Tech Geek

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the best way to speed up your computer was to add Random Access Memory (RAM). RAM is the short-term storage of the computer. It is the space that it uses to hang onto things that are being worked on. RAM is analogous to our short-term memory. To keep something around for a long time, we have to write it down or move it to long-term memory. For a computer, that's putting it onto the Hard Drive. Some of you may have been left wondering how you would go about actually adding memory to your system.

If you're queasy about these sorts of things, find a local geek to do it for you. You should not have to pay much because it really is a five-minute job for someone who knows what they're doing. It might be a bit longer the first time you try something like this, but it's not much more difficult than putting a cartridge into a video game system was, back when they used cartridges!

First, don't touch anything. You need to know what kind of RAM your system takes. This is often the most difficult part. If you saved the manual, that's a good place to look. If you can get onto the manufacturer's website, that's a good place to look. If neither of those options work, I recommend a tool like System Information for Windows (SIW), which will tell you all sorts of interesting things. Once you download and install it, run SIW and click Hardware and then click Memory. You will get a screen with a lot of information. Here's what's important and the values on my desktop:

• Memory Slots    2 - This is how many physical slots you have in which to install memory.
• Maximum Memory Module Size    4096 MBytes - This is the largest any one memory module can be.
• Memory Type    SDRAM DDR - Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory (Double Data Rate) - just write it down!
• Speed    PC3200 (200 MHz) - Write this down as well.

The other details really aren't that critical. If you're really unsure, print out the whole sheet and take it to the computer store with you. Also, if you have 2 slots and you have memory in each of them, you'll need to remove one of your memory modules in order to install a larger one. My system has a 512MB module and a 256MB module. If I wanted to add a 1024MB (also known as 1GB) module, I would remove the 256MB one. Then, after installation, I would have 1.5GB of memory.

For my system, I need a PC3200 SDRAM DDR memory module. You may find that some stores stock "backwards compatible" modules. These are ones that are designed to run at a higher speed but will automatically "throttle back" to a lower speed if that's what your system needs. Not all modules do this, however, so don't just buy something because the numbers are close!

Once you find the right memory module, installing it is actually pretty easy. Of course, it's good to backup all your data just in case something goes horribly wrong. Once you've done that, disconnect all the cords (or at a minimum, the power cord) that connect to your computer and ground yourself by touching something that's grounded. (Real techs would use a grounding strap on their wrist, but I don't have one of those!) Remove the cover from your computer. Generally, this is the one on the left side, and on most newer systems, it's only held on by a simple thumb screw or latch. Peer inside and look for some strips of computer chips that are about 1 inch by 4 inches and are in a slot. (See the Wikipedia article I linked to above for some pictures of RAM.)

If you've got a blank slot, fit the memory module that you purchased into that slot. Make sure that the notch is lined up with the nib on the slot. If there are clips at the end, they should also click into place to hold the memory module firmly. If you need to remove one of your modules, it's a bit hit and miss. You may find a sticker on the module that tells you which one it is or you may be able to find some silk screened lettering on your motherboard that tells you which slot is slot 0 and slot 1. You can take one module out and then power your system back up and see how much memory it has left.

Once you've got the memory modules in place, put the case back together, taking care not to pinch any of the cables on the inside. Hook up all the cords again and power up. Your computer may report an 'error' because the amount of memory has been changed, but that will go away. Enjoy your faster computer!

Howstuffworks.com has a good article on memory and how to replace it here. They also have some information on how to upgrade a computer that requires Dual Channel RAM. This is a requirement on G-5 Macs and some Intel Pentium 4 based systems.

I'd recommend upgrading to 1 or 2 GB of RAM for Windows XP and at least 2 GB for Windows Vista. Unfortunately, memory pricing is based on supply and demand and it doesn't always make sense. I always think of it like car tires. If you buy a new car with a new tire size, at first the tires are really expensive because no one else is using them. Then, over the next few years, lots of manufacturers make cars that use those tires, and the price comes down. But if you keep the car for 25 years, the tires get expensive again because they're not manufactured as much anymore. Memory works the same way. The newest, highest-speed, memory can be quite pricey. But after a year or two, it will be much more reasonable. But if you wait too long, it will get expensive again! You should be able to get a 1GB memory module for about $50-$75, depending on the specifics. If you're patient, you can watch the rebates at the big box stores and maybe even get something for $20 after rebate!

