Category Archives: Hardware

Overheating Laptop!

Posted on by
Reply

Overheating of laptops is a common occurrence and if not dealt with could lead to permanent damage to your system.  When your system overheats you could lose data, blue screens, or worse yet a fired hard drive.  Some systems are built with automatic shut off features to where if your core system reaches a specific temperature it will shut your system down.  If you notice your fan is constantly running, the bottom of your notebook is warm to the touch or your system is slower or just shuts down several steps can be taken to make sure your system is getting airflow it needs to keep the temperature down.

-Check your vents located on the bottom and/or the side of your laptop.  The vents can get clogged with lent which can lead to improper air flow.

-If you feel comfortable enough open your system and clean it with a can of air, everywhere you see lent and other debris.

 

-Purchase a standalone cooling fan/pad for your laptop.  You can purchase a good one for under twenty dollars.

-Don’t sit your laptop on carpet when using it, the carpet will complete shut off all airflow.

-Several apps are available (freeware) which monitor your systems temperature.

Taking these simple steps will ensure your system is running at the proper temperature and it will allow your system to perform at its maximum potential.

Any assistance or questions give us a call at 757-395-4444 or visit or email us at service@allcompute.com.

Jack

All Compute, LLC

Computer Repair and Services Virginia Beach

1322 N. Great Neck Rd.

Va. Beach, Va. 23454

 

 

 

 

 

Memory Check!

Posted on by
Reply

Is your computer system running slow if so increasing your random-access memory (RAM) could help your system perform quicker.  Older systems that have low amounts of RAM, 2 GB, could see significant increase in performance by simply upgrading to 4 GB.  Upgrading the RAM is low in cost and for the average computer user a simple fix, instead of purchasing a new system.

See your system manufacturers  website to see the type of RAM your system accepts.  For example, PC2100 DDR 133 MHz RAM means PC2100 is the type, DDR is the category, and 133 MHz is the speed in megahertz.

If you feel reluctant to open the system bring it to a repair shop, it’s a quick fix and most shops will replace your RAM while you wait.

Jack

All Compute, LLC

1322 N Great Neck Rd.

Virginia Beach, Va. 23454

757-395-4444

Dirty Computer Towers

Posted on by
Reply

Computer fans pull a lot of dust into computers, making it easy for them to get dirty inside. Believe it or not, this dust can cause problems with the functionality of your computer, and sometimes cause hardware to fail as a result. It’s actually important to learn how to open your tower to clean it’s inside. You will need a can of compressed air, a static free rag, maybe metal cleaning fluid and a soft brush. You have to make sure the computer is completely off before you decide to clean it. You then have to disconnect any peripherals. Use the compressed air to loosen and move any loose dust particles. If you still see that dust is still hanging around, use the rag and the metal cleaning fluid to wipe it away, gently as to be careful and not to knock any components on your motherboard loose. Make sure that you put all of the pieces back together.

Now, if your computer is already experiencing complications resulting from a dirty computer, I suggest you take it to a computer repair shop (like All Compute), but if it’s not and it’s just dirty, I suggest you take up cleaning it to keep it’s performance up.

If you all need any more help, please feel free to contact us!

Venise Baxter
Consultant
All Compute
1322 N. Great Neck Rd
Virginia Beach, VA 23454
(757) 395-4444
www.allcompute.com

Reset 309a to complete factory settings

Posted on by
Reply

If all else fails reset your HP 309a printer to factory settings by the following steps.

1. With printer turned on, unplug the power cord.

2. Press and hold the following keys on the number pad # and 6

3. Plug the power back in while continuing to hold the # and 6 buttons.

4. Wait until you see the language choice screen and release the # and 6 keys.

5. Go through the online menu.

That is it.

Larry Catt
All Compute
service@allcompute.com

Partition a hard drive in Windows 7

Posted on by
Reply

After installing a hard drive you must partition it and then format it before it can be used by Windows 7.

To partition a hard drive means to divide it into parts and make those parts available to the operating system.  Partitioning is a necessary step before you can use a new drive so Microsoft has made it extremely easy to partition a hard drive in Windows 7.

