GoRedwings19's Computer Help Hotline

Hi, i'm not computer literate, i mean i could use the thing, but i'm not a fan of all the little details that go into these things. for the last 3 years i've relied on Norton Internet Security (rebuying it every august or whenever a new one comes out). well, now it tells me that my computer is under attack. i do a "live update" and install the things. then it tells me that a trojan horse is has gotten in, and somehow it can't fix it (after having me go through a series of steps). one , i want to get rid of the trojan horse two, i want to get rid of norton.

Curious if there is a SATA and IDE BlacX-like device? I see adapters like this, but nothing in the more convenient form factor. Anyone know of one?

Is there a way to send a fax via the internet without having to sign up for a service (i.e., a one-time thing). Or, in the alternative, is there a super cheap way to do this? I don't have a fax machine and need to get something out.

Ok, so even after I originally said it was stupid, I've been considering the Air recently. I was looking on the Apple Store, and Time Capsule sounds cool, and as I understand it, is also a wireless router? And it has a USB port? It says on their website that you can hookup a USB printer to it. What about a usb optical drive? If you can hook up a USB optical drive, is anyone aware of any wireless printers? If you can't, are there wireless or bluetooth optical drives? If I switch to the Air, I'll be getting rid of my desktop, so this is important. Anyone have experience with bluetooth keyboards and mice? Oh, and can you also partition part of the Time Capsule…

I've just had my first look at Mininova, found several interesting audio files (recorded from radio broadcasts) and am downloading them with

I've had sp1 running on my laptop (vista home premium 64-bit) and my desktop (vista ultimate 64-bit) since Saturday. The install didn't take all that long for a service pack especially one this large and it worked flawlessly. The big problems I'd had with vista the "calculating time remaining" bug and the slow file copy bug have been completely fixed. The whole OS seems to be faster and more responsive over all. I've seen some reports of boot times increasing post-sp1 vs pre-sp1 but if it is any longer it hasn't been noticeable to me.

My parents are trying their best to embrace the computer and the internets, but it's slow going. For certain things, I need to walk them through the most basic steps (e.g, where's the power button) and other more difficult steps (e.g., how to make a playlist in iTunes). What I'm looking for is some sort of program(s) that will allow me to easily post both screenshots and actual photos to produce a sort of tutorial. I've used Skitch a bit, but it doesn't have the greatest organizational qualities. I suppose I could create a Word document, but I'd like something a bit simpler than that if it exists. As always, your collective genius is appreciated.

I give up. 1. Created Windows 10 boot media and Bootcamp drivers USB via Bootcamp. 2. Created Windows partition via Bootcamp. 3. System reboots to installs Windows and I get this: 4. Chose delete and format drive with same result. 5. Reboot into OS X and check disk utility and see this: 6. Reboot into Windows install again only for it to tell me it's not an NTFS partition. What the heck is the deal? This is a late 2013 iMac with Fusion Drive. All I want to do is run Brent into a wall.

Hi there, H-C. Yesterday, while I was on a photo shoot, my beloved Blackberry grew legs and took off (FML). I've been in damage control mode for the last 20 or so hours (shutting off the phone, changing a fuck-ton of passwords.) Now I'm moving on to regaining ground so to speak. I have a Google Voice number, and had the GV app for my BB. I also have a Vonage box left over from when I was a customer of theirs. My understanding is that the Vonage only works with their service. It might be hackable, but that's really not my forte. What I'd like is similar box, something with an ethernet (or USB) jack and an RJ11 jack. Failing that, a hardware phone with a USB port…

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phones/pda-phones-smartphones.jsp

So I need to vent/laugh... I make my living in IT support for a large corporation and you would think that should rub off a bit on my parents. Nope! My stepdad is 78 and hasn't used a computer in 10 years and smart phones, forget about it. He decides to buy an Ipad and enlists the help of some guy at a bar (not me). What shows up is a fully loaded Ipad pro ($1000 +). Not bad so far right... He obviously wants to set it up right away (enter me). I'm walking him through the process and we get to the point where he needs the wifi info. He doesn't know the router name, asks my mom and she's unsure. I know what they usually choose for names and can see the ro…

This is what I have in mind: I sit in my office, open iTunes, which then plays songs that are stored on a hard drive that sits at home. But without using a desktop machine that actually streams the music. Now, I'm not very literate in these things. What I thought might work, while staying affordable, is to get a Western Digital Mybook World Edition (WD's consumer NAS device), which has Ethernet connection and a so-called WD Anywhere Access thing. Then connect and mount this disk (maybe via smb?) from the internet and then let itunes reference all the tracks in my library to that mounted disk. Would that work? Alternatively, is there a solution that might work wit…

