Slow Computer Startup Problems

Many people have decent machines that startup quick when they first buy it. However after several of months they may notice the performance of their computer slowing down and not understand why. They may first think they need to do some type of PC upgrade because of the performance. These types of problems are often not because of the actual hardware but because of normal use. The computer isn’t getting old it just needs some routine maintenance to get it performing like you want it to. There are several things you can do to boost the startup speed of your computer as well as the overall performance of it.

After you’ve owned a computer for a few months you’ve probably installed several programs on the computer. The programs in most cases will automatically create various shortcuts on your desktop and start menu. While these shortcuts are very handy they also cause your computer to take forever to start up. Many people also tend to clutter their desktop with other types of shortcuts or files. It’s a very common case that not many people recognize. You should start by taking all of the shortcuts on the desktop and putting them in a folder named shortcuts. By doing this you’ll still have access to all of the programs that you want.

Next you will want to take any of the programs off of the start menu that you have already put into the shortcut folder. If there are some shortcuts on the start menu that aren’t in the shortcut folder then you can simply add them to the folder and delete the rest of the file off of the start menu. By cleaning up all of the extra shortcuts off of the start menu you will not only speed up the startup of the computer but the overall performance. This is because the computer memory or RAM doesn’t have to load all of the duplicate shortcuts and try to arrange them where you had them. Also when you try clicking on the start menu there will be a lot less for the computer to have to load.

Finally you will want to do a disk cleanup and defragmentation from time to time. You can actually set the computer up to do this automatically. You should plan to have it do it once every other month at the latest. It’s best to defragment every few weeks or after installing several programs. This is because the files get shifted around a lot and the computer will have to search to find them. It’s comparable to having an office full of filing cabinets that are never organized. You’ll never find what you’re looking for. However if you have them all organized you know right where to find them. The same is true for a computer. Defragmenting will increase the speed of your computer and it’s startup by leaps and bounds if you’ve never done it before. These few simple steps can help improve the performance of your computer and make it feel like a new machine.

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Samsung Galaxy S2 review What a computer needs

The fastest and slickest Android phone weve seen - but its power is a strain on the battery

Samsung continues to go from strength to strength with its first dual-core phone - the Android 2.3.3-equipped successor to last year’s Samsung Galaxy S. Its impressive specification includes a 4.3-inch 800 x 480 Super AMOLED plus display, 8-megapixel camera, a dual core 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 1GB of RAM, 16 or 32GB of internal storage, microSD-support and Samsung’s updated TouchWiz 4.0 UI.

The Galaxy S2 is also one of the thinnest phones available at 125.3 x 66.1 x 8.5 mm. It weighs just 116g and is perfectly proportioned with smooth rounded edges. Its a big phone, but, unlike HTCs Desire HD, it doesnt feel particularly large in your hand despite its huge 4.3-inch display.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Side

Like its predecessor, the Galaxy S, the S2 is made almost entirely out of plastic, save for the Gorilla Glass front panel and metallic chrome edging. It still feels like a good-quality phone, though, and the plastic helps cut down on its weight.

There’s one physical Home button on the device, which is flanked by two touch buttons for Menu and Back. One aspect we particularly liked is that to wake the phone you simply press the Home key. There’s no fiddling around on top for an unlock button and this makes handling the phone single-handed much easier.

Theres a microUSB port on the bottom for charging and syncing with your PC, and on top theres a 3.5mm jack plug which will work with any set of headphones. There’s no HDMI-out as on LGs Optimus 2X, unfortunately, so youll have to make do with the Galaxy S2’s DLNA capabilities for sharing content wirelessly across a home network.

qHD resolution displays (Quarter-HD, or 960×540 pixels), are fast becoming the norm on high-end smartphones, but the S2s 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus screen is still impressive. Its colours are vivid and jump out of the screen, and blacks are deep. The screen also has extremely wide viewing angles and you can adjust colour saturation. We spent hours browsing the web, watching videos and playing games while testing the device and couldnt find any problems at all - this phone has one of the best displays we’ve ever tested, and is even better than the iPhone 4s. We did find the auto brightness feature slightly unpredictable, but it’s simple enough to turn this off.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Front

The S2s touchscreen is highly responsive and the user interface runs beautifully. We didn’t experience a hint of lag during testing, even when pushing the phone hard. For instance, you can have a game open, numerous applications running in the background and be sending content over Wi-Fi without any slowdowns at all. In terms of general performance, the Galaxy S2 left the LG Optimus 2X, a similarly specified handset, for dead.

