There’s a trick to solving this problem and I forget how few people know about it. I’ve yet to see it fail and, if it doesn’t work for you, you’re either being too impatient or something is seriously wrong with your hardware.

Computer won’t shutdown? Use the force!

The trick to forcing your computer to shutdown is simply pressing and holding your computer’s power button for 5 full seconds. Note, this isn’t simply pressing the button and counting to 5, but holding the power button down for five, real seconds. Every modern computer or laptop that I’ve ever seen has this feature built in.

Please keep in mind that you should only do this when absolutely necessary. This is really just like yanking the plug out of the wall. The operating system doesn’t have a chance to tidy up and any unsaved work will be lost. This is a last resort, people.

Now that you’ve gotten your computer to shutdown, you should probably give some thought as to why your computer was locked up in the first place. Sure, it could have been a fluke. But, there is usually a reason behind these sorts of things. For example, some laptops don’t “wake up” from sleep mode like they should, leaving the touch pad and/or keyboard inoperable. Also, new hardware, drivers, or software could interfere with the normal operation of your computer. If you notice the bad behavior after making these sorts of changes, you should consider removing them or searching for an updated version of the driver or software.

If you’ve found that your new wireless mouse or all-in-one printer is getting in the way, and that you’re not able to remove/uninstall them. Boot into safe mode (press F8 during boot up) to get the job done. If you’re still running into a road block, consider doing a system restore.

Got any other tips or suggestions for stubborn computers? Leave a comment for us. Got a question? I’ll help if I can!

Cursing under my breath, I got up from the couch to give the Xbox and game a close look. Of course, the disc was fine. I put in another game just to be sure, and got the “unreadable disc” error once again. I inserted a movie we had watched over the weekend. No dice.

What comes next is what really frustrates me. My Xbox 360 is just over a year old so I consider it to be pretty new. Also, it’s the “Elite” version, a version I had hoped Microsoft had released with confidence. Besides all that, I have never heard of DVD drives just going out like that and, if they do, it’s because they are obviously defective. In my six years of working at Dell, you want to know how many computers I had to repair because of a bad CD or DVD drive? That’s right, none.

I called 1-800-4MY-XBOX the next evening to see what my options were, even though deep down I knew that I was going to have to pay to have it repaired. After speaking my way through the automated options (which I’ve never understood why it’s better than just “pressing 1″) I got in touch with a support guy rather quickly. He walked me through some really basic troubleshooting in his best “I’m hip and young too, bro” voice and soon agreed that my Hitachi DVD drive was toast. Then he informed me that, since my Xbox was out of warranty, I could have it fixed and my warranty extended for $99.

EDIT: I recently fixed my Xbox with just a touch of glue. To find out how I did it, read this article: Fix the Unreadable Disc Error. If you’re not ready to send your Xbox in for repair or attempt to fix it yourself, read about the different ways you can use your broken xbox.

I’ll admit, I thought about just trying to fix it myself. I mean, it’s just a DVD drive, right? Well, I did a little research and found that I’d have to buy a particular brand/model and somehow flash it with the Xbox’s key. Looked like that was going to cost me around $60 + my time, so the $99 repair fee began to sound better and better.

I plan on making another call tonight to go through with the repair. I also plan on updating this post with all of my experiences with the repair process as they happen so that other people may know what to expect. I also hope that other people who are having this same kind of problem will leave a comment for the record. Who knows, maybe this will turn out to be the same sort of thing as the Three Red Lights.

Battery backup units are like smart surge protectors; they constantly monitor the power being sent from your electrical outlet. While power is present, the battery backup unit will charge its internal battery while powering the devices you have connected to it. Whenever power is lost, the battery backup unit will immediately begin powering your devices with its battery. When power from the electrical outlet becomes available again, the battery backup unit will switch back to charging the battery. This way, your computer remains operational and you’ll have an opportunity to save your work and safely shutdown.

The amount of time that a battery backup unit can supply power to your equipment varies among manufacturers and models. Obviously, the longer or more devices it can power, the more expensive the unit will cost. However, current $80 models will keep the average computer and flat screen monitor powered up for approximately twenty minutes. That is more than enough time to save your work and safely shutdown.

