The sudden loss of power to the working of your electrical devices can be caused by many things besides the natural calamities that can happen. In such situations you need a solution that will help you safely save important data or other activities that you might be conducting when the power got cut off without warning.

An uninterrupted power supply is the superlative solution to this problem as they help safeguard your equipments from all kinds of electrical disorders like brownouts and various other hindrances. Installing a UPS however, will not guarantee the safety of your equipment. Extra security measures need to be carried out to ensure absolute safety of your applications. The list below shows you ten protection solutions in order to maintain the safety of your devices.

Lightning can badly affect your hardware, as it is capable of transmitting through telecommunication cables and causing short circuits as it passes through. You need to separate your computer network from the telecommunication’s data line you in order to avoid this situation; you can do this by installing a UPS data protection circuit. This will prevent the power surge from destructing other devices and saving you the cost of replacing the entire burnt out plugs and switches. The destruction of the data protection device will only need replacing when an electrical surge takes place.

Always install the software that that comes along with a riello UPS to ensure that all IT equipments are correctly powered if the outage happens. Communication cables need to be in place; this will allow the PC and UPS to be able to connect with each other.

Apart from installing the software that comes with the UPS, it is advisable to change the factory default configurations and set it according to the requirements of your company. Shutting down your applications safely will be dependant on the amount of time your UPS is able to provide backup support for; check that configurations are set appropriately.

Batteries cannot last you a lifetime and need to be changed at intervals. Regularly checking the status of your battery with a battery backup tester must be installed; this will ensure your backup battery is functioning correctly. Conducting tests on a regular basis should be ascertained; to ensure they are carried out mark the dates on a calendar. This will help you know whether the battery is strong enough to power your equipments.

Ensure that your present UPS is capable of supporting load when demands increase in the future. You must calculate your total requirement and compare it with what your UPS can provide because if you overload it, the UPS battery is sure to die out.

You must remember not to plug in a laser printer to the UPS because a laser printer takes in a lot of energy which most of the UPS brands are unable to supply. Overload on the battery can cause weakening to its strengh.

It may be required to fulfil data replication and other network activity that need network connectivity while shutting down systems in case of outages. Backup energy from a UPS must be provided in order to avoid a system failure.

When the system begins to run on the battery mode then you need to command Windows Backup to discard back up functions. Make the necessary changes if required to avoid unfinished or distorted backup of a previous backup file.

Batteries need to be replaced accordingly as they can only last a few years. Hot swappable batteries are provided by some of the UPS brands. These are useful as they can be without having to shut down the system. Also unplug systems that re changed and not used often so that the load on the UPS is reduced during power surges and outages.

An unineruptible power supply should only be used to provide you enough time to close and save everything before shutting down the system. Corrupted files, data loss and othter technical failures may occur if it is used to continue working until it can hold.

You should be able to increase the longevity of your UPS, thereby receiving uninterrupted power supply to successfully shut down your programmes before they are lost by bearing these points in mind.

About their PowerLine XE102G networking units, NetGear says “For a simple way to bring the Internet to any room, look no further than NETGEAR’s PowerLine Ethernet Adapter. It plugs into an electrical outlet and uses your existing electrical wiring to give your entire household access to your Cable/DSL connection.” And they are absolutely correct.

I recently used the NetGear PowerLine XE102G to connect a Windows Vista desktop computer to a network that was located in another part of the house. I admit that I was a bit skeptical about how well these devices would work but as soon as I had them working, my doubts were eliminated.

The box contains 2 units for instant networking. There is no need to purchase 2 boxes unless you have multiple locations to network devices together.

The devices install so easily it is funny.  First, connect the first unit to your router or switch (you must have a device providing routing features) via an Ethernet cable and plug the unit directly into a wall power outlet. Powerstrips do not work with these units. Second, go to where the computer or other device is located and plug the Ethernet cable into the computer and the PowerLine XE102G unit and plug the PowerLine unit into a wall power socket. Assuming that your computer’s network connections work and are enabled, that’s all there is to it.

