2,131 Tutorials

More Components How-To

  • 24 June 2011

  • How-Tos: Upgrade Your CPU

    Upgrading your CPU can be a frustrating experience, even though the physical acts of removing an old processor and installing the new one are pretty easy. The more difficult questions to answer are these: When is the right time for me to upgrade a CPU? What processor will give me the best bang for the buck?

  • 10 June 2011

  • How-Tos: PC Upgrades Almost Everyone Does Wrong

    Whether you're an experienced hand or a technophobic novice, chances are good that your last PC upgrade didn't exactly follow the industry's best practices. Many newbs flub upgrades through inexperience, but it's just as common to see a hardcore system builder throw caution to the wind while swapping out a CPU, snapping in some RAM, or swapping out a hard drive or graphics card. Whichever camp you fall into, cutting corners as you work on your computer puts it at risk of sustaining damage to sensitive components. In the worst case, you might even destroy the entire machine.

  • 08 June 2011

  • How-Tos: How to upgrade the hard drive on a PC with a SATA 1 motherboard

    A reader wanted to know why the 1TB SATA 2 hard drive he was attempting to install in his PC wasn't being recognised. Unfortunately his PC's motherboard is SATA 1: but that doesn't mean you can't upgrade the hard drive on an old PC - here's how.

  • 07 June 2011

  • How-Tos: How to upgrade your PC to an SSD for video work

    Why installing an SSD is a good idea if you use your PC for video editing, and how to check for compatibility issues.

  • 24 May 2011

  • How-Tos: Overclock Your CPU, GPU, and RAM

    You want the best performance possible from your computer, but you can't afford any hardware upgrades. No problem--we'll show you how to safely overclock your existing desktop PC's CPU, GPU, and RAM and give it an extra shot in the arm.

  • How-Tos: How to speed up your PC: 24 performance tweaks

    We look at ways to give your PC a definitive boost of power, covering hardware upgrades, software tweaks and networking tricks.

  • 05 May 2011

  • How-Tos: How to install Windows on an SSD

    My computer dual-boots Windows XP Professional and Windows 7 on two one-terabyte hard drives. The XP drive contains many programs that I use frequently, but it often reports problems with applications not responding properly. To overcome this, I bought a 128GB solid-state disk (SSD) on which I'd like to install XP Professional and a few selected programs. The new disk has a drive letter and is ready for use, but I'm not sure how to set about it.

  • 03 May 2011

  • How-Tos: How to fix a PC with a faulty graphics card

    I suspect my five-year-old PC has a faulty graphics card, which produces various error messages and freeze-ups. The most frequent errors reported are 'Driver stuck in infinite loop file ATIdvag' and 'Graphics card not responding'.

  • 28 April 2011

  • How-Tos: How to fix a failed laptop hard drive

    My 18-month-old laptop reports the following error message at startup: ‘Broadcom base code PXE-E61: media test failure, check cable PXE-MOF: exiting Broadcom PXE.ROM. Operating system not found’. I can get into the Bios by pressing F2, but I don’t know what to do from there.

  • 04 April 2011

  • How-Tos: How to fix a corrupt hard drive

    My Windows 7 Home Premium laptop runs a 2.2GHz Intel Celeron processor and 2GB of RAM. It works well in general, but Windows has recently started reporting that the hard drive has no free space when I try to install programs.

  • 29 March 2011

  • How-Tos: How to transfer data from one hard drive to another

    I want to transfer data from a pair of portable hard drives to a new 1.5-terabyte (TB) drive. How do I copy across the contents? I have an Asus Z9200U laptop running Windows XP.

  • How-Tos: How to upgrade an old PC for gaming

    I recently got a new laptop and still have my old desktop PC. What would I need to do to turn it into a gaming computer?

  • 16 March 2011

  • How-Tos: Tip: use spacers when you upgrade a motherboard

    I’ve had some serious problems with my recently upgraded computer. The monitor won’t detect the PC and the hard drive LED flashes randomly for a moment after pressing the power button but then stops. I upgraded my CPU, case, motherboard and RAM according to the manufacturers’ instructions, except I didn’t use spacers for the motherboard. My friend did the same, but had no problems following the upgrade. I’m only 13, so I’m getting seriously stressed. I haven’t been able to find a solution online.

  • 15 March 2011

  • How-Tos: How to fix a broken DVD or CD drive

    The optical drive on my two-year-old desktop PC has stopped working. Most times it fails to register when a DVD or CD is inserted. It also won’t play the disc or show its contents. Device Manager reports that the device is working normally. I have tried uninstalling and then reinstalling the latest drivers. What else can I try?

  • 16 February 2011

  • How-Tos: How to troubleshoot a hard-disk replacement

    I’ve had to replace the hard drive on an Acer laptop. I installed Microsoft Windows Vista and Symantec Norton 360 using their product discs, then updated both. The LG DVD drive now displays a yellow triangle beside it in Device Manager, yet Windows reports that it’s already using the best driver for it. LG told me the drive works with Windows drivers.

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