Some battery backup units come with software for your computer. With this software (and usually a USB connection from the battery backup unit to the computer) your computer can be safely shutdown while unattended. This is a great feature to have since there’s a great possibility that the power loss will happen while you are away from your home (or asleep in your bed!).

Another benefit of using a battery backup unit is that your hardware is protected from dips and spikes in electrical power. Your equipment is provided with a clean stream of power, which can extend the life of the devices you have connected.

Also, battery backup units aren’t limited to powering computers and monitors. If you have a home network (cable modems, routers, switches), you should consider buying an extra unit. This way, whenever the power flashes off for a brief period of time, you can continue transferring files or browsing the internet uninterrupted. If you’re into playing video games, consider hooking up your favorite consoles. Losing hours spent in a game can seem nearly as crushing as losing your reports or homework!

So, for under $100 your unsaved work can be preserved and your equipment can last longer. However, there is one small catch. The batteries in your backup unit will not last forever. You can expect to replace them every few years or less, depending on how often the battery was used. The good news is that the batteries are very easy to replace and usually cost $30 – $50. That’s a great bargain considering the service they provide.

There are many UPS manufacturers out there, but I can personally vouch for APC units. I’ve installed numerous APC units over the past few years and have had no trouble with them at all. The smaller units come with software (as mentioned above) that automatically shutdown the users’ computers. In fact, they came in handy just a few weeks ago when a nasty storm rolled through the area and knocked the power out. Thankfully, the only inconvenience from the storm was having to power up a few workstations the next morning!

Most of my Saturday mornings are spent checking out the week’s recordings and watching a few things… usually Battlestar Galactica if I had missed it during the week. Well, this past Saturday morning when I turned on the dvr everything seemed normal. However, when I went to “My Recordings” the display showed “0% Full” and “No listings Available” (which was also shown under the Scheduled Recordings menu).

DVR’s are pretty simple devices. They’re just stream-lined computers built for a very specific purpose which happens to be recording a streaming video source onto a hard drive. Nothing new here, especially since all of the components that make up a DVR have been around for years and years. So what’s the problem?

Before we moved to our current house, we used DirecTv for our television enjoyment. It wasn’t long before I felt the need to get highly recommended TiVo. My experience with the TiVo was never less than satisfaction. Everything from installation, upgrading, to using the device was simple and intuitive. TiVo was one of the first broad attempts at delivering the DVR experience, and they did it well.

Fast forward four years into the future…four years. Maybe now you can understand why I’m so puzzled as to why Comcast and Motorola continue to hand out such crap to their customers. Who would recommend a product that has to be replaced 3 times within 2 years?

I briefly considered just reconfiguring the dvr and hoping it was a one time occurrence. However, the next day the dvr locked up on when I tried to do something as simple as changing the sample. Looks like it’s time to go back to the Comcast office and roll the dice once again.

Update: 6-14-2008
I’ve swapped out my defective DVR for a “new” one. So far so good… if something goes wrong, I’ll post another update here.

Just as a reminder, when you swap out your box, you have to call Comcast to get it activated on your account. Otherwise, you may notice that some of you channels/features aren’t available. When you call, be sure and have you account information handy (phone #, address, name on account) as well as the serial # of the new DVR (this can be found on the receipt or the bottom of the DVR). Call 1-888-270-6445.

I love these commercials…

• Love to read? Learn how to get away with reading at work. I was blown away when I first saw this website.
• The latest release candidate for Firefox 3 hit the web yesterday. Head over to the Mozilla site to learn what’s new and how to check it out for yourself.
• Steve Bass over at PC World posted an article explaining a few ways to make Vista and XP work the way you want them to. Some handy tips are presented there.
• Want to build your own machine on the cheap? Wired.com has an article on how to build a $150 linux machine (minus the keyboard, mouse, and monitor). They’ve even listed and linked to all the places they found their bargain-priced parts.
• And finally, be a green geek and help out your local farmers by heading over to the Farmer’s Market Search hosted by the USDA. There you will find a current listing of farmers markets throughout the United States.

Companies spend tens of thousands of dollars each year to employ competent technical personnel who ensure that their data is not in danger of being destroyed. Why? Because it is not a question of if a hard drive will fail. It is a question of when a hard drive will fail!

Hard drives have come a long way over the years. My first computer had a 1GB hard drive. At the time this was considered to be so large that one would never find any way to fill it. Today, most of us have mp3 collections that would fill my first hard drive many times over. As of the date of this writing, $100 would fetch you a hard drive at least one hundred times larger. Also, modern drives read and write data much more quickly and offer better methods of transmitting data.

