PC Power Supplies and their connectors and pinouts

By Neil Patterson in Hardware

Details regarding computer power supply DC conections, pinouts and their respective voltages. A little something for the geeks in the group, here are some basic diagrams showing connectors and pin-out diagrams for your education and enjoyment. Please note, the AC line cord

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OH NO! My CD-DVD Drive has disappeared!!

By Neil Patterson in Hardware

What to do when your CD or DVD drive letter is missing. A software or registry fix. We see this kind of problem fairly frequently, usually after someone has installed additional CD/DVD burning software to the system, when it already has some. The first symptom people notice

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Handling GPT Partitions

By Neil Patterson in Hardware

What to do when you encounter a HD with GPT partitions. This problem occurs sometimes when a used drive has been installed and the partition happens to be set to GPT (Protected). Windows won't let you install to it, and you

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Laptop Power Issues: Batteries and Jacks

By Neil Patterson in Hardware

Troubleshooting laptop computer hardware, and power issues. Troubleshooting - No POST: If you have a situation where your laptop isn't starting up, No Lights at all, the first thing to try is to remove the battery and see

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Desktop No Power Troubleshooting

By Neil Patterson in Hardware

Troubleshooting your desktop that will not turn on. Another customer woke up again this morning and found that their system won't power on. Hit the switch, no lights, no beeps, no whirr of fans or hard drives. Monitor

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Laptops; Avoiding THERMAL EVENTS

By Neil Patterson in Hardware

What to do when your laptop shuts down spontaneously. Got yourself a Nice New Laptop? Great, and I KNOW you want to make it last for more than just a few years, right? Computers get hot, CPUs and hard drives

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Popped Caps

By Neil Patterson in Hardware

Bad capacitors can cause random hardware issues. Popped WHAT?? If popped caps makes you think of popped collars, the thing to keep in mind is that while popped capacitors are bad, they're not as bad as popped collars. What

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Leave it on or Turn it off?

By Neil Patterson in Hardware

An age old question about PC power consumption vs. wear and tear. We get a lot of questions about PCs and whether to turn them off or leave them on, regarding power usage and the wear and tear related to power cycling.

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