Computer Repair Forums - Blogs

It's your ID and credit, take care of them.

Bama19642 — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 00:25:51 GMT

Your identity and credit are linked together forever. Unfortunately even if you work hard to build great ones, they can be stolen and ruined. The good news is there are ways you can protect yourself, with paid services, and at no charge to you.

Monitor what you can diligently.

Look over your credit card statements carefully for unexplained charges. Contact the card service if you notice an unexplained charge as soon as possible. In most cases card issuers will not make you pay for a charge if you contact them right away. If you wait longer it can cost you. Banks can only charge you $50 if you notify them of an unauthorized charge within 90 days. After 90 days you may be on the hook for the entire amount.

Get a free credit report.

Consumers are entitled to one free credit report annually from each monitoring agency, Trans Union, Experian and Equifax. Because there are three major credit bureaus you could get one free every four months. Online you can visit www.annualcreditreport.com and request a report, or obtain the phone number and address to make your request.

Take responsibility.

Bad decisions will affect your credit for a long time. By law some mistakes, like a foreclosure, must be removed from your credit report eventually. Serious mistakes like that and bankruptcy can be negatively impacting your credit for seven years or more. But banks and credit bureaus take several things into consideration when making a decision on lending and credit scores. These include how many cards you have, how much available credit is being used (i.e., are you maxed out?) and how much you pay on those balances. Paying more than the minimum is not only better for you, it reflects on your credit image.

New laws to help consumers

Fortunately some laws have been passed recently to help the consumer, believe it or not. Every statement now gives you information on how much you would have to pay monthly to eliminate the debt if you don't charge anything else. That's another reason using one card is better, you can see the others going down. Banks can no longer use the extra money you pay to pay off lower rate loans.
For example, if you have low rate balance and a higher interest rate balance on the same card. If your minimum payment is $100 and you pay $200, the banks used to apply the entire payment towards to lower rate balance. Most banks still do this with the minimum payment, but by law they must apply any more you pay towards the higher rate balance.
Minimum payments must include 1% of the balance after interest also. This was legislated several years ago in case you noticed a spike in your min. payments and wondered why. Banks used to charge a minimum of 2% of the balance, regardless of the interest rate. Which bring us to the next part.

Know how to interpret interest rates.

Credit cards are what they to refer to as revolving credit accounts. That means the interest is charged based on the amount you owe every month. But they still give you an annual percentage rate which they use to formulate the monthly charge. It's actually easy to determine your monthly interest by dividing the APR by 12 months. Say you have a 12% rate on a $3,000.00 account. 12 months divided by 12% equals 1% per month, or $30. If your rate is 18% the interest is $45, 24% equals 2% or $60. Choosing the one card with the lowest interest rate can make a big difference in what your payment applies to.

Your decisions can make a big difference

On the face of it the deal isn't that bad, especially with a lower rate. Based only on your signature someone will loan you 3 grand for as little as $30 a month. But you can only get that lowest offer if you have proven to be someone who makes good decisions. Over extending yourself can make you have all your cards maxed out. Building up credit is as important as how you use it. We are living at a time when interest rates are at historical lows. For those who have been able to build a good credit rating, and no fear of losing their income, this is a great time to borrow.

Bad credit has bad consequences

Unfortunately, based on the storefronts alone, a lot of people haven't been able to take advantage of these low rates. Ironically, through the magic of capitalism, they are paying extraordinary interest rates. But it's against the law to charge over, I'm guessing, around 24% interest. But people have discovered they can charge other people interest and fees to increase what they charge for lending. In times like this one might have to borrow from these sharks through no fault of their own. It's more likely they didn't use their income wisely. Either way I feel like those loans shops are just legal loan sharks. Most of the time if you do things the right way you won't have to do business with places like that. I hope they are just an unfortunate part of this recession and we will see them all closing soon.

More help and information on credit can be found at ww.mymoney.gov. It can help with everything from making a budget to saving for retirement. The government takes a lot of our money, it's nice of them to help us know how to use the rest of it. :)

Vonage can equal slower connection

Bama19642 — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:10:59 GMT

I've had Vonage for several years, and always wondered why my connection would seem so slow at times. Using speed meters would show big numbers yet sometimes I couldn't get a web page to load before it timed out.

