tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-140304152012-01-24T08:47:07.965-08:00Visit us at <a href="http://www.thechipmerchant.com">http://www.thechipmerchant.com</a> for IT solutions from the TCM experts!Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.comBlogger381100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-47687934914969020722012-01-16T16:17:00.000-08:002012-01-16T16:21:34.308-08:00

SSDs aren’t new, but with the recent spike in platter Hard Disk pricing due to flooding in Thailand they’ve been an increasingly common choice in our builds. Depending on your use of the machine, it may make sense for you too even as pricing on Hard Disks (HDDs) come down. The main difference between HDDs and SSDs is what your data is written to and how. In Hard Disks, data is stored on rotating,

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-35715619022800783582011-12-06T14:06:00.001-08:002011-12-06T14:29:01.920-08:00

DNS (Domain Name System) is a digital directory that translates mnemonic names such as URLs (Ex. http://thechipmerchant.com ) and Machine names (Ex. ‘Office-Workstation’) into computer usable IP Addresses. By design, it’s meant to be behind the scenes and make life easier; you don’t have to remember strings of numbers since it takes care of that for you. While the purpose and functions of

Laurennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-89700838114212194422011-11-18T10:00:00.001-08:002011-11-18T11:31:46.043-08:00

TCM would like to share information about Section 179 of the Internal Revenue Code, a tax code that allows a business to deduct the costs of long-term assets in the year they are purchased. We're excited to spread the word about Section 179 because of what it means for our business customers. With Section 179, businesses that invest in new or used hardware or software can write off 100% of

Laurennoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-26213629173436911572011-11-04T09:51:00.000-07:002011-11-04T09:51:26.392-07:00

We should all be taking security seriously. As we’ve mentioned before staying on top of security updates is critical as is maintaining an antivirus product. While you should always take the reports of the AV product seriously, sometimes they do miss the mark. They may mark files or processes as malicious when in fact they’re perfectly legitimate. Heuristic scans can help provide protection

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-37419270802721418762011-10-10T16:45:00.000-07:002011-10-11T10:22:36.835-07:00

We get the question all the time, “How did I get infected with a virus?” While the truth is that there are many possibilities, a recent study takes a little deeper look at the vectors that viruses use to infect target machines.Ultimately what we can determine from the article is that it isn’t so much what users do with their machines that cause infections. Rather, infections stem from what they

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-66730652302302880702011-09-12T09:12:00.000-07:002011-10-10T16:32:50.760-07:00

In our last Tech Tip, we briefly discussed small business backup schemes that can save you time and money whilst reducing your exposure data and productivity loss. We outlined some failure scenarios and how certain infrastructure and practices help keep your business running smoothly.We've mentioned Acronis several times before, but we never got into the possible ways to utilize it to its full

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-9339124055521924522011-08-10T09:17:00.000-07:002011-08-10T09:17:51.645-07:00

If you're like most small businesses data is your livelihood. Business management software tracks customers, transactions, inventory, reporting, payroll and much more. You may have shared folders somewhere that contain various company/customer forms, spreadsheets, documentation, etc. What would happen if you lost any or all parts of that? Would it be a minor inconvenience, or could it literally

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-31526968201029325332011-07-15T12:43:00.000-07:002011-07-15T12:43:20.805-07:00

Whether you're already using Windows 7 or are looking into it, Microsoft's added a number of handy features that simplify computing and are cost effective (FREE!). Some of our favorites are below. Backup - This feature takes a lot of work out of backing up and setting up a schedule. You tell it what to back up, to where, and how often; Windows takes care of the rest. This can be anything from a

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-60230254183736673062011-06-07T16:04:00.000-07:002011-06-07T16:04:07.516-07:00

As quoted from the Pfsense web site this open source free distribution has been ‘Years and many thousands of hours in the making’. As users of the original Pfsense 1.2.3 will know, this is a long awaited release of a very robust and easily managed firewall which is laiden with many cool features. Given that the download image size is only 100 Mbytes, this small size also matches the minimum

Finbarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06926733622245006093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-16561404664122565212011-05-09T13:25:00.000-07:002011-05-09T13:25:16.935-07:00

There's no doubt that residential internet speeds are getting faster at an exponential rate. Whether you're  streaming a movie through a service like Netflix or are just a big content downloader more bandwidth can only make that experience better. Bandwidth (internet speed) is like a bottle, you can flow much more liquid (data) through a bottle with a bigger mouth (bandwidth cap)... but it may

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-12293499261674748622011-04-29T13:51:00.000-07:002011-04-29T13:51:00.149-07:00

We frequently come across avid Do-It-Yourselfers who like to assemble their own PCs. However, we frequently get calls about people having difficulty installing Intel factory heatsinks onto the motherboard. The confusion typically stems from the arrows stamped into the mounting towers, indicating that you turn the posts counterclockwise. Unfortunately, what's not made clear is that those arrows

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-61660838884555740932011-04-15T15:39:00.000-07:002011-04-15T15:39:48.521-07:00

You've heard us talk about Acronis before as great software to clone, image and/or backup your machine, but did you also know you can get it for free? Both Seagate and Western Digital have parterned up with Acronis some time ago to provide Seagate/WD branded versions of the Acronis imaging suite to customers who purchase their drives. The only catch is you need to have a Western Digital or

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-65776521752117957642011-04-11T16:47:00.000-07:002011-04-11T16:47:28.307-07:00

Whether you've assembled a new system or are looking to start fresh, most PC users will need to install Windows at some point. However, some often overlooked details of this operation are the proper order to install drivers, prerequisites and finding out what the dreaded "unknown device" is. It's generally best practice to download the latest drivers for the motherboard, video card and other

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-32402138242171109472011-03-25T17:29:00.000-07:002011-03-25T17:29:10.519-07:00

Software based diagnostics can help you pinpoint a lot of problems you might be experiencing. We've been over Hard Disk Cloning and diagnosing memory problems. Up to now we've listed them as individual utilities with little to do with each other. However, several people have taken it upon themselves to combine and keep current Optical/Flash based toolboxes. Bootable CDs/Flash Drives made with

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-85359785580499175012011-03-04T11:14:00.000-08:002011-03-04T11:14:31.515-08:00

Here at TCM we do a lot of virus removals. However, an interesting trend over the past 6 months or so has been that almost 9 out of 10 virus diagnostics are due to what are known as Rogue Antiviruses. Essentially what these do is get on your machine and cripple its functionality; they stop programs from running, the internet from working, spawn webpages to questionable sites, pop up with alerts/

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-45752181658250923382011-02-25T13:20:00.000-08:002011-02-25T13:20:57.040-08:00

A while back we mentioned NAS units being a great way for small business and home users to back up their data. A manufacturer we're really liking right now is Synology; their interface, setup and management are a breeze and includes premium features at a reasonable cost. While the feature set of different NAS models/manufacturers vary, these are some of the standard things you can do with most

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-5345564012561607092011-02-04T12:41:00.000-08:002011-02-08T11:03:12.555-08:00

Social networks, everybody's doing it. Unfortunately, that also means there are those who want to capitalize on social networking popularity with malicious intents. You've probably seen it yourself, Facebook wall posts that sound a little funny attempting to get a click or maybe weird messages from your friends with links that may be enough to pique your curiosity.There are a lot of ways these

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-43412753911672951602011-01-28T13:45:00.000-08:002011-01-28T13:45:51.089-08:00

At their most basic level, a computer power supply takes power from your household outlets (120v AC) and convert it into energy your computer's components (3-12v DC) can use and their purpose is simple, but there are many considerations that need to be taken into account to choose the right one. Below is a list of common considerations. Output - If you have a high end graphics card, a large

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-6519504757007009572011-01-21T14:54:00.000-08:002011-01-21T14:54:23.109-08:00

