicator light should come on. For basic drives there is really no problem, but for more advanced solutions, you might be requested to install a driver for Windows to support other functions that it might have. This is especially true of faster DVD writers and multi function DVD drives that have remote and infrared capability. The common problems often include things like the driver device not being signed by Windows, or Windows cannot detect the driver or the file cannot be installed. The problem might even extent to the fact that the DVD cannot function and the hardware profile might give you that yellow exclamation mark, which would signal the fact that the driver for the DVD is in conflict with a port or another device.

These are just some of the more common problems and usually there is a single, universal solution to alleviate all of this and get your DVD up and running. The universal solution is quite elementary: Go to the website of the manufacturer, select your model and download the latest drivers. If the problem goes beyond that, contact either the manufacturer or look up Windows technical help forums on their website; there usually is a solution posted for you to get things in order. These are some of the common DVD driver problems and easy fixes to solve them.

Resolving ATI Drivers Installation Problems

By: Logan Albright

ATI is a company that is well known for providing entry-level graphics solutions to many PCs sold all over the world and they are also quite renowned for working with motherboard manufacturers to produce some of the best motherboards out there. But of course, we all know that within the graphics industry, ATI is one of the leading brands out there, jostling for top position with NVIDIA, who arguably holds a larger market share of the consumer graphics solution. Both of these brands are well known for producing cutting edge solutions tailor made for the hard core gamer and sometimes these boards are also generations ahead of even the latest games, which make their longevity even more tantamount.

While most technological computing equipment fall prey to the evolving hyperbole which makes them last 6 months (if you are lucky) before the next better thing comes out, graphics cards have a slightly better half life in the PC casing and ATI is a great choice. However, if you have purchased an ATI graphics card, then you might be one of the few hundred thousand gamers all over the world who might have encountered some driver installation problems when tinkering around with the initial installation.

Do not worry, this is sometimes completely normal and all you need to do is read this article. While it will not resolve major issues like manufacturing errors or corrupt memory modules, some of the simple software problems and driver conflicts can be resolved by you right at home. One of the common problems of driver installation problems is that the end user, in the rush to plug in their new graphics card, has forgotten to follow procedure.

This means they would have to uninstall the old card, shut down the computer, restart to ensure that all trailing device driver and hardware profiles are no longer there, then shut down the computer again. By bypassing this process, many people have problems where the computer either refuses to recognise the new hardware or they are in a position where they list your new card under your previous card’s name, which can be quite pain.

Also, remember to update the drivers by visiting ATI’s website and downloading the latest drivers, because the ones in the box may have been sitting there for months and you might end up with conflicts and problems that already have been resolved by the new drivers.

Lastly, you must download the latest DirectX drivers that Microsoft has posted (especially if you running Windows!) because they are made to optimally use your card’s drivers to their fullest potential. You have to understand that glitches in the game and crashes are down to installation problems where new DirectX drivers are not installed.

If you follow these simple steps, you will have no problem in getting your brand new, cutting edge card in working order and you will be immersed in another world within a few moments. You do not need to lug your card back to the computer store, all it takes is just some tinkering around and everything will be in good order.

Troubleshooting the Top 3 Common HP Drivers Problems

By: Logan Albright

There is a lot of tradition and reliability when one mentions the HP brand, and this is applicable to all the products within the market name. When one thinks of HP, printers, scanners and a whole slew of office equipment will dominate thinking; a company which has successfully branded itself as an all in one solution for office and even personal needs. Many people out there own HP equipment and the one thing they will say to you is that these machines are generally reliable, but with all aspects of technology and the random environments that they categorized, there are often many hiccups that can appear along the way.

While HP has a very strong and competent technical support team, their presence is not always there and sometimes getting to them can prove to be quite difficult, as they have a whole host of customers to deal with. And lugging the piece of machinery down to the local repair man or dealer is also something that can be quite an inconvenience at times.

