If your computer seems slow and you’ve already upgraded your memory (say, to 2GB or higher), your next step might be to upgrade the hard disk. First, check out your current hard disk’s performance using HD Tune. Write down the average transfer rate and access times so you’ll know how much better your new disk is. If you’re running Windows Vista or Windows 7, you can use the Windows Experience Index to get a rough estimate of your disk speed.

Now, figure out what type of disk you want to buy. Write down your choices as you go:

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That’s a screenshot from my favorite free tool for testing hard disk performance–HD Tune (there’s a pro version you can buy, too). That’s from my Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 1.5 TB SATA drive backup drive.

The Blue Line–Transfer Rate

First, the blue line is the transfer rate. That’s the speed which the hard disk sends data to the computer when a big file is lined up nicely–defragmented, in other words. Notice that the line starts high (at 126 MB/sec) and drops (to about 57 MB/sec). That’s because the test moves from the outside of the drive to the inside. Disk drives are round, like a record, and so the outside spins faster (in inches/sec) from the inside.

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i am retired and my wife loves taking pictures nature.

i have an old windows xp limited gb 60 or so. should i learn on this or get a different pc.so as to transfer from her camera
or how does she send them to walgreens for making copies etc. seems like an easier way and i would like to help her.ps what kind of camera for her would be best. middle beginer?

thanx for your time.

dave

do i need a pc with memory reader card?
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Hello,

I have a 1998 jaguar with a Harmon Karman (sp) stereo system with cassette and CD player.  I want to use my ipod so I purchased a cassette adapter.  It works great but my question is…my Ipod id digital music, is it still digital playing through my speakers with the cassette adapter?

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Hi Tony….

Our school is looking for a flip type video camera to be used in the classroom then downloaded onto a computer into Windows Movie Maker.  The cameras we have found so far have files that have to be converted to a .wmv file.  Do you know if there are any that produce a .wmv file so a conversion does not have to be done?  We are just trying to eliminate a step and make it easy to use in the classroom by students.

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Recently, I bought some nice in-ear headphones: the Klipsch Custom-2 In-Ear Noise Isolating Earphone. They do a great job of eliminating outside noise because they fit in my ears like earplugs. Here’s the downside to that: I discovered that my main computer, a Dell Latitude D820 (yeah, I’m using a 4-year-old computer, what of it?!), has a low, constant hiss whenever the sound isn’t muted.

When I plug the headphones into my iPhone, there’s no background noise–just perfect silence.

So, I went searching for a solution to the problem. Turns out, it’s not a software update or a configuration problem. I just have a cheap sound card. All sound cards introduce some level of noise (though my iPhone doesn’t seem to) and cheaper sound cards introduce more noise than better-quality sound cards.  Being a laptop, my computer has the sound card built into the motherboard, which makes it prone to this type of background noise.

If this were a desktop, I could simply add a better-quality sound card and plug my headphones or speakers into it. With a laptop/notebook/mobile computer, I need to add an external sound card or USB headphones (as described later). Check the reviews–some are better quality than others.

This problem also extended to recording. I regularly record voice-overs for instructional videos, and I had a seemingly incurable problem with background noise. When I bought a digital microphone (which uses a USB connection rather than the mic-in port), the background noise disappeared. Because I wasn’t using the analog microphone port on my laptop anymore, it wasn’t subject to the motherboard-induced background noise. The headset I bought also had headphones, and those headphones were immune to the background noise, too.

Moral of the story: if you hear noise when you plug a mic, headphones, or speakers into your computer, use a USB connection instead of the built-in analog connection.

I tested a Wacom tablet on my computer a few months back, which prompted Windows Vista to automatically install the Tablet PC components. I got rid of the Wacom tablet after discovering that I’m better at using a mouse then a pen (a fact I should have realized after seeing my handwriting).

The Tablet PC Input Panel didn’t go away, though. It’s the panel that slides out from the left side of the screen to allow you to use handwriting to enter text.

To disable it, follow these steps:

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