10 things to look out for when buying a Laptop
1. Portable form factor
Ultraportables excel for frequent fliers who need just the essentials while on the road. Screen sizes are small - usually 10 or 12 inches - and their keyboards petite. Also, to make these machines so small, features such as internal optical drives, large and fast hard drives, and extra ports are frequently absent.
Mainstream laptops are like budget desktops: They're good for general tasks but won't win any contests for their performance or features. Though they don't qualify as thin or light, they still offer some portability. With 14-inch or larger screens, a standard selection of ports, and big keyboards, they're suitable for everyday use.
If you want desktop power, you need a desktop replacement. With screen sizes of 15 to 17 inches, travel weights as heavy as six kilos, and average battery life of less than three hours, these behemoths are not for people on the go. They can accommodate a wide range of performance parts, however, and are just right for power users of all kinds.
2. The processor and you
When it comes to processors, go with the fastest you can afford, regardless of the notebook's form factor. You have a lot of options, so here are the basics.
Intel's Pentium M CPU line offers speed while enabling great battery life. These chips, combined with Intel's wireless LAN electronics and either the 915 Express or 855 chipset, make up Intel's Centrino mobile technology. The biggest downside is price -- Pentium Ms are still costly.
AMD's mobile processors are more affordable than Intel's, but they generally lag behind Intel's on our MobileMark tests. AMD's Turion 64 processors may change that, however. AMD says the chips will offer optimisations for high performance, wireless capability, and long battery life.
3. Screen sizes
Wide-screen notebooks, which have an aspect ratio of 16:9, offer larger, sharper, and all-around better images than their 4:3 standard-screen cousins. They're great for allowing you to have two documents or Web pages open side-by-side. A spacious 17-inch wide-screen laptop is a nice luxury if you're not planning on traveling with it.
4. Memory memiors
Having enough memory is vital to system performance, and lots of RAM lets you run more applications simultaneously. Sufficient RAM is also necessary for graphics work, image editing, and video editing, and crucial for 3D gaming. This is especially true in notebooks, because notebook graphics processors frequently have little or no memory of their own and share the main system RAM.
5. Typing and mousing
As notebooks shrink in size, so do their keyboards. If possible, try some simple typing exercises before you buy. Pay particular attention to the spacebar, Shift, Ctrl, and Backspace/Delete keys. Be sure all are in a good location for your hand size and typing style.
Computing today relies a lot on mousing. With a notebook, all you get is a touch pad or pointing stick. Test the notebook's input device for comfort and responsiveness. Some touch pads include extra features, such as a dedicated area for scrolling.
6. Vying for video RAM
If you're not planning on doing much graphics work or playing 3D games, shared memory should be fine. But if you have a choice, aim for a graphics chipset that shares at least 64MB of system memory.
7. A slot for all reasons
Like a PCI slot in a desktop, a PC Card (or PCMCIA) slot in a notebook provides expansion opportunities. Additional USB and FireWire ports, wired and wireless modems, and wireless LAN radios are all available in PC Card form. PC Cards and slots come in three sizes: Type I, II, and III. Type I cards are normally used for memory, Type II for input/output devices, and Type III for mass storage and firewalls.
8. Get connected
Ports, especially USB and FireWire, are necessities, but on notebooks they're usually in short supply. At a minimum, look for two USB ports, and if you have any legacy devices, such as parallel printers, look for those ports, too. If you'd like to use a digital camcorder or iPod with your notebook, make sure the notebook has a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port. Connecting a monitor will require a VGA port. And if you want to output video to a television, find a notebook with an S-Video out.
9. Go wireless
Integrated wireless networking (Wi-Fi) has become an indispensable feature. Most notebooks ship with a choice of 802.11b or 802.11b/g. Capable of data throughput of 11Mbps, 802.11b is fine for ordinary use. Public hotspots typically use 802.11b or 802.11g.
10. Power on the go
Lithium-ion batteries have all but replaced nickel-cadmiums because they're lighter, have a higher energy density, and don't suffer from recharge-inhibiting memory effect.
Also look out for battery capacity (measured in milliamp hours, or mAh), and the number of cells. Typical batteries have a mAh rating between 2,000mAh and 6,000mAh; higher is better. Cells are the actual compartments where power is produced and can range from four to 12; the more the better.
courtesy: www.hp.com
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
HOW TO PREVENT CRASHING OF YOUR HARD DRIVE
How to prevent crashing of your hard drive
The computer has become one of the most important tools in our daily lives. In fact, there are so many people all over the globe who simply can't live without this technology. These people usually work and communicate through their compute that when their personal computer would malfunction, it would seem like the world have caved in on them.
