CREATION OF A RESORE POINT IN VISTA 

If you are thinking of installing an application but aren’t quite sure what it’s going to do to your computer, I would absolutely recommend creating a restore point before you install that application, and here are the steps to do so. Note that most application installs automatically create a restore point, but you can do this if you are really worried.

Open up the Start Menu and right-click on “Computer”, and then select “Properties”.

This will take you into the System area of Control Panel. Click on the “Advanced system settings” on the left hand side.

Now select the “System Protection” tab to get to the System Restore section.

Click the “Create” button to create a new restore point. You’ll be prompted for a name, and you might want to give it a useful name that you’ll be able to easily identify later.

Click the Create button, and then the system will create the restore point.

When it’s all finished, you’ll get a message saying it’s completed successfully.

How to Handle Disaster Recovery with Windows Xp’s System Restore

Disaster struck, now what’s your recovery plan?

Your system is a disaster, your files are corrupt, what are you going to do to begin your recovery? That feeling.. the feeling of anger, and madness.. the feeling whenever you want to just pick up your computer’s mouse and use it to create a large hole in your monitor. What could cause someone to feel this way? In this day and age where we rely heavily on computers, it seems that whenever we need our systems to work the most, they are hit by disaster. The feeling comes naturally after you improperly shut down your system, or uninstall some software incorrectly.

Let’s face it, everyone has problems with Microsoft Windows XP. No matter how careful any user is, there will always be the threat of disaster to the user’s system. Thankfully Microsoft acknowledges this, and provides users with already installed tools for dealing with disaster recovery.

Making A Recovery Windows Xp

Lets say your system was running perfectly fine last week, and this week it has numerous errors upon startup. It’s a disaster for you because you are not able to get your work done. However with the right tool, you can easily fix this issue.

With some simple know how, and the right tool disaster recovery is simple, and even fun for the select few.

Microsoft Windows XP comes with a nice little utility known as “System Restore” that allows you to literally turn the clock back on your computer for recovery purposes. When you utilize this wonderful recovery utility, you can easily fix your system to the way it was working previously.

How the program works is pretty simple. Every day or so, Windows automatically takes a ’snapshot’ of your computer’s files and settings. It then saves the file so that you can restore your system to that specific date at a later time by using the recovery snapshot.

System Restore may seem like God’s gift to the disaster recovery user, however it still has its consequences.

There are some consequences to using this program, however they are not that bad considering the program ultimately saves you from disaster. The main consequence is that any piece of software you installed since the snapshot was taken will have to be reinstalled in order to operate correctly. Next, and settings (such as your wallpaper, Favorites, etc) that you have changed since the snapshot was taken will be lost. Any personal files such as music, pictures, and office documents will still be on the system, and thankfully not lost.

System Restore is the ultimate Windows XP disaster recovery utility. As mentioned before, you will have to select a snapshot (period of time) in which you wish to restore your system to. If for some reason you restore your system, and you are still having difficulties, you can easily undo the operation by running the disaster recovery utility again.

Also please note that if your system has a virus or spyware, using System Restore will reverse the damage however the virus / spyware will still be residing on your system. In order to prevent the system from being compromised again, you will need to get sufficient software to deal with the virus / spyware.

How to get there

Programs-Accessories-System tools-System restore

Thinking about buying a computer? Todays Latest laptops have much more computing power than desktops, without taking up as much space. You can take your laptop anywhere so that you can continue conducting your business and pick up emails while you travel around. You may be interested to find out how the laptop actually works, and why it is such a brilliant invention.

We will illustrate the parts of a computer laptop and show you the Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop Insider View.

Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop:

Laptops have a central brain called a microprocessor Like all computers, which performs all of the Computations and operations of the computer.

---

A laptop heat sink and fanUsually laptops have small fans, heat sinks, heat spreaders or heat pipes to help dissipate the heat from the CPU. Some higher end laptop models reduce heat even further with liquid coolant kept in channels alongside the heat pipe. Many laptop CPUs are near the edge of the unit. This allows the fan to move the heat directly to the outside instead of across other components.

The microprocessor

This has a set of internal instructions stored in memory and can access memory for its own use while working. It can receive instructions or data from you through a keyboard in combination with another device (mouse, touchpad, trackball).

