Youngstown Computer Show Notes for June 6, 2009

Segment 1

Had a movie night on Friday, went good until it started raining. Call in to convince us to come to your house to have a movie night.

On Monday, there will be an announcement about the iPhone. Talking about the Palm Pre, Joe is not impressed. Rumors about the iPhone: a 4GB one for $99 in July.

Calller 1
Q: when watching TV shows online, all the voices sound high-pitched, faster
A: look for a orange icon for your sound card, look for a setting for pitch correction. You might have to uninstall and reinstall the sound card driver.

Caller 2
Q: missing the "My Documents" in vista
A: it is there, there is just "Documents" now. all the other folders that used to be in there are now in the folder underneath, this is the folder that has your user name

Talk about parental controls, Joe likes some new products from McAfee and Symmantec. http://Onlinefamily.norton.com


Segment 2

Online question: should I go for Vista?
Joe has been warming up to Vista. Ian says that windows 7 is so close, wait for it. Adam points out that there will be free update coupons for Windows 7.

Joe starts talking about http://onlinefamily.norton.com. It is free for trying out now. McAffe is also coming out with a similar program.

Caller 3
Q: are there problems with consistently using hibernating or sleep mode all the time?
A: sleep is good for short periods of inactivity, hibernate is for long periods.
Q: should you shut down multiple times during an evening?
A: just leave it on, then just turn it off at the end of the day
Q: what is the difference between having the laptop running all the time?
A: there are power meters you can put on the plug, you can measure the power used there

Adam asks about the shutdown menu on vista, is it still there? Yes, it is small little menu next to the shutdown button.


Segment 3

Talking about Kraftwek music.

Signs are going up for the Niles store, right across from the McKinley Memorial.

Caller 4
Q: getting a "SMART" message from the hard drive when starting up. does that mean it is going to die?
A: yes, that is telling you that your hard drive is about to die. Make sure you got a good backup and bring it into the shop.

Joe talks about how they backup and recover data. If you don't have a backup, they will do it for $25.

Talking about the little parts inside the hard disk. Listen for strange noises from the hard disk, and if disk accesses get very slow.

Caller 5
Q: get a popup that says that virtual memory is low, and it seems that norton is the cause.
A: it could be a damaged program, reinstall the program. in general, you'll have to check to see you have enough ram, and also turn off any unnecessary processes.


Segment 4

Talking about how to speed up your computer. 1. more RAM, 2. cut down on the startup programs. Joe Danyi recommends from http://download.com Startup Inspector. It will highlight which ones are manditory, which are optional, and which are unknown.

Adam asks about the startup items for java and itunes. They are just for updates.

Adam asks about what happens when I run out of space on my disk? Either uninstall some big programs (World of Warcraft) or get a new disk and then you can copy stuff over to it.

Talking about Microsoft's Bing search/decision site. Joe Danyi will check it out this week.