Laptop repair can be tricky. There are hidden screws all over the place, a certain order you have to pull it apart and sometimes the spare parts are hard to find. Laptops are also prone to damage that a desktop wouldnt normally have such as being dropped or having a damaged DC jack.

Steve Cherubino, who was computer technician until he went full time podcasting has worked on thousands of laptop computers in his shop and would now like to share his laptop repair knowledge with you in the form of high definition, narrated, downloadable videos.
Read the rest of this entry »

I recently came across a really useful Computer Hardware Chart made by a member on Deviantart that helps you visually identify various types of plugs, ports, sockets and RAM.
Most technicians should already know how to identify many of these, but there a quite a lot of lesser known plugs and ports that I either haven’t seen before or have seen, but didn’t know what it was called.

I have provided a link to a shrunken down version for easy web viewing that is only 2mb in size and an extremely high resolution version that weighs in at 24mb.
Read the rest of this entry »

A BIOS password is a protection measure that can be used to stop someone powering up a computer system or making changes in some of the computers most sensitive areas. Many big name computer manufacturers such as Dell and HP lock the customers out of this area because they don’t want the customer changing anything and potentially damaging the machine (which the manufacturer may have to warranty). However, when someone like a computer technician or hardware enthusiast needs to make some hardware changes to the computer, they will need to access the BIOS. Here are some methods to bypass or remove a BIOS password.
Read the rest of this entry »

Computers have moving parts such as fans on their CPU’s, Power Supplies, Video Cards and in some cases, on the case itself. Each fan is important for the smooth operation of the computer because they keep the system cool. Should Dust, Cigarette Smoke (which forms a paste when in contact with dust) or Pet Hair clog up one of these fans and prevent it from spinning, can cause those parts of the computer to overheat and become damaged.
In light of this, cleaning a computer is something that should be done every 6 months to a year. In this article, we’ll show you how.
Read the rest of this entry »

In the real world, I work as a data and systems architect. A client surprised me this week by asking for a “10 year architecture plan” to include detailed hardware specifications. I found this interesting as we usually don’t venture more than five years into the future and in a scenario like this will specify the latest and greatest in server technology making sure the hardware has room for expansion. We can usually specify three to five years but without a crystal ball it’s difficult to know or even guess where processors, storage and especially motherboard technology will be ten years from now.
Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time there lived a PC who killed video cards. He was a nice, quiet PC, middle aged and had always performed his duties well. At some point he changed though. He went through several video cards without regard to brand or price and eventually a lengthy investigation uncovered the defect in him responsible. It was his power supply…..
Read the rest of this entry »

Computers are one of those things which have its novelty wear off pretty fast. I find myself upgrading several components of my system every year on a regular basis, in order to keep up with the technological evolution (though often it feels like a revolution rather than an evolution). Even then, every three years or so, I usually end up buying a completely new system. Upgrade is not always a viable solution. As your system grows old, most of its components are no longer compatible with the latest available on the market.

If you do it the way I do, after a few years or so, you’ll usually find yourself heaps of computer relics in the corner of your garage, and wondering what you are going do with them.
Read the rest of this entry »

Life would have been easier without choices, wouldn’t it? Sure it might be dull, but at least we wouldn’t have to choose, occasionally make mistakes, and suffer the consequences. It happens all the same in the IT world, where we occasionally have to choose between one and another, be it between Intel and AMD, NVIDIA and ATI, or in the case of this article; FireWire and USB.
Read the rest of this entry »

Are your applications running slow or the whole computer running a little sluggish? Chances are you might need some more memory.
So what is the ideal amount? What do I need to know before I start? In this guide we answer these questions. Read on.
Read the rest of this entry »

Last time on TNCT 301 we discussed approaches to constructing computers for different roles. One of the buzzwords that appeared while explaining a server setup was RAID. Originally called Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks, RAID arrays have become a neccessity in every storage-intensive field, in order to both speed access up, as well as provide additional protection for stored data.

Read the rest of this entry »