Tag Archives: Hardware

Computers, Hardware, Monitors

A Dual Monitor Desktop

Do you need two monitors on your desktop or office setup? With the price of LCD monitors dropping to $100.00 or below, there really isn’t any reason not to consider adding a second (or third) monitor. Here are some considerations:

1. Real Estate – Do you have room for a second monitor? Most office desks, and I’m speaking about SOHO here, are large enough for a printer and a monitor. Maybe it’s time to move the printer off the desk and into another room. It’s networked, right? If it is, it doesn’t have to be right beside you. You would use a second monitor much more than you use your printer.

2. Video Card – In order to hook up a second monitor, you need a video card that supports two displays. For around $100.00 you can get a decent card that will sport two video outs, hopefully digital (DVI or HDMI). Sure, you can use one or two VGA outs but the picture will suffer. Even if your monitors don’t sport an HDMI input, you can get a HDMI to DVI monitor cable for $5.00 or less.

3. Portrait or Landscape – Depending on what you do on your computer, you can get a second display that will enable you to turn the screen 90 degrees. This portrait setting is great for graphics or desktop publishing. A full screen image is easier to work on without scrolling. Another plus here is that a wide-screen monitor turned upright takes up less desktop space.

4. Full Screen Video – Adding a second monitor will allow you to watch full-screen video while you’re using a browser or working on your websites on your other screen. Working on my WordPress sites is a lot easier for me because I can keep the site open on one monitor while adjusting things on my main screen. I don’t have to keep clicking on tabs to see what I’m creating. It’s only a second or two saved but there is no interruption in the workflow.  It’s much smoother with two screens.

5. Size Matters – Don’t scrimp with a 17 or 19 inch monitor. These days you can get a 22 or 23 inch monitor for just a bit more money. The percentage of screen increases tremendously. Moving from a 17 inch to a 20 inch monitor will give you 40% more viewing area. You won’t regret springing for something larger than you’ve got now.

6. Name Brands Please – When you’re out shopping for an extra monitor, keep an eye on the brand name as well as the price. I have four Dell monitors that I use on my set up. While I don’t recommend Dell as a company (because of a couple of problems I’ve had recently), they sell decent monitors. Their Ultra-Sharp models are probably not worth the additional money unless you are working in video or photography and need the better color representation and resolution. I have one Ultra-Sharp and it’s nice but for my work, websites and writing, I don’t think I can justify having more than one. Acer, Asus, HP and others make good monitors, too, so keep an eye out for a deal on something with a name you know. Don’t jump for a cheap no-name screen or you’ll regret it. As well, read some reviews of the unit you’re considering.

7. Speakers – Personally, I don’t require speakers on my monitors. Sure, they might save you some room but I picked up a good  5.1 speaker set and I’m quite sure it’s better than any speaker that might come with a monitor. Adding speakers seems to be the new thing for monitor manufacturers and I’m pretty sure that this is an attempt to cash in on the huge home theater market. Built-in speakers are fine for the bedroom or kitchen TV but not for a monitor that you’ll be using every day. A decent 5.1 speaker system can be had for $75 to $100. With a separate speaker set, you can arrange them around you while keeping the centre speaker hooked onto the monitor directly in front. Catching your favorite rock video on a coffee break will be a better experience than ever.

If you have questions or comments, feel free to add them at the bottom. As always, thanks for reading.

 

 

Computers, Hardware, Troubleshooting, Windows, Windows Secrets

Enable Your Microphone

If you have disabled your internal microphone on on your netbook or notebook, here’s how you can get it back. This post also shows the value of  Window’s right click menu system. Sometimes we forget how powerful it is.

I was making a video today and tried to use an external microphone instead of the internal one on my netbook. Well, the external one didn’t work but I had disabled the internal one, thinking it was causing some interference. Once I decided to use the internal one again, I had to search for a way to enable it again. Here’s how you do it:

1. Right click the little speaker icon on the lower right of your taskbar. Choose ‘Recording devices’ as you see here:

Choose Recording Devices
Right click the speaker and choose Recording devices.

2. Once the recording device dialogue is up, right click anywhere in the blank space to get this menu:

Right click dialogue showing disconnected devices.
Right click in the open space and you'll see how to enable disconnected devices.

3. Once you get to this point, click ‘Show Disabled Devices’ and you will see a list of things that you may have disabled. Simply click ‘enable’ to get them back again.

 

This is a simple solution but it’s also something to keep in mind when you get lost in Windows. If what you want to see isn’t there in front of you or if you can’t seem to find something, try the right click menu to see what comes up. In this case, a simple right click solved what seemed to be a difficult problem.

Thanks for reading!

Computers, Hardware, Troubleshooting, Windows

Computer Repair

There’s nothing like the feeling you get when your computer crashes or when something doesn’t work that used to work just fine. Frustration, stress, panic all add up to confuse what is usually a pretty simple issue. There is no quick and foolproof way to figure these problems out but here are some suggestions.

1. Don’t panic. Computer problems are often quite simple to resolve. Ask yourself some questions before you call for help:

a. What were you doing just before this happened?

b. Was there a recent power outage or storm?

c. Did you click on a link in an email?

d. Has anyone else but you used the computer lately?

e. Have you downloaded or installed new software?

f. Is your malware/anti-virus up to date and have you done a scan recently?

2. Troubleshooting a computer problem is a step-by-step process. You have to figure out what’s working and what isn’t. If the computer itself isn’t working, work through a process that includes your power supply, monitor (maybe your computer is on but you just can’t see it!), hard drive, DVD drive and so on. If you can’t power up, it could be a power cord, a power supply, a blown fuse or something as simple as a stick of RAM that has been jiggled out of place. Don’t assume that it’s a motherboard problem. When HP or BestBuy can’t figure out your problem in two easy steps, they will often say, “It’s your motherboard.” I’ve been around computers enough to know that this is rarely the case.

3. Rebooting your computer often gets rid of problems. Shut it down and wait for a few minutes before starting it up again. Assuming that your computer boots (starts), you can boot into safe mode for repairs if it doesn’t run properly in a normal environment. Safe mode is easy to start, check out how in this post.  It also helps to run your anti-virus or malware protection from Safe Mode.

4. If your computer was working well yesterday but isn’t today, consider using System Recovery to set everything back to yesterday’s settings. This is available in every Windows computer.

5. I know it sounds expensive and a waste of money but I think it’s a great idea to have at least two computers in your home, even if you are single. Why? Because you can use one computer to fix the other. Using Google to search for solutions has always helped me solve problems. Don’t underestimate the power of a $100 computer when you need to repair your $1000 laptop or desktop.

6. People are very helpful and you’ll find all kinds of assistance online. There are manufacturer’s forums, open forums, even Twitter to look for help.

7. Don’t assume that it’s user error. Sure, you may not know anything about computers but you’re not a complete idiot, either. Many tech people talk down to callers who seek help. Most of the time you can find the problem yourself without help and most of the time it’s not your fault. I learned about computers by breaking them, then fixing them. Let me tell you that you learn more when something doesn’t work than when everything runs smoothly. Life long learning, right?

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Thanks for reading!