Wednesday, March 26, 2008



Top 7 Home Computer Repair Check Points

Your home computer is prone to damage as any other machine in your house, more, if you are connected to the Internet. You must take measures and learn some basic home computer repair methods to safeguard your computer against any potential damage. Here are the top-most important tools that serve as home computer protection as well as home computer repair methods:

• Anti-virus: You should invest in good anti-virus software for continuous online protection. To help with home computer repair, anti-virus software provides fixes for latest viruses and guards against spamming and phishing. You should update the anti-virus package periodically. The most popular ones include BitDefender, McAfee, Kaspersky Lab, F-Secure, Symantec Norton, and Panda. A typical package will cost you $30 to S50. Some basic anti-virus packages are also available for free.

• Anti-spyware/Anti-adware: Spyware and adware prove a menace when it comes to the performance of your computer. As a home computer repair and protection method, scan your computer using an anti-spyware, anti-adware package like Ad-Aware and Spybot Search & Destroy. These packages are available for free online.

• Operating System and Program Update/ Speci

fic Computer Manufacture's Update: Updating your computer periodically with critical and recommended updates goes a long way in protecting your home computer against damages and rectifying non-functional devices.

• Firewalls: Your operating system may provide you with a firewall by default. You should install a personal firewall if your computer does not have one. A firewall acts as a filter, protecting your computer from malicious content from the Internet. Some popular firewalls include McAfee, Norton, and Zone Alarm. Some firewalls like

Kerio are also available for free.

• Disk Defragmentation and Disk Cleanup: These tools come built-in with your computer and serve as important home computer repair methods. These tools help free up space on your computer. You should run these tools periodically.

• Error-checking utility: The computer provides another built-in home computer repair utility called the Error-checking utility. It checks the hard disk for bad sectors and tries to recover them. Follow these simple steps to check your

hard disk for errors

First Open Start menu, click on run

In the run window type the following command

chkdsk




• Back up and Recovery: A very dependable method for home computer repair is system restore. You should create restore points on your computer so that in case of any damage, you can restore your computer to a previously secure checkpoint. Also, to avoid losing any important data in case of a system damage or failure, it is a good idea to back up your data periodically.

Read all about how to repair your home computer at out new blog. Whether you have virus and spyware trouble or more complicated thing like hardware issues. Learn what to do, and how to do it at our home computer repair blog.




What Is Better For You - A New PC Or A New Laptop?

Dell, Hewlett Packard, Apple, or other laptop producers now are producing many kinds of laptops. There are plenty of low-performance laptops like Sony VAIO VGN-NR160. You can buy these laptops easily because their prices usually are not higher than $1,200. These big companies produce low-performance notebooks because they know most people in this world are demanding for new laptops but middle and low-class people do not have enough budgets to buy high-tech notebooks.

Although there are plenty of cheap notebooks, you still need to compare those laptops with new PCs. Like it or not, usually you can get better specification from a PC rather than from a laptop if your budget is limited. For example, what can you buy if you only have $600 in your pocket? Probably you won't get more than 1 GB RAM memory from new notebook but PC can offer you better performance.

However, we must remember that the most important thing is your need. If you never go outside home, of course PC is a better option. If you often go elsewhere because your job forces you to do it, laptop is the first choice. Beside all of these, you must also consider how often you use laptop/PC every day. A PC can be used for plenty of hours every day but a laptop needs time to rest. You must also consider what kind of specification works for you.

If you are a gamer and your budget is not more than $1,500, why don't you buy a PC instead of a new laptop? But if you have more and you often go to outside of your home, of course new Dell XPS or new HP Pavilion will be better for you. Everything is up to your need, your job, and your personality. So what is better, a laptop or a PC? It all depends on you. Just remember that PC actually can offer you more than a new laptop but you can't bring your PC to outside of your room.

Author of this article is the admin of bestlaptopz.com. If you want to search for new dell laptops, lenovo laptops, new hp laptops, and other famous laptops, you can visit my site: best laptop (Click the 'best laptop' text)

Tuesday, March 25, 2008



How to Build a PC on a Budget




The best part of building a PC is that you get to build it yourself.

The Hardest part of building a PC is trying to find all the components you need.

I will show you a simple way to find your components and then you can assemble them.

Start by setting a budget. Our budget for today is $200.

First, we need a computer case to put all of our fun goodies into.

On our budget, I recommend the Power Up ATX Mid-Tower Case, in black with front USB ports. There are many cases to choose from, if you prefer something more flashy, then choose one you like. Be prepared to pay more for it.

But as far as function goes, a simple Plain Jane computer case will work. Just be sure that the your motherboard will fit inside before you make your purchase.

Next, you will need to select a power supply. Some computer cases will have a power supply included.

For our project, let's select the Ultra LS400 Lifetime Series 400 watt power supply. A solid power supply unit, worth the money and so far very reliable.

Again, you can select your own. There are may to choose from, just keep in mind that some can be very noisy and I recommend that you pick one that has 300 watts or more.

Now for the motherboard, as long as your not trying to break any land speed records with it, we can use MSI's K9MM-V Motherboard. This one has all the basic requirements covered. This one includes a LAN port, sound on board, a VGA port, and a AM2 CPU socket.

Now it's time for the brains, the CPU, we can use an AMD Athon 64 3500+ OEM. OEM means Original Equipment Manufacturer, this means that you don't get any fancy packaging and in this case, you'll need to get your own CPU cooling fan and heatsink.

There two roads you can choose, the AMD road or the Intel road. The choice is yours, but remember we are building a computer on a budget.

If you do get a different CPU, this opens a whole different set of problems. Basically keep in mind socket type, cooling issues, and motherboard compatibility.

To go with your new brains, your will want some new memory. Let's use Crucial 1024 MB PC4200 DDR 2 533 MHz memory. Simply put, this is the memory card that matches our motherboard selection.

This is the basic start of building a PC. The next part of the build, you will have more choices to make.

These include the hard drive, DVD-RW, monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and operating system.

For more about Building a PC on Budget visit http://www.buildtheperfectpc.com/pg017.html


Janean Wilson - EzineArticles Expert Author