---

Memory and StorageIts memory can make up for some of the reduced performance that comes from a slower processor. Some laptops have cache memory on or very near the CPU, allowing it to access data more quickly. Some also have larger busses, allowing data to move between the processor, motherboard and memory more quickly.

---

Memory modulesLaptops even have upgradeable memory and feature removable panels for easy access to the memory modules.

Like a desktop, a laptop also has an internal hard disk drive, which stores the operating system, applications and data files. But laptops generally have less disk space than desktops. A laptop hard drive is also physically smaller than that of a desktop. Moreover most laptop hard drives spin more slowly than desktop hard drives, reducing both heat and power consumption.

Normal Desktop computers has multiple bays for installing additional drives, such as CD and DVD ROM drives. But there is a space problem in laptop. Many laptops use a modular design, allowing a variety of drives to fit in the same bay.

www.portableuniverse.co.uk

Lightweight Laptops

---

A laptop is a small, portable computer, small enough that to sit on one’s lap. Laptops computers are more frequently called notebook computers, though technically laptops are somewhat smaller in size than notebooks.An extremely lightweight personal computer, a small compact portable computer typically weigh less than 5 pounds and are small enough to fit easily in a briefcase for those users who are constantly on the move. Aside from size and portability, the main difference between a notebook computer and a personal computer is the display screen, Laptop computers are bit larger than notebooks.

Lightweight laptops come with battery packs that enable you to run them without plugging them in. However, the batteries need to be recharged every few hours.

The core audiences of the lightweight laptop category are business travelers, students and professionals on the move.

Very good performance is offered by a lightweight laptop equipped with both Intel’s Pentium M and AMD’s Athlon XP-M mobile processors. They generally range From 1.5 to 2 GHz, and RAM. In these systems varies from 256MB to 512MB. If you want 4 hours or more of battery life on a charge, however, Pentium M is the way to go.

Lightweight laptops don’t have a lot of space for motherboards and other components. Most lightweights sport 14-inch displays, which is good enough for viewing everything from e-mail and Web pages to Word and Excel documents. The good news is that an increasing number of lightweight laptop systems feature 15- or 15.4-inch widescreens for those who want more space for everything, From DVD playback to video editing.

In this class of laptops Wi-Fi is pretty much expected so users can connect to wireless networks at home, on the road or at work. Today, 802.11g is standard, but 802.11a/g is available on some laptops for those who want to be able to connect at faster speeds on the more privileged 5GHz band.

Obviously, you will not find in a lightweight laptop as many as in desktop replacements, but three or four USB 2.0 ports can often be encountered, for connecting all sorts of peripherals and in many cases a FireWire port, which is great for importing video from a digital camcorder.

Video support is better in these systems than in ultraportables. A 60 GB hard disk drive in an ultra small laptop is considered high-capacity. Intel’s Extreme Graphics chip, which is found often in this category, delivers fine movie playback but only decent gameplay.

---

The pros:

• Fine performance without the bulk, offer built-in or external connections for, additional monitors , CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, modems.
• Extended battery life
• Light enough for the road , small enough to take aboard air transport as ‘carry-on’ luggage.
• Full-sized keyboards

---

The cons:

• Not as powerful as desktop replacements.
• 14-inch screens may prove too small for some.

Cost Higher then a normal PC due to the cost of building mini components.

DELL D400

HP NC4000

SONY TX SERIES

Power Laptops

---

There are four main areas where these laptops perform better than regular laptops. First and foremost: speed in 2D tasks. Secondly, they are quick at manipulating video, audio and photos like a PC that a few per cent here and there doesn’t really matter. Secondly, 3D gaming speeds, and they are equally good at it. Thirdly, battery life of these laptops is more, so you can use the laptop on the train, in the garden or just on the sofa when you can’t be bothered to take the power supply with you. Finally, in general use, like watching a DVD, sound quality, browsing the web, the keyboard type etc., and even in areas these machines perform as good as PC’s and one can really notice the difference in these machinesGaming Laptops

---

Regular laptops are usually less expensive and designed for consumers with a 1 year or 90 day warranty typically with a Celeron chip.Business laptops often have 3 year warranty and are more fully featured with Pentium chips. These laptops are often leased to corporations or are more expensive than the consumer models.

