Category Archives: tech tips

ASUS Q200E hard drive upgrade instructions (replace w/SSD)

The Q200E is a great little laptop that is generally available for about $449 at Best Buy. The Q200e and the other similar models sold elsewhere (X202E, S200E) are definitely one of the best touchscreen Windows 8 laptop options out there! Unfortunately, they are all shipped with a relatively slow hard drive and the RAM is soldered in. The only other thing the Q200E is lacking is Bluetooth 🙁 EASY PERFORMANCE UPGRADES: You can now replace the slow hard drive

Open multiple PDFs in seperate Foxit Reader windows

When doing taxes or any other task requiring document comparison, it can be very handy to view PDFs side-by-side. Unfortunately, many PDF readers today (including Foxit Reader) default to opening PDFs in tabs and you cannot ‘pull’ a tab out to make a new window. However, there is a simple workaround: open multiple instances of Foxit Reader and then open (or drag/drop) your files to whichever Foxit window you want. 🙂 First though, you need to do is enable the ‘Allow

Tablet teardowns

Tablets are pretty awesome, but man can they be a pain to repair! Whereas a simple little notebook like the Acer AO722 requires removal of a SINGLE screw to access key components, something like the iPad mini is an exercise in frustration. 🙁 With that being said, here is a pretty comprehensive look at tablet repairability. Featuring the good