DELL LAPTOPS & POWER MANAGEMENT

On a Dell laptop, it is crucial to DISABLE one “power-saving” feature guaranteed to drive you mad. In Vista’s “Power Options” panel, the bottom item on the left is “Dell Internal Network Card Power Management.” It is intended...

VISTA POWER MANAGEMENT

Vista is very smart about power management! Use the default settings, you might be pleasantly surprised. As always, the goal is to make a computer more like other appliances – ready to be used within a few seconds after turning it on. Any computer –...

USB HD PREVENTS BOOT

The same problem has now turned up twice in two weeks. So far I’m not aware of any recent update or change that makes this happen, but keep this in the back of your mind in case it comes in handy. The symptom is a black screen and a blinking cursor after the...

WINDOWS VISTA TOOLS

We have learned a lot about Windows XP in the last seven years. I can work deeply in Windows XP with confidence, and I’ve developed a pretty good collection of tools for troubleshooting – some from third parties but a lot that are included with Windows XP...

APPLE & GATEWAY

I had a feeling of deja vu when I was talking to a friend about a new computer last week. In the late 1980s and early 90s, I set up dozens of Gateway computers. They were comparatively inexpensive, they were pioneers in the business of custom configurations for...