Tag: laptops
September 30, 2009 by
Jason
When you consider that computers now consume about 10 percent of the electricity generated in North America and that a great many PCs still end up in landfills, leaching deadly chemicals, it makes sense to adopt more eco-friendly computing options.
John Hiddema, technical consultant for Nerds on Site, is one of the many people making a conscious effort to go green. He recycles, buys organic produce, uses cleaning products less harmful to the environment, owns energy-efficient appliances, and has configured his
PC to use less energy. He’s also going green on the job. Some of the work he does for clients’ computer systems can be done remotely from his home office, drastically reducing his need for a car.
Here are some tips for making your technology use more eco-friendly.
1. Manage power consumption
Did you know that approximately 40 percent of the energy used for home electronics is consumed while these devices are turned off or idling? Techies refer to computers and related gadgets that draw power while not in use as vampire load. Turn off and unplug everything when you’re not using it. Even simpler: shut down everything and then turn off the power bar. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Hardware | No Comments »
September 14, 2009 by
Jason Microsoft is ready to offer free upgrades from Windows Vista to the latest iteration of the Windows client for participants in a Windows Media Center testing program. But the prizes go beyond the free Windows 7 upgrades, and include laptops, Xbox Elite consoles and even a PC Home entertainment System. In order to be eligible for the prizes, users must first get accepted into the Windows Media Center TV Ambassador program. The catch, well, there’s always one, Microsoft is accepting participation requests only from UK residents.
“Become one of our TV Ambassadors! If you’ve already got Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, you could receive a free TV tuner valued at £60 so you can enjoy watching and recording live Freeview TV channels on your PC,” revealed Microsoft’s Rob Margel. “Just turn it on, watch and record your favourite TV shows from over 50 Freeview channels including BBC Three, ITV2, Film4, E4 and Dave, and tell us what you think. Spread the word and you could win free stuff: software, games, an XBox 360, and an ultimate home entertainment system. You could even be in our next ad.”
Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | No Comments »
Dell has produced the first drivers for select desktops and laptops running Windows 7 RTM. The US computer maker did not detail the specific products for which it now provides full driver support in concert with the gold release of Microsoft’s latest Windows client. However, customers can of course look for Dell Certified Windows 7 drivers via the company’s official Dell Online Windows 7 Support website. Of course, the search for Dell Certified Windows 7 drivers would have to be done in accordance with the Dell desktops or laptops they are running.
“Dell is jumping in to help business (commercial) customers get ready for Windows 7 by offering Windows 7 drivers for their commercial desktop and laptop PCs. They are posting their Windows 7 drivers (see Drivers and Downloads on left-hand navigation),” revealed Brandon LeBlanc, Windows communications manager on the Windows Client Communications Team. “By offering drivers for their commercial desktop and laptop PCs, Dell is helping business customers with Dell PCs in their environments prepare for Windows 7 deployments.” Read More»
Posted in Windows 7 | 1 Comment »
Defrag your Hard Disk
A big part of computer users regularly combine HDD does. Regular intervals with the computer slows down and the system’s HDD may reduce performance. To prevent this, especially laptop users do not create periodically combined with the hard disk is. And it will be more tired when you try HDDniz So your battery will be reflected in a positive way.
Resources unnecessary applications that use the last
Reduce the performance of the computer system one of the most important factors are background applications running. Some may be required, although some users of the application running in the background that has no benefits. Use of system resources is much lower not only the system performance, but also the serious laptoplarda at a rate which reduces battery life. Therefore, a vital importance for you to close applications that are not favorable to your battery life will reflect. Read More»
Posted in Computer | 1 Comment »
Laptops are complex little machines with a variety of configuration options which can lead to very confusing buying decisions. In this article, we are going to cover out factors that one should consider before purchasing a laptop. These 6 factors are the crux of any laptop purchase and by using these as a guideline, you can land the most appropriate mobile PC for your needs.
1- Weight
The lighter the laptop, the easier it is to move around. Prices usually have an inverse relationship with the weight of a laptop. Hence the lightest of laptops will almost (always) cost more than the heaviest ones.