Again, if this is all over your head, ask your resident high school geek to do it for you.

Is your computer not running quite as fast as it did when you first booted it up? Over time, installing and un-installing software can leave behind gunk that slows down your system. This article is going to be focused on Windows PCs, because they're what I know about and because they're probably more likely to have problems than Mac or Linux systems anyways!

There are many different ways to clean up a system and every geek probably has their own favorite tools. These are not necessarily the best tools, but they're the ones that I use and am familiar with. Your mileage may vary, as the saying goes. As you may have picked up from my posts to this point, I am fond of tools that work and that are free to use. But before I get to those, I'm going to make two hardware suggestions.

The first thing to do is to make sure that your system has enough memory. Windows XP needs at leat 512MB to run and really prefers 1 GB, which is equivalent to 1024MB. Windows Vista needs 1 GB and runs much better with 2 GB of RAM. Installing new memory is, literally, a snap. If you don't know how to do it, find one of your students and ask them to do it for you. I was helping an older gentlemen out last week who was thinking he would need to buy a new computer because his was too old. We spend $60 on memory to take his Windows XP system from 256 MB to 1 GB, did some clean-up work, and now he feels like he has a new machine.

Second, if you are using a built-in video card, you might also surprise yourself at how much more responsive your system is if you switch to an add-on card. This helps in two ways. It moves the processing of graphics data from the CPU to the card and it also releases whatever shared memory you were using for graphics back to the system. I'm not a gamer and don't think you need an expensive card, but even a lightweight card can make a difference.

After the hardware is performing well, it's time to take a look at the software. The first program I would suggest running is CCleaner. You can guess what the C stands for. This tool, available for free with donations requested, scans your computer for temporary files that have been left behind. You do want to make sure that you know what you're deleting, especially when messing with the registry, but this tool will most likely speed up your system slightly.

Next, make sure that you don't have spyware that's causing things to run slowly. There are lots of tools out there, some available for free from Yahoo and Google, and some of which you may have already purchased as a part of your anti-virus solution. There are also some online scams that promise to scan your system and then offer to sell your a program. I'm just guessing, but I think they never fail to find something! I have had good luck with Microsoft's Windows Defender. Run a scan when you install the program and then set it up to scan each evening so it will work to keep your system free of spyware.

Finally, defragment your hard drive to help programs load and run more quickly. Windows has a built-in defragmentation program, but I've found that UltraDefrag, an open source program, tends to work better. One of the things I like about it is that you can set it to run on a boot, so it can defragment system files before they are in use.

Don't forget that I love to receive questions so that I'm talking about things you're interested in hearing about!

I received this question from an ELCA Youth Ministry Network Member in Kansas: What's the easiest way to do backups that will be stored offsite? We aren't doing any! (arrgh!)

Kudos for realizing that you should be doing backups! So should I and so should everyone else. I do backup some things, but I am not as attentive to it as I should be. This was a challenging question for me because I haven't paid as much attention to is as I should. So I am not able to make one good recommendation, but I will point out a couple of options. My current backup practice is redundancy. I keep things on my UFDs (see last week's post), on multiple computers at the office, and on a variety of online places. What else could I do? What else could you do?

I don't backup my e-mail because I don't have to. As you may guess from my earlier posts, I use a Google Mail (www.gmail.com) account which currently gives me 6355.160193 (and counting) megabytes of storage for me e-mails and attachments. I'm only using about 5% of that space at the moment! All Google services are hosted on their servers and they redundantly back them up and keep them secure.

On my computer, I try and store everything that I might want back under a single folder. Windows makes this easy by providing the My Documents folder. If I use another program that wants to store its data somewhere else, I change the folder to be a sub-folder of My Documents. That way I know that copying that folder to another machines provides some level of backup. I routinely copy my laptop My Documents folder to a shared folder on our network.