So you need to be able to solve these problems, or at least some of the simpler problems from the comforts of your home, and the most common ones that occur and are completely solvable at home are software issues and driver problems. One common problem is an outdated driver, which normally comes with the product that you buy. Driver files are often updated every few months and sometimes every few weeks, so you need to make sure you have the latest drivers.

This is done because of changes to the Operating System, like Windows and HP has to adapt and change the drivers to fit the new environment if certain trouble arises from the new shell. Another common problem of course is conflicts that the driver has with other programmes or shared system files within the Windows environment.

This is quite common as we often use equipment and machinery from all sorts of manufacturers and sometimes the design of the drivers, their DLL structure and system files that they share commonly across the board might not be optimal and can conflict with each other. One way to solve this of course is to consult the internet and more than likely, HP itself will have technical forums that will allow you to view common problems and solve them on your own.

They might also release software patches, either for the HP hardware or direct you to the other vendor’s website, where an update driver to resolve this issue might have been posted. The last common problem is driver compatibility with some operating systems, which would mean that some of the features cannot be utilised. Of the top of the list are features like duplex printing, framed printing, which cannot be used for HP printers when they are attached to a LINUX or MAC system. There may be software workarounds for this, or you can simply install Windows as a backup OS on your system.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Basic Explanation of Hyperlink Types

by: Jeyanth Watson

This article deals with the basic classifications of links. Links can be broken into many categories and types, and having the basic knowledge of what each category means is important. This article does not go heavily into actual linking strategies, since that is a far broader subject.

Reciprocal Links

Reciprocal linking is a classic and very common type of link. Also known sometimes as two ways linking, it is basically the process of link trading with other webmasters. It's the whole idea of 'You link to me, and I’ll link to you'. Oftentimes you will see websites with a 'links' page someplace on their site, often buried at the bottom someplace. These pages are filled with various links to other sites that hopefully have something sort of in common with the site you’re visiting.

Reciprocal links are falling somewhat out of fashion lately in favor of one way links, which are considered more powerful, and requiring less maintenance. It is widely thought that the search engines recognize the links are reciprocal ones and give the link somewhat less weight than if it was just a one way incoming link. One other issue with reciprocal linking is that once you setup a reciprocal link with another webmaster, you have to return to their site occasionally to check and make sure your link is still actually there. Overall this is still a powerful way to get links however and should not be overlooked.

One Way Links

One way links are links that are incoming to your site, but are different than reciprocal links in that you don't have an outgoing link back out to the site that linked to you. For instance if I throw up a link to the Google homepage, that’s a one way link to Google. They are not putting a link on their homepage back to here, though wouldn't that be nice! This is essentially the most basic type of linking there is, but it can also be the most powerful.

When the search engines go through someone’s site and see a link to your site, they give weight to your site. When they see that you are not linking straight back to the site that linked you, that you don't have some sort of linking agreement going on, they give it more weight as a link. The assumption is that someone of their own free will linked to your content, and did not require you to link back to them to do it. If that is the case, then your content must be of high quality. Since one way links are so powerful, and don't require any ongoing maintenance, most linking strategies out there today revolve around one way links of some form.

Three Way Links

Three way links are a variation on reciprocal links. However instead of the 'You link to my site, I link to yours' idea, the correct term would be 'You link to my site, I link to yours from a different site of mine'. It's basically a reciprocal link, but your incoming link is coming from some 3rd site instead.

It is thought that the search engines don't particularly care much for three way linking. The thought is that you may be trying to fool the search engines into thinking you are getting a one way link from someplace, when its really just a reciprocal link in disguise. One use of three way linking that is common is for when you have 2 very popular sites, and one brand new one. The idea is that 'I link to your brand new, unpopular site from my very popular site, and instead of me linking back to you from my new site that isn't as popular. I will link to you from one of my other, very popular sites so you get a better weight with the search engines'. Three ways linking is fairly common, but I don't do it and I would not recommend it.