Finally it got so bad I couldn't use the internet and my phone at the same time. I use the phone less than 200 minutes a month, and it's my only phone, but I use the web an hour or more every day. Vonage CSR people only made me more angry trying to solve the problem because they blamed the connection. Not to mention the monthly rate I was promised was never delivered. "They could not have promised you $9.99 a month, that plan is for only 200 minutes", she said. I was actually promised unlimited use for 10 bucks because I was going to turn it off. "When have I used more than 200 minutes?", I asked. She went through six month and my avg was probably about 170.

But I finally got a cell on a family members plan. Which brings us to my point. If you have Vonage, or any VOIP service, and a router don't use their suggested method of setting up your device. They say to plug your modem to their device then run another cable to your router or computer. IF you have a router connect to it from the modem first then use the cable out port to connect to the VOIP device. I borrowed one that apparently isn't broken and it works fine that way. Too bad for them it wouldn't work with my old device or I'd still be using them. I'm not looking forward to having people able to reach out and touch me anywhere I am. I do promise however to never send a text message, so don't send me one and expect anything other than... ring, ring "Hello" in return.

I've written 1/2 of the blogs so far!

Bama19642 — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:40:29 GMT

I was just looking at the stats on the bottom of the forum page and noticed the total # of blogs was 44, and I had written 21. Now I have 22, which is 1/2 a blog short of 1/2 of all the blogs, which should be 45 now.

How is that possible? Just think of the question you have to answer most and write it as a blog. Then when you see the question you can say "Look for the answer in the blog section". We all see something asked over and over, just think of one that you answer and post it.

Or tell us about a new part you purchased, or a new program (free is better), or .... something.

Just remember that when Dave updated the site he asked people, as I recall anyway, to blog their a$$ off. So someone else please contribute. My arse is already so much smaller than my belly it's not even funny, despite the fact I get teased about it. Help save my tail and blog.

Last of all, anyone who visits on a regular basis knows I should not be the source of half of the original writing on the forum blogs. Think about what you know about computers versus what I know, and then it should make sense.

Thank you all so much!

Bama19642 — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 02:19:29 GMT

I just found out I am the recipient of a PC TechByte award. I'm not sure when the ceremony was held or who all was honored, or if anyone else even knew, so I had to make it public of course. Heres how it went...

Dear Bama19642!

On behalf of Computer Repair Forums, it is with great honor that I extend to you best wishes and congratulations as you are receiving Default Red award.

The reason that goes with your award is:
----------
Awarded to Bama for being such a nice guy and providing tons of great support to users.
----------

My speech after finding out...

"Oh my goodness! :o I can't believe this is happening... I mean, there are all these other candidates who are honestly far better at tech support. This is their award too, because I wouldn't know the little I do know without learning from them. Especially Bucks, Chemist, Dave, Flying C, Sly Fox and S0oky... I can't name them all. But I accept this on behalf of all you guys. With your continued tutelage I'll learn to help even more people. 8*) Sorry, I'm getting choked up... But thanks, it really means a lot. I hope I can continue doing my little part of this teams effort to help people fix their computers, especially Desktops running XP."

Super lag? and a possible hidden virus??! HELP!

TJDishaw6 — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:40:22 GMT

Either some serious malaware or a mounted virus. Try to boot in SAFE MODE, the open run and type regedit. click the startup tab and look for anything suspicious that doesnt look like anything you are aware (make sure you hide all system services). make sure to shut that off then reboot. keep trying until it stops.

Data and system recovery hardware and software.

Bama19642 — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:08:52 GMT

People commonly come by looking for advice recovering their data. Both from a dead computer and one with nasty virus infections. Each requires a different approach but can usually be done relatively cheap.

If the computer does not power up the easiest solution is removing the hard drive and connecting it to a working PC. There are basically two ways to connect the drive to another computer, either through a simple cable system or an external enclosure. For ease of use a simple IDE/SATA to USB cable with a power supply is hard to beat, especially if you might be using it pretty often on different drives. Some people prefer an enclosure to ensure no accidental static can harm the exposed drive.

From experience I've learned that some enclosures can be just as deadly to a drive because they can slide. Like off the top of the working computer to the desktop or floor. In the best case you can lose a drive or break the enclosure. Worst case is losing them both. I've found handling the bare drive makes me more likely to handle with care. Any smooth, non-conductive, surface is safe to set the drive on but some people suggest setting them upside down.

Both Newegg (Enclosures, Cables) and Amazon (Enclosures, Cables) have a selection of both. Just be sure you get one that accepts both the size, (3 1/2" for most destops, 2 1/2" for laptops) and type (IDE has large flat data cables, SATA has thin red cables).

