The Fake Geek - Part 27

Printer didn’t come with USB cable

I bought a printer today and I opened the box and theres no cable and it says it needs a cable to connect to my computer. Where can I buy the cable and what type do I need?

Sadly you’ve come across one of the cost cutting measures printer manufacturers have turns to: not including the USB cable. It used to be included everywhere because it’s something you need but now you have to buy that separately and stores put a gigantic markup on those cables.

What you need is the USB data cable and it will look similar to the image to the right. Now most big box retail stores will significantly over charge you for this tiny guy so I’d recommend just going to your neighboorhood dollar store. With USB cables you won’t see any difference in quality or speed and people have used cheap cables for years. Besides if for some reason it doesn’t work your only out a buck.

The Fake Geek

No boot device error on startup.

No Bootable Device???
My Gateway is only 5 months old, running with Vista. Last night I noticed it
had frozen at 4:40pm, so I shut it down and restarted only to get error
messages and can’t boot up. First it said Windows failed to start and I chose
auto repair. That said “cannot fix problem”. It runs the Intel Boot Agent then
says “no boot filename received. No bootable device–insert boot disk and press
any key”. I bought it from Best Buy and the only disk it came with is the one to
reinstall all and start from scratch.
I didn’t have time to mess with it this morning so I entered this forum from
work and will call Gateway when I get home but don’t have much confidence in
their tech support capabilities. Any help is greatly appreciated.

There are a few things you can try. This may be caused by either a hardware failure (your Hard Drive failed on you) or it could be a virus that’s deleted your Master Boot Record (MBR.)

First let’s make sure that your hard drive is okay. What you’ll need to do is restart your computer and wait for the screen with the Gateway logo on it. At the bottom of the screen it will tell you to press either F1 or Del to get into setup. Just press whatever it tells you. Wait a moment or so and you should be looking at a screen similar to the one at the right.

What you need to do now is select Standard CMOS features and you should see a screen like the one below.

Now in the list that you see you need to see your hard drive there. You’ll be looking for the name of an HD manufacturer. Various manufacturers are: WD(Western Digital), Maxtor, Seagate,and Samsung. If you don’t see a hard drive there then the drive itself is probably gone and you need to buy a new one. If however you see the Hard Drive then recovery is possible.

I’m assuming that you have data on the Hard Drive and you’ll want to back it up. In that case you’ll need to use something like a Knoppix live CD. You can download the files here: http://www.knoppix.org/If you don’t know how to make a live CD just ask in the form above.

You will also have to buy an external Hard Drive to transfer your files to. These will start at about 100 bucks. Basically what you’ll then do is boot from the disc (again ask if you need info on how to do that) and load the Knoppix Operating System. From there you’ll be able to see your files and just drag them over to the external Hard Drive.

Now for the harder part. You need to go into the recovery console. To do that you need to insert the recovery discs that you received from Best Buy and follow the prompts from those discs. You can try doing an “non-destructive” restore and that might fix your Windows boot files but chances are if it couldn’t repair Windows before it won’t do it now.

Nope. Your probably going to have to do a “destructive” restore and reinstall everything from scratch. Follow the on screen prompts from the programs on that disc and ask again if you run into any problems.

The Fake Geek

P.S. I would also get that Hard Drive checked out even if it appears to work after the restore. You can run a free program called MemTest to do that. If anyone needs help on running MemTest give me a shout out.

How do I get wireless internet in my car on the road?

What do I need to make our brand new Dell laptop connect to the internet when on
the road both in the states and Canada? It is WiFi capable as it has a little
WiFi symbol on it that lights up when you turn on the laptop. Do I have to buy
a monthly subscription from a service provider or a wireless router or just an
antenna? Please if you can help at all. We know nothing much about WiFi, and
any info we’ve found so far such as in truck stops all say we have to buy a
monthly subscription but that it only works with those individual truck stops.
We do have internet at home, as well as of course a cell phone for on the road.
The cell phone provider, Bell, doesn’t provide internet service in the US. Can
you help?Thanks,
Joyce

Hello there Joyce. Unfortunately WiFi has a very limited range so there’s no way you can connect to one provider across both countries, or even one country for that matter. Think of the range as enough to share between the floors of your house.

