Replacing Your Motherboard CMOS Battery

Computers contains a battery to keep time when the computer is off, much like a watch or some alarm clocks. Just like a watch, the battery needs to be replaced when it runs low on power. You can purchase these batteries in most department or PC specialty shops. For most of us, the computer becomes obsolete long before we need to change the battery, but new technology allows us to keep our systems longer and longer by swapping out components.

How and Where to begin when changing the CMOS battery: CMOS is an abbreviation for Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. You may need to change your CMOS battery if your computer clock isn't accurate when you boot. However, if your pc loses time as the computer runs, that's another problem. It is important to get into the BIOS settings and write down any special settings. If you remove and replace the battery quick enough, you might not lose your settings, but it's best to write everything down. Remove the side panel so you have access to the motherboard. You should have the pc unplugged and be wearing an antistatic wrist strap to avoid damaging your boards. Jot down notes if you cannot access the battery directly and need to remove cables. Note the connection and orientation of each cable. Do not unplug anything from the board unless absolutely necessary. The battery is often only held in place by a couple of thin clamps that can be gently slid aside or raised enough to get the battery out. DO NOT BREAK THE CLAMPS. Once the replacement is in, replace any cables, close the case and boot the computer. Go back into the BIOS and restore any settings, if necessary. Discharge the CMOS It is sometimes necessary to discharge the CMOS. This is done by a set of jumpers on the motherboard, often near the CMOS battery. The small plastic clip is normally on pins 1 and 2. To discharge the CMOS memory, make sure the power is off and move the jumper to pins 2 and 3. You can return the jumper to pins 1-2 after only a few seconds. Now the CMOS memory has been cleared.

Device Manager Error Codes

The Device Manager in Windows XP is often the first place to look when you are having a problem with Microsoft Windows--particularly a piece of hardware that is malfunctioning. The Device manager lists the components in order, and will sometimes have a red "X" over the device, or an exclamation point beside its icon. This indicates there is a problem with the device, and if you double click the icon, you may find that there is an error code associated with the error.

Error Codes and Explanation Code 1 Problem: This device is not configured correctly. (Code 1) Resolution: This error could mean the device has no drivers installed or is incorrectly configured. Try updating the drive by clicking Update Driver. This starts the Hardware Update wizard. If updating the driver doesn't work, see your hardware documentation for more info. Code 10 Problem: This device cannot start. (Code 10) Resolution: First, try updating the driver for this device. If that doesn't work, on the General Properties tab of the device, click Troubleshoot to start the Troubleshooting Wizard. Code 19 Problem: A registry problem was detected (Code 19) Resolution: Navigate to the General Properties tab of this device, then click Troubleshoot to start the Troubleshooting Wizard. Click Uninstall, and then click Scan for hardware changes to load a usable driver. Restart the computer in Safe Mode, and then select Last Known Good Configuration. This rolls back to the most recent successful registry configuration. Code 22 Problem: This device is disabled. (Code 22) Resolution: The device is disabled because a user disabled it by using Device Manager. Click Enable Device. This starts the Enable Device wizard. Code 39 Problem: Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware. The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39) Resolution: The driver may be corrupt. You should uninstall the current driver, then click scan for hardware changes. To reinstall the driver. Error Code Summary Some typical resolutions for Microsoft Windows error codes: Uninstall the driver for the device. Reinstall the driver. Try Rebooting. Swap out the hardware with a known good device. Roll back the driver. If all else fails, either reinstall Windows or use the recovery disks that came with the PC. Be sure to backup all data first.

Take A Quick Visual Of The Computer

You should have already done this before trying to power up the PC, but a lot of novice PC builders will skip this step in anticipation of powering up their new machine. This step may save you time and money. First, triple check to make sure the CPU is sitting flat on the motherboard socket. It's probably hard to tell because of the heat sink, but if the entire CPU and heat sink combo looks skewed, then chances are it's not installed properly. Next, go over the IDE cables and the thin wires running from the power and reset switches to the motherboard. While the IDE cables are keyed, it's quite possible to get those case wires backwards or completely. Lastly give the PC a little shake. Make sure an errant screw didn't fall behind the motherboard during the install. This could blow the motherboard or cause the system to go to ground.

Windows Backup

Windows has a backup program ready to go on your system. Navigate to START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES, then SYSTEM TOOLS and you'll find the backup utility. While older versions of this utility will differ slightly from XP Professional's, you'll be able to follow the Wizard when backing up.

You can backup the entire system, which isn't a great idea. Windows and other programs can be reinstalled. So you're probably better off keeping your data in a centralized location, such as your My Documents folder. You can add folders within that directory by opening My Documents and right-clicking an empty space. Name the new folders whatever you want and organize your data. Then use the Windows backup utility to create a backup of your data. Put this file on another hard drive, burn it to disk, or copy it over to another computer on your network.

Also, take a moment to schedule backups. The Windows backup utility will give you a chance to schedule backups automatically. This is normally located under the Advanced tab at the end of the backup process. Take a moment to set this up.

