In October of 2009 I purchased a Dell Latitude E6400. As a tech I did my homework checking the specs (CPU, FSB, HDD speed, etc…) and user reviews. Little did I know that underneath the hood was a heating issue that paralyzes the system for hours at a time. Imagine being close to finishing a project up and all your programs come to a grinding halt. This is problem I faced after spending cash money for a brand new laptop.
I isolated the problem to video usage. Any video intensive application (flash video, DVD playback, slingplayer, etc…) would increase my laptops CPU usage to 100% after about 20mins of viewing. The processor usage wouldn’t drop until the computer had been sitting for at least an hour. I tried updating drivers, updating bios, and also making the switch from vista to windows 7. After I updated my machine to windows 7 and still had the issue I thought for sure all my money went down the toilet, but in a last ditch effort I ran some more utilities and read some more forums and determined the root cause of the problem. The graphics chip (GPU) was over heating causing my CPU to down clock between 500MHz and 800MHz.
I read forums about all the failed attempts to fix the overheating issue that causes 100% CPU usage. Some replaced the heat sinks, some replaced internal fans, some tried to wait on dell to develop a bios update to fix heating tables. None of these fixed the issue. After deep thought it occurred to me we have an overheating issue why not add an external fan. I went and picked up a simple laptop fan and eliminated the overheating issues. I have two 20” monitors connected to my e-port docking station and this solved my all my problems. Now I love my laptop and it works great.
The ATT Tilt 2 is a great phone for business users or those who want to break free from the constrains of the Apple IPhone. I have owned the models of HTC slide out keyboard phones (8525, 8925, and the Original Tilt) so I was pretty fired up about buying the Tilt 2 with Windows Mobile 6.5. Once I opened the box and started using my Tilt 2 my excitement slowly burnt out. I powered the phone on an noticed it was full of AT&T bloatware that needed to be removed, no tethering, today screens that needed customizing, and not to mention my AT&T Tilt 2 was freezing every time I tried to do anything with email messages. After a couple of days I slowly started to think spending $300 on this device was not such a great decision. Once time allowed I began finding fixes to my issues and fell in love all over again. I have outlined solutions to all my problems below so you don’t have to spend the hours and days I did searching for them.
Removing 45MB of AT&T Tilt2 Bloatware
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=UninstallingTilt2Software
TouchFlo Internet Tab Set Internet Search Default to Google
Change “HKCU\Software\HTC\Manila\InternetSearchUrl” to “http://www.google.com/m/search?q=%s”
Change Tilt 2 Internet Tab from AT&T Webpage
http://www.fuzemobility.com/how-to-change-the-default-page-on-the-internet-tab/
I had to add extra icons to set default browser to Internet Explorer (Opera wouldn’t load Bank of America Mobile Site)
http://www.fuzemobility.com/add-an-application-short-cut-to-the-internet-tab-2/
My “InternetPortal-en-US.xml” file
icon for bofa mobile
icon for fandango mobile
If you use the default WM 6.5 today screen download “Home Screen Customizer” to remove unneeded items from today screen.
Setup Configure Tethering Tilt 2
I changed HKLM\Comm\InternetSharing\Settings\ForceCellConnec tion to “MEdia Net”
Tilt 2 tmail.exe Freezing when Texting, emailing, or downloading headers
I have 5 email accounts setup on my phone. When my settings were set to download all message headers and attachments for all my accounts my email would freeze just about every time I opened a message. Although I wasn’t downloading the full messages or attachments it had a hard time keeping up with all the data. To solve the problem I changed the settings to download all my messages and attachments less than 256K from only my main email account. For all my other email accounts I only downloaded message headers within the last 24hrs with no attachments. Since I made this change my tilt2 has not frozen on me at all. I guess it was having a problem indexing the tons of messages in all my email boxes.
Hope this helps
November 16th, 2009
david
Over the past few years, there has been much debate over Netbooks. These are mini laptops used primarily for internet access in public places. The phenomenon is that some of these laptops get 7-9 hours or battery life on one charge and are much smaller and lighter than their laptop counterparts.
Which is right for you?
Netbooks are very portable due to the fact that they are very small and light. They allow for quick internet activity in any location that has a WiFi connection. An issue with these devices is that they generally come with a very small hard drive. These hard drives are Solid State Drives (SSD) which are basically glorified flash drives. They have rapid access times but slow writing times. They also come with a slow processor. The processor is definitely very efficient in the sense that it consumes very little power compared to normal laptop processors but it is a single-core processor in the era of dual and quad-core processors with much higher speeds and onboard memory.
Traditional Laptops
These are definitely a little less portable due to their size compared to the netbooks, but they offer a lot more storage space, screen real estate, and considerably more processing power. You’ll notice it when you turn on your laptop, launch a program, transfer files… pretty much anything you do on your computer. You’ll get more productivity as well since you’re doing things faster and more efficiently.
