Hardware

Scroll lock is an obscure key that has mostly outlived its usefulness. Size-constrained laptops often omit the key, layering it with some other key combination that you generate by pressing the FN key plus a second key that varies. Here’s how to get scroll lock on a laptop when your keyboard doesn’t have the key.

Usually to get scroll lock to toggle, use the FN key and a combination of a second key, often C, K, S, or even F12. You can also use the Windows on screen keyboard.

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You probably came here looking for the standard 34 pin floppy drive pinout, as used on most PCs. However, the PC floppy drive pinout was derived from a standard created by shugart in the 1970s, and More than one version of that pinout exists today. So let’s talk about the common floppy drive pinout, and the variance that you might see in your retro adventures.

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If you want to upgrade your PC, you need to make sure you have room to plug them in. Many upgrades, including GPUs, plug into PCI Express slots. Here’s how to tell which PCI Express slot you have, so you know your options.

You can identify your PCI Express cards visually (x1 slots are 1 inch long and x16 are 3.5 inches long), or using the command line from within Windows or Linux. The command line is more reliable and helps you identify an x4 or x8 slot with an x16 connector.

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Your motherboard determines how much you can upgrade your PC. It also determines what upgrades will and won’t work in your PC. Here’s how to tell what motherboard you have, possibly without even opening your computer.

You can check which motherboard you have by running a WMI command in Windows, dmidecode in Linux, or looking for visual cues on the motherboard itself.

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I helped my son replace the i5 CPU in his PC with an i7 to hopefully solve some occasional performance problems he was having. But when we booted the upgraded machine for the first time and pulled up task manager, Windows 10 still thought it was an i5. Here’s how to fix Windows 10 not recognizing a new CPU.

Read More »Windows 10 not recognizing new CPU: The fix

It’s understandable if the concept of disk cache vs memory cache is confusing. They have distinct similarities though they are not interchangeable with one another. But let’s talk about the concept and how it works.

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We hadn’t used the Roku in one of our rooms in a couple of months, and when we went to use it the other day, the remote didn’t work. Not even after changing batteries. If your Roku remote stopped working, here’s how to fix it.

Read More »Roku remote stopped working? Try this

When you study the history of computers, one recurring theme is that computers get smaller, cheaper, and faster over time. So why is there a floor on computer prices? Why aren’t computers getting cheaper anymore, especially at retail?

Read More »Why aren’t computers getting cheaper?

Back in July, I went to Micro Center to get a video card for my son. The selection wasn’t great. They had a few $50 cards. They had three $110 cards. Not three different ones. Three GT 1030s. Total. And nothing else under $2,500. And they didn’t have a ton of those either. Other parts were less scarce, but not what I’m used to. So why is it so hard to find computer parts?

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Can a computer last 10 years? People tend to have very strong opinions about that. It is a matter of perspective in some ways. And a lot of it depends on the type of hardware you buy, and what you expect it to do. And at one time, that was an absurd idea. But not so much anymore.

Read More »Can a computer last 10 years? It depends