Regardless of the advances in hard drive technologies, hard drives continue to be vulnerable to failure. The largest contributor to this problem is the many moving parts inside a hard drive. A hard drive consists of a motor, several magnetic platters (disks), and a read/write head. The motor spins the platters at 5400 – 7200rpm (and faster on high performance models). A set of read/write heads that float just above and below the platters move from side to side reading and writing data from the spinning disks. I am sure you can imagine what would happen if the motor burns out, or if the platters become damaged, or if the read/write heads do not function. Any of these things result in hard drive failure.

It is important to recognize the signs of impending hard drive failure. The following lists a few of the more common symptoms:

• Accessing folders and files takes an extremely long time.
• Your computer freezes or crashes frequently, often when booting up.
• The names or content of files becomes jumbled for no apparent reason.
• Odd errors occur when copying or moving files.
• Your hear a clicking or grinding noise (or both).

If you begin to experience these symptoms frequently, you should begin to plan on hard drive failure (ideally, you would have planned on hard drive failure all along). You need to backup the contents of your hard drive(s) immediately.

There are many ways to backup your hard drive; the end result being that one or more copies of your important files exist on some other form of data storage. Don’t place a copy of your files onto the same hard drive and consider it backed up. Copy your files to an external hard drive, CD, DVD, USB flash drive, or another computer.

The subject of data backup is worthy of its own article. However, I will get you started here just in case you’re searching for a solution.

1. If you have about $100 to spend, buy an external hard drive. If you have a CD or DVD burner, also buy a stack of CD’s or DVD’s (preferably DVD’s since they hold more) if you can. If you’re strapped for cash, just buy the CD’s or DVD’s.
2. If you fear that your hard drive may crash at any moment, begin copying your files to the external hard drive or CD’s/DVD’s immediately. Try to reproduce the directory structure exactly. If all you’re doing in copying and pasting, you should be fine.
3. Purchase or download a program that allows you to schedule automatic backups. An excellent free program called SyncBack is made available by 2BrightSparks.

I have one final suggestion for backups: make several copies. Ideally, you will have one copy on your external hard drive, another copy on DVD filed away in a closet, and another copy at a trustworthy neighbor’s or family member’s house. You may think I’m going overboard in this respect, but you’ll thank me if your house is ever destroyed. Another method is to sign up with a remote backup service like Mozy. They offer 2GB of storage for free and unlimited storage for only $4.95 (current price shown, may change in the future.) The plans offered are Mozy Home, Mozy Pro, and Mozy for Macs.

I hope you now have a greater appreciation for hard drives and the consequences of their failure. I also hope I’ve made you paranoid enough to take action. Remember, hard drive failures are unavoidable. Data loss, however, can be avoided with only a small amount of planning and additional hardware.

Imagine a two story house with a very narrow staircase connecting the two floors. There’s a family of eight living in this house and they all want to go upstairs. In order to get from one floor to the next, the family members must line up in single file and climb the stairs one at a time. That, my friend, is like a serial bus.

USB was created in 1996 to establish a standard way of connecting devices together. It is also useful as a means of transferring power to low-consumptions devices. Over the years, USB has gone through many improvements. The most current being the “high speed” USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/s transfers) which was released in 2000. A future version of USB (USB 3.0) is in the works. It is supposed to be roughly ten times the speed of USB 2.0 and be backwards compatible with previous version of USB (4.8 Gbit/s).

As I mentioned earlier, there are tons of peripherals that use USB. My personal favorites include USB Flash Drives and USB External Hard Drives. USB Flash Drives allow me to carry important files everywhere I go (I keep it on my key chain). The USB External Hard Drive is an excellent way to easily add storage to your computer. I like to use them as a backup device.

So there you have it… an explanation of USB technology in a nut shell. Go forth and impress your neighbors.

I spent several years working at Dell, putting these things together. Surprisingly, I was one of the few people who knew how these parts worked together. So, after reading through this post, you’ll probably have a better understanding of computer hardware than most of the folks out at Dell. ;) Read on!