The advertised speed of these units is 14 Mbps which is faster than most home Internet connections. They typically run about 1.5 to 2 Mbps so these are much faster than your Internet connection. The only issue I have with the NetGear PowerLine XE102G is that they advertise a 14 Mbps transfer speed but say they only provide a 10BaseT physical connection which is limited to 10 Mbps. Thankfully this is still faster than home Internet connections.

So my thoughts? If you need a network connection and don’t trust Wireless connections like WiFi, try the PowerLine XE102G. It is as simple as network connections come and your neighbors can’t steal your Internet connection.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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HP has just announced a laptop that boasts a battery that will power the laptop for 24 continuous hours on a single charge. The HP EliteBook 6930p Notebook PC sports SSD (solid state digital) drives in place of the standard hard drives that you and I have in our laptops. HP gives you 4 options for Operating Systems. You can get Vista Business 32, Vista Home Basic, Vista Business with downgrade to Windows XP Professional custom installed or FreeDOS.

When the unit is released, you can purchase one from Biden PC as we are an Authorized HP Reseller.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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Do you have questions about computer networking? Do you have computer system problems that you haven’t gotten fixed. Send us an email at sales@bidenpc.com. We will answer your computer questions in our blog just a few days.

Happy Computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

According to C-Net’s senior editor Matt Elliott, the expected life of a computer is 3-5 years. I believe that desktop computers last about 5 years before they are too old and laptops last about 3 years. That typically isn’t due to faulty parts as much as it is to computers getting old and software remaining new and always getting more sophisticated.

Because software continues getting more sophisticated, a straight computer repair isn’t always the best solution to the problem. Often a small upgrade can extend the life of a computer and make it well worth the price of the upgrade.

Consider for a moment that you have a computer that has a faulty stick on RAM on a computer that runs Windows XP. Now consider that you want to upgrade to Windows Vista. If you only have 256 MB of RAM, you can’t run Microsoft Windows Vista. It just won’t work. But, if you replace that faulty 256 MB of RAM with 2 GB of RAM, your old PC will probably be able to run Windows Vista. before deciding onWindows Vista, I would recommend checking Microsoft’s Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. This tool will tell you whether you are ready or not.

Always remember, a small upgrade now can often save a lot of money down the road.

Happy computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

This weekend, my wife had just plugged in the iron in order to iron some clothes when there was a small click that came from the iron and the indicator light went off. She thought that it was odd but left it plugged in for an extra few second. Not only did the indicator light go off, but the entire iron started to cool.

Even under moderate to high usage an iron should last more than 4 years. This one was used approximately once a month and in less than 4 years it gave up the ghost.

Admittedly I know nothing about irons, not even how to correctly use one. But, being a computer repair professional, I know a bit about using high quality computer parts. There are hardware companies whose parts I refuse to use because I don’t want to have to replace the part twice. Once I repair a PC, I want it to stay in good working order. From motherboards and hard drives to fans and power supplies, I use only high quality parts because you, the customer, want to have a computer that works for years, not a computer that works for months.

According to C-Net’s senior editor Matt Elliott (and I agree with him), the expected life of a computer is 3-5 years. The high quality part will be far more likely through last the expected years of your computer.

Happy computing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

Yesterday my wife needed to create and edit some videos for her class (she’s an art teacher) on how to work with water-color paints. We have a Sony DCR-DVD 105 camcorder that records to the mini DVDs. It doesn’t have a Firewire or USB connection on it so this presents a bit of a problem… How do you get the video onto your computer? Here’s what I do.

First you’ll need a bit of inexpensive software (sorry, not free this time) called AVS Video Converter. It is only $39.95 right now and it does a great job of converting the DVD files to almost any video format you would like. I usually choose .wmv, but the choice is up to you.

So here are the steps to converting the DVD video to any format you would like so you can edit your videos.

