I always knew electricity and computers don’t mix well, but static electricity is a pain in the behind also.

As I mentioned the other day in my post on the Kirksville Tornado, when I returned to my office that evening, we began having a computer problem.  My primary computer is a Dell Vostro 200 mini-tower, under 1-year-old.  When the tornados began to hit I started shutting down our systems, but when it came time to unplug them (as you should during a storm), the tornado sirens started sounding and that meant it was closer than I thought, so I left without unplugging.

When I got back to the office a few hours later and went to turn my Vostro on, I got the Dell logo screen and then… nothing.  No function keys worked, nothing changed, it would just sit locked on that screen.  Finally I bit the bullet and called Dell tech support since I was still under warranty.

The tech agent, who was actually one of the nicest I’ve ever dealt with, told me to remove the side panel of the computer tower.  After that was off, he told me to locate the main power cord connection that runs to the mother board.  I did so, and I did look it over for signs of damage, and it looked perfectly fine.

Secondly he had me remove all four of my RAM chips and then reinset them.  At this point I knew where he was going with this, and it was more than likely that my system had received a shock of static electricity.

It was the next thing we did that I would have never thought of.  If you’ve ever opened up your computer you’re sure to have noticed a round silver battery on your mother board.  This is the CMOS (Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) battery which helps your system remember things like the time and date while your system is shut down.  He had me remove that battery from the mother board and leave it out for over a minute.  We then popped it back in and tried to boot the system.

We did get the system back up and running, althought we did keep getting an error message.  The technician had me go into the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) system, and it seems while the battery was out, the system convinced itself it should have an old 3.5″ floppy disk drive.  Why it thought this we had no clue, but we reset that and the computer is working great now.

Oddly, it is actually working better than it did before the storm.  We had been having a weird problem with it not shutting down programs properly, and at times we would have to confirm each one by hand when shutting down the system.  That problem has not appeared once since we did this reset.

Now, this isn’t something I would recommend doing just for the heck of it when you have a computer problem, but it is best to know that this is a possible solution that your tech support may recommend for you to do.

Two other lessons to take away from this:

1. Yes, you should unplug your computer when possible, but the tech guy quickly added when I told him the sirens had gone off, “Sometimes your life has to come first.”  If you can unplug your system, do so, but don’t ever risk your life for it.
2. I am a big believer in remote backup services, and seeing as I use one extensively now, I can’t tell you how much panic and stress that takes out of a computer crash.  Even though my system was down, and it would be a pain if I had to set it up all over again, it was a relief knowing all my documents and files were safely stored somewhere on a remote server.  If you haven’t started backing up your systems yet, do it, you won’t regret it for a second the first time you have a computer problem.

All in all it was a good learning experience, if also a bit frightening.

Do you have a spare $25,000 laying around, collecting dust? Want to build a supercomputer that has 6TBs of memory with write speeds of 2GBs a second? Now you can thanks to Solid State Drives (SSDs).

A good computer these days writes data at approximately 60MBs a second, but when staging a marketing event to promote Samsung’s SSds, they were able to get the write speed up to 2GBs a second, or 34 times faster than the current average. Course, it took over $25K to do this, but it is still impressive. You can see just how impressive this would be in the video below, and even more impressive since they chose to run Windows Vista!

Perhaps it is just a fluke, but it seems monitor manufacturers may finally be realizing they should just tell users what resolution their monitor should be set to.

In what seems like common sense, my latest monitor actually tells me on the built-in menu screen what its optimum settings are.  As somone who has been using computers since 1983, all I can say is, “Well, it’s about time!”

Over the years I have had to play with the built-in monitor settings endlessly to find the correct settings to make everything look normal on my screen.  My latest computer came with my first ever widescreen display, and it was also the first time I had ever had a 22″ viewable area.  I was totally befuddled why things weren’t measuring the pixel size I knew they should like the 125X125 to the right of this very article were showing up well over their set sizes.  Finally, out of pire frustration I opened the menu window to see if I could find anything in the settings I could play with, and I found the above image about the resolution I was set at, and what the monitor suggested.  (Sorry it’s blurry, I had to shoot it with a camera)

I was stunned.  This is the first time I have ever seen a monitor for a PC tell me this, and, sure enough, as soon as I changed it to the wildly large size of 1680X1050, everything looked proper again!