Motherboard

The motherboard is the main circuit board to which all other computer parts connect. The motherboard also contains the BIOS (basic input / output system) as well as other connectors like USB ports. Many motherboards have the video and sound components built in (referred to as “on board”). This can save you a good bit of money down the road, but you’ll be sacrificing some power and versatility by not using dedicated components. More on that later. When building a computer, the motherboard you choose is going to determine what kinds of technologies you’ll have at your disposal. So take note of the motherboard specs before making a purchase!

CPU (The “Processor”)

The CPU (central processing unit) is the “brains” of your computer. How quickly your computer can complete a task is largely the result of how fast your processor is. You can tell how fast a processor is by its speed which is measured by how many cycles it completes in one second. One MHz (mega-hertz) is one million cycles per second. One GHz (giga-hertz) is one billion cycles per second. So, if a processor completes one instruction per cycle you could say that a 3 GHz processor completes 3 billion instructions per second! Some of the newer processors on the market today have more than one core, which is like having multiple processors on one chip.

RAM (”Memory”)

RAM (random access memory) acts like temporary storage for your computer. Typically, any program or file that you open is stored in RAM until you close it. That’s why you lose all of that precious work in a power outage. That is, unless you’ve recently saved your work. RAM is measured in MB’s (megabytes) and GB’s (gigabytes). Most new computers come with at least 1 GB of RAM. Generally speaking, the more RAM your computer has the faster it will perform. This is because your computer starts to put things on your hard drive whenever it runs out of RAM. Pulling data from your hard drive is much slower than pulling it from RAM!

Hard Drive

Your hard drive (sometims abbreviated as HDD) is where everything one your computer is stored. Unlike RAM, your hard drive is permanent storage. That is, once you have saved a document you will not lose it when you turn the power off. There are several “types” of hard drives which is determined by how it connects to your motherboard. First, there’s IDE which uses those wide “ribbons” to connect to the motherboard. IDE drives are slowly being phased out, but are holding on since they are now usually a great bargain, especially if you’re more worried about storage and performance. Next, there’s SATA drives which greatly outperform IDE. Last but not least there’s SCSI (pronounced “skuzzy”) which are typically found in high-end machines like servers. All hard drive storage is measured in GB’s (gigabytes, or one billion bytes) and now sometimes TB’s (terabytes, or one trillion bytes… which is equivalent to 1000 GB’s!). Hard drives have become so inexpensive now that many serious computer users have more than one. Its not uncommon to have 300GB of storage in a home computer.

CD and DVD Drives

CD and DVD drives allow your computer to read data from… you guessed it, CD’s and DVD’s. CD drives are becoming less popular since a DVD drive (which are now very inexpensive at around $50) can play a CD. If you get a DVD burner (a drive that can write data onto a DVD) you’re now able to write or “burn” data onto both CD’s and DVD’s. In my opinion, there is no excuse for a computer bought in the last couple of years to not have a DVD burner installed.

Video Cards

Some users, like graphic artists or gamers, need to have a little more power when it comes to video performance. Video cards take care of this need. A video card is a piece of hardware that is dedicated to all the complex video tasks like working with image/video files or rendering a complex 3D environment. This makes your computer run faster as it takes a huge burden off of your CPU. Video cards also usually have more than one output port which enables you to connect two monitors to your computer (called a dual screen setup).

Sound Cards

A sound card is beneficial for audio much like a dedicated video card is for video. Sound cards also have more bells and whistles allowing you to enjoy things like a 5.1 surround sound set up. Unless you’re a huge audiophile, you’ll probably be happy with audio ports that are (likely) integrated onto the motherboard.

Power Supply

A computer’s power supply (sometimes called a PSU for Power Supply Unit) is what converts the AC coming from the wall outlet to the DC that your computer needs. Power supplies split up the current and deliver it to each of the different components in your computer. Power supplies are measured in wattage, with 400W usually being the minimum for a solid computer. If you’re out looking for a power supply, don’t get the cheapest one you can find. A good power supply will help protect your computer component from nasty power surges. However, that’s no excuse to not use a surge protector! Also, never, never take apart a power supply unless you’re an electrician. Power supplies can hold a charge long after they have been disconnected!

Well, I hope you are getting a grasp on the different parts that make up your computer. If you want a deeper understanding (I’ve barely scratched the surface!), spend some time reading any quality A+ Certification book. There will be very little that you don’t understand after reading through one of those!