For a computer that is powering up but will not boot there are several possible problems. If you know the problem is a virus you can download a bootable Rescue CD. The one most commonly
suggested by our forum members is the BitDefender Rescue CD. This tool is great because you never need the hard drive, it runs solely from the CD/DVD and RAM. The file is downloaded and burned AS AN ISO to a CD or DVD. Usually computers will be configured to boot from this drive before the hard drive so it works with no problems. Because it can be used to transfer files to a USB drive it's great for problems like a corrupted OS. Because most recovery disks format the hard drive this can be used to remove files before you reinstall the OS.

And finally there is the Recovery Disks. Most common computers use these to restore the computer and drivers to the original state that you purchased it. You only want to use these if you have your important documents saved to another disk or drive, otherwise it will be lost. For those who have lost their factory provided disks they can be purchased. One of the forums sponsors, Secure Remote Support, carries a complete line of disks for almost any brand and OS. Their website, Recovery-Disks.com, has all their contact information including a phone number for contacting their sales and support team.

Using SpeedFan to create a heat alarm.

Bama19642 — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:45:11 GMT

After opening SpeedFan you will see in the upper right a large Minimize button and a Configure. Click on Configure and a page with lots of tabs at the top will open. Click on the "Events" tab and a pretty much empty screen appears. About 2/3 down there will be the word "If" with a drop down menu. Based on the temps readings you've seen when SpeedFan is open select from that menu the one that gets the highest. Mine is named Core but you may see another name. Next is a small drop down menu with four choices, < (Less than), =< (Equal to, or less than) > (More than) and => (Equal to or more than). I have selected =>. The next field you input a number, I have put 65 here, representing 65 degrees Celsius. The next field is below the first row and says "For" with a number menu then "Times" This I set to 1, which means the first time it happens. Next field is "Allow every "..." seconds" Here I have 0 (Zero) set. Below this is the field "Then", followed by another drop down menu. The choices here are Execute, Pop up message, Beep and Send Mail. This is the action SpeedFan will take if my CPU reaches 65C, so I select Beep. There are more fields that are left empty, and at the bottom there will be Add, Clear, Update and Remove buttons. Once Add is clicked the alarm is set. All the alarms and the actions taken will be listed.

Although this might sound complicated it is really easy to configure. At this point the list shows I have set SpeedFan to beep if my CPU temp gets to 65C or higher. Every monitor that is on the motherboard can be set as an alarm. This can include Fan speeds, Voltages or Temperatures. All of these, especially voltages and temps, can be the reason for seemingly random shutdowns. But now that I have SpeedFan set to run when my computer starts I know if my computer is getting too hot, even if I'm playing a game. As soon as I hear a beeping I know that whatever I'm doing is causing my computer to overheat.

Trying to pass the time...

so0ky — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 01:00:36 GMT

I figured I would update my blog, since there is not much left to do currently.

First my comments on the new site Dave! I'm sure the upgrade was not easy and not smooth. I don't come to this site as often as I did in the past, but to me, the upgraded forum code as well as the graphics look really nice and seemed seamless. Good job!!

Life is....interesting for me the say the least. I'm done with my fiance and we called off the wedding. We don't talk to one another, we don't text or anything. Not going to go into the details, but let's just say that whole situation feels like a huge drain on me. I realized today how lonely it is to start over again. There are some perks to being single though.

Maybe at another point in my life I will be ready for a commitment. But as of right now, that is the last thing that I want. I want to be able to do whatever I want, and not have a nagging woman tell me otherwise.

On my server project, it is kinda sitting there. Which is a shame. I do not feel like putting money into the server at this point, and I am not eager having a 60 dollar a month server bill to increase the upload bandwidth from my house. What is nice is everything is pretty much configured on the server, and since it isn't running really complicated stuff, I didn't get into scripting and back ups.

With everything that is going on, my interest in studying has declined dramatically. I'm pushing myself tonight to order the book that I am getting. I hope to be RHCT and RHCE certified eventually. These certs are more complex than compTIA, and make sense considering where I work. They are Red Hat certifications, and we deploy Red Hat most of the time. Maybe studying will help me get my mind off of things, but for some reason, I REALLY do not want to study.

BUT, I must continue. I must push myself. I can't really stop. This is a really nice job, don't get me wrong, but I have most of the job learned, and I know for certain it is not what I want for the rest of my life for many reasons. I gotta study to be promoted, as that is what I am hoping.