More and more truck stops and other establishments are beginning to offer WiFi access but to connect your going to need to sign up for a (payment) account with each and every store. This isn’t the most convenient or economical way to connect to the internet but that’s about the best you’ll do with WiFi.

There is light at the end of the tunnel though. If you’re going to be in Canada then you can sign up for a monthly service from Rogers called Rogers Portable. (Bell has High Speed Unplugged.) Basically their both using their existing cell spots with a new technology called WiMax. WiMax is the next generation of wireless internet and networking and over the coming years more and more places will have coverage. That being said at the moment both Rogers and Bell don’t offer anything in the US and I don’t know of anybody who offers anything that’s usable per se.

The service itself will cost you about $45 from Bell and $49 from Rogers but the Rogers service is slightly fast so that’s what I would go with. Remember that this is a recurring monthly charge not something you just pay once.

The coverage for both services isn’t the best but it’s not the worst it could be either. Rogers boasts coverage in 100 cities. Again like I said their using existing cell towers as their infrastructure. I’d check out their coverage maps and decide if it covers the area you need. (Bell’s Maps, and Roger’s Maps.)

To connect your laptop to the WiMax network Rogers or Bell will give you a special modem to plug into your computer. The modem is included in the setup and has two connections: Ethernet to transfer data to your computer and a power cord. It doesn’t require much power so you can use an invertor and connect it to your car’s or truck’s battery.

Thanks for asking and if you have anymore questions don’t hesitate to ask.

The Fake Geek

What type of RAM do I need?

Read this post https://thefakegeek.com/?p=23 how can i find out
what type of RAM I need?

There are a few ways to check.

You can open up the case and pull out a stick of RAM to look at the sticker. It’ll tell you everything you need to know. Just make sure you ground yourself.
You can go to the manufacturers website and find your computers model. You’ll be able to do this with all the major brands. Now if you have a clone (a computer from a small independent shop) then they probably won’t have this feature.

My favourite way is also the fastest. Just download CPU-Z from cpuid.com. The direct link is here.CPU-Z is a powerful program that techs use to scope out a clients computer without getting in depth with it. To find out the type of RAM you need follow these steps:

Download CPU-Z.
Run it.
Go to the SPD tab.
At the top you should see the type of RAM you need (whether it be SDRAM, DDR, or DDR2)
Look at the Max Bandwidth field and you’ll find the exact speed of RAM you need. (Something like PC100, or 4200)

Then it’s of to your friendly neighborhood computer store and a faster computer!

The Fake Geek

Blue Screen of Death can strike anywhere

A blue screen of death can strike anywhere. Yes I know it’s not a question but I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of this during a trip to Niagara Falls yesturday.

That’s hilarious!

Bluescreen of Death (B.S.O.D.): An error windows sometimes outputs when it encounters some situation is doesn’t like. It can be caused by both software and hardware damage. Sometimes you can exit the BSOD by clicking any key and sometimes you have to restart the computer.

The Fake Geek

A list of things to do to speed up your computer

my computers running slow can i speed it up?

You sure can! There are a number of ways to speed up a slow computer. Here is a handy list of jobs I do every week to keep my computer running quickly.

Run Disk Defragmentor. This will gather your data into a cohesive pile instead of scattering it around your Hard Drive.

Go to Start>Run>”msconfig” click on the startup tab and see what programs are launching when your computer turns on. You don’t really need things like printer monitoring software or MSN launching everytime your computer does. You can turn those on yourself when you need them. Just deselect everything you don’t want (make sure not to disable things like antivirus and security software tasks) and restart the computer.

Run anti-spyware and anti-adware scans on your computer. Malware can slow your computer down in a blink of an eye.

