Question:

help…getting the sd card out of my cpu

i put the card in the slot…downloaded my photos with no problems…cant figure out how to get the card out now…eject it…retrieve it…what is the correct term any way…did i say i was an amateur?

Answer:

Push the SD card in a bit. a spring should pop it back out. If it doesn’t pop out, something is broken, and you’ll need to resort to pliars. Good luck with it.

Dell released new drivers for my Latitude D820. Usually they release drivers for all similar computers at the same time, so check their website if you have a Dell. Hopefully this will put a stop to my video driver crashes.

Better late then never–Microsoft LifeCam software is now available for Windows Vista. Well, it says it’s available, but the Select your operating system list still only shows Windows XP, and it’s still version 1.2.1, so I guess they’re still in the process of posting it. I’m glad to see them showing something available because I bought a couple of these cameras in December specifically because they were made by Microsoft, and I was sure they’d be natively supported by Vista.

LifeChat folks, you’ll have to wait until February.

Update: Microsoft changed the page to say the drivers aren’t yet “availalbe” after all. Well, we’ve only got one week left in January…

Question:

Do 32 bit prgms work in 64 bit?

Answer:

Yes, mostly. You will have some compatibility problems, though. 32-bit drivers won’t work in a 64-bit environment, and programs that depend on a specific 32-bit driver won’t work (think, some webcam software, CD/DVD burning software, etc). ActiveX parts of Web pages might not work for you. Additionally, everything is going to be a little bit slower (like, 5-10%).
But, most programs will work, thanks to WOW64 (64-bit Windows on Windows). The WOW64 layer handles all the translations needed when programs try to communicate to a 32-bit version of Windows. For more information about WOW64, read this two-part article.

Question:

Hi Tony,

I recently installed a Mad Dog dual monitor in a friend’s desktop computer so that he can run a different stock market program on each monitor. He would like to have 4 different monitors with different stock market programs running at the same time. Can this be done? He is running Win XP with a 2.6g processor and 1g of ram.

I would appreciate any info and advise you could give me.

Answer: (more…)

Follow-up–I answer some reader questions about this topic here. Read this article first, though.

Question:

Hi, I found your website today during a search on Vista. My question is will 32 bit Vista Ultimate support more RAM? IE 4 or 3?

Answer:

I thought this was a slam-dunk, but it turns out to be a damn good question! The short answer is, the practical upper limit is usually about 3GB of RAM.

The long answer takes some explanation… Here’s the official answer from Microsoft:

(more…)

Jonathan writes:

Tony,

I read something on a Microsoft website regarding dual monitors for an extended desktop. My questions takes that one step further, and I was wondering if you could help me.

I have two external monitors connected to the port replicator of my Dell 600M laptop. I have the laptop screen open, so in theory, I would like to use the laptop as the main screen, and one monitor on each side (3 total monitors). Right now I am only able to have 1 monitor plugged into the port replicator. Is there some sort of splitter that I could use to extend the desktop onto 3 screens?

Thank you so much for your time.

My answer:

Hi, Jonathan. As I recall, the Dell 600Ms don’t take a real docking station. So, your only option for more than one external monitor is a USB video adapter, like the one I described here.

Tony