You can use the built-in services that your operating system provides. Windows Vista Ultimate, which I am running, has a backup service built in, as do most other operating systems. You could use one of these to copy your data to a portable hard drive, or to another machine on your network. As one example, Amazon.com is selling a SimpleTech SimpleDrive that has 500GB of capacity for only $129.99. I would think that most church offices could copy all of their machines to a drive of that size. Then, of course, the drive needs to be carried elsewhere so that if the church burns down, the data isn't lost with it! And, of course, you need to remember to bring it back in and re-do it every week or so. If you are going to go with a physical backup system, this is probably the way to go. Otherwise you could find yourself going nuts with backup CDs and DVDs stacked to the ceiling.

There are also a variety of online options available. I am not going to try and list all of them here and I have not used most of them. They range from free to quite expensive in price. One of the currenlty free ones, Microsoft FolderShare (www.foldershare.com), allows you to synchronize files between multiple machines. If you set this up between a home desktop and an office desktop, that will keep your files in two places. Good backup security requires a third location as well, so ideally you would find a third machine to synchronize with as well.

• These services provide automatic backup of data from one PC
  • Carbonite (www.carbonite.com) unlimited storage for $49.95/year
  • iDrive (www.idrive.com) 2GB of storage for free; 50GB for $49.95/year
  • Mozy Online Backup (mozy.com) 2GB of storage for free; unlimited for $4.95/month
    
• These services provide space, but you must manually copy files to the service, often using a separate program. They generally allow sharing directly from the internet as well.
  
  • ADrive (www.adrive.com) 50GB for free
    
  • MyOtherDrive (www.myotherdrive.com) 5GB for free; 25GB for $19.99/year; 75GB for $49.99/year; 200GB for $99.99/year
  • XDrive (www.xdrive.com) 5GB for free
  • OmniDrive (www.omnidrive.com) 1GB for free; 10GB for $40/year; 25GB for $99/year; 50GB for $199/year

The time that most of us think about the ineffectiveness of our backup "solution" is about 45 seconds after we realize that our hard drive has crashed or the sprinkler system has ruined our computer and we don't have any of what we've spent years putting together. Planning ahead can make these sorts of tragedies a little less traumatizing.

Do you find yourself wondering where you left the file that you wanted to work on? Do you e-mail things back and forth from the office to your house repeatedly? Do you have to make trips to find the computer that something is actually stored on? Or, even worse, do you work in a church that doesn't have a network!?! You need a USB Flash Drive, also known as a Thumb Drive.

A UFD plugs into a USB (Universal Serial Bus) port on your computer. Under any modern OS it is recognized instantly. Under an old version of Windows, you may need to install a driver in order to see the UFD. If your computer has USB 2.0 ports, you can rapidly move files to and from the UFD. If you only have USB 1.1 ports, it's still fairly quick, but definitely takes a bit more time.

UFDs are great for moving documents from one machine to another. They don't have any moving parts and they are much less likely to fail than a floppy disk. I keep one on my keychain so that I always have a few programs that I use often. It's also a great way to backup important files that you really want to be sure and not lose!

As is the case with all technology, prices of UFDs have dropped over the years. I bought my first UFD in the spring of 2003. It was a 64MB drive and it cost me about $50. A little over a year ago I bought a 256MB UFD and it cost me cost me about $25. This fall I splurged an bought a 4GB drive and it was the same price as the first one! You should be able to fit all the pictures from a trip onto a drive of this size. I would also recommend that you get one with a retractable connector, as you will eventually lose any cap that comes with a UFD.

If you use a lot of different machines and want your own bookmarks and browser, you may also be interested in using Portable Applications. There are a variety of websites that contain applications you can put on a UFD and then run on any computer without needing to install them. I have had good luck with PortableApps.com, a collection of Open Source applications that will fit on a moderate sized drive. I used it so that I didn't have to lug a laptop around when I was visiting family this fall.

Finally, if you're truly literalistic, you can buy or make a Human Shaped Thumb Drive.