Comments on: Reasons not to buy or upgrade your PC right now.

By: Lansur

Lansur — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:24:45 +0000

Like Jim Latimer, ran BA on my Netvista. As my BIOS would not initialize the two rear U.S.B ports, fronts are OK.
1. BA recognized only two out of three HDDs.
2. BIOS up to date according to Lenovo site. But BA states “bad”.
So kind of cautious about committing.

By: DHaunt

DHaunt — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 18:02:08 +0000

And what good are utilities that you have to pay for in order to fix the problems listed? Aren’t there legal rulings against other programs that “find problems” only to sell you a fix?

Granted, they can identify problems, but unless you want to pay for the programs to fix the problem, you will have to find free or open source alternatives or try to manually correct the errors.

Also, programs like these do not take into account know problems with some updated drivers.

By: Tyler Puckett

Tyler Puckett — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 02:17:28 +0000

The general rule of thumb for BIOS updates is “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.”

The only reason to update your BIOS is if you absolutely need something the update provides. It’s not worth the risks to update it for something as meager as fixing a typo in the POST process, for instance.

By: james braselton

james braselton — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:28:41 +0000

I AM WAITING FOR A SOLID STATE GAMING COMPUTER OR LAP TOP TOO COME OUT OVER 30 YEARS I HAVE HAD A LOT OF HARD DRIVE FAILUERS

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:40:48 +0000

Jim:

Yikes! That's a very good question valid concern! I'll get some eyes on that question for you.

By: Jim Latimer

Jim Latimer — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:07:16 +0000

I’ve used Driveragent and it is awesome…didn’t know that they also did Biosagent. BUT….DA has once in a while given me a bad driver. Not that big a deal….just roll it back. But what about a Bios oops…..

For example, I have the lastest Bios for my HP pavilion ZV5410US from the HP site, but BA says it is not up to date, and it ID’s my laptop as a ZV5200. That makes me a bit nervous to apply the Bios. Will the installer tell me that this is the wrong Bios for my machine and then exit, or will it try to update and toast my system?

By: Lloyd

Lloyd — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 02:09:17 +0000

Great article. Those 3 sites would’ve come in handy when I last reinstalled Windows on my aging PC. I’m hoping for a followup with utilities for helping keep computers perform well.

By: Tyler Puckett

Tyler Puckett — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:57:00 +0000

For 90% of computer "sluggishness" problems, the remedy is reinstalling the OS, running all the updates, and upgrading the RAM or HDD, or both. Even Macs aren't immune to this; I'd noticed my year-old MacBook Pro running rather sluggishly when doing mildly intensive tasks. I thought about buying a new MacBook when the Unibody enclosures were released.

Instead, I spent $100 to upgrade my current MBP to 4GB of RAM and a 320GB HDD. $100 for that! Of course, it wasn't a fly-by-night purchase. I spent a month or two researching and comparing prices. Finally, on "Cyber Monday" as they say, Newegg had both items on sale.

My MacBook Pro should now last me for several more years.