Run anti-virus software. These badies are speed suckers as well.

Open up your computer case and blow out all the dust. This might not speed the system up right here right now but it’ll create a happier computer over the long run.

Make sure you do those things weekly and your computer should work fine. Two other things:

RAM is the best and cheapest way to add speed to your computer.

Do a complete reformat and reinstall of windows of your computer every year. Just make sure you back up your data!

The Fake Geek

Can I use an external hard drive with iLife?

I want to buy and external hard drive to put all my music and photos on since my
MacBook only has 60 gig hard drive and has filled up fast with photos and music.
Will I be able to play my music through itunes from my external HD? And if so,
if I am playing music for long periods of time from a portable external HD that
does not have a fan, will it overheat? Also, will I be able to view, organize,
and edit my photos using iphoto from and external HD? Thanks. -Franky

Using an external Hard Drive on the mac is almost the same as using the built in internal drive. What’s going to happen is this: OS X will mount the hard drive on the desktop (Finder) and you will then be able to use the drive with any application in iLife. In iTunes you can can either go to File>Add Folder to Library or you can just drag your songs into iTunes (this is called the jukebox.) The same thing (more or less) happens with iPhoto.

About the heating….Most manufacturers make sure that their drives will be able to run for hours (indefinitely if need be) without overheating. There are a few ways they do this. First they add in fans (like you’ve mentioned) and secondly they use slower drives, usually 5400 RPM. The slow RPM of the drive won’t really matter because most of the time your using USB anyway.

Now your external drive is a portable drive which means that at it’s heart is the internal hard drive of a laptop. This drive isn’t going to give out much heat, at least not enough for you to worry about.

-The Fake Geek

About the Fake Geek

Why don’t you put something about yourself in the about section?

Man I didn’t know you guys cared! I’ll have something up in a little bit.

Should I turn my computer off or put it to sleep?

should i shut down or sleep my computer?

The answer will vary depending on who you ask. What I’ve always done is keep my computer on all day, merely putting it to sleep when I’m not using it. Then at night I’ll turn it off, but then again sometimes I will leave it on sleep and nothing bad happens. (It doesn’t blow up.)

When you leave for vacation that’s when you really want to shut it down. When you put a computer to sleep it basically enters a low powered state. It turns off everything it doesn’t need at the moment. However RAM does need continual power. Now if your computer can support hibernation then that’s even better. Hibernation will save everything in the RAM to the Hard Drive and put your computer into a very very low powered state.

Turning your computer off all the time will wear down your computer’s components and use up much more power.

The Fake Geek

CD/DVD drive won’t read DVDs anymore

I have a CDW/CD-ROM combo (TS-H492A) internal. I have problem. It cannot read
DVD games any more. I have tried firmware updates also but still nothing. I
don´t know maybe there is some kind of hardware issue. I need some help please! Thank you !

It’s always frustrating when something that used to work before just refuses to do what it’s supposed to. This can be either a hardware or a software issue. Now I’m assuming that you can see the drive in the “My Computer” folder and in the Device Manager all right.

It might be a new driver that you installed as part of a Windows Update that might be doing this to you. Try rolling back the driver. You can do this by going into the Control Panel>System then click on the “Hardware” tab and click on Device Manager. Find your Combo drive in the list (should be under CD-ROM) and right click it. Choose Properties on the menu that pops up and go to the “Driver” tab. Then choose Roll Back driver.

If this doesn’t work (or it tells you that there are no drivers to roll back to) and your sure that you have the newest firmware then you have two other options:

1)Something wrong with the disc. In which case you can try to clean it.

2)Something wrong with the drive hardware itself. Sometimes lasers in optical drive’s will fail partially resulting in the drive being able to read CDs but not DVDs. If that’s the case then your going to need a new burner. Their going for pretty cheap these days. Expect to pay under a 100 bucks for a good one. I’d recommend an LG or Sony.

Thanks for asking!

The Fake Geek