Following is a direct quote from today's Windows Secrets newsletter: A reader named Gerry, who asked us not to use his last name or company name, describes the process his firm used to determine whether to stick with Windows XP or upgrade to Vista: * "When we tested Vista, we configured...

I just upgraded the CPU in a Dimension 8300 to a Pentium 3.0HT, and swiped the heat sink from a Dimension XPS Gen 2 system. It is the same heat sink with copper heat pipes used in the faster 3+GHz Dimension 8300s. It is also the same as used in the Precision 360, Optiplex GX270 (tower model),...

Tested a pair of Hitachi 80GB 2.5" PATA drives recently, so I might possibly use them in a refurb laptop. First, I ran HDAT2, which told me that although the drives had zero reallocated sectors, there were a number of sectors (8 and 2, respectively) PENDING reallocation. This says that the...

If the back of your computer looked like this from all the tar and nicotine it inhaled, think what your lungs would look like. See URL for photo... Ben Myers http://webpages.charter.net/ben_myers/photos#NicotineCase.JPG

Either news.eternal-september.org is broken or this newsgroup has become comatose. Haven't seen a post here for a couple of days... Ben

Went to do a memory upgrade of an Optiplex 330 yesterday. I took along three tested matched pairs of PC2-5300 memory, the type the spec calls for. The memory in the computer originally is the same speed. The computer rejected all three sets of memory, halting the system with the message that...

As many may recall, I reported that Dell Windows 7 laptops were unable to establish wifi connections with a US Robotics router. After some time trying to determine the cause of the problem, I told my sometime client that the router should be replaced, because it is old and no longer supported...

Occasional client of mine bought a pair of Dell Inspiron 1545 laptops with Windows 7 Home for the kids. Problem: The Dell laptops cannot connect up to the US Robotics USR8054 802.11g router in the house. Symptoms: Dell laptops see the USR8054, which is wide open with no encryption at all, and...

Recently, there was a message thread in which one posting asked why one would ever use the non-Microsoft Keyfinder to change a Windows product key when there was a Microsoft Key Update Tool to do it. I can answer that. I tried the Microsoft Key Update Tool yesterday and saw a dialog box that...

I've got some older Dell P4 laptops to refurb here and I might need some of the miniPCI wifi cards they use. I've had positive experiences with the Intel 2200BG and 2915ABG. Any experiences good or bad with the Dell DW1350 and DW1450, both of which are Broadcom chips and designs? The Intel...

William R. Walsh wrote: Hi! Ah, right. So presumably the flux capacitors are operating anti-phase in the neutrino stream to create a tachyon emission to remodulate the main deflector array... In a word, "yes". Other than the spelling of "tachyon" you have nailed it. Just...

Recently there have been several postings here about problems networking computers with Vista. The following URL is a Windows Secrets issue describing the problem: http://windowssecrets.com/comp/081211/ If you do not already subscribe to Windows Secrets, either free or paid version, it is...

I am now clicking away on a Dell 101-key clickety-clack Model M keyboard made for Dell by Lexmark in 1995. This is good for me, because I had to swap motherboards in my main system here recently, and the newer motherboard would not recognize the older IBM-branded keyboard made in 1989. The...

To follow up on another thread, I have one of the Socket 478 Pentium 4 3.06GHz CPUs with SL726 sSpec, pulled from a dead Inspiron 5100-series laptop. I put it into a Dimension 4550 motherboard with the latest 845 chipset, so it can run a CPU with 533MHz front side bus. No surprise, but the...

Apple's latest Quick Time 7 installs QTTASK.EXE in the list of programs executed at system startup, just like all software written by companies (Microsoft, Sun Java, Adobe Acrobat, and others) that think theirs is the most important ever written in the whole wide world. QTTASK.EXE calls home...

According to the specs for the Optiplex GX520, it has a 945 chipset, which is capable of handling an Intel dual-core CPU. But the specs also say that the GX520 does not accept a dual-core. Anybody done it? BIOS limitation? The GX520 and GX620 are almost identical. Thanks... Ben Myers

Got a Dell Studio 1555 to do a bit of preventive work. This was a Best Buy special from about 4 years ago, with Vista Ugh. The on-off switch is on the right side and lights up when power is on. So far, so good. But where is the hard drive activity LED? I did not see one. What were the Dell...

I tried to set up a Dell Latitude E6410 last week, and whoever had it before me toggled the UEFI setting in the BIOS. This leads to disaster. I installed Win 7 Pro with the UEFI setting and the system would not boot at all after Win 7 was completely installed. Then I rebooted and pressed F12. ...

Whether Dell or another brand, most all computers today come with recovery partitions to save the manufacturers from including another 10 cent item in the package with a system. Also because Steveie Ballmer prefers it that way. So you get the system and the first thing you are supposed to do is...

How can I best start to trash this absolutely awful Dell laptop and operating system combination? Well, she bought it from QVC for est. $779, figured out how to install the Office 2013 bundled with the system, could no longer find any Office programs in Metro-land, and called me on advice of her...