How in the world did manufacturers just finally figure out this was a good idea?  Or has this been going on for a while now, and I just never bought the correct monitor to see it?  Either way, this is a very welcome addition to a monitor, and I hope it is something we see more of in the future to ease everyone’s pain in setting up a new computer.

If you are a Firefox user, you must be a MozBackup user. There is simply no excuse not to be.

We’ve mentioned MozBackup before when we discussed How To Back Up Firefox, but I had an oppurtunity last night to use it in a way I never had before.

While migrating from a computer that has had way too many malware attacks lately, I decided to backup my laptops Firefox and use it as the basis for my new computer’s copy.  I had never done this before on a totally clean machine with a brand new Firefox installiation, so I wasn’t aware just how much MozBackup truly brings with it.  As I had opted to backup every possible thing the software offered, I knew I would have a lot to import, just not how much.

I am pleased to tell you that it brought EVERYTHING with it.  Browser history, download history, all of my extensions, passwords, cookies… every possible little thing, it came with the backup.  It was like running my laptop copy of Firefox on my new desktop in just a matter of seconds.  No hunting down my extensions, building passwords or anything else, it was ready to go.

The only caveat to this situation, as I see it, is if you backup an infected copy of Firefox.  That is why I chose to do this from my laptop copy instead of the infected desktop.  In case malicious cookies were hiding in the history, I thought it best to do it from a system I knew was 100% clean.  If you backup with malicious cookies, well, they’ll come with you.

As MozBackup doesn’t take long to run, I would recommend making this a regular backup tool.  The only drawback is that Firefox must be closed while you run the process, so you might want to do it say on a Friday night, just as you are closing down.  You’ll have all of that weeks history backed up, and you can go into the weekend knowing you’ve safely backed up all of your precious browser information.

The beta version of Windows 7 has officially been released, but it is certainly not for everyone.

The vast majority of people like to be on the cutting edge of technology.  If its shiny and new, then they want it.  With the official announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that the beta version of Windows 7 is now available, there are sure to be many people rushing to try it out, but the question is if this is for you, the average computer user.

The shortest answer to this is a resounding “no”.

To expand on this, I have always likened changing versions of Windows on a PC to trying to change the table cloth on a table AFTER you’ve set the dishes.  It is inevitable something is going to break.  Especially with a beta version, meaning a version that is unfinished and almost certain have bugs, you are definitely going to run into problems with your existing programs and drivers.

There is also the issue that this beta has a limited life span that expires at the end of July 2009.  So after you’ve gotten this on your PC, you’ve gotten things to run somewhat correctly, you will have to either revert back to your previous operating system or pay for a fully licensed copy of the final version of Windows 7.

If you are someone with only one PC, then I definitely, and vehemently, do not recommend you try doing this.  Sure it may be tempting to run the new system, but if something goes wrong during the upgrade, you could very well end up with a dead computer.  Even with multiple PCs in my life, it is doubtful I am going to try this because I can’t think of one machine that I am willing to sacrifice to this test for one reason or another.

For now we suggest you remain content with whatever you have because it is probably working.  If you really want Windows 7, you can try it, but we highly suggest you wait for the finished product.

The brave ones amongst us can find the beta version here.

How old are the cables connected to your computer?

While at the office today, my main computer started having some serious issues with the Internet.  The first thing I did was check to see if the cable modem had stopped working.  All seemed in order, and a second computer in the office was having no problems.

My next thing to do was to test my speed connection by going to SpeedTest.net.  The slow computer was having a problem running the test, but the second computer wasn’t.

So at this point I knew the entirety of the office was online, but not my main computer.  I rebooted the computer and when it came back on it had no Internet at all.  I went to “Start” in Windows XP, clicked on “Control Panel” and then on “Network Connections”.  It showed my connection as being dead and a “Network Cable Unplugged” message.  Okay, so this narrowed down my hunt some.  I unplugged the cable from the bad computer, then took the cable from the working computer and plugged it in to the non-working one.

Presto, I was back on the Internet.

Luckily I always keep spare Ethernet cables laying around, so I took out the apparently dead one, plugged the other computer in to the same port on the switch to test the switch port with a new cable, and it worked.