Trik Mempercepat Kinerja Pocket PC Anda

Buat kamu yang menggunakan PDA/PDA Phone berbasis Pocket PC, ada trik nih untuk meningkatkan performance atau kinerjanya. Trik ini memerlukan perubahan di registry dan diambil dari belantara internet. BTW, trik ini works great di XDA IIi. Lanjut »
1. Disable Windows menu animation Switching off eye candies like animation keeps your handheld zippy. To do so, you'll need a registry editor like PHM RegEdit to modify the registry. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM\GWE\Menu, then change the value of "AniType" from 6 (default) to 0. This disables the menu animation. If doing this is a daunting task, an easy alternative is with RegKing. This nifty freeware lets you toggle the menu animation easily and offers other tweaks.
2. Increase display cache Another tip to speed up the display is to increase the glyph cache value. However, this will take up more system memory. Launch your registry editor and browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\GDI\GLYPHCACHE. Change the value of "limit" from 8192 (default) to 16384 or even 32768. If meddling the registry is unnerving for you, RegKing gets this done in a few taps.
3. Close not minimize If you are unaware, when you tap on the close button, the program only minimizes. Hence, you may end up with a string of programs running on the background taking up valuable memory. Check out some freeware task managers to better manage your device's resources. If you don't mind spending a little, we recommend Spb Pocket Plus. In addition to task management, this feature-laden software adds a launcher, battery meter and other functions.

Menghapus Data Duplikat di Microsoft Outlook

Sinkronisasi data Microsoft Outlook (calendar, contacts, tasks, notes, e-mail, dan sebagainya) sudah menjadi hal yang biasa bagi pengguna PDA Pocket PC agar data outlook di PC dan Pocket PC tetap sama. Namun, yang membuat pengguna Pocket PC gusar adalah ketika menjumpai adanya data duplikat yang terkadang lebih dari dua. Biasanya ini terjadi setelah kita memilih 'Combine the item on my device with the items on the computer' saat sinkronisasi. Menghapus data duplikat ini tentu tidak terlalu merepotkan bila hanya satu dua buah saja. Lalu, bagaimana menghapus data-data duplikat yang bisa mencapai ratusan bahkan ribuan? Pertanyaan ini membuat saya mencari di internet apakah ada software khusus yang tugasnya menghapus data duplikat ini hanya dengan beberapa klik.
Dari hasil surfing tadi pagi, saya menemukan beberapa shareware (software berbayar) yang mungkin bisa kamu coba. Namun, dari beberapa software tersebut ada satu software yang sangat bagus melakukan tugasnya menghapus data duplikat di Outlook. Namanya NoMoreDupes - http://www.nomoredupes.com/. Sofware versi 1.4.3 yang saya download ini berukuran 1,361 KB (1,4 M). Setelah di-install, NoMoreDupes otomatis terintegrasi dalam deretan toolbar di Microsoft Outlook. Kita tinggal pilih menu 'Search for duplicates' lalu jendela untuk memilih data outlook (calendar, contacts, dsbnya) yang hendak kita cari duplikatnya muncul.
Setelah meng-klik 'Search duplicates' dan menunggu sejenak, jendela yang berisi daftar data duplikat di outlook muncul. Kita bisa memilih atau memverifikasi data duplikat mana saja yang akan dihapus. Untuk versi shareware ini, kita bisa menghapus sepuluh data duplikat sekaligus.
Ogah mencoba software berbayar? Coba software gratis yang dibuat oleh seorang Frater ini, Outlook Duplicates Remover Version 5.0 - http://www.mailexchanger.net/mailtools/Outook/OutlookDuplicatesRemover/ ODR5/. Untuk software berbayar lainnya, kamu bisa mencoba Duplicates Remover for Outlook 2.4.4 (MAPILab) - http://www.mapilab.com/ - (Software ini juga terintegrasi dalam deretan toolbar di Microsoft Outlook namun gagal menemukan ratusan data duplikat di calendar yang sudah terlebih dahulu ditemukan oleh NoMoreDupes) dan Easy2Sync for Outlook 1.13 Freeware Edition - http://www.easy2sync.com/ -(Software ini cocok untuk sinkronisasi data outlook di PC yang berbeda/notebook).

Membuat Safe Mode Tidak Berfungsi

Safe Mode biasanya kita gunakan untuk memperbaiki Windows yang error karena konfigurasi sistem/hardware yang salah, file sistem yang corrupt, atau hendak membersihkan virus-virus yang usil. Terkadang safe mode juga bisa digunakan untuk login ke dalam sistem dimana folder-folder atau drive yang diproteksi oleh aplikasi tertentu (Folder Guard, Lock Folder, dan sebagainya) menjadi tidak berfungsi. Akibatnya, orang yang tidak berkepentingan bisa mencuri data-data penting kita.
Ada cara untuk men-disable (menonaktifkan) fungsi safe mode untuk sementara dengan mengutak-atik registry Windows. Namun di sisi lain, bisa menjadi bumerang bagi kita karena bila komputer tiba-tiba ngadat dan harus diobati dengan metoda safe mode login, kita tidak bisa lagi melakukannya. Semuanya terserah kamu, risiko ditanggung sendiri.
Klik tombol Start
Pilih Run
Ketik "regedit" lalu klik OK
Buka [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\SafeBoot]
Dalam SafeBoot, kamu akan melihat Minimal dan Network. Klik lalu tekan F2 untuk me-rename keduanya menjadi "Minimal-" dan "Network-" (tanpa tanda petik)
Teknik ini akan membuat Windows tidak bisa booting dengan cara Safe Mode setiap kali dinyalakan.