People become attached to their PCs. However, there comes a certain point for every machine where it's time to replace it entirely or consider upgrading select components. Generally, the effective service life maximum for a desktop is about 3-5 years and about 3 for a laptop. However, this varies not only by how technologically current the hardware was when you bought it, but how your needs

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-53622773448155499282011-01-10T09:26:00.000-08:002011-01-10T09:26:32.443-08:00

The beginning of the year brings CES (Consumer Electronics Show) which is a show that gives companies an opportunity to show off their new technology that we should all expect to see launching in the new year.  There were some really exciting announcements, like Intel's new Core i-series CPUs, 3D TVs aplenty, new camera technology and all sorts of toys and gadgets that we'll see coming out this

Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-75066679576809251312011-01-07T12:11:00.000-08:002011-01-07T12:11:00.081-08:00

When boards have issues they're usually a headache both in the consequences of the failure(s)(certain board functions that don't work, instability, etc.) and the process to diagnose/isolate the board out of the equation; especially since a failing board can replicate symptoms similar to bad memory, hard disk or CPU... or cause failures to other devices. For example, you may replace a bad

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-58957354985699539382010-12-10T09:55:00.000-08:002010-12-10T09:55:37.670-08:00

There are many situations in which you'll want to clone a hard disk. If you want more capacity, a better performing drive, your old drive is making horrible noises like rocks in a blender, etc. There are some great, and generally simple to use tools to get this accomplished: You'll need to be able to hook up your new drive to your machine and boot to the respective media to perform this

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-26049955440079397962010-11-24T11:23:00.000-08:002010-11-24T11:23:18.725-08:00

I came across this article this morning, and reading it thought to myself "I couldn't have said it better myself".  Computer security isn't just about the software that you run to keep you safe, it's about thinking about what you do online before you do it.  We get machines in all the time with Anti-Virus software installed on them, that still get a virus.  How did this happen you might wonder;

Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-53219239111516171702010-11-19T13:19:00.000-08:002010-11-19T13:19:07.568-08:00

Does your computer just makes too much noise just sitting there doing nothing? We frequently see this on older machines and it can certainly be annoying and detract from your computing experience. Here's some tips below to keeping noise to a minimum. 1. Keep dust out of the machine. If the CPU fan, chassis fan and if applicable, video card card fan become inundated with dust those components

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-88940000553892758772010-11-12T16:48:00.000-08:002010-11-12T16:48:00.922-08:00

Many times you might want or need access to a remote (not in your house/work) computer. You may want to access files from home on your work computer or vice versa. Although there are many methods of doing this, perhaps one of the easiest is to use remote software. A free (for personal, non-business use) solution is Team Viewer. Simply install the software on both machines you'd like to

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-44100099909246032772010-11-05T12:40:00.000-07:002010-11-05T12:48:01.422-07:00

Slowness of any system can be frustrating; you've got better things to do with your life than wait for things to load or progress bars to finish. With a little bit of maintenance and tweaks, you can keep your system running smoothly. Some hints below:Keep startup programs to a minimum - Do you notice a lot of icons in the system tray (usually the right side of the taskbar)? Disabling unused/

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-59665208777875301422010-10-29T16:54:00.000-07:002010-10-29T16:54:35.198-07:00

Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) can be a way to minimize your exposure to hardware fault and/or increase storage performance. All levels combine the functionality of multiple disks and consolidate them into a single logical drive (your operating system and you see them as one disk usually) The what and how of some basic RAID levels are explained below: RAID 0 - This RAID essentially

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-85358742038308169902010-10-25T15:23:00.000-07:002010-10-25T15:23:08.701-07:00

As a systems administrator, Remote Desktop is a tool that makes our jobs 1000 times easier than it was "Back in the Day".  The ability to connect to a machine anywhere from my local machine by just using an application installed on pretty much all computers since Windows XP is genius.  Turning on Remote Desktop is pretty simple, right click on "My Computer" select "Properties" click on the "

Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-23315840076435275712010-10-22T18:05:00.000-07:002010-10-22T18:05:49.849-07:00