The gaming laptops are the most expensive with the fastest CPU, large display, graphics chip and lots and lots of RAM but are very cool in terms of performance when its used for gaming purpose.

The gaming laptop is the biggest offering for a serious mobile gamer. A gaming laptop powered by a high performance processor like the AMD dual core, Intel Pentium 4 or Pentium M processors is the fastest laptop available anywhere — for gaming, digital content creation or any other pursuit. A gaming laptop is just what mobile gamers deserve - a laptop with the power to match a gaming desktop when the competition involves advanced 3D graphics and fast frame rates. Also , a gaming laptop sports flashy and good design, advanced and incredibly powerful video cards designed for gaming laptops like Acer’s Ferrari 3000LMi and Dell’s Inspiron 8600 series.

The best gaming laptops available in market are:

CORE INTELLIGENCE XT

CORE INTELLIGENCE AT
DELL XPS SERIES
TOSHIBA P SERIES

ZEPTO MACHINES

Wi Fi Laptops

---

Freedom from wires is nothing but Wi-Fi or Wireless Fidelity. It allows you to connect to the Internet anywhere - without wires. It is 10 times faster than a regular dial-up connection.New Laptops are generally WI-Fi enabled.

When you use a laptop, you might llike to have some level of mobility, and can’t or don’t want to be confined to a single desk all day. But to truely make good use of your laptop computer, it is a smart idea to go for a Wi Fi laptop. This will allow anyone to access the internet from anywhere in your home or office without any interference of wires etc. The Wi Fi laptop connects to the network using radio signals, and laptops can be up to 100 feet or so apart.

If you have a wireless network or wi-fi card on your laptop then you can use it on the Airports which has wireless internet access.

It has been predicted that embedded wireless LAN are to be included as standard offerings on essentially all laptops within the next five years.

Dual Core Laptops

---

The dual core laptop is the most talked about topic in the dual core/processor world. Dual-core processing in laptops, in short, lets one multitask much more efficiently. The dual core processor also boasts itself of delivering optimized power efficient computing and breakthrough performance with amazingly low power consumption. With TV tuners and video becoming as popular and important to some users as word, excel and powerpoint, this technology couldn’t have come at a better time. With a Core Duo laptop one can record a television show in the background, and at same time edit video and browse the Web. If one tries to do that with today’s single-core laptops, one is likely to experience rough and sluggish computing; but with the new dual core laptop processors, it’s smooth sailing.The advantage of dual core laptops is that one chip takes less power than two.Therefore the cooling requirements are lower and the battery life on a laptop is longer. A dual core chip allows dual core laptops to perform operations on multithreaded applications very smoothly.You can Run multiple demanding applications simultaneously on your laptop.

Latest Dual core Notebooks available in the market are :

HP PAVILLION DV6226 LOVELY LOOKER AND POWERFUL

TOSHIBA A SERIES GREAT WORK HORSE

SONY VAIO GREAT LOOKING BRAND

There are many factors that can go wrong with the operating system and other software on laptops. These days many laptops have customised software installed according to a persons needs. Try to go into Safemode by pressing the F8 key on your keyboard and try to do clean up your laptop using antivirus.
If the need arises to reformat the laptop, reinstall the operating system from the CDs that were supplied with the laptop. Also make sure that the drivers CD’s are available at the time of installation.

www.portableuinverse.co.uk

Problem

I have two laptops running Windows XP Home Edition that I connect to the web via a wireless G+ router. Each laptop has an internal mini-PCI wireless network card installed. The signal strength for Laptop 1 is very weak. It will only connect properly when about 10 or fewer feet from the router. If it is only 15 feet away from the router the signal strength is very poor. However, the signal strength of Laptop 2 is very strong, even when it is positioned more than 50 feet away on the other side of the house with several walls between it and the router. For some reason, Laptop 1 also disrupts with MW radio broadcasts, but Laptop 2 doesn’t.

Answer

The quality of different brands of mini-PCI wireless network cards can vary significantly. If you have a card of poor quality installed in Laptop 1, then that could be the cause of the problem. For example, cards made by Broadcom tend to be of poorer quailty than the cards used in laptops that carry Intel’s Centrino brand name. Moreover, Intel’s wireless mini-PCI cards are very good at locking on to weak signals compared to brands, such as Broadcom. You should also make sure that the latest drivers are installed for the card being used by Laptop 1. You can obtain them from its manufacturer’s site.