Follow these steps:

Open Windows 7 Disk Management from the Computer management utility by clickibg on the Start button and choosing Control Panel. Then click on the System and Security link.  Then go to Administrative Tools, Computer Management, and then Disk Management.

As Disk Management opens you will be prompted with an Initialize Disk window advising that “you must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager can access it.”

Choose MBR if your new hard drive is smaller than 2 terabytes or GPT if it’s larger than 2 terabytes. Then click OK.

With Disk Management open, locate the hard drive you want to partition from the graphical drive map on the bottom half of the screen.

If the hard drive is brand new, it will probably be on a dedicated row labeled Disk 1, or some number other than zero, and say Unallocated.

If the space you want to partition is part of physical hard drive that is already partially partitioned, the Unallocated space will be next to that space.

Once you locate the drive, right-click on the Unallocated space and choose New Simple Volume

The “New Simple Volume Wizard” should appear.  Click Next

In the Specify Volume Size step, click Next > to confirm the size of the partition.

The size displayed in the Simple volume size in MB: field should equal the size listed as the Maximum disk space in MB:. This means that you’re creating a partition that equals the size of the entire hard drive or unpartitioned space.

The next step, called Assign Drive Letter or Path, does just that, since your new partition will need a drive letter.

Windows 7 automatically chooses the next available drive letter (skipping A and B) so if that drive letter is OK with you, just click Next >.

Important: It’s best to commit to this drive letter. Deciding later to change a drives letter in Windows 7 can cause problems if programs are installed on the drive.

Next, Windows 7 gives you the option to complete a format of the drive immediately after partitioning it. Since this tutorial is focused at partitioning a hard drive, let’s wait to format the drive until we’re done creating the partition.

Choose Do not format this volume and then click Next >.

The Completing the New Simple Volume Wizard page displays a quick summary of the partition options you chose.

Check that the settings shown are similar to this:

  • Volume Type: Simple Volume
  • Disk selected: Disk 1
  • Volume size: 2045 MB
  • Drive letter or path: E:
  • File system: None
  • Allocation unit size: Default

Note: The Disk selected, Volume size, and Drive letter or path values will differ depending on your specific setup. File system: None just means that you’ve decided not to format the drive at this time.

Click Finish to begin Windows 7′s partition of the hard drive.

Your cursor will turn busy for a few to several seconds. Once your new drive letter (E: in my example) appears in the drive listing at the top of the Disk Management screen, the partition of the hard drive is complete :)

At this point, Disk Management prompts Windows Explorer to open your new drive.

However, since the new drive is not yet formatted, Windows Explorer gives you the following alert: “You need to format the disk in drive E: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?”

Choose Cancel and follow the directions linked in Step 12.

Note: If you’re familiar with hard drive formatting, you’re welcome to instead click on Format disk and use the directions in Step 12 as a general reference, instead of a specific how-to guide, to performing the format right now.

Now that you’ve partitioned a hard drive, you must format it so Windows 7 can use the drive.

For questions on this or anything computers.  Give us a call at 757-395-4444 or email us at info@allcompute.com

Thanks & have a great day!

www.allcompute.com

Automatically Back Up Your External Drive

Posted on by
Reply

If you are trying to back up your external drive automatically, this worked for me.

What you will need is a  Sync program like “Pure Sync” or “Allway Sync”

http://www.jumpingbytes.com/en/puresync.html
http://allwaysync.com/

They will work with any external or internal hard drive, thumb drives, etc.

You can set it to automatically detect when external media is attached or when a file has had changes made to it.

Hope this works for you.

For any questions or computer repairs call or email us at All Compute LLC

757-395-4444

info@allcompute.com

Ask any computer question and receive a solution, for free!!!

Posted on by
1

All Compute is here to help you with all of your computer problems. Click the balloon to ask your computer question.

Larry Catt
All Compute LLC
info@allcompute.com

Computer Shuts Down Automatically Without Warning

Posted on by
Reply

I’m sure everyone has run into this at one point or another….I know I have.

When playing games, your computer cpu is used much more, the graphics cards are used much more, they create more heat. Some laptops and (indeed computers) can overheat.