1. When you’re finished recording video, finalize the DVD.
2. After it is finalized, put the DVD into your computer’s DVD drive.
3. go to “My Computer” and Right-Click on the DVD drive.
4. Choose “Explore”.
5. A new window will be opened and you will see some files.
6. Copy the files that end in “.vob” to your desktop because AVS Video Converter can’t read directly from the DVD.
7. Start AVS Video Converter and choose the file format that you want to convert the DVD files to.
8. Click “Browse” to choose your .vob file.
9. Look under “Output File name” and you will see “… Profile” click on the box there to choose your exact output method within your video type.
10. Now you are almost finished. click on “Convert Now” and it will start it’s magic. Obviously the software will take longer to convert larger files but it will do it.

When the program is finished, you’ll be able to watch your video on your computer or edit it any way you want.

Happy video editing,
Tim

Biden PC is a Computer Network Consulting Company.

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As I have had 2 clients in the week that have Hard Drive Problems, I would like to talk a bit about what these problems are and how to recover data when they occur.

First, hard drive problems are typically bad spots on the internal platters (think of CDs inside a metal box with metal arms that run across them reading data) that can no longer be read from or written to. These spots are called sectors and when a sector cannot be accessed, your Operating System (probably Windows) ignores it and writes data around it instead of in it.

There are 2 different types of problems that cause bad sectors. We’ll start with the type that is the most common and least problematic.

Software errors are exactly what they sound like, problems with the data on the drive. A software error can be caused by a small number of things. This includes:

1. a write-head not writing in the exact space that a sector is located in, therefore causing 2 sector errors.
2. a piece of data being written and the master record (for the drive) not being updated or incorrectly updated.
3. loss of power while writing data.

There are a number of ways to fix or recover data from these software hard drive problems. Lets go over those now.

1. Chkdsk – No that is not a typo. Chkdsk is short for CheckDisk and is a Windows native application that performs a scan of your hard drive and maps out bad sectors. This allows your drive to continue performing and reduces the probability of more sector problems. Click here to see how to run Chkdsk in Windows.
2. If data has been lost, there are many free programs that can be used to recover them with decent reliability. Many can be found on the Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows. If you don’t feel comfortable creating a boot cd, then check out Recuva. I have recently used to to recover many files from a client’s PC.
3. As well as data recovery, the Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows can also perform hard drive scans and fix many errors. If you need a copy, please contact me via my business website.
4. After recovering your data, I recommend backing up your data and completely formatting (Not a quick format) your hard drive. This will cause the system to ignore the problematic areas and rewrite the data elsewhere. Now, we hope, those hard drive issues should be gone.

There are also hardware errors that can occur in hard drives. These are more problematic but in most cases, data can still be recovered from the damaged sectors.

Hardware errors also have a number of causes that we’ll discuss a few of those here.

1. There can be dust or metal flakes (caused by the movement of the internal parts) inside the hard drive that get onto a platter. This can cause a small magnetic blackout of a sector. If it moves along with the head it can cause small scratches like on a CD. Also, like a CD, the data can usually be read using different methods (Please don’t use toothpaste inside your hard drive.).
2. Dropping Computer or Laptop – If you drop your computer, in many cases it will be safe from harm but there is the chance that the read head (which is kind of like the needle and arm on a record player) can scratch the surface of the platter. These will require special Data Recovery facilities to retrieve the data.

Here are a few ways to fix or recover data from more serious hard drive problems.

1. You’ve heard me say it before and you’ll hear it again, the Ultimate Boot CD 4 Windows is a godsend and the same programs that can retrieve software error sectors can also retrieve hardware error sector. TestDisk and Disk Investigator (both on the UBCD4Win) recently saved my hide.
2. SpinRite – Gibson Research Corporation makes a great piece of software that can fix the drive so you can retrieve data from damaged hard drives. I have used it quite successfully many times.
3. If the above tools can’t do it, I would recommend sending the drive to a data recovery specialist. There are many to be found. Simply google “data recovery” and you’ll find plenty. As I’ve never had to use one, I really can’t recommend one.

Now that you have recovered your data, I recommend backing up your data and completely formatting (not a quick format) your hard drive. This will cause the system to ignore the problematic areas and rewrite the data elsewhere. Now, we hope, those hard drive issues should be gone.

May all of your hard drives have long lives,
Tim