computer

Infopackets Reader Frank R. asks: " My machine has Windows XP, a DVD ROM drive, and an ATI Radeon 9000 video card with S-VIDEO TV / OUT. Can I play DVDs from my computer and watch them on my 61" TV? What kind of cables do I need to attempt this? " ... My Answer: Yes you can! Go to your local Radio Shack and purchase the following cables: #1: Male S-Video to female RCA cable. This will plug into the back of your video card and convert the S-Video output into RCA output. An S-Video cable by itself is usually much more expensive than its RCA counterpart and provides roughly the same ... (view more)

Greetings to all! I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I'm officially on vacation! Last Saturday, I left for Toronto and am currently visiting my friend, Frank. On May 3rd, I will be flying out of Pearson Airport in Toronto ... and will later arrive in Cancun, Mexico. I won't be back until May 12th. The bad news is that I have limited access to the Internet and cannot retrieve personal files and old emails from the office. Before I left for the trip, I planned to route all incoming emails to the office computer, and then later download them via FTP server (to another ... (view more)

Yesterday, Bill B. sent me a question regarding Adobe Acrobat Reader. Wait a sec -- what is Adobe Acrobat Reader? Acrobat Reader is a free-to-use tool which reads documents which contain the file extension ".PDF". The Portable Document Format has ... been around for quite some time and is supported by all major computer platforms (PC, Mac, Unix, OS/2, etc). Acrobat is a popular pick among eBook developers because it provides many useful features, including: document encryption (IE: the ability to copy-protect all / certain aspects of a document), bookmarks, clickable links, clickable ... (view more)

Ben M. from The Land Down Under (Australia) recently told me about a problem he's been having with his 40x CD burner. In a nutshell, Ben can't get the writer to record at maximum speed and asked me for some troubleshooting suggestions. Ben writes: " ... Dennis, I religiously read Infopackets 3 times a week! Thank you. As a computer technician, I find your newsletter a valuable troubleshooting resource. Unfortunately, I'm having a problem that has got me stumped and was wondering if you had any suggestions? I recently purchased a new computer (Celeron 1.7GHz) with 256MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Walt H. asks: " Is it possible to create an image [backup] of your hard drive to an external USB hard drive? If so, what limits are there in creating the image and restoring it? I can't add another hard drive to my laptop, plus I ... thought a portable USB drive could allow me to image more than one computer. " Side note: USB is short from for Universal Serial Bus. It's a small port usually located at the back of your computer and is pretty much the standard connection used for external computer peripherals today (such scanner, mouse, keyboard, printer, etc). My ... (view more)

Infopackets Reader Reza M. asks, " Can you tell me, how I can update my computer's main board BIOS? " My Response: Flashing a BIOS simply means to update the BIOS. A BIOS is a computer chip which contains simple instructions required for operation ... particular to a device. Since not all main boards are the same, the steps taken for flashing a motherboard BIOS can only be generalized. I will attempt to explain the procedure, but must first advise: do not flash your BIOS unless you absolutely need to (IE: an update is required to have the device function properly). The reasoning for ... (view more)

A little while back I was asked how to copy Address Book contacts onto another computer. Roberta C. asked: " Could you tell me if there is a way to copy my contacts in Outlook Express and load them onto another computer? " I provided a solution ... (complete with pictures) which details how to use the Export function in the Address Book: How do I export my Address Book contacts? Unfortunately, the Export function appeared ghosted (non-functional) for some folks, so I asked Infopackets Readers to send me their thoughts for an alternate solution: How do I export my Address Book contacts ... (view more)

How do you record audio from a tape cassette to the computer, and finally, to a CD recordable disc? That was the question I asked Infopackets Readers in yesterday's visitor feedback section of the Gazett e. Before I get into the reader's ... submissions, let me first point out that a few users recommended using the Line In port instead instead of the MIC port (as I suggested yesterday), for clarity reasons. Chris M. and Kooby both write: " It is better to use the Line Out or Aux RCA output on the stereo receiver rather than the tape player, because now you could record LP's, radio, or ... (view more)

Tom S. asks: " I have some old cassette tapes I would like to put on CD using my computer's CD burner. How do I hook the cassette player to the CD burner to get the best audio quality? " My Response: Audio quality with respect to a cassette tape ... recorded to a CD will only be as good as the source (tape) and the equipment used to read the tape and input it to the computer ... and of course, the ability to modify the digital recording in order to improve sound. Two great reasons for recording your analog tapes to digital might include: a) wear and tear: digital media doesn't lose its ... (view more)

My friend Abba from California called me on the phone this morning after he received yesterday's issue of the Gazette which talked about Disk Imaging and Partitioning. Abba asked me why Windows XP didn't come with Scandisk and wondered why something ... so important such as Scandisk isn't easily accessible on the Desktop. I told Abba Windows XP doesn't use Scandisk anymore and now uses a program called CHKDSK. By the way, CHKDSK actually means "check disk." To use CHKDSK on Windows XP and scan your hard drive for errors usually caused by an improper shutdown: Double-click My Computer ... (view more)