There is a failsafe.  If a computer gets over the pre-configured temperature, the computer restarts or shuts down.  This is to avoid your cpu being damaged.
You can check if this is happening to you by downloading “coreTemp”:
32Bit Windows http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/CoreTemp32.zip

64Bit Windows http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/CoreTemp64.zip
If the temperature is 90 degrees during your gameplay or infact if it is around 75 degrees whilst just using your computer.. This is probably the issue you are coming across.

For Laptops the solution is:   Buy a cooler for your laptop
Desktop Computer Solution:   Replace your Heat Sink and add more fans to your computer. Probably best to take to a computer repair (Like All Compute LLC) if you have no idea how.  It is relatively simple, however sometimes you need to remove the whole motherboard to place the grip on heatsinks.

Let me know if you have any questions and/or need repair on this or anything computers!!  Happy gaming!!!
Mariliz
All Compute LLC
757-395-4444
1322 N. Great Neck Rd.
Virginia Beach, VA  23454
info@allcompute.com

Downloading Windows 8 (Beta) on a VMWare Player

Posted on by
Reply

Hello everyone,

Windows 8 (Beta) recently came out and it’s popular to test so if you don’t have a dedicated PC on which to install Windows. No problem. Just install the OS virtually on an existing PC using a free virtual machine utility.  I suggest using a product such as VMWare Player or Oracle Virtualbox.  They are both free and both support Windows 8.

To get started you need to download Windows 8 Beta Consumer Preview as an ISO file.

You can download Windows 8 from here. After selecting the Visit site button, click the button to Get it Now and then choose the option to “download Windows 8 Consumer Preview in ISO format instead.” You can download the ISO file as either a 32-bit or 64-bit version. Both VirtualBox and VMWare Player support 64-bit Windows as a guest. Note the Windows 8 serial number as well.

Download VMWare Player from here. Register at the VMWare Web site to get the software and choose the link for VMware Player for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows. After installing the downloaded file, you’ll need to reboot your PC.

After your computer is back up, open the VMWare folder from the Start Menu Programs area and select the shortcut for VMWare Player.

In the VMWare Player software, click the option to Create a New Virtual Machine. But don’t choose the option to install from the ISO file at this point, otherwise you’ll receive an error when VMWare tries to set up Windows 8. Instead, select the option “I will install the operating system later” and click Next.

Choose Other as the guest operating system and Other as the version. Click Next. Name the virtual machine Windows 8. Click Next. Keep the maximum size at 60 GB but choose the option to store the virtual disk as a single file for the best performance. Click Next and then Finish.

You should now see Windows 8 listed as a new virtual machine.

Click the option to Edit Virtual Machine Settings.  Under Hardware select CD/DVD as the device. Select the option to use ISO image and navigate to the ISO file for Windows 8. Click OK. Then select the option to Play virtual machine.

The Windows 8 installation will begin and you can set it up as you normally would.

Hope this helps.

Mariliz

mariliz.anderson@allcompute.com

or

www.allcompute.com

 

HP 309a Printer – Will not connect to network

Posted on by
Reply

All,

Here is how you reset your HP 309a all in one printer for your wireless connection if lost.   Do not believe anyone if they say your ‘RADIO is DEAD’ or ‘Wireless must have broken’ and odds are there is nothing wrong with the printer it just lost connectivity.

1.  With the power on, unplug the purple power cord from back of the printer.

2.  Now the power will be completely off the printer(no displays, this is good), press and hold the power button in the upper right for 30 seconds or more.  This will clear all previous setting from memory.

3.  Plug the purple power plug back into the printer. The printer will cycle through a test, just wait until you stop hearing noise.

4.  Go to Setup –> Network –>   Wireless Radio and make sure it is “on”.

5.  Go to Setup –> Network –> Wireless Setup Wizard the system will search for all available wireless networks.

6.  Select your wireless network and if secured enter the WEP code. (this can normally be found on the back of your wireless router.

Your wireless printer should be working again.

 

Larry Catt

larry.j.catt@allcompute.com

www.allcompute.com