Technically, all computer hard drives would eventually fail us. These are just hardware that could weaken with age, constant use, mishandling and worst of all, the intrusion of computer viruses that have the power to wreck havoc on our computer systems. However, the good news is that we can actually prevent our hard drive from crashing down sooner than they should. Of course these ways and means of preventing hard crashes is not foul proof as there are always some factors, which we cannot seem to control at all. However, let us look at the bright side of things.
As for viruses that are often deadly when they latch into our system, one can install effective anti virus software that detects the virus as it try to enter into our system. We can install firewalls to create a barrier and prevent intruders from entering into our systems. If we can keep out the viruses from our hard drives, our files will be safe.
Now, viruses are not the only threats to our hard drives. Overheating could also cause our hard drives to malfunction and damage our files. Although in the past, over heating of the hard drive may not be very noticeable as our computers are still using lower speed, the new models of computers are processing data at very high speed that overheating of the drives in now becoming a threat.
Although our present day computers are equipped with built in fans and cooling system, the speed at which our present day computer process data could raise the temperature in the hard drive to about 70 degrees F. Such temperatures could cause computer crashes as some of the parts of the computer would melt under the heat. The bad news about this situation is that is would be very difficult, in fact it is nearly impossible to recover data in hard drives that crash down due to extreme heat.
To prevent your computer from over heating, you should make sure that the cooling system thereof is functioning properly. Make sure after you use your computer for sometime, you will allow the hard drives to cool off. It would also be a good idea to provide additional ventilation to your computer if you are going to use it for a prolonged period of time in a single setting. You may also get one of those monitoring software tools to alert you in case your computer have reached a critical level of heat.
courtesy: www.ezinearticles.com
The computer has become one of the most important tools in our daily lives. In fact, there are so many people all over the globe who simply can't live without this technology. These people usually work and communicate through their compute that when their personal computer would malfunction, it would seem like the world have caved in on them.
Technically, all computer hard drives would eventually fail us. These are just hardware that could weaken with age, constant use, mishandling and worst of all, the intrusion of computer viruses that have the power to wreck havoc on our computer systems. However, the good news is that we can actually prevent our hard drive from crashing down sooner than they should. Of course these ways and means of preventing hard crashes is not foul proof as there are always some factors, which we cannot seem to control at all. However, let us look at the bright side of things.
As for viruses that are often deadly when they latch into our system, one can install effective anti virus software that detects the virus as it try to enter into our system. We can install firewalls to create a barrier and prevent intruders from entering into our systems. If we can keep out the viruses from our hard drives, our files will be safe.
Now, viruses are not the only threats to our hard drives. Overheating could also cause our hard drives to malfunction and damage our files. Although in the past, over heating of the hard drive may not be very noticeable as our computers are still using lower speed, the new models of computers are processing data at very high speed that overheating of the drives in now becoming a threat.
Although our present day computers are equipped with built in fans and cooling system, the speed at which our present day computer process data could raise the temperature in the hard drive to about 70 degrees F. Such temperatures could cause computer crashes as some of the parts of the computer would melt under the heat. The bad news about this situation is that is would be very difficult, in fact it is nearly impossible to recover data in hard drives that crash down due to extreme heat.
To prevent your computer from over heating, you should make sure that the cooling system thereof is functioning properly. Make sure after you use your computer for sometime, you will allow the hard drives to cool off. It would also be a good idea to provide additional ventilation to your computer if you are going to use it for a prolonged period of time in a single setting. You may also get one of those monitoring software tools to alert you in case your computer have reached a critical level of heat.
courtesy: www.ezinearticles.com
Sunday, April 11, 2010
HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM FOR YOUR LAPTOP
How To Choose The Best Antivirus Program For Your Laptop?
The antivirus program industry is crowded, with more products to choose from. How will you know which one will give you the most value for your money? This article will inform you how to focus your search for the best antivirus software.
1. Do Your Research
Firstly, visit websites that compare and review antivirus software (such as AV-Comparatives and Virus Bulletin), and see which product their experts recommend as the best antivirus software. These websites focus on how the program performs, including how thorough its virus search is, and how successful the program is at deleting viruses. Next, check consumer review web sites to see what people like you think of the program. They tend to focus less on speed and more on simplicity and ease of use.
2. Must-Have Features
Secondly, before you buy any antivirus software, make sure it has an auto updater and a scheduler. Updaters allow the antivirus program to automatically download updates themselves with the latest virus detection definitions from the web. Schedulers allow you to make the antivirus software to execute at a time (like 56:00 AM) and a frequency (like once a month) of your choosing. Together, these characteristics allow you to "set it and forget it." In other words, they constantly, automatically protect your computer without you having to remember to do anything.