I'm also finding more and more that I am an extreme exception. I talk to old friends of mine, and most have a college degree or working towards a degree while working, or a masters. I can hate our system all that I want, but I can't deny the credibility our formal education system brings. I bring this up, because at this rate how I am feeling, I don't know if I will be able to do Gen Ed classes for an Associates this Fall. It just does not pertain to my life, and I would rather spend the time doing something else. Like studying for a promotion. But my mind may change by then, who knows.

Who knows, maybe I will be the odd ball, with all sorts of certifications to critique myself for the IT industry, with I hope good experience to back it up. I'm hoping that will be sufficient. Maybe not for all companies, but I can say from personal experience, some companies don't value formal education like I was led to believe growing up. Part of that was my parents, as they wanted the best for me. But my personality always has to question things. Why? Why must I learn this? Of course, everything is so condensed and rushed, instructors unfortunately don't really answer that question. I also must say, that some instructors that I have had, don't want to have that conversation at all, even the most pertinent one in my opinion and less obvious, because they know deep down inside how pointless for some people learning their material really is.

Ah well, I'm complaining a lot in this post, but I must say, life could be much worse right now. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I am really. When I sell this engagement ring back to the jeweler, I plan to pay off more debt that I owe, and very soon, I can see a future where I don't have to pitch money to banks for student loans.

Thanks for reading. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

The sookster

A Lot of Changes

Dave@Bytes — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:27:03 GMT

I just want say I appreciate that everyone is having patience with the new look of the site. As most of you already know, PCTechBytes has several site and trying to integrate the same look and feel across multiple systems/applications is a challenge.

Our main site located at Computer Repair has been around since 2002. It have suffered through many design changes and content management systems through that time. We have finally settled on a format that gives us the ability to "future-proof" the site and have since launched MacTechBytes with the same look and feel.

Following that change, I have made some customizations to this site to match the appearance of those two. The ideal is to create a seamless transition so users can move between the three sites without appearing as if they are actually going to another website.

While there will always be tweaks and changes to appearance, just keep in mind you may need to hit F5 to refresh the graphics. Some of you may be seeing cached images and logos, so refreshing the page will give you the latest images.

As always, these sites are your sites and if you have any recommendations, please let me know.

I've decided to go the Linux route

so0ky — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:48:10 GMT

Well, I've been toying with the idea more and more, and getting more involved with Linux. Honestly, I find Windows to be very frustrating at times, simply because it comes down to finding where stuff is in the GUI. If a command was researched, or already known, the user knows exactly what the computer is doing and you don't have to spend the time searching through a GUI.

I have had the experience with dealing with some advanced GUIs. It takes time to learn, and it is very doable if I have a support ticket in front of me. But I think I have this passion to explore the unknown, and so I've decided that I'm going to withdraw from my classes once again (simply because I can't stand formal education) and pursue my interest. I am going to become Linux+ certified.

With the downtime that I have at work, I think I could read through the book and study for the test by the time of my six month review. I will be able to express my interest in the OS in the review, and it will make me look a little better. However, there is a harsh reality when it comes to computer certifications in the IT industry, at least with the company that I work for.

CompTIA is primarily looked upon as a baseline, a starting point, and well, mainly a joke. People joke around in chat about these certifications.

I stay reserved about it, but I thoroughly believe they weren't introduced to the right authors. My A+ and Network+ certifications taught me so much, that certain computer courses that I take are basically a review. CompTIA announced that they are going to require candidates to renew their certification every three years. This I believe is not only a money move, but is responding to the criticisms of people in the field. To them, for some reason, CompTIA is a joke.

But I am a Windows person. I know the ends and outs of Desktop Windows, and therefore, a complete Linux noob. So I need that baseline, and I'm going to get it. Plus it is another credential I can put on my resume, and it will set me up for more vendor specific certifications.

I will most likely one day study for the RHCE simply because we use Red Hat in our production environments so much.

But after I get my Linux+, and I will have an Ubuntu Server book mind you for my playing time, I am thinking about going for my Cisco certification. A more thorough networking background would be vital for my growth individually, as well as for me and my company.

So this plan is mainly for me, to one day read and realize where I was going through all of this individual studying. Somewhere in there, I will be trying to get my associates....STILL. If you take a look at my formal transcript it would be a joke, with all these withdrawals and great grades and horrible grades. But frankly, I don't care. I wrote a paper on why I think our current system is a joke in my mind.

Wish me luck guys. The studying starts in late March, because that is when the updated Linux+ book is released. I would like to be certified by April 14th, which is the day of my review. This is very doable, because there are some 8 hour shifts, like this one, where no support tickets come in! EVERYTHING WORKS AND IT IS ANNOYING. I kinda wished we did a bad job sometimes so we would get more action.