Just another example of how panic inducing problems with computers often have simple solutions.  Always use a process of elimination to figure out the problem, and it is almost always the simpliest thing as it was in this case.  Just remember to stay calm, no matter how frustrating the situation is, and go step-by-step to eliminate possible causes of your problem.

USB 3.0 has finally received its certification.

Back in August we told you that USB 3.0 was finally on its way, and now it appears it has arrived.  According to CNet, the USB Promotor Group has certified USB 3.0, better known as SuperSpeed USB.  To give you an idea of why it is called “SuperSpeed”, here are comparissons of how fast each version of USB would transfer a 25GB file

• USB 1.0: 9.3 hours
• USB 2.0: 13.9 minutes
• USB 3.0: 70 seconds

In other words, this will radically change how fast you transfer files to things such as thumb drives and external hard drives.  Just imagine that you could back up a 250GB hard drive to an external drive in 11.67 minutes.  There will be next to no reason any more to not back up your files when you can do it at those speeds.

The bad news is that Microsoft is already saying that since it took eight years to go from 2.0 to 3.0, they are nervous about how good it really is.  They are debating if Vista will ever support it, and they are saying it won’t make it into the initial release of Windows 7.  Controllers for the new USB will appear in late 2009 and in consumer products in 2010, so it is likely that consumer outcry will cause Microsoft to have to rethink this policy.

With the winter holidays rapidly approaching, it is time to think about what you can do with sending out the annual greeting cards.

Sure you can head to the store and buy some generic Christmas cards, but why settle for something just anyone can purchase?  With printers getting fancier, and cheaper, why not print out your own?  Yes, they will have fronts that anyone can purchase, but all of the wording can be 100% your creation.

By using companies such as Paper Direct, you can order blank cards that you can customize to your heart’s content by using templates they provide you with for your computer.  As color inkjet and laser printers have gotten cheaper, you can print cards that are barely discernible from pre-printed ones that you buy in the store.

The other bonus to going with this method is that you can print just as many cards as you need, saving the blanks for future years or other purposes.  If you buy three or four different designs, you can cycle through them for years, rotating through them.  (Bonus note: buy more cards after Christmas as they will be heavily discounted and you can be ready for next year.)

You can do this not just with Christmas cards, but postcards, birthday cards, Valentines Day and so on.  Make your printer in to a personal print shop, it’s not nearly as difficult as you may think.

Seniors are some of the most tech challenged folks around, but now there appears to be a solution to make them getting online easier.

BigScreenLive is a new software package that you can install on a computer that attempts to make everyday activities like emailing and web surfing more intuitive for older generations.  As an added bonus, if a senior lives in a home, or only has access to a computer in a public space, the software can be installed on a thumb drive which the senior can plug into the computer, and the software will run from it.

The system would be limiting to people who are heavy users, but it could be the perfect way to finally get your parents and elderly family members online.  The service is subscription based with one month, six month and twelve month options.  You can read more details about what the service does on their info page.

While I haven’t gotten to try the service out for myself, it does look fairly intuitive, and I like the use of oversized buttons so that people can clearly see where they are going and what they are doing.  Seeing as they offer a free trial subscription, could certainly be worth some consideration as a gift this holiday season for the older people in your life.

USB, short for Universal Serial Bus, is an amazing technology that allows you to connect hundreds of items to your computer easily.  Somehow this makes companies think they can produce an endless stream of useless gadgets.

While I have seen numerous USB powered devices that have made me wonder why anyone would buy one, the Webmail Notifier worries me in that it is deceptively useful.  The theory is that you hook this device up, link it to your emails, and it will flash different colors telling you when you have received a new personal or business email, and which email account you received it on.

When you think about it for more than two seconds is when it starts to fall apart.

The volume of email I receive in a day across my five main accounts is staggering.  This thing would be lit up from the moment I got up until the moment I went to bed.  Never mind this is taking up real estate on your desk, and you can accomplish the same job with numerous instant messenger programs and plugins for various web browsers for free.

While this is just one of many silly USB devices out there (I am sure we will cover more in the future), this one is a perfect example of how you should think the true usefulness through before purchasing yet another device for your desk.  If you feel a real need for something that may be lightly entertaining, or you just like lights, then you may find this device fun, but we would hesitate to call it “useful”.