Of course, it is also possible that the card in Laptop 1 is faulty, in which case replacing it with a good card would fix the problem. You should also download and install the latest drivers for any new card you install, because the drivers that come with adapter cards are usually out of date, and, as such, won’t implement the latest bug fixes and improvements, etc.

Intel 2200BG mini-PCI network cards are currently going for around £20 from www.Portableuniverse.co.uk . You could identify the network card installed in Laptop 2 and buy one for Laptop 1. To remove the old card, you usually have to open a panel on the computer’s bottom side that is held in place by a single screw. The card is installed in a mini-PCI slot in much the same way as a SODIMM RAM memory module is installed in a memory slot.

The antenna might not have been connected properly. In most laptops, the antenna goes round the edges of an internal space around the screen. If you can’t do so yourself, you could get a technician that specialises in laptop repair to check to make sure that both of the antenna wires (one is usually black and the other white) are connected. If only one wire is connected the signal strength will be reduced, but if both wires are not connected it can still be possible to connect to an access point or router if the laptop is a few feet away from it. In either case, you could find that turning the laptop through 90° should weaken the signal strength dramatically. Moreover, note that the antenna might be of poor quality or poorly designed, in which case, you could try using an external network card that fits into PC Card slot. Just make sure that Laptop 1 has a slot that supports the card you buy. Most current laptops have a slot that supports CardBus or ExpressCard adapter cards.

PC Card (CardBus) FAQ - http://www.pcmcia.org/faq.htm

ExpressCard Frequently Asked Questions -

http://www.expresscard.org/web/site/qa.jsp

Medium-wave radio stations broadcast on the AM radio frequencies. A laptop with a wireless network card is more likely to disrupt them than FM broadcasts, because Wireless G itself uses the FM frequencies.

In order to reduce radio interference, the relevant components in a laptop are covered with sheets of aluminium. If they weren’t installed properly, or a grounding wire wasn’t connected, the effectiveness of the shielding would be reduced significantly. However, note that computer’s power supply unit is more likely to be the cause of radio interference. You could find out if that is the case by running the computer on battery power.

Suppose you turn on your computer and cannot see the CD-ROM or any other removable drives like DVD-ROM drive in the Computer window. This problem is common for laptop and notebook computers and this might be caused by a failed drive or by corrupted software. Try the following :

You can check on Microsoft’s website for the drivers available
Else try to install the drivers from the Drivers CD provided by the manufacturer.

Two permanent vertical white lines have appeared on the screen of my HP Pavilion zd8000 notebook PC one after the other. They are there no matter which software is running. I have tried using System Restore, the drivers for the graphics card are the latest ones downloaded from its manufacturer’s website, and I have also formatted the C: drive and restored a backup of the whole system. The computer is running Windows XP SP2, which is fully updated. Is this a permanent fault that the screen has developed, or is there some way of getting rid of the lines?

Answer

This is most probably a hardware issue. The notebook can be connected to an external monitor, so, if you have access to one that has the correct type of connection (standard D-sub VGA, DVI), connect it to the notebook. If the lines are no longer there, then the problem is probably caused by fault with the screen this is usually due to a stress fracture especially if the status changes with slight pressure ,or with its ribbon cable the connects the screen to the notebook’s motherboard. However, it could also be a problem with the computer’s graphics processor.

If the lines show on both the screen and the monitor, the problem is definitely being caused by a fault with the graphics processor (chip).

If you don’t have access to an external monitor, take the notebook in to a reputable repair shop that specialises in the repair of notebook computers.

The computer’s ATI X600 graphics processor is not on a seperate graphics card, it is built into the computer’s motherboard, so it would be very expensive to replace it.

According to information on the web, the HP Pavilion zd8000 and zd7000 series have problems with overheating. This is because they use an Intel Pentium 4 desktop processor that is not designed for use in a notebook. Special mobile notebook processors are designed to use less power (to save batery life), and run much cooler than desktop processors. Both the Pentium 4 processor and the graphics chips produce heat that the internal case fan probabably cannot remove quickly enough to prevent the computer from overheating.