Thanks for reading. :)

The new digital VCR

Bama19642 — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:05:26 GMT

Most people pay for some sort of television these days. The upside to that is that with those services you can usually get a Digital Video Recorder.

I'm familiar with both major satellite providers and the DVRs that they offer. It has been a few years since I changed providers, so there may be differences now, and some things might be dependent on your location.

When I first got a STV (Sat. TV) it was Dish Network, and they didn't have a dvr. I actually bought the dish and had to set it up myself because the demand hadn't reached the point where crews would come out and do it for you. It was a major pain adjusting the dish to receive the signal from both of the satellites I would get my signals from. Eventually I had it well enough that one signal was near 90%, the other was closer to 70%. That was well enough unless there was interference, i.e. clouds, between the sat and my dish. In Alabama clouds are pretty common, but it usually had to be a raincloud before I'd lose my signal.

I kept that setup for a few years, and in the meantime I purchased a DVD/VCR recording combo. I had inherited lots of VCR tapes from my dad, and as most of us know they degrade over time. These combos were able to copy the VCR tapes to a DVD disk. So I was able to save my dads most prized collections to a digital format that lasts much longer. And the resulting disk could be copied easier than a VCR tape.

Then I got an offer from DirecTV to switch providers. With that offer came a free TIVO and a better price. All I had to do was switch back to BellSouth and I'd get a $10 discount from DirecTV for as long as I kept the account. BellSouth, and AT&T for that matter, were crooks who would outright lie to customers. But I didn't have to keep the phone service, just the TV, to keep the discount. It wasn't long after that cable internet was available here, so I dropped BellSouth and got Vonage and cable ISP for $15 more than the phone.

Anyway, after getting my TIVO set up I realized that I could also connect the DVD recorder. Now I was able to use the DVR to record a program, and if I wanted to record it to DVD I could edit the commercials out. The only game or show that anyone wants to see the commercials is the Super Bowl. It required some patience and a remote control in each hand, but it's worth it. After all in a regularly scheduled program about 1/3 is commercials, so I could record more actual programming per disk.

My best friend lives in Germany and every year I can send him a package with our favorite shows, which are also popular over there. When I visited him we had people come by to watch the shows before they came out over there. The great thing is most younger Germans speak basic English, and they were able to hear Homer speak naturally. They could hear the South Park kids cursing in their natural voices and watch some good NASCAR racing instead of the boring Formula One they're used to.

One last thing that changed recently is TIVO and DirecTV are back together now. When I first got a DTV DVR it didn't have one feature of a TIVO that I loved, switching between the two tuners. I had to get a HD DVR from DTV and you couldn't switch back and forth between the two tuners like you could with a TIVO. They both record whatever you watch for given amount of time, ninety minutes on the DTV model, and now you can change tuners to record live TV on two different channels. I've had DTV for 5 years now, so I know more than anyone should about how to watch TV without watching commercials.

I will also add that the signal from DTV is stronger than Dish Networks. Just as an example, when I had siding installed they removed my dish almost immediately. The next day I noticed I was getting a live signal, so I thought they had remounted it. I walked outside and they had simply sat it on the ground and pointed near where it seemed to have been aimed before. No 2 hours of painful adjusting needed, the signal is just strong enough it takes a thunderstorm to break it up.

This turned out to be longer and less technical than I expected. But like always if you have any questions or want to add anything please feel free. If questions are not answered you can click my name and post a visitor or private message. I hope it was of some help, or even entertaining to those who took the time to read. :)

Game On! Save Your Game Disks

Bama19642 — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:23:35 GMT

Like your movies you need to protect your game disks. But making a copy of them is not usually easily done, but you can take advantage of disk imaging programs.

There are several of these available, but I'm only familiar with one free version, Alcohol 52%. It seems like the most popular is called Daemon Tools, but I found it more difficult to use than Alcohol.

Each of these programs make virtual CD/DVD drives on your PC. The computer recognizes them and assigns letters just like it does with a real optical drive.

You simply take your original game CD and install the program like you normally do. Then you can use the program to make an image of the disk, which is loaded in one of the virtual drives to play the game. You no longer have to worry about constantly taking your game disk out of the case and put it in a drive to play. As anyone who uses games regularly knows it seems like they get scratched no matter how careful you are.

Like it is with movies parents know how common it is for children to ruin a disk. The main difference is games often cost much more than movies, and since they are used more frequently they can become unusable much faster.

