RLROUSE Infoblog

Question:

Like a dummy, I left my Acer laptop on Standby and plugged into the wall for two weeks while I was gone on vacation. When I got back I discovered that the laptop was dead. The screen is blank and none of the lights will come on when I press the Power button. I asked my neighbor if we had any lightning storms while I was gone and she said we had had several.

My guess is lightning struck the laptop and fried it along with my cable modem and wireless router (which are also dead). How do I find out what the problem is so I can decide whether to have the laptop fixed or not?  –Bill McCarroll

Answer:

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Question:

Is it best to leave my computer running 24/7 or turn it off when it’s not being used? I’ve heard people give both answers and I’m confused as to what do do. Thanks! —Carol P.

Answer:

Carol, as you have discovered, if you ask 100 “computer experts” this question you’ll likely receive a “Yes” answer from half of them and a “No” answer from the other half. Why? Because there really is no definitive answer. It really all boils down to personal preference. What follows is simply my opinion:

During my training as an electronics technician back in the day, I was taught that the cycle of heating and cooling that results when electronic components are powered up and down causes tiny fissures in the electrical connectors inside of those components over time, which eventually leads to component failure. But over the years I have also learned that while this is true, the damage rarely occurs in computer equipment before the hardware becomes obsolete anyway. Therefore, in my opinion, it’s just fine to turn off your PC and monitor when you aren’t going to be using it for a while.

Why turn your PC off instead of simply letting it run? Well, there are a couple of reasons why you might want to do that:

1 – It saves electricity, an advantage that is extremely important to both people on a tight budget and folks who believe in living a “green” lifestyle.

2 – Shutting down a PC clears the RAM and CPU cache of the “clutter” that naturally builds up over time, reducing system performance. For this reason it’s a good idea to shut down and restart your PC every few days even if you don’t plan to leave it off when you’re not using it.

About the author: Rick Rouse is the owner of RLROUSE.COM. He is also an A+ Certified Computer Technician with over 30 years of experience in the industry.

 

Question:

I have about 60 old floppy disks (3.5″ – 1.44 MB) containing hundreds of photos and other data that I would like to copy onto a Dell PC running that’s Windows Vista. The problem is that system didn’t come with a floppy disk drive. Can I add one to this computer or am I simply out of luck?  –Aaron S.

Answer:

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