Computer Tips and Tricks

Got a laptop in today that had such an odd problem. The customer said that they rushed the shutdown process and went ahead and hit the power button to shutdown the laptop. When they went back in and powered it on, the touchpad did not work.This was a Compaq (or HP) laptop model cq50-139wm (one of the deals at Walmart).

I installed the latest drivers over at synaptics.com but that did not work. I went to hp.com and got the latest drivers for that machine but that did not work. The device manager didn’t eben show the touch pad at all. The mouse setup under control panel did not even have a listing for the synaptics touch pad driver.

Thinking that it was malware related, I installed atf cleaner, pcfixer, malwarebytes, ccleaner and there was a lot of crap to remove but did not take care of the touchpad.

A lot of sites on this issue were saying to do fn-f7 or some key combination to make sure the touchpad was not turned off. In this case, there is a small push button above the touchpad, that is amber if it is turned off, blue or white if it is turned on. In my case, it was on, but the touchpad still did not work.

Did a system restore back several days but the touchpad still no worky.

I finally came across a site where it mentioned powering the laptop off, popping the battery out and letting it stay disconnected for more than a minute. This did the trick. Special thanks goes to http://forums.techguy.org for that info.

Technorati Tags: compaq cq50, laptop, synaptics, touchpad

Run MsConfig by going to Start > Run > type msconfig
Then selected startup and uncheck just about all the programs you can stand. If there is a program that is running and you are not sure what it is, you can google it by typing in “process “. Sometime it is obvious what the program is. Most folks don’t need to run MSN Messenger or Quicktime detector or all those programs resident in memory. You can always start them up manually and save your memory. Remember, you can always check the program back on if you need to. Just about the only programs you need to run is your antivirus or anti-spyware programs.

Technorati Tags: msconfig, slow computer, slow pc, slowdown, Startup

I wrote about this in Early August but am bringing it back up. The dreaded subject of disk defragmentation.

If you are diligent about keeping your machine running optimally, as I try to be, check out this screensaver which, when it runs, it defrags your hard drive. Don’t be alarmed by all the comments you will get on it, but it will surely get someone’s attention. Us this if you are constantly forgetting about defragging your drive.
http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/
Take the screensaver program and copy it over the system32 directory and then right click on your desktop > select screensaver and pick the JKDefrag screensaver and you’re done.

Technorati Tags: defragment

This link is valuable to those having trouble running programs in Vista that had no problem in XP or earlier Windows OS’es. I founf it over at Nirmaltv.com

Some software and games might be built for Windows XP and might crash when executed in
Vista. If your software is crashing in
Vista, you can fix it with a simple and quick solution. To run programs having compatibility issues in
Vista, turn on the
compatibility Mode. With
compatibility mode, you can run the program or game in the settings for which it was actually designed.

To run any program or game in
compatibility mode, right click on the executable file or the start menu item for this program and then select Properties. In the properties Window, select the
Compatibility tab.

Then give it a whirl!

Tags: vista, xp, compatability mode

1. Start >> Right Click on My Computer and select Properties. 
2. Click the “Advanced” tab 
3. Select “Settings” in the Performance section.
4. Disable any or all of the following: 

• Fade or slide menus into view 
• Fade or slide ToolTips into view 
• Fade out menu items after clicking 
• Show Shadows under menus 
• Slide open combo boxes 
• Slide taskbar buttons 
• Use a background image for each folder type 
• Use common tasks in folders
• This info was found over at 5starsupport.com and is a good fundamental listing of common things to do to take off some of the bells and whistles that could impact slower systems
  

Technorati Tags: performance, tricks, tweaks, windows, xp

This one drives me crazy. Have you ever just wanted to shutdown your machine but it takes for ever! Maybe, you are leaving from work, or going out or there is a quick storm approaching and you need to just shutdown. Either way, it sometimes can take a while. This tip comes from PC Tips N Tricks:

Actually windows XP takes time to close all running programs and applications before shutdown, but you can minimize this time if you have little knowledge about editing windows registry.

Follow the given steps to reduce the shutdown time:

· First click on Start button then type Regedit in Run option. Here locate the location to:
HKEY_Current_User\Control Panel\Desktop    or 

My Computer\HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Desktop

· Here in right side panel, double click on AutoEndTasks and here its default value is 0. Now change it to 1.

· Now in same side panel double click on value name WaitToKillAppTimeout. Its default value data is 20000; now change this value of WaitToKillAppTimeout to 3500.

· Now close the registry editor and restart your computer after any changes to go into effect.

Technorati Tags: registry edit, shutdown, windows xp

Learn how to use your computer like an expert with these top-six free computer secrets that I.T. boffins world-wide have been trying to keep to themselves!

Gavin Wedell from Management Consultancy International teaches you how to easily:
- Speed up your old PC
- Customise your web experience with astonishing browser add-ons
- Create an amazing personalised portal
- Find and use the web’s best free downloads
- Access the most inspiring and interesting free web videos

Management Consultancy International is a Sydney-based Registered Training Organisation specialising in Leadership Development, Qualifications and LEGO Serious Play facilitation.

www.mci.edu.au

Duration : 0:8:25

Read more…

Technorati Tags: computer, Consultancy, Education, Geek, International, Management, Nerd, software, speed, tips, tricks, tweaks, vista, windows, xp

Learn how to use your computer like an expert with these top-six free computer secrets that I.T. boffins world-wide have been trying to keep to themselves!

Gavin Wedell from Management Consultancy International teaches you how to easily:
- Speed up your old PC
- Customise your web experience with astonishing browser add-ons
- Create an amazing personalised portal
- Find and use the web’s best free downloads
- Access the most inspiring and interesting free web videos

Management Consultancy International is a Sydney-based Registered Training Organisation specialising in Leadership Development, Qualifications and LEGO Serious Play facilitation.

www.mci.edu.au

Duration : 0:8:25

Read more…

Technorati Tags: computer, Consultancy, Education, Geek, International, Management, Nerd, software, speed, tips, tricks, tweaks, vista, windows, xp

Clean, Defrag and Boost Your RAM With SnakeOil Memory Optimizer

You seen these ads all over the place and recently, one of my customers asked me about a particular Memory Optimizer application. Just take a look at the comments on this as referenced by Windows expert Mark Russinovich:

Just take a quick look at any download site, and you’ll find hundreds of products that claim to “optimize RAM to make your computer run faster”. Give me a break! Almost all of these products do the same things: they call a Windows API function that forces applications to write out their memory to the pagefile, or they allocate and then deallocate a ton of memory quickly so that Windows will be forced to page everything else.

Both of the techniques make it appear that you’ve suddenly freed up memory, when in reality all you’ve done is trade in your blazing fast RAM for a much slower hard drive. Once you have to switch back to an application that has been moved to the pagefile, it’ll be so slow you’ll be likely to go all Office Space on your machine.

Windows expert Mark Russinovich agrees:

At best, RAM optimizers have no effect, and at worst, they seriously degrade performance.

Technorati Tags: memory boost booster optimize defrag