Installing a free program to keep your PC games in mint condition is the best way to save money that I've ever found. I don't know if it's possible to use these programs to make copies of console games because I don't have a console gaming system. That's why I've never explored the possibility.

As far as I know the main difference in paid versions versus free ones on a PC is the number of virtual drives you can create. With Alcohol 52% you can make up to 6 of them while Alcohol 120% lets you make over 30. Since you can mount an image on any drive I've never felt the need for more than 6.

As always, if you know more about this or any subject of my blogs please post a comment and let people know. If you need to know more you can also post a comment or send me a visitor or private message. I'll be happy to help as much as I can.

Making a backup of your DVD movies.

Bama19642 — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 21:19:36 GMT

This advice is meant to help people who have purchased a movie and simply want to protect their original copy. PCTB does not condone piracy or illegally sharing copyrighted material. According to my searches you can legally copy movies you own. Basically, if you make copy to avoid paying for the movie, it is illegal.

There are two reasons you need the right software to create a backup of your original movie DVD. First, most movies are released on Dual Layer DVD's, which are able to hold about twice the data as regular 4.3 gb blank DVD's.
Secondly, many new movies are protected with special coding that prevents copying. This is a measure used to prevent illegal copying and distribution of new movies. Unfortunately that prevents people from making a backup of their own movies far more than it prevents piracy.

Some movies can be copied to 4.3 gb disks using a free program called DVD Shrink along with your favorite program for burning files to dvd's. Unfortunately that works less often now because it only "shrinks" files to fit on normal disks, it doesn't remove or circumvent the the copy prevention coding.

If you want a full service program that shrinks the movie files and works despite the prevention coding, aka CSS, you have to purchase a program. Most of these include several other apps, like making files that can be watched on your hand held devices. I purchased DVD Fab Platinum several years ago, when it came with lifetime updates. You should shop for the program that fits your needs and is the easiest for you to use. Some of them come with tons of features and lots of headaches figuring out how to use them. I suggest not only reading reviews but also finding programs that allow you to try before you buy.

Don't be confused with shrinking and converting to DivX. DivX (DivX, Xvid and .avi are all the same) can be played on most PC's, but only on DivX compatible home DVD players. The best part about converting to DivX is that up to five movies can be burned to one DVD disk with minimal loss of video quality.

I prefer using a combination of a dvd shrinking program with Nero for burning the files. In that way two or even three movies can be burned to one 4.3 disk, depending on the file output size. In some copying programs this can be controlled to some extent, and can even be converted to the same size as the original if you want to burn it to a dual layer dvd.

There are so many factors it will take years to master all there is to know about making backups. They can be made into Video CD's, Super VCD's and then hand held device files. That's why it's important to read reviews and try the programs. The cost can range from about $40 to around $100. If you collect DVD movies and have children you probably know it's worth investing in one already. If you only have adults handling the movies you have probably still found they can easily be rendered into "coasters".

If you have any questions I'd be glad to help as best I can. The process can be confusing, as you can see. But with the right program you can simply create insurance on your DVD purchase by making a copy.

My advise on using the forums.

Bama19642 — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 04:50:17 GMT

I have found since the update that everyone uses a different way to check on updates. I thought it was standard to log in and go to the User CP on the previous version. It wasn't until I asked what happened to the User CP that I realized it wasn't how everyone else checked on things like new posts on threads I had posted to.

First go to the Settings link at the top of the page, it's the new User CP. Funny thing is if you open a second tab and go to your profile it says you're viewing the User CP. (!?)

Set up subscriptions to threads you post to or start. On the Settings page go to Forum Settings and the second section is Messaging and Notifications. The third item listed is Default Thread Subscription Mode. From the drop down menu choose Through my control panel. If you choose an email every time you'll get tons of notices. I use that for PMs only.

If you want to see your Reputation Points and the threads you received them for, look to the pane on the left in Settings and go down to My Settings then click Forum Settings. The second overall option is Show Your Rep. Level. Checking that box will show your rep info in the Settings page.

The last item I had trouble with was seeing my post when the page loads after posting. There's a small text that says View unread post, click it and you'll be shown the latest posts, whether it's your new one or if you click a subscription and are taken to the first post.

I find this is the easiest way to keep up with replies to your questions, and find the new questions and comments to your advise. If there's any advice you have, or questions about other ways to make the most of your time spent on these forums post a comment. As volunteers it's important that we be able to give the most in the least time possible. Hopefully this will help some people give more advice while spending less time looking for what we need. Everyone will benefit in the process. :cool: