"How do I dispose of old computers?" is a question we are frequently asked. Actually, the query is often about computing devices in general, not just computers. In this post, I'll share with you what you should and should not do. Keep in mind that some devices store your data - like computers, tablets, smartphones, …
Category: Hardware
Why BIOS And Firmware Updates Are Important
In this post, I'm going to explain why BIOS and firmware updates are important. I often find that customers who log in to Remote Technical Support ignore these kinds of updates. If you want to keep your computing devices secure and working properly, these updates should be installed. Definitions Before I delve into the heart …
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Set Up And Use An Apple AirTag
Set Up And Use An Apple AirTag The image above shows one set of my keys with an Apple AirTag attached. In this post, I'll explain what an AirTag is, how to set it up and then how to use it. What Is An AirTag? Apple AirTags are small tracking tiles that use Bluetooth to …
Disk Cleanup
In my post from last week, Celebrate National Clean Out Your Computer Week, I gave you a couple of ways to clean up your computer - removing duplicate files and deleting old files you haven't used in years. In this post, I want to add another way of getting back hard drive space and possibly …
True Image
If you've followed my blog for a time, you know that I'm a huge fan of online backup for my data. We don't own a computer that doesn't have Carbonite on it to back up data. If any of my computers ever crash, I'll be able to recover all my data just by going to …
Defrag?
A question that we are asked from time to time is: "We used to have to defrag our computer's hard drive. Do I still need to do that?" The short answer is "No!" A slightly longer answer is "No, especially if your computer has a SSD (Solid State Drive)." If you aren't aware, hard drives …
USB-C to USB and More
In my post of April 14, 2019 (What's The Small Port On My New Computer?), I introduced the USB-C port now found on almost every laptop, desktop and all-in-one computer. In the seventeen (17) months since that post, I have found myself using the USB-C port more and more. I keep buying various adapters and …
Stick Or Not?
A number of people have asked me if I thought having and using The Photo Stick was a good idea. From its ad on Amazon, it lists the following information: Fast- find and save 1000 photos in ten minutes. Saves 60,000 average size photos and videos. Works on both Mac and Windows. 128GB of storage.Super …
Time…Oops…Ink In A Bottle
When it comes to printers, one of the complaints we hear often is how much ink cartridges cost. It seems no matter what brand you purchase, the ink cartridges are expensive. Here at Keystone Computer Concepts, we've had a Xerox solid ink printer for almost nine years now. These solid blocks of ink eliminate the …
It’s The Right Thing To Do
One of the most powerful tools on both Windows and Mac computers is the one I use hundreds of times during a typical week - the right-click. Whether you use a standard mouse, a laptop's touchpad or a touch screen computer, the right click is available. The right-click promotes one of the primary reason for …
No More Complaining!
Sometimes, when I'm pricing a new Windows computer for someone, they will cringe at the price. They think anything over $299 is outrageous! Well, after Apple's WWDC annual conference this week, no more complaining about Windows PC prices is allowed! Apple announced the new Mac Pro computer will be priced at...wait for it... $5,999! And …
Optane – Not To Be Confused With Octane!
Just last week, one of my customers asked me about buying a new computer and they wanted to know if I could price them one with Intel's Optane Memory. I was surprised they asked as it seems that few of my customers have even heard of Optane let alone know enough about it to request …
Dirty Screen?
As the computing world becomes more and more a touch-screen society, we are often asked "How should I clean my touchscreen? It has tons of fingerprints." Let me first respond by saying, don't use household window cleaner. These types of cleaners can damage the screen. Instead, you need to use a product specifically made to …
Eject – A How 2
In yesterday's post (Old Wives' Tale), I explained the importance of properly ejecting USB drives and memory cards. I promised I'd explain how to do that in today's blog post. We actually have tutorials covering this procedure on our help page (4kcc.com/help) under Computer Hardware Issues. If you have Windows computing devices, learn how to …
Old Wives’ Tale?
For some of you, today's post will be new information. For others, it will be a friendly reminder! If you perform a Bing or a Google search on today's topic, you'll find varying opinions. But, I'm asking you to forget searching and, instead, rely on my almost thirty-six years of experience working on computers. USB …
Laptop Surge Protection
A customer who had just purchased a new laptop from me a few weeks ago, called me and told me that laptop was dead. He had used it in the morning but in the afternoon, nothing - no lights, no sounds, no image on the screen. I immediately suspected that the unit was not charging …
It’s A Process…Or…
In this, the third and final blog post on processors, I'm going to talk about threads. Understanding threads is not an easy task and there's really no reason for us to delve into the technical details. In the simplest of terms, a processor thread is where the highest level of code execution takes place. A …
Sock It To Me…
In our second blog post about processors, I want to explain processor cores. Pictured above is a processor socket. Originally, one single processor would fit into a socket like this. The result was a single processor per computer. Processor manufacturers wanted to find a way of increasing the abilities of a processor without using more …
It’s A Generational Thing…
Today, let's talk computing hardware. Nothing happens in a computing device without the CPU. Oh, I know - another techie acronym. CPU stands for Central Processing Unit. For short, we just call it the processor. Please note that people sometimes refer to the tower of their computer as the CPU but that is incorrect. The …
3 Ways
When it comes to hooking up your printer to your computer, there are three ways, although not all printers give you all three options. USB Cord With this method, a USB cord is hooked up between your printer and your computer. This is the most direct way of being able to print but it also …
You Need One Of These
If you have a wireless printer, you need one of these! Wireless printers are great! The printer can be in a totally different room than your computing device and you can still print to it! There are a couple of negatives, though, and one of those includes losing the printer from your Wi-Fi network. We …
