Recent content by Xyos

I am using these for programmers at my job, just a heads up if you plan on putting an M.2 Samsung 950 pro or something similar in the M.2: You will need to update the BIOS to the latest version! Without doing this windows will not see the M.2 drive for a valid install location. You also need to...

Hold the power button in until it shuts down. DON'T use windows retore utility, use Dells auto-factory restore method: When you restart your PC, as soon as you hit the power button immediately hold CTRL and keep pressing F11 until you enter the built-in restore utility.

Personally I am a huge fan of Avast! Its free, is very reliable, and I have personally used it to remove viruses from many computers of the last few years. Its "Boot time scan"mode is extremely powerful. (AGAIN ITS FREE, but does have paid versions). Microsoft Security Essentials are good too...

Remove the battery, plug the laptop in, and see if you get the error. If you don't get the error, your battery needs to be replaced.

I'm missing the irony here...

No you cannot. Laptop CPU's are integrated into the board. Memory and a possible SSD upgrade are pretty much all thats available to you.

Some BIOS's can't have an OS installed via USB, OR don't work with usb 3.0. If you are plugging the USB stick into a 3.0 slot, try using a 2.0 slot. I had this issue with Puppy distro of Linux, had to get a different version of Puppy linux that can install via usb 3.0.

Our company uses Dell Latitude E5540's, they are fast laptops that can support many monitors via the e-port replicator. Buy a Dell Latitude E5540 with a port replicator. Don't go for USB port replicators they are crap, go with e-port.

Some TV's have trouble communicating with that much HDMI devices even when switched (called "handshaking"). It could be a limitation of the television, or a faulty hdmi switcher or faulty hdmi cables. Most likely its the TV.

I work with programmers, I am in the IT department of a software company. This is what we do for them: Set them up with 16 gigs on their laptops (they run lots of applications, as well as virtual machines as test environments and it's needed), upgrade their hard-drive to a full SSD (500gb...

Puush or Skitch are good options.

I don't know about free (I am sure there are resources out there), but Lynda.com I have heard has excellent resources for learning C/C++ or any coding language. They do have a free 30 day trial if you are interested. They have video courses too.

Most laptops have a recovery partition on the hard-drive you can boot into on startup. Google: [LAPTOP NAME/MODEL] factory restore key That should show you how to access the factory restore partition (usually ALT+F10 is pressed when you start the machine for acer laptops). You can restore to...