If your hard disk were to crash tomorrow, computer get stolen, house caught on fire.... what would happen to your data? Would you just inconvenienced or completely devastated? If your answer is the latter, you absolutely need back up your data. If you've just a few important documents, you can probably get away with backing up to a simple flash drive/external hard disk (preferably taking it

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-8587894189642220392010-10-18T14:34:00.000-07:002010-10-18T14:34:04.993-07:00

If you've purchased a new computer this year, there's a very good chance that it came with Windows 7.  Microsoft's new operating system is packed with new features trying to make your life easier, some of these are simple.  Like the new Aero Glass desktop feature which while initially looking like it just provides transparency for your windows, it also allows you some nice productivity  features

Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-18202408048057454002010-10-15T08:23:00.000-07:002010-10-15T08:23:14.815-07:00

The Telnet utility has always been one of the tools most Administrators used when troubleshooting networks. Not only can you connect to others computers on your network through a telnet session, but you can also use this tool to verify that services are running on another computer also. Typically Telnet  uses TCP port 23 to create a client server connection, however  this port can be changed to

Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-38804820712428757742010-10-08T15:41:00.000-07:002010-10-08T15:41:31.959-07:00

Many times Windows will log details that can help you figure an issue out if something just isn't quite working right. For example, let's say your computer no can no longer connect to the internet; the Event Viewer may indicate that certain services related to networking didn't start correctly or are otherwise malfunctioning. You can combine this information in conjunction with other tools (in

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-62312122431647408022010-10-04T08:46:00.000-07:002010-10-04T08:46:08.823-07:00

A while back Microsoft released an excellent Anti-Virus product onto the market known as Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), it's 100% free and one of the higher ranked AV products on the market.  The EULA for the product said that you could only run it on your personal machine, so small businesses (10 PCs or less) were still left with buying AV software for their machines.  Well, this month

Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-45943011191527726802010-10-01T10:36:00.000-07:002010-10-01T10:36:03.456-07:00

Hard disk issues are among the most concerning for home computer users. After all, for most people the hard disk in the machine contains ALL of the data that’s important… documents, pictures, work projects, music, movies, memories and more! There are some common symptoms of problematic hard disks:Failing (may work but complete failure is impending):Slow booting/inability to boot Blue Screens –

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-33916604080349547552010-09-29T10:04:00.000-07:002010-09-29T10:09:59.679-07:00

We recently brought up a YouTube Channel to showcase some of the stuff we build, and come across as interesting/funny in our day-to-day here at The Chip Merchant.  We started off with posting some videos of a gaming machine we built for a customer with some Crucial Ballistix memory and its LED light show.

Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-30701827524051445742010-09-24T09:38:00.000-07:002010-09-24T09:45:07.616-07:00

Haphazard problems are rarely easy to troubleshoot. However, the more bizarre, inconsistent/random they are, the more likely the issue is memory related. If a machine boots, it doesn’t always mean that the memory isn’t causing a problem. There can be certain sections of memory that are bad but don’t cause a problem until those areas are used and aren’t always used by the same software. This can

W. Juliohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05846428878706595666noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-85741737774508746902010-09-23T10:58:00.001-07:002010-09-23T10:58:19.108-07:00

Dailytech is reporting that AMD has rolled out some new CPUs, and that Intel is showing off their next generation of CPUs.  Historically clock speed has been the benchmark of CPU performance (clock speed is the rating of how fast the CPU is in MHz or GHz).  It was fairly self-explanatory that a 3.2 GHz CPU would be faster than a 2.8GHz CPU all else being equal.  These days it's not so much about

Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14030415.post-47445114315529815312010-09-01T16:40:00.000-07:002010-09-01T16:40:56.087-07:00

Have you ever wondered what devices are showing up on a particular network?  Have you ever wanted to use WOL (Wake-On-LAN) to wake a computer, but you don't remember the MAC address?  Have you ever just wanted a quick and easy way to check your local network for more information?  I find that SoftPerfect Network Scanner does a great job of just that.  It's a quick download, can be run from just a

Devin Chartershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10086424923767962323noreply@blogger.com0