GPU Upgrade – Size Matters!
Four and a half years ago, I upgraded my graphics card from an AMD Radeon RX 580 8GB to a Radeon RX 5700 XT 8GB, which you can read about in this article: I Just Upgraded To The ROG Strix RX-5700 XT GPU. Four years […]
PC Computer Hardware
Articles about PC computer hardware
Should You Buy A Refurbished PC?
Everything seems to be getting more and more expensive these days, and that applies to PCs as well. Some time back, I took the plunge and bought a refurbished desktop PC to replace my aging secondary machine, but not before I’d well and truly done
4GB Of Laptop Memory Is An Insult In This Day And Age
Recently, I’ve been deluged with laptops coming in for repair or upgrades. Mind you, I’m not complaining because work is work and it’s what I enjoy. Most of the upgrades are simply a matter of upgrading from spinners (HDDs) to SSDs and increasing memory (RAM),
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How I Revived A Fifteen Year Old Gaming Laptop
A couple of weeks ago, a client phoned asking me to take a look at some laptops so that she could decide which ones to keep and which to give away to people in need. I had known the lady for some years, long before
Computer Not Powering On After DVD Install
I hooked up my DVD drive and lost power to my entire system. My CyberPowerPC already had a DVD drive installed, but it wasn’t working. I checked inside the computer and discovered the reason. There were no cables hooked up. No wires to be seen,
How To Check The Speed Of A USB Drive
If you want to check the speed of a USB drive in Windows 10 and 11, you can do so natively via Task Manager or by using suitable 3rd-party software. Check USB Drive Speed Via Task Manager Connect the USB drive Open Task Manager Switch
The Lunacy Of Windows 11 CPU Restrictions
Having just read Jim Hillier’s excellent article, “Microsoft Says TPM Is Worth The Upgrade – But Is It?” and his other articles on Windows 11’s laughable hardware restrictions, I was reminded of more Microsoft lunacy that literally stopped me in my tracks. A Tale Of
How I Fixed Two Lenovo Yoga Laptops
The other day, my wife came home with a couple of laptops belonging to a close friend of hers. The task was to remove all their personal data so that she could either sell them or give at least one of them to a deserving
Record Android To PC – HD Video Capture USB
I wrote about this before, but using a lower quality video capture device called “Easycap”. Read here: How To Record From Cable To Computer Using OBS Studio I recently bought an HD Video Capture USB device called a “Guermok Video Capture Card” from Amazon. They
Fixing A Non Booting Gateway Desktop
I have a Gateway desktop on my network with a couple of hard drives in it, which I use as a backup system. Yesterday, I turned it on, but it wouldn’t boot up. It made one beep and then went to the Gateway Logo. It
Are Warranties On TVs And PCs Long Enough?
Jim first posed this question back in 2020, comparing the warranty for a $35 toaster with that of a $1700 laptop. Nothing has changed in the interim. Should warranties on major electrical items be longer than 12 months? Let us know your thoughts via the
Are Copilot+ PCs Set To Become The Norm?
This is a question I’ve been pondering for some time, and I have come to the conclusion that Copilot+ PCs will indeed eventually become mainstream. Taking that stance then begs the question, once Copilot+ PCs have reached a substantial market share, will manufacturers continue to
Laptop vs Desktop – Which Do You Prefer?
I’m a dyed-in-the-wool desktop man, mainly because I built my gaming machine for just that – gaming. I do however use it for writing and all the other day-to-day stuff that we do. However, recently I have had to become flexible because we are having
How I Massively Upgraded A Gaming PC
Five years ago I built a gaming PC for a client with the following specs: CPU AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Motherboard Gigabyte B450 Aorus Elite AM4 GPU Sapphire Pulse RX 590 8GB Memory 2x8GB DDR4 2400Mhz PSU Thermaltake 700W Mid-tower Thermaltake V200 case Seagate Barracuda