Another relationship is the features of a laptop which would affect the weight of the laptop, which can be if it has a powerful graphics card, or a larger screen etc. The laptop will end up being comparatively heavier and more expensive. So keep a look out for that.
2- Power Consumption
Battery life is critical for users who are on the go. On an average workload, a regular low budget laptop would easily give you 2.5 to 3 hours of battery time. A fairly good machine would easily clock in 4 hours. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Hardware | 1 Comment »
Whenever you play computer games that utilizes 3D graphics, a decent frame rate of about 25-30 frames per second is a prerequisite to make the games run smoothly and be at all enjoyable. If you play on a desktop PC, you always have the option to put in a more powerful graphics card, but that’s not an option with laptop computers. Another problem with laptops – but one that can be avoided – is the lack of updated graphics card drivers. Using updated drivers can provide better performance in new games thanks to game-specific fixes and improvements.
The Problem with OEM Drivers
Although both of the leading graphics card manufacturers (ATI/AMD and Nvidia) provide generic driver updates regularly that are designed to work with all of the respective manufacturer’s chips – even the laptop versions – most OEMs (laptop manufacturers) do not allow these to be installed on your laptop, since they prefer to use proprietary solutions for all their driver updates. As a result, you may be forced to use drivers that are as old as your laptop if the OEM doesn’t update their drivers on a regular basis, which is unfortunately often the case. Read More»
Posted in Hardware | 1 Comment »
Save energy
Leaving your PC on wastes both energy and cash: running it overnight could cost you more than £100 a year. It’s time to stop sinning and make some savings.
Step 1: Click Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Power Options. If your system uses the High Performance power plan then you can save a little energy by selecting Balanced.
Step 2: Selecting Very low power delivers a real energy cut, but mainly by limiting the work your CPU can do, so it’s best used on laptops or PCs that aren’t running anything too intensive.
Step 3: Click Change plan settings for your plan. Windows Vista normally turns the display off after 20 minutes of inactivity; cut this to 10, perhaps set the PC to sleep after 20 minutes or so. Read More»
Posted in Computer, Windows Vista | 2 Comments »
Microsoft has been supplying beta testers with two special patches for Windows Vista, patches that are designed to improve the performance and compatibility of the operating system. The two patches, distributed through Connect to a select group of beta testers, have leaked onto the internet, and you can download them here (or here for 64-bit systems).
What do the patches do? The Vista Performance and Reliability Pack improves some things that hurt the performance of systems running Vista, including file copying, corrupted AVI files, Canon RAW files, memory corruption, and more. The Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack fixes some common compatibility issues Read More»
Posted in Windows Vista | 4 Comments »
When large businesses buy new PCs, they often wipe the hard drives clean and install a fresh copy of Windows, along with the other software they want workers to have. Some consumers, frustrated with all of the trial software, desktop icons and other stuff that comes loaded on their machines, are doing the same thing.
However, what works for businesses isn’t always so easy for individuals. Many computers don’t actually come with a clean copy of the operating system. Instead, many ship with a “recovery partition” or a recovery disc that restores the system back to the way it shipped–with all that extra software. Read More»
Posted in Computer | 1 Comment »
January 28, 2007 by
Jason
1.Search the Control Panel Consistent with the other tools and folders, the Control Panel provides a Search box to quickly find available tools.
2.Classic View Return to your glory days with just a click and you will find the familiar Control Panel View, however the updated Windows Vista Control Panel is so much more useful you may never need that Classic View.
3.Offline Files Away from the network? You can take files with you and make sure you have the information you need.
4.Sync Center Make sure you have the latest version of those offline files with the Sync Center; you can even make sure the files are up-to-date automatically and on a schedule.
5.Mobility Center Windows Vista does a better job of collecting resources that are appropriate for certain tasks; the mobility center is just one example. Here you will manage the resources appropriate for laptops, such as battery status, wireless network, external monitor, and presentation settings
Posted in Windows Vista | No Comments »
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