I am thinking of finally getting myself a 24" LCD. Right now I have 19" Samsung that I got a few years ago. It is a pretty basic model without any adjustments or inputs, but picture quality has been fine for me. However, now I want to get a nice LCD with composite inputs, HD, and all that other cool shit. I think 24" will be more than enough. I looked around and there seems to be so many options, I am pretty lost. Dell 2408WFP seems to be pretty sweet from features side, and my buddy has an older version of it that he loves... Which LCD can you recommend? Budget is probably around $600, but can be expanded if needed. I will use it for movies, games and internet. thank…

I'm getting tired of crappy AC powered USB hubs going out over time. D-Link DUB-H7 most recently. Anyone have decent luck with one to recommend?

A friend of mine gave me an Agfa Snapscan 1212u flatbed scanner (USB). It appears to be an older, but very nice unit. Unfortunately, he didn't have the power supply for it. It needs 16 volds DC/900mA, in a barrel connector <mumble> size, tip positive. I can get one of the connectors @ Rat Shack, but where am I going to find a 16v PSU that puts 1A or so?

Hey guys, I tried to acess the chat room but I can't see a thing. I just see a window saying addon chat software. Do I need any program to use the chat room?

I think I may have posted about this once before, but I could use some advice re my home Ethernet wiring. My apartment came "wired.". We have a ton of drops, but im not sure whether they're all lit. The reason I'm not sure is that the patch panel is also a mess. From back when I did some network stuff I remember this connectivity shit being a two man job. I don't have that luxury. Basically, I want to at least figure out what's lit and what's not. What tools do I need? Is it worth getting a tester? Also, how hard/easy is it to terminate my own Ethernet cables? Patch cables are such a ripoff. Overall, I need a bit of advice about how to assess what exactl…

As the title states, I need to convert a collection of ALAC files to lossy WMAs and keep the original files (got a cheap brown Zune). dBPowerAmp is the only software I'm aware of that will handle this conversion, should I try my luck with it or does someone here have another recommendation?

foobar 0.9 = no asio, no wma, no tta.

I'm looking into setting up a forum for my apartment building. I want something easy to set up, maintain, and administer. Basically, I want a service to do the work for me. And I want it cheap. Grawk suggested freeforums.org, which looks good, but I seek some additional recommendations if you've got 'em. I guess I'd also be willing to pay a small (read very small) fee.

I've been wanting to do this for a while. Sometimes my computer just starts acting wonky, and I know a format and full windows reinstall is forthcoming. about the only thing I really need on it is my music and some pictures (if you call random internet lolcat pictures I downloaded stuff I "need"). But anywho, today I got home from work, and I'd start up my computer, and it would get all the way to the windows desktop, then reboot. It repeated this in an endless loop. Luckily, I always keep an external hard drive with all my drivers, FLACs, and pictures on it. I also keep my Windows CDs in a safe place. Just a friendly reminder to always be prepared! computer is run…

thinkpad t410. everything stock except added 8gb of ram about 6 months ago. if i lock the computer, the screen goes blank after a few minutes. when i move the mouse to bring the screen back up, it locks up the machine and the only thing i can do is to manually turn it off and turn it on again. i used to have a screen saver (the flying windows from windows 98) and disabled it 2 days ago thinking it might be causing issues. problem persisted. just came back from the gym and i had locked the screen when i left. pressed the caps lock key as it has a led indicator inside it to see whether it had already frozen or if bringing it back to life screws it up. the light lit up a…

Ok, so the game that I spent a good part of my formative years playing has been re-released for the Mac and I'm dying to try it again. So that leaves me in the somewhat awkward position of basically not wanting to spend much in the way of $$ on this computer. It certainly doesn't need to be much, specs are as follows: Minimum Specs - Mac OS 10.3.9 - G3 processor - 500 mhz - 128MB of RAM - 106MB of free hard drive space - Turn all special effects off to run at 15 frames per second Recommended Specs - G4 processor - 1.0 ghz - 256MB of RAM - 100MB of free hard drive space So what's the cheapest thing to look for that I can simply plug in in place of my exi…

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Well, I finally got a nice job. It's half time for 4-6 months. After that, we see where we are and what the business climate is like. I know the tech-lead and this should be a fun job! I need to provide my own laptop for this job. I have a 4 year old Dell Inspiron 8600 that would probably do the job. However, I think that I'd be better off having a separate work computer. Other members of the team have recently bought this HP laptop. They did get it for $100 less but the price still is pretty reasonable. I've been pretty detached from computer hardware. Should I get this or would you laptop knowledgeable people recommend something else? This laptop will be…