Getting a Free Adobe PhotoShop Tutorial

by: Jeyanth Watson

In the world today, almost nothing is free. Even oxygen is being sold in bars. It is quite comforting, therefore, to find out that you can still get the gift of knowledge without having to pull out your wallet. Getting a free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial is equal to getting a very precious gift when it's not even your birthday.

Did you know that a lot of companies today are hiring people with knowledge in Adobe PhotoShop? This is because of the fact that PhotoShop is the most widely used image manipulation program today. This means that getting a free PhotoShop tutorial will help you avoid the problem that most people are facing today: unemployment. Because of free tutorials, you would be able to increase your chances of being hired. And it won't even cost you a dime!

There are many ways through which you can obtain a free tutorial. The first way actually comes automatically when you buy the program. Adobe PhotoShop actually comes with a free tutorial.

This means that you don't really have to look farther than your own computer to obtain a free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial. There is, however, a problem with this type of free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial. Some people find it boring and hard to understand. This is because the basic free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial comes in the form of a text file. This means you have to read about what you should do and then find out how to apply what you read.

Another source of free PhotoShop tutorials is the Internet. Users write most free tutorials being offered in various websites who have managed to decipher the basic tutorial and who now wish to share their knowledge to other people.

The problem with this is that most tutorials are focused on something cool that the user has learned how to do. It is hard to find an online manual explaining every detail of how the program works. Unless, of course, you check out Adobe's website, which brings you back to square one.

You should also try to find interactive or video tutorials. This is because these types of free Adobe PhotoShop tutorials can show you how to do stuff, not just tell you. You would be able to grasp concepts much easier and much faster.

This is because the medium of instruction allows you to actually see how the instructions would be translated into actions. However, one disadvantage of this is the fact that you will not be able to find answers to questions that the creator of the tutorial wasn't able to anticipate.

An alternative to this is you could also ask someone who knows how to work the program to teach you how to use it. This way, you would get a free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial from a source that you can trust. You would be able to ask questions about certain procedures that you cannot understand. This way, the entire learning process would be more productive for you.

As you can see, there are many things that you can do in order to get free Adobe PhotoShop tutorials. Just because you do not have money does not mean you are out of resources. Use everything that you can and you will be able to find the free Adobe PhotoShop tutorial that you need.

Troubleshooting Internet Explorer 7.0 Issues

by: SalemHassan

Introduction:

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is light years ahead of its predecessors, but by no means does that proclamation mean that the browser is perfect. You are still going to encounter issues with IE from time to time.

Here are some of the concise guides that deliver some troubleshooting steps that will clear up the majority of issues we encountered with IE7.

Issues with Internet Explorer 7.0 with solutions

Problem: Crashes or hangs

If IE crashes, the most likely problem is that there's a buggy add-on (Toolbar or Browser Helper Object). In order to verify and isolate the buggy add-on, follow these steps:

1.) Start IE in No Add-ons mode, either by right-clicking the Desktop icon, or clicking START - RUN and typing: iexplore.exe -extoff

2.) Determine if IE fails.

3.) If not, use Tools - Manage Add-ons to disable all browser extensions and toolbars.

4.) Restart IE and re-enable browser extensions one-by-one.

5.) Once you've found a broken extension, contact the manufacturer and ask for an update.

(Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=928426)

If IE still crashes often, even when browser add-ons are disabled:

• Please ensure that you are running the very latest version of your anti-virus, anti-malware, and/or firewall programs.

• Please ensure that the drivers for your graphics card are up to date.

• If you have Google Desktop installed, please ensure that you update to the latest version of Google Desktop.

• If you have 7-Zip or other Windows Explorer extensions installed, please ensure that you update to the latest.

Problem: Cannot connect to Internet using IE after updates installed

If you see the "Page Cannot be Displayed" error after installing Internet Explorer updates from Windows Updates, it's possible that you have a 3rd party firewall installed that is blocking access because the IE files have been updated. Please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942818/en-us for more information.

