with Matrix Business Solutions
Sept 2006 / Volume 4, Number 5
Dell and Apple Laptop Battery Recall
Dell and Apple have issued recalls for laptop batteries manufactured by Sony and distributed in selected laptops over the past two years. There have been issues with the batteries overheating and causing the laptop to melt/catch fire due to a manufacturing defect. Dell will send a new battery to replace the old one. The following Dell models are affected:
Latitude: D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810
Inspiron: 500M, 510M, 600M, 700M, 710M, 6000, 6400, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 9400, E1505, E1705
Precision: M20, M60, M70, M90
XPS: XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170, XPS M1710
Batteries within laptop models in the list should be checked to determine if the battery has been recalled. Please give us a call to check the batteries of laptops in this list.
Microsoft Developments
Microsoft is finalizing their new release of Windows for Home and Workstations called “Vista” early next year. At the same time, it will be releasing a new version of Office 2007. If you are purchasing systems now and want them to support Vista, consider the following computer hardware requirements.
There are twolevels of Vista readiness for computer systems. The first is Vista Capable, which is a minimum for the new OS and basic features. It requires 800 Mhz, 512 Mb RAM and 15 KB of free disk space and a DirectX 9 capable graphics processor. For Vista Premium Ready, there’s atarget ofa 1 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, 9 capable graphics processor that supports WDDM (Windows Display Driver Module, in-hardware Pixel Shader 2 and 32 bits per pixel).
Web Winners
Your internet connection has two speeds associated with it – an upload speed and a download speed. The upload speed affects how fast you can send to others, which is useful when sending messages with large attachments. The download speed affects how quickly you receive from others, how quickly you can download files and speed of surfing the internet. If you would like to check out the speed of your connection, will test and provide both the upload and download speeds.
Tips and Tricks
If you want to speed up your work a little at a time, try using the Windows keyboard shortcuts instead of the mouse for the following quick but frequently used tasks. Hold down the Ctrl (Control) key and the associated letter key to perform the associated command, which is the same as right-clicking with the mouse.
Ctrl + C = Copy, the same as right click and Copy
Ctrl + V = Paste
Ctrl + X= Cut
Ctrl + Z = Undo (or cancel the last change made)
Boot: No Device Found
What would you lose if the hard drive in your computer died? Letters? Pictures? Financial documents? Unfortunately, it usually happens with no warning – one day, the computer just doesn’t boot anymore. Is it being backed up? Has someone tested the restoration process to make sure it will work? We can implement a backup process or review the current backup and recovery process to make sure that it’s good.
Cleaning the Computers
Are you getting rid of older computers? Before you do, make sure the hard drive is clean. Just deleting files won’t do the trick. The best way to make sure that the hard drive is clean is to perform a low level format of the drive using a software utility from the hard drive manufacturer. We can do this for you, plus reload Windows.
Questions?
Want to save time and money through more efficient operations and use of computers? To schedule a discussion to review your use of technology, please call Mark Schneider at 937-438-5897 or E-mail him at .