3. Try It Out
Thirdly, once you have found an antivirus software that is good, download and install the free trial software (don't worry, you can always uninstall it later if you don't like it). Evaluate it. Is it simple and easy to use, or complex and confusing? Is it stable, or does it cause problems with the rest of your notebook? Does it run fast and silent in the background, so that you forget it's even there? Or is it so slow and sucks up so much processing power that it slows down the rest of your netbook?
The best antivirus software is expensive, but worth every penny to protect your computer. Finding an antivirus program you are comfortable with and that works well on your PC is not a decision to take lightly. Be an informed consumer, do your research, and take it for a test drive before laying out your money.
courtesy: www.bigarticledirectory.com
The antivirus program industry is crowded, with more products to choose from. How will you know which one will give you the most value for your money? This article will inform you how to focus your search for the best antivirus software.
1. Do Your Research
Firstly, visit websites that compare and review antivirus software (such as AV-Comparatives and Virus Bulletin), and see which product their experts recommend as the best antivirus software. These websites focus on how the program performs, including how thorough its virus search is, and how successful the program is at deleting viruses. Next, check consumer review web sites to see what people like you think of the program. They tend to focus less on speed and more on simplicity and ease of use.
2. Must-Have Features
Secondly, before you buy any antivirus software, make sure it has an auto updater and a scheduler. Updaters allow the antivirus program to automatically download updates themselves with the latest virus detection definitions from the web. Schedulers allow you to make the antivirus software to execute at a time (like 56:00 AM) and a frequency (like once a month) of your choosing. Together, these characteristics allow you to "set it and forget it." In other words, they constantly, automatically protect your computer without you having to remember to do anything.
3. Try It Out
Thirdly, once you have found an antivirus software that is good, download and install the free trial software (don't worry, you can always uninstall it later if you don't like it). Evaluate it. Is it simple and easy to use, or complex and confusing? Is it stable, or does it cause problems with the rest of your notebook? Does it run fast and silent in the background, so that you forget it's even there? Or is it so slow and sucks up so much processing power that it slows down the rest of your netbook?
The best antivirus software is expensive, but worth every penny to protect your computer. Finding an antivirus program you are comfortable with and that works well on your PC is not a decision to take lightly. Be an informed consumer, do your research, and take it for a test drive before laying out your money.
courtesy: www.bigarticledirectory.com
5 WAYS TO SPEED UP YOUR LAPTOP
5 WAYS TO SPEED UP YOUR LAPTOP
By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows 7, Vista, and XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.
1. Free up disk space
The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. The tool identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.
Use Disk Cleanup to:
#Remove temporary Internet files.
#Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
#Empty the Recycle Bin.
#Remove Windows temporary files such as error reports.
#Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
#Remove installed programs that you no longer use.
#Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.
2. Speed up access to data
Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.
Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.
When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when:
#You add a large number of files.
#Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
#You install new programs or a new version of Windows.
3. Detect and repair disk errors
In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.
As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.
If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.
Run the Error Checking utility:
1.
Close all open files.
2.
Click Start, and then click My Computer.
3.
In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
4.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
5.
Click the Check Now button.
6.
In the Check Disk dialog box (called Error-checking in Windows 7), select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
Check Disk Local Disk dialog box, with the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box selected.
Example of Check Disk Local Disk dialog box
7.
If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.
Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.
4. Protect your computer against spyware
Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the Web sites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using the PC safety scan from Windows Live OneCare. This scan is a free service and will help check for and remove viruses.
5. Learn all about ReadyBoost
If you're using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory.
courtesy: www.microsoft.com
By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows 7, Vista, and XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.
1. Free up disk space
The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk to improve the performance of your computer. The tool identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.
Use Disk Cleanup to:
#Remove temporary Internet files.
#Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
#Empty the Recycle Bin.
#Remove Windows temporary files such as error reports.
#Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
#Remove installed programs that you no longer use.
#Remove unused restore points and shadow copies from System Restore.
2. Speed up access to data
Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.
Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.
When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when:
#You add a large number of files.
#Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
#You install new programs or a new version of Windows.
3. Detect and repair disk errors
In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.
As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.
If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.
Run the Error Checking utility:
1.
Close all open files.
2.
Click Start, and then click My Computer.
3.
In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
4.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
5.
Click the Check Now button.
6.
In the Check Disk dialog box (called Error-checking in Windows 7), select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
Check Disk Local Disk dialog box, with the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box selected.
Example of Check Disk Local Disk dialog box
7.
If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.
Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.
4. Protect your computer against spyware
Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the Web sites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using the PC safety scan from Windows Live OneCare. This scan is a free service and will help check for and remove viruses.
5. Learn all about ReadyBoost
If you're using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory.
courtesy: www.microsoft.com
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