Samsung has also improved its TouchWiz user interface. TouchWiz 4.0 is impressive, both in the way it looks and in how easy and intuitive it is to use. We even preferred it to HTC’s excellent Sense UI. From the lock screen you can open messages, emails and missed calls, which show up in Windows Phone 7-like tiles. Holding down the Home button displays the last six apps you’ve used and has a direct link to the Galaxy S2’s extremely capable Task Killer application.

There are also a number of motion controls, such as tilt to zoom, motion-aided panning and tilt to silence, which are certainly interesting additions to the interface. We didnt use them particularly often, but were glad they were there.

TouchWiz 4.0 also has content Hubs, divided into Game, Music, Readers, and Social. The Hubs let you buy music, newpapers, magazines or games, or put all your social networking content in one place. Wed stick with separate apps, though. The setup process on Social, for instance, is arduous and the interface isn’t as good as that in the official Facebook and Twitter applications. Also, we’ve still yet to meet somebody that wants his or her entire social network feed on one page – it’s just too confusing and cluttered.

Samsung’s Kies Air app is amazing, though. Kies Air allows you to browse the contents of your Galaxy S2 handset on your PC. All you need to do is open the app, and type the address it gives you into your PC’s browser to browse the contents of your phone. From here you can view and manage photos, messages, bookmarks, call logs, video and music – in short, pretty much everything. Kies Air’s browser interface also looks great with useful features like a media player, image preview and easy to access categories for everything on your phone.

Samsung Galaxy S2 Back

The Galaxy S2’s imaging facilities are also top-notch. Pictures taken with the 8-megapixel camera are detailed with very little noise – the S2 clearly has a decent sensor. There are also plenty of useful settings, such as resolution, scene and shooting modes, effects and white balance. Even the front-facing 2-megapixel camera takes good-quality pictures.

You can use the S2s camera to shoot 1080p video at 30fps and, although there’s very little in the way of image stabilisation, the resulting video is some of the best smartphone footage we’ve seen.

Samsungs Galaxy S2 has a beautiful screen, fast and slick interface and great camera. Our main worry with the phone is battery life. The S2 lasted just 17.5 hours in our battery test, a massive step backwards from 29 hours its single-core predecessor managed. This is even worse than HTCs Desire HD, so youll probably need to carry a micro-USB cable with you to top it up whenever possible. However, if you don’t mind keeping an eye on the charge, its a superb Android mobile.

Hardware
Main display size	4.3in
Native resolution	800x480
Second Display
CCD effective megapixels	8-megapixel
Video recording format	DivX, XviD, MPEG 4, H.263, H.264, WMV, VC-1
Connectivity	Bluetooth, MicroUSB
GPS
Internal memory	16384 MB
Memory card support	microSD
Memory card included	0MB
Operating frequencies	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
Wireless data	GPRS, EDGE, 3G
Size	125x66x8mm
Weight	116g

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Why Doesnt an iPad Charge When Connected to a Computer

An iPhone charges just fine when plugged into a computers USB port. The same goes for an iPod, a pocket camcorder, and any of countless other devices. So whats the iPads problem?

Actually, the difficulty isnt with the iPad, but with the USB port: Its not supplying enough juice. The ports built into most desktops, laptops, and even powered USB hubs dont generate the 10 watts necessary to charge an iPads battery, which is why the ‘Not Charging message appears over the battery indicator. Thats a definite bummer, as it means you cant use, say, your laptop to recharge your iPad on the road. In fact, Apple recommends finding an AC outlet and using the bundled 10-watt power adapter.

That said, lower-powered USB ports will recharge an iPad--just very, very slowly. When the tablets screen is off, the battery does indeed draw a trickle of power. Turn the iPad back on, however, and youll see ‘Not Charging again. (Its kind of like yanking open the refrigerator door to see if the light is still on.)

You should be aware that many PCs pump varying wattages through different USB ports. Frequently the USB ports at the front of the PC are of lower power than the ones in the back. Before giving up, try moving to another port.

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