Problem: IE always starts in "No Add-ons" mode

The problem is that you're launching Internet Explorer using a shortcut icon that has the "-extoff" command line parameter. That parameter causes IE to start without add-ons. Thus, every time you use that shortcut icon, IE will start in No Add-ons Mode.

1.) How do you normally start Internet Explorer? Right-click whatever icon you're using to start IE, choose "Properties" and remove the -extoff part of the shortcut.

2.) If you click the green START button, click Run, type iexplore.exe in the RUN box, then hit the ENTER key, IE will start with Addons enabled.

Problem: IE opens small windows

IE opens new windows at the size of the last closed window. If you find that IE is opening small windows, do this:

• Close all IE windows.
• Open one new IE window.
• Adjust that window to the size you prefer. Do this by dragging the window borders. Do not use the maximize button:
• Close the IE window.
• New IE windows will open at the size you chose.

Problem: ClearType Text appears fuzzy

IE7 turns on a text-smoothing technology called "ClearType" by default. ClearType is scientifically proven to make text easier to read, particularly on LCD flat panel monitors.

If ClearType looks fuzzy on your monitor, you might want to try the ClearType tuning wizard, which can help you adjust the display of ClearType.

If you still don't like the appearance of ClearType, you can turn it off by unchecking the checkbox: Tools - Internet Options - Advanced - Multimedia - Always use ClearType for HTML.

Problem: IE Startup takes a long time (>3 seconds)

1.) IE may start very slowly if you have a huge number of sites listed in your Restricted or Trusted sites zone. Some tools, like "SpyBot Search & Destroy" will place thousands of sites in these zones if you use their "immunize" feature.

2.) Follow the "Crashing on startup" steps above to see if starting in No Add-ons mode starts much faster

3.) If you're not using a proxy, uncheck IE's "Automatically detect settings" option on the Tools - Internet Options - Connections - LAN Settings dialog.

Problem: Slow Page rendering

1.) Increase the connection limit. This tweak allows IE to make up to 16 connections per server.

2.) Ensure that both "HTTP1.1" checkboxes in Tools - Internet Options - Advanced are checked.

Problem: IE7 Setup fails to install Internet Explorer

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917925

Problem: My address bar won't turn green?

IE7 includes a cool new feature that turns the address bar green when a secure site presents an Extended Validation certificate:

If you're having trouble with this feature, on a site you know has an EV certificate:

1.) Ensure that you either have the Phishing Filter set to "Automatic" mode or Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Security > Check for Server Certificate revocation checked.

2.) If that doesn't work, install this: Windows Root Certificate Update and restart.

Problem: After installing, IE7 starts then vanishes

It's possible that one of IE's DLLs isn't installed correctly

1.) Click START - RUN and type cmd
2.) In the command prompt, type cd\
3.) In the command prompt, type cd Program Files
4.) In the command prompt, type cd Internet Explorer
5.) In the command prompt, type regsvr32 IEPROXY.DLL

(Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=928427)

Problem: Error message about PSAPI.DLL

If you install IE7 and the following error message begins to show:

The procedure entry point GetProcessImageFileNameW could not be located in the dynamic link library PSAPI.DLL

1.) Search your hard disk for PSAPI.dll.

2.) Any copies of this DLL that are found outside of the Windows or Windows\System32 folder should be renamed to PSAPI.bak.

Problem: IE always goes to http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx instead of my homepage

If IE7 always goes to the RunOnce page on startup, even after you've tried to save the first run settings, it's possible that the mechanism that IE is using to save the settings does not work for some reason.

You can prevent IE from going to the RunOnce page and cause it to go directly to your homepage by running this script.

For more info, check out this Knowledge Base article.]

Problem: IE always goes to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx instead of my homepage

If Internet Explorer always goes to this page on startup, it's likely that you have an anti-spyware package (like "SpyBot") that prevented IE from correctly modifying your registry.

