June 20, 2007 by AC.

I have been getting a few questions recently about motherboard replacements, especially on older machines and it always brings up the question of whether it is worth fixing/upgrading an old computer or getting a new machine.  With new PC & laptop prices starting under $500 the argument for a new machine can be made easily.

From experience I think you can get five good years on average out of a PC or laptop.  That is not to say you cannot get more, or that you may get less, but five is a good average.  Before the five year mark I would be willing to spend more to fix a machine, but nothing beyond reason.  I new PC purchase is always an option and you should go with a 3-year warranty at the least from any vendor.  Near or beyond the five year mark I would spend very little on a machine.

Some examples - I have never been a fan of motherboard replacements and see little value given the high cost usually involved.  That is not to say I have not replaced a motherboard or two.  Generally it has been within the warranty period and the parts came at no cost.  Paying for this replacement is very expensive.  Unless you find a cheap and reliable used part on eBay or something similar I would advise against this fix/upgrade.

Ditto a CPU replacement or upgrade.  I have never understood why people would want to upgrade a CPU.  It is expensive and only gives you a modest bump in performance given that your other parts inside the computer may be a few years old.

Some items worth fixing or upgrading?  One easy one are fans, which are prone to problems but relatively cheap.  Hard drives are worth replacing because costs are low and upgrading or adding a new internal hard drive is always a solid option if you need more storage space.  Hard drives are also prone to damage and failure late in life of a PC, so having a backup hard drive or external hard drive is a must for older machines.  Adding RAM is helpful, especially near the 3rd & 4th year of a machines life.  You can get a little extra performance out of some additional RAM and costs are modest.  Certainly keyboards and attached devices are worth replacing if they go bad and this includes a laptop keyboard which can usually be replaced for under $150.

If total costs creep up near $500 you need to consider the new machine.  The benefit of a new system, with a faster processor, more RAM and fresh hard drive are too good to pass up for an aging system.

Posted in All Platforms | 1 Comment »

June 13, 2007 by AC.

I was taking some pictures yesterday and expressing some frustrating about lighting with a simple point & shoot digital camera.  I know a little about photography, but I am no expert.  However, my brother is a great photographer and has a gift as well as a better knowledge of the craft.  Upon hearing my lighting frustrations he gave me a pretty simple, but effective piece of advice - turn off your flash.  We were indoors, in a gym, with pretty weak lighting.  I was also shooting a distance and having trouble getting good lighting on the shots, which were pretty dark.  He told me I would be better off turning off the flash, which should help illuminate my shots by taking in more natural light.  He was absolutely right.

Posted in General | 1 Comment »

June 8, 2007 by AC.

The question recently came up about transferring itunes music files between machines so I thought I would comment and offer some resources online.  I am a big fan of the iPod and have a good deal of music from my own collection and from online purchases.  I have used multiple machines to save & play the music, so the transfer issue was never a problem for me but the question came up recently on a service call and also from some friends.

This pertains to iTunes software but may have some benefit for other music players.  It is also written for Windows users but I do have some links to Mac iTunes users below as well.  iTunes generally saves music in a folder within “My Documents” and the “My Music” folder in a new folder it creates, “iTunes”.  You can check or change the folder used by clicking on “Edit” and then “Preferences” from inside the iTunes software.  From there navigate to the “Advanced” tab and you will find the folder information in the box at the top.  You can change or reset the folder location with the buttons to the right of the location box.

The easiest way to copy and/or move music between machines is to copy the iTunes folder (or the entire My Music folder) and paste that folder to a new location.  Because many people are accumulating large amounts of music files, a direct connection between the computers (shared drive) or an external drive (back, etc.) may be necessary.  If you have a big collection it is doubtful all your music will fit on a disc, flash drive or CD.

Once the music is moved to a suitable device, let’s use an external drive for an example, move that drive to the other computer and copy & paste the data you saved (My Music or iTunes folder from Computer 1) to the My Music folder within Computer 2.  The process does not end there.  From within iTunes, (it needs to be on both machines) you must now locate the music by clicking “File” and then “Add Folder to Library”.  Locate the folder you just copied and iTunes will do the rest to import the songs into your music library.

If you have purchased some of your music from Apple or have secure music you will be prompted to enter your iTunes username & password.  You can register multiple machines per the Apple User Agreement.

For more information please see the following pages from Apple:

For Windows Machines - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93366

For Mac Machines - http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93063

The question also comes up about getting music off an iPod device - back onto a computer.  Generally this is a one-way path - music from your PC can be added to an iPod, but music from an iPod cannot be copied back to your computer.  There are third-party software solutions and hacks out there to reverse the process but unless you lost your music on your PC and the iPod is the only backup of the music I do not advise going this route.

Thanks for reading!

Posted in Apple/Mac | 1 Comment »