Compare Plans: Road Runner High Speed Online

Recently, I found out that Road Runner High Speed Online from Bright House Networks has more than one service plan for their customers to sign up for. I have been using RR for the past 5 yrs and all this time, I've been paying $44.95 per month. Now while I love my high speed connection, $44.95 a month was starting to seem a little bit silly. (I do have the option to use my work laptop with a sprint card for free while at home). So I decided to call Bright House to see if they offered any cheaper options for high speed connections.

Sure enough, they do.....and after comparing plans, I decided to go with Road Runner Lite for $29.95 per month. Actually, I am not sure if this is a special or not, but the Sales Rep informed me that for the first 6 months, I would only be paying $19.95, then the normal $29.95 per month price would kick in. She also informed me that I would not even notice a difference in speed. Well, she was right...and it makes me so mad that I've paid almost double the price for the past 5 yrs.

Anyway, if you are looking to lower your High Speed Online cost per month, Road Runner Lite is a great option.

MemoryDeal.net assures quality RAM upgrades.

Today during my usual search of product pricing, I came across a website that deals with PC memory upgrades. I've been searching for some new RAM for my PC at home and since its important to make sure you purchase the correct RAM that matches what is already installed, I figured I would search online for a website that will have compatible RAM for my Dell E521 desktop.

I already discussed earlier the benefits of adding RAM to your PC so I figured I would take my own advice. I have Windows Vista and although my PC came with 2GB of RAM, I decided to upgrade to 3GB for now since that is all I can afford at the moment. Upon looking at the PC3200 DDR400 SDRAM Upgrade prices at Memory Deal, it looks as though I found the correct RAM module for my PC. I will have to go with two 512MB 184-PIN PC3200 modules. For $19.88 each, that is an awesome price!

Memory Deal also does a great job of explaining about every type of RAM available. Whether its Apple Memory & MAC RAM, or if you are looking to do a 2GB Memory Upgrade, they explain it all! I love this website and it will now be the first website I check for PC memory prices.

Check them out today: Memorydeal.net

svchost.exe 99% CPU usage

I did not think I would have the same issues with Windows Vista. But apparently, I am...

There are tons of searches for
svchost.exe 99% CPU usage in Google and most are related to Windows XP. But not too many, if any at all are related to Vista. Well, maybe I am the first person to come across this issue so I am posting about it. I submitted a comment to the Windows Vista Blog this morning related to my issue. All of the searching I have done has come up with 2 yr old issues that were related to XP and not Vista.

For now, I've disabled Windows Updates because this seems to be the problem. Svchost.exe is a Windows process that is used multiple times within the Operating System. Its not possible to completely disable svchost but there are ways to disable certain services that use it.

Stay tuned for any updates. I know I am not the only person with this issue.

Is my hard drive going bad?

A PC hard drive is probably one of the most important parts of a computer. Basically, it is responsible for the physical storage of information which it does by way of magnetic disks. Here are 3 ways hard drives fail:

1) Normal wear and tear are possible due to the moving parts needed to retrieve the data on the hard drive. Data is constantly being transferred to and from locations so eventually, disk parts are bound to die.

2) Power surges among other electrical related issues can cause a hard drive to fail.

3) Logical disk errors such as software corruption, unexpected OS failures or computer viruses. This could also include the accidental formatting of a drive or deleting files without a current backup.

Usually, physical drive errors can not be fixed at home and will probably require a disk recovery utility from some well known company that specializes in data recovery. Hard drive recovery is possible because the data continues to exist on the hard disk even after it is deleted. Unless data is overwritten in the same sector, the data will continue to exist even if the operating system does not show it.

As for logical drive errors, data can be copied to an external disk, then the affected drive can be reformatted with the original OS. Data can then be restored to the original settings. I accomplish this task at least one a week at my current job.

Data recovery companies are generally used by businesses that can afford them as the price could cost thousands of dollars. Most of the programs they use can be installed easily and can be scheduled for self-maintenance such as taking a periodic backup of important files.

Backup your important files today! Your hard drive could fail at anytime.

Can Windows XP be Saved?

Infoworld is still trying to save Windows XP from its apparent removal from store shelves on June 30th. I personally do not care if Microsoft extends the deadline to support Windows XP but if enough people actually sign the petition, they just might do so. Windows XP is almost 8 yrs old which makes it most likely the longest operating system (from what I can tell) that Microsoft has had in existence to date. There is not much more that can be done to XP to make it any better than it already is. Even though Microsoft just released SP3 for XP, this does not seem to matter as they are sticking to their June 30th deadline.

Let's face it folks, Windows Vista is the future or something else will be. We will just have to embrace this and move forward. Technology is always changing, which requires people to change with it, good or bad.

HP Officejet 7680 Installation Issues

Let me give you a warning, if you want to spend all of your time trying to reinstall this printer, then feel free to purchase an HP Officejet 7680 All-in-One device. I am absolutely convinced that HP could care less if this printer ever installs correctly. I've read every HP related forum, talked to multiple techs for hours on end and nobody can help. Their solution, re-image the PC......are they serious!!!! That is the easy way out...this is their product and it should be fixed by an HP Technician.

Here is the issue:
Installing the device is OK the first time around. Printer/Scanner/Copier works great on Windows XP/Vista. Problems beginning if the device needs to be reinstalled or drivers need updating. Recently, I had an issue where Microsoft Word 2007 was closing unexpectedly and I discovered on HP's website that the cause was their Officejet 7680 driver. It says it clearly on their support site:

Fixes
* Possible loss of print job when printing from simplex and duplex mode.

* Unexpected closure of Microsoft Office PowerPoint application.

Of course it just says Powerpoint, but it was happening for all Office applications. I attempted to upgrade the driver, when I did, installation got stuck at 96%, never finished. (I waited for 30 minutes). So, I started doing some research and I found what was supposedly some steps to take to troubleshoot the installation.

See HP's recommended troubleshooting

So, I did exactly what this page said to do....no luck. I spent 4 hrs attempting to fix this. The printer works fine, but you can not scan at all.
Just my opinion, but there should never be this much trouble installing a device. HP needs to step up the troubleshooting solutions!

Update: These installation issues also occur with the HP Officejet 6310.

 
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