According to information on the web, some owners of the Pavilion zd7000 series have had the motherboards of their computers replaced many times during the 12-month warranty period. In fact, because of the high number of failures with this series of notebooks, HP has agreed to replace motherboards with failed graphics processors free of charge - even if the computer is out of warranty. This policy doesn’t appear to apply to the zd8000 series, but, if the graphics processor has failed, you will probably be able to have it applied in your case, because the design of that series isn’t markedly differen from the zd7000 series.

To prevent a netebook computer from getting hotter than it should, always use it on a hard surface, never on a bed or couch, because it needs air to circulate under it. Stands are also available that raise a notebook above the surface so that the more air can circulate under it, and you can purchase a cooling pad that has fans inside it that the notebook is placed on. Such a cooling pad reduces a notebook’s temperature by a few degrees, which might be enough to cure the problem.

www.portableuniverese.co.uk

---

Help! I’ve accidentally dropped my laptop!

Unfortunately dropping a laptop can cause numerous problems, from scraping the case to smashing the screen. Many older laptops did have modular parts that can be replaced, but now newer and smaller laptops have almost everything integrated itself on the motherboard, so that they are very expensive to repair. In some cases, depending on the damage done and age of laptop, it can be cheaper to replace the whole laptop than have it repaired.

www.portableuniverse.co.uk

Question

My new notebook computer feels much hotter than I think it should be on the left side, which is not around the battery. It also smells a bit of burning electronics, which was more noticeable when I first got it, so perhaps it is now “burnt in”, so to speak.

These are the temperature results that SpeedFan produced:

HDD = stands for the hard drive temperature, and CPU = stands for the processor’s temperature, in degrees Celsius.

At startup, HDD = 22, CPU = 28. After 30 minutes of doing nothing but log in, HDD = 43, CPU = 56. After 10 minutes of a virus scan, HDD = 47, CPU = 67. After about 20 more minutes of the virus scan when it is complete, HDD = 53, CPU = 56. After 40 minutes being idle, HDD = 53, CPU = 58. The machine is only a month old. I’d like to know what the normal operating temperature is for a notebook computer. My desktop PC, which has two case fans that pull air in and push it out, never goes above 45 degrees.

Answer

The most common components in a notebook that produce a lot of heat are the battery, the hard drive, and the processor. Being the key component, the processor is usually the best cooled. From your description, I would say that the hard drive is producing the heat that you feel through the case.

Each manufacturer sets the acceptable maximum temperatures for a PC’s or a laptop’s components. Usually, hard-drive vendors warn against temperatures over about 50 degrees C, so your readings in the low 50’s suggest overheating. The only way to know for sure is to check either the vendor’s or the hard drive manufacturer’s technical specifications.

You can find out the make and model of the hard drive (or any of the other components) by using a utility such as the Belarc Advisor. It creates an analysis of the hardware and software on a personal computer. Look for it under FREE DOWNLOAD - http://www.belarc.com/. Alternatively, you can examine the hard drive itself, which will be labelled. You can usually access the hard drive in a notebook by opening a covered compartment on the bottom or the side of the case. You may have to remove a couple of screws to get to it, but you almost certainly won’t have to take the whole computer apart, because notebook hard drives are one of the few components that can be upgraded, and so access is made a simple matter.

Alternatively, the notebook’s manufacturer or the the processor’s manufacturer should be able to provide you with the correct operating temperatures. Intel and AMD usually specify maximum temperatures of around 70 degrees C. Therefore, your temperatures are probably close to the maximum, but nevertheless may still be below being dangerously high.

Note that the maximum temperature that a component can run at is not the same as the recommended temperature, which is much lower. Anyhow, with electronic components, the cooler, the better. A component may not fail immediately running at a high temperature, but sustained use at high temperatures will almost certainly shorten the component’s lifespan

Using a LapDesk ensures a good flow of air all around the machine.

Targus Notebook Portable LapDesk™ -

http://www.targus.com/us/product_details.asp?sku=PA243U

On a new notebook that is properly cooled, the processor should run at a maximum temperature of about 45 to 47 degrees C when running its most demanding tasks, with the hard drive running at about 35 degrees C.

Search this forum for more information on overheating in laptops.

www.portableuniverse.co.uk