It all boils down to whether or not you’re willing to sacrifice speed and productivity for a little bit more portability. If you are, netbooks will definitely get the job done, it might just take a little while longer to get the same task done.
November 15th, 2009
admin
Business IT Services, Inc. (BITS) a leading Managed Service Provider (MSP) of IT services to Orlando, Fl small and medium businesses, has been approved as a Florida MBE (Florida Minority Business). BITS has met the qualifications of the Florida Office of Supplier Diversity MWBE program.
“We are a Managed Services Provider (MSP) specializing in IT consulting and look forward to utilizing our skills to immediately help do our part to stimulate our local economy,” said Jamal Hartage, President and CEO of Business IT Services Inc. located in Orlando, Florida “This program gives us the opportunity to partner with larger companies to grow our business throughout the state.
Business IT Services Inc. plans to work closely with the Florida Office of Supplier Diversity to build our brand name within the state. The Florida MBE Program is designed to assist socially and economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs stand out and receive a legitimate chance to compete for state dollars. The Florida Office of Supplier Diversity has helped thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs over the years to gain a foothold in government contracting. Successful applicants must meet size standards for small business concerns; be in business for at least two years; display reasonable success potential; and display good character.
November 12th, 2009
david
If you’re looking for an email service provider, you might be overwhelmed by all of the choices you have to sort through. They might all seem the same and have similar features, but some are better than others.
Let’s start with # 3:
Microsoft Live Hotmail
Microsoft has been providing e-mail for many, many years. It has evolved a bit into a 5 GB storage powerhouse. It provides you with good amount of security, but doesn’t have the best spam filtering service. In my experience, a good amount of spam gets through the filter and into your inbox. On the plus side, you can chat with your MSN messenger friends directly from Hotmail, making live conversations that much faster.
# 2:
Yahoo! Mail
Yahoo! has a reputation for keeping the status quo on e-mail although in the past few years they’ve been trying to reverse that thinking. You can now chat with your Yahoo! contacts as well as attach files as large as 100MB with the built in application for drop.io. Its spam filtering is as good as you could hope for coming from a free service.
#1:
Gmail
Google is the reigning king of webapps. Gmail has everything built right into it. Unlimited storage, the ability to create, edit, find, publish, and save documents all within your Google account. It’s spam filtering is the best I’ve seen of any service, paid or free. You can even have shared calendars, get your e-mail on your phone, and a whole host of other options. This service will not leave you wanting anything else as it is all there for you, waiting for you to launch it.
Internet Explorer (IE) has been plagued with vulnerabilities since the beginning of its existence. It’s not that IE is a “bad” browser, it’s just that it is the most used browser around the world. This high usage percentage makes it the logical target for those who make all sorts of malware. This malware can cause your system to slow down, have popups, or even crash.
Since these vulnerabilities exist, you will get better performance, better security, and better expandability by choosing Firefox.
Firefox is a browser made by Mozilla that not only loads pages faster and has better security, it also allows you to customize it. There are themes that allow you customize the look of Firefox and add-ons that allow you to add functionality to it. The add-ons can be anything from allowing you to play music in the background of your browser to viewing the weather. Obviously this is appealing to most users since browsing the internet with the same old browser can get a little bit tedious. Adding a bit of variety to it can decrease the tedium.
Unfortunately, there is one drawback to using Firefox: Not all websites are compatible with the way it displays the webpages. Sometimes pages will appear distorted or perhaps leave out all media on the page. This can be a little bit frustrating, but is easily remedied by an add-on called IE-tab. IE-tab allows IE to run inside of Firefox, thus allowing a website that cannot be displayed correctly by Firefox to be displayed by Internet Explorer.
I’m not saying that Firefox will be the best browser from now until the end of time because that would just be foolish. There will most likely come a time where Firefox also develops vulnerabilities of its own. Having millions of users use the same browser will continue to shift the emphasis from IE to Firefox, but that won’t happen for quite a long time.
Do you have a video or data DVD you need to make a DVD copy of? Making a DVD copy can be an unwanted chore. Having to know things such as dual layer DVDs cannot be copied directly to a single-layer DVD disc. Dual layer DVDs have twice the amount of video, audio, or data than a single layer DVD. Luckily, there is a great program called DVD Shrink. DVD Shrink will help with this dilemma.
DVD Shrink allows you to compress the video on the dual layer DVD to fit onto a traditional DVD. The best part is that you can’t notice the loss of quality resulting from the video and audio compression. It’s also very simple to use which makes this program your go to program for DVD copying.
First you load up the program and wait for the initial scanning of the disc.
After this point, you will notice that there are options to choose to remove parts of the DVD such as menus, various languages, etc… to reduce the amount of compression needed. It’s really not necessary to do this, but feel free to play with these settings as you like.
At the top of the screen, you will notice a “back-up” button. Press this button once you are ready to make the copy of the DVD.
After you press backup you might get a screen about RCE protection. Either choose your region or leave RCE as is.
After this screen you will get one about the Target Device. If you don’t have Nero installed, you will have the option to just create an ISO to burn later. Click “ok” and let run. If you had Nero it will copy DVD directly to your blank disc, if not then you will have an ISO that you need to burn with other DVD burning software.
To download DVD Shrink visit BITS Orlando Computer Repair Resource page http://www.bitsinconline.com/resources.
If your company conducts business outside of the United States the topic of international calling rates has come up. Most businesses owners fear looking at a phone bill after making or receiving Intl calls. There are simple solutions to manage or even eliminating the cost of Intl calling. Below are evaluations of two effective services that can be used to make or receive calls on your landline telephone or mobile device Blackberry, Windows Mobile, iPhone, or Google chrome android.
Skype is by far the best means to make international calls. Skype provides the ability to make calls to anyone on the Skype network for free; all you need is a Skype account and an internet connection. Skype users can also make calls to non-Skype telephone numbers, which will reduce the cost of per minute talk time drastically compared to using telephone companies. Skype also has hand handled phones that allows users to make calls using a WIFI connection, eliminating the need of using a computer to make calls. Skype software can be loaded onto iPhones and Windows Mobile phones which allow Skype users the ability to make free Skype to Skype calls or call non-Skype numbers through their account using their mobile device. Currently Blackberry devices do not support the Skype software.
Vonage World is a great service for calling abroad, but lacks many of the features of Skype. Vonage World allows users to call 60 countries for free. The only catch is most of these counties you can only call landlines and are charged for calling cell phones. Users can make calls on Vonage by using a regular phone without the need of a computer or special software. The per minute cost of calling internationally remains completive with Skype and beats telephone company rates. Vonage lacks the ability to make Vonage to Vonage calls for free. Vonage World works on Blackberry mobile devices unlike Skype software and also works on the iPhone. Currently there’s no way to share minutes between your Vonage mobile account and Vonage telephone line.
If you are looking to make international calls for the lowest rate Skype will be your best choice. Due to the need to use Skype software or devices to make calls it does take a little technical understanding to make and receive calls. If you need to make or receive landline calls from one of the 60 countries included in Vonage World service Vonage will be a better choice, because no technical knowledge is needed. Simply pickup a telephone and dial the number.
Orlando,Fl based Orlando Computer Repair and Orlando Computer Store Business IT Services Inc is gearing up to provide on-site computer services, computer networking, and server monitoring for The Orlando Magic’s 2009 – 2010 Season. BITS has provide computer support for the City of Orlando Concessionaire for over 3 years and looks forward to another successful season. BITS responsibilities include servicing POS servers ( Point of Sale servers ), Company Servers, all workstations, and computer network infrastructure wired and wireless for the venue Amway Arena concessionaire. Business IT Services also supports and repairs all Point of Sale ( POS ) equipment and software. The POS system currently being used and supported is Quest Retail Technology Point of Sale (POS). Quest POS is owned by Radiant Systems the makers of Restaurant Point of Sale (POS) Software Aloha Enterprise.
“Providing computer services for such a large event, has help solidify our reputation as a leading Information Technology ( IT ) Management and Consulting company for small businesses,” said Jamal Hartage, President and CEO of Business IT Services Inc located in Orlando, Florida. “As a Certified SBA 8(a), Certified Florida MBE, and Certified City of Orlando MBE business located in the Parramore neighborhood it is great for BITS to bring dollars back to the community”. Because of our outstanding service BITS currently continues to provide on-site computer repair service and consulting to the City of Orlando venue concessionaire for all the venues The Citrus Bowl, The Orlando Bob Carr, and The Orlando Amway Arena.
Orlando Computer Repair Company Business IT Services Inc “BITS” has won a bid for database development of Orlando Utilities Commission “OUC” Microsoft Access Database. The awarded contract is to re-develop the Microsoft Database for the Safety and Training department. The modifications and additions made to the re-developed MS Access database will save OUC thousands of dollars due to the increase in employee productivity. We increased productivity by turning repetitive monotonous task into one simple mouse click, providing a secure and organized structure to store and manage employee safety and training records, and also by adding custom reports that can be published to the web or private reports that can be shared among OUC departments.
Business IT Services Inc “BITS” is a minority based Computer Consulting Company based in Orlando, Florida. Business IT Services Inc “BITS” has provided software, database, and web development services for more than five years with a specialty for Orlando website development and Orlando web design. “My Company has large corporations on our list of clients, but working with an established brand such as the Orlando Utilities Commission helps solidify our reputation as a leading Orlando technology company.” Says Jamal Hartage Owner of Orlando, Fl company BITS.