Try running this script. Note: you may need to disable your anti-spyware tool temporarily for the script to work.

Problem: On startup, IE always shows an error message about the AOL toolbar

If you see the following error message every time IE starts:

"Cannot find 'file:///C:/Program%20Files/AOL%20Toolbar/welcome.html'. Make sure the path or Internet address is correct."

..then you've hit a bug in the AOL Toolbar.

Try running this script. Note: you may need to disable your anti-spyware tool temporarily for the script to work.

Problem: I installed a "branded" version of IE7, but I'd prefer a "plain" copy without toolbars and customizations.

An article on this topic can be found here: How to remove branding in Internet Explorer 7.

Problem: Malware / Adware

If Internet Explorer is behaving strangely (crashing, visiting unwanted sites, etc), it's possible that there is malicious software installed on your computer.

As a first step, you should allow your antivirus software to scan and attempt to repair your computer. Additionally, you may want to try the following Microsoft tools:

• Windows Defender
• Windows Live OneCare
• Windows Live Safety Center
• Malicious Software Removal Tool

You should also ensure your computer has all the security updates available at Microsoft Update.

Problem: My searches are redirected to unrelated sites and I cannot connect to WindowsUpdate or antivirus websites

If Internet Explorer searches are redirected to unrelated sites or search engines, it's possible that your computer was infected with malware (see the previous tip). However, if your computer is not currently infected with malware, it's possible that at some time in the past, malicious software altered your computer's DNS settings. DNS works like an "internet phonebook" that maps URLs (like "windowsupdate.microsoft.com") to internet protocol addresses (like "207.46.225.221").

To determine if a malicious DNS server is configured:

- Go to Start -> Control Panel ->Network Connections.

- Right click your default connection, usually Local Area Connection or Dial-up Connection, if you are using Dial-up, and left click on Properties.

- Double-click on the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) item

Check to see if you're set to something other than "Obtain DNS servers automatically". If so, contact your ISP to ensure that the address specified is correct, or set the "Obtain DNS servers automatically" checkbox. Then restart your computer.

Problem: After opening many tabs, Windows and IE paint abnormally.

See http://blogs.msdn.com/tonyschr/archive/2005/05/25/desktop-heap-limitations.aspx

Problem: A remote user is having networking problems with Internet Explorer. How can I collect information about his system to help me to troubleshoot?

Have the user run Netcheck and send you the log file.

Problem: Overlong headers result in HTTP/4xx or HTTP/5xx errors, particularly on devices like routers or webcams

Problems of this nature are usually caused by one of the two request headers in yellow being longer than the device expects.

GET / HTTP/1.1

Accept: image/gif, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-ms-application, application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument, application/xaml+xml, application/x-ms-xbap, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/x-silverlight, application/x-silverlight-2-b2, */*

Accept-Language: en-us

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.1.3; MS-RTC LM 8)

Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

Connection: Keep-Alive

Host: 192.168.10.1

These headers are dynamically generated out of registry keys. They can usually be trimmed by editing the registry without any important side-effects.

To trim the list in the Accept header, click START > RUN > REGEDIT.EXE. Using RegEdit, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Accepted Documents

..and remove elements from the "Name/Type/Value" list to remove values that aren't strictly required. Elements in red are of lower importance than those in black:

image/gif, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-ms-application, application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument, application/xaml+xml, application/x-ms-xbap, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/x-silverlight, application/x-silverlight-2-b2, */*

A similar problem can occur with the User-Agent header.

To trim the list in the User-Agent header, click START > RUN > REGEDIT.EXE. Using RegEdit, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform

..and remove elements from the "Name/Type/Value" list to remove values that aren't strictly required. Elements in red are of lower importance than those in black:

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.1.3; MS-RTC LM 8)

For more information please visit http://www.pleasehelpme.com/

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Printer Driver Downloads - Your Best Troubleshooting Solution

By: Logan Albright

Printers are our friends, for students to the working individual, there is nothing like the convenience of being able to print from the comfort of where we are. They make our digital works come alive with colour and text, and for some, it is an essential part of their lives. You would be surprised to know that there are more than 100,000,000 pieces of paper being printed and discarded every month worldwide, and that is a staggering amount of trees.

Of course, they have come out with the new wood free paper and other technology, but the amount of trees that are being cut is quite mammoth in the first place. Well this also gives you an idea of how many printers there are in the world today, and when it comes to this, you need to understand that the amount of mistakes being made on a daily basis when it comes to printer drivers is also something that has run into the hundreds of thousands.

Knowing this, what you need to know about this is that there are solutions out there that you can use to your advantage when thinking about the printer driver. The driver is the biggest cause of many of the problems that are being reported about printers and this is because of the sheer range of machines out there that the printers have to connect with and with this, they connections and communication between driver and computer will often come into many problems.

So what you need to do is to be able to keep a list of updated printer drivers, because this is how the industry of quality control works. What you need to know is that you as a human being, a computer user is someone who is actually a test bed for much of the hardware out there. Now, beta testing aside, the real test is when the hardware is being released to many of the systems out there and this is really where most of the engineers get their work cut out for them. Because they cannot test their hardware and engineered drivers against all possible software and hardware combinations in the world, what happens is that they leave it up to the world to tell them of the mistakes.

When this happens, they will then look at the reports and then look at the architecture of the drivers once again. Once they are able to do this, what happens is that they will then make the changes and this is when the version history of the driver comes in. So you need to be on top of the game when it comes to the printer driver downloads industry, and it is these quality checks that would be able to give you the advantage necessary. Sometimes what you can do is to subscribe to their online download and support sites, and you would be then notified of much of the changes made.

These are just some of the troubleshooting tips you can take into consideration when you encounter problems with your printer. Most of the time it is down to the drivers, and your best bet is to download a driver update from the manufacturer or a reliable third party source.

Troubleshooting Lexmark Drivers Problems - What to Do When You Printer Acts Up

By: Logan Albright

The printer is something that is quite important to people who are working from home, or when they need to do something and print it out. The technology of the printer is something that has come a long way, and back in the day, it was actually quite hard for anyone to print something from their home. Printers back then were quite big and clunky and they were quite expensive to bring over to your home and this meant that people were depending on the print shops to get something done, or if they needed some printing, they would be doing it in the comfort of their own office.

Not only was this much easier, but much cheaper as well. Now, however, the technology of the printer has come a long way and companies like Lexmark have brought their printers into many homes all over the world. But of course the picture is not always perfect and sometimes technology allows the odd error or two.

One common problem that people do face when it comes to printers is that sometimes the printer acts up and you see the common exclamation point error notice when you do try to print something. The all dependable printer suddenly becomes dead and the lights blink for no reason what so ever. So why is there a problem in the first place and what can you do to alleviate this problem. Well, for one thing, what you need to understand is that there are many ways for you to approach this problem, and this can range from hardware to software.

Hardware problems are pretty easy to spot and a problem with the mechanism of the printer is something that you most likely would not be able to fix on your own. Unless you would like the problem to increase and most likely electrify yourself, then I would advise that you send back the printer to the merchant who sold it to you in the first place. Now, if the problem is a software problem, then you would be looking at the drivers of the printer. One way you can address the issue easily is to do a simple reinstall of the product, and this requires that you remove its hardware signature from the computer, restart then do a clean install with the drivers given to you.

Now, there is a second part to this problem, and the problem could be because of the fact that the drivers are outdated and they have come into conflict with other softwares or even drivers newly installed. When this happens, what you need to do is to actually update these drivers on your own, and this can be easily achieved with a simple visit to the product’s website and downloading the drivers which would be the most updated ones. These are some of the things you can do when your printer acts up and these are proven methods to fix the issue, right in the comforts of your own home.