http://gtwy.net/fix I fix things so you don't have to Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:01:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Over fifteen years ago, my father patiently explained both the concept and benefits of solid state storage devices to my younger self. I can vividly remember the conversation, it was the first time I had ever heard the word "volatile." His explanation was simple, there are two forms of memory. ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2010/08/solid-state-drives-the-next-big-leap/ Last month, a customer contacted me regarding their laptop overheating. It was an HP Pavilion dv9700 with an AMD processor. When I finally saw the laptop, I couldn't believe my eyes. The plastic was nearly melted off the bottom panels. Could a laptop really overheat this much? [gallery link="file"] While most laptops will ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2010/02/when-laptops-overheat-and-melt/ The average computer user relies on the mouse heavily throughout their day. In reality, switching between mouse and keyboard is slow! By learning a few keyboard shortcuts, you can dramatically reduce 90% of back and forth mouse nonsense. There are a few types of keyboard shortcuts. There are global keyboard shortcuts built ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2009/12/quick-keyboard-shortcuts/ [caption id="attachment_118" align="alignleft" width="267" caption="DDR2 240-pin Memory Module"][/caption] One of the most common mistakes when building or upgrading a computer is the memory. What type? How many pins? What speed? Registered or unregistered? Single or dual channel? Any skilled computer expert can tell you the answers to these. I'm going to show ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2009/12/memory-upgrades/ Everybody has heard of a power surge, but most people will give you a funny look if you say brown-out. While a surge is a sudden jolt of extra electricity, a brown-out is actually a loss in electricity. And surprisingly, I have seen more damage to electronic equipment from brown-outs than ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2009/12/preventing-brown-outs/ I was doing maintenance work on a computer when I noticed that the clock was ahead by about five minutes. I went to change the clock, but that did not fix the problem. (Time immediately reverted back after a Windows Update reboot). I then remembered that the primary domain controller controls the time on ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2009/12/incorrect-time-and-date-on-domain-computers/ Microsoft isn't the only company experiencing technical problems this month. In an attempt to prevent outages on Christmas, Reasearch In Motion has been upgrading their equipment over the past couple weeks. Unfortunately, the upgrade process has caused issues instead of preventing them. The problems are cross-carrier and global, according to PC ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2009/12/special-update-another-blackberry-outage/ Microsoft's online portal for software downloads, eOpen, has been causing IT administrators headaches this month. It all started on December 5, when the site went down for a scheduled upgrade. However, instead of coming back online two days later per the maintenance schedule, it was down for an entire week. Microsoft obviously does ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2009/12/electronic-software-purchases-from-microsoft-rendered-useless/ One of my customers have all of their office computers located in a rack, instead of under their employees' desks. This frees up desk and floor space as it is a pretty tight area. However, they were just laying desktop computers on their side instead of installing rackmount-capable systems. Fortunately, Dell ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2009/12/dell-precision-r5400-with-xp-pre-installed/ All IT Professionals cross their fingers when joining a computer to a domain. This is because everything has to be perfect; one mistake and it fails. In this guide, I will attempt to explain important settings, which are often configured incorrectly. Be mindful of the DNS information provided below. Incorrectly configured DNS settings account for 90% of ... http://gtwy.net/fix/2009/12/active-directory-joining-a-domain/