Newsletter Archives

• Would you ever run an MS-DOS program in 64-bit Windows?

  Posted on February 6, 2023 at 02:43 CST by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Let’s see if we can find good reasons to continue to use a 30-year-old MS-DOS program.

  Recently, a client asked me whether it was possible to run an MS-DOS program important for his business on a modern Windows 10 laptop, rather than his 15-year-old laptop with Windows XP. I asked him for his reasoning and quickly rejected out of hand the possibility of installing a 32-bit version of Windows 10 to run his DOS program, an extremely limited use for a laptop. And with a look to the future, there is no 32-bit Windows 11, either.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.06.0, 2023-02-06).

  Hardware DOS Emulators, MS-DOS, Newsletters, printing, vDOS

• Let your PC start the new year right!

  Posted on January 2, 2023 at 02:45 CST by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 20.01 • 2023-01-02

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Taking a little time now to check and proactively service your Windows PC thoroughly can pay off big time in the coming year.

  Whether you’re planning to move to Windows 11 or stick with Windows 10, this easy-to-follow annual checkup is the preventive medicine that can help ensure that your PC begins 2023 in the best shape possible.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (20.01.0, 2023-01-02).

  Hardware Backups, Drive maintenance, hardware, Networking, Newsletters, PC maintenance, security

• Defibrillate your “dead” laptop

  Posted on December 19, 2022 at 02:43 CST by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  I confess: I do not have a defibrillator to use on a laptop.

  Beginning with Windows 7, a laptop in sleep mode can become unresponsive and completely inoperative. In the repair business, we call this “dead.” Ultimately, it’s about managing your laptop’s battery.

  On the average, a seemingly dead laptop lands in my hands every couple of months. That is not often enough to be classified as a major problem by Microsoft, but it is still very real.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.51.0, 2022-12-19).

  Hardware Batteries, CMOS, Laptops, Newsletters, Sleep Mode

• Does an old personal computer become useless?

  Posted on November 14, 2022 at 02:45 CST by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.46 • 2022-11-14

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Come take a ride in my souped-up DeLorean for an adventure in the days before Windows.

  You see an old computer and ask, “Why hasn’t it been scrapped?” But don’t look at just the PC — look at what it does within some total system. That’s what this story is about.

  The ride takes many twists and turns on the path to where we are today. Progress over the last 20-plus years is hard to believe.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.46.0, 2022-11-14).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Hardware drivers, Hardware Upgrades, Industrial Control, MS-DOS, Newsletters, Repair

• Real-life SSD reliability must be managed

  Posted on October 3, 2022 at 02:44 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Solid-state drives did not have a very good week here recently, but it was not their fault.

  Here are the facts about a trifecta of mainstream laptops I handled recently, and why these laptops came up short. If you pay attention to the details here, you can improve the life and reliability of your solid-state drives (SSDs).

  I will also weave in my opinions and points of view on various related subjects.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.40.0, 2022-10-03).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, Older PCs, SSDs, System Recovery

• Make a laptop run perfectly!

  Posted on September 5, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  With a little work, the right laptop can look and run almost like new, but its upgrade possibilities are far more limited than a desktop’s.

  Numerous brands and models of laptops dot the landscape, each model designed according to different principles by different design teams. Different sizes of laptops carrying the same brand and model follow a similar (but not identical) design, even from generation to generation, as the design team works through model after model.

  Business-class brands such as Acer TravelMate, Dell Latitude, Hewlett Packard Elitebook, and Lenovo ThinkPad vary widely from one another in design, construction, and quality of materials. Then, too, there is a plethora of models intended for consumer use, causing us to roll our eyes.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.36.0, 2022-09-05).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, Hardware Upgrades

• Restored desktop computers must work flawlessly

  Posted on August 8, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Test, test, and test again — just to be on the safe side.

  In my last article, I covered the basic and essential tests needed to assure that a computer was in generally sound operating condition. As the late-night TV pitchman always says: “But wait! There’s more!” More testing, that is.

  There are still electronics that need to be working right for the entire computer to be fully functional. Along the way, you need to do at least a visual inspection to see that all the ports and connectors — in back, in front, and even on top of a computer — are not damaged.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.32.0, 2022-08-08).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, Repair, Support, Testing

• Desktop computers: Re-use!

  Posted on July 11, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Make sure the most critical hardware works right before you go ahead.

  Previously, I described the most basic steps to get a computer dirt-free and bootable, with a working power supply. These tasks established a baseline for additional work to assure that the computer is in very good operating condition for whoever is going to use it.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.28.0, 2022-07-11).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Graphics, hardware, Hardware Upgrades, HDD, RAM, SSD

• Desktop computers: Scrap, repair, upgrade, or replace?

  Posted on June 6, 2022 at 02:42 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  ---

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Here is a practical guide to care for a computer and to help you decide what to do with one that is not brand-new.

  Computers show up on my doorstep, their owners asking whether their trusty and beloved box full of circuit boards needs to be scrapped, repaired, upgraded, or replaced. The desktop computer category includes PCs that are neither laptops nor servers, two very different projects indeed.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.23.0, 2022-06-06).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, Hardware Upgrades, Repairs

• Solid-state drives — from bespoke to commodity

  Posted on May 23, 2022 at 02:43 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  Solid-state drives (SSDs) have a surprisingly long history, leading up to the types commonly in use today.

  It takes some planning and analysis to make best use of them, but significant improvements in speed and reliability over electromechanical hard drives make SSD investments worthwhile.

  For this article, let’s stick with name brands such as Crucial, SK hynix, Kioxia, Samsung, SanDisk, and Western Digital — all with comparable performance levels. Note that SK hynix acquired Intel’s SSD business, SanDisk is now a subsidiary of Western Digital, and Kioxia is a spinoff of Toshiba.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.21.0, 2022-05-23).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware Adapters, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, hardware, Solid-state drives, SSDs

• Making connections between computers and monitors

  Posted on April 18, 2022 at 02:45 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 19.16 • 2022-04-18

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  With four different standards for video ports and cables, as well as some “mini” ports, it can be downright confusing to come up with the right cables to connect your computer to a monitor.

  In the best of all possible worlds, we would all want to buy a computer and a monitor at the same time, ensuring that they connect to one another and work well together with the right cabling. In our real world, a computer meets an untimely demise and an upscale monitor is still exactly what we need. Or maybe the monitor fails to light up, it becomes too dim, you punch out the screen in anger, or it is simply time for a larger monitor. Possibly you want to attach a monitor to your laptop, duplicating the laptop screen on a larger viewing area or using dual screens to see more information.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.16.0, 2022-04-18).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, DisplayPort, Displays, DVI, hardware, HDMI, Standards, Thunderbolt, VGA

• BitLocker and the dead: The story of a successful transplant

  Posted on March 21, 2022 at 02:42 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  HARDWARE

  

  By Ben Myers

  The CPU is the heart of a laptop, but we do the brain transplants here. BWA! HA! HA! HA!

  Recently, a long-time client who had moved several towns away called me in a panic. A two-year-old Lenovo Yoga laptop had failed.

  When I got my hands on the computer, I surmised that the probable cause was the third-party charger, which had blown out a circuit inside the laptop when the charger itself had failed. The charger did not function when plugged into another laptop, confirming my suspicions.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (19.12.0, 2022-03-21).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Hardware AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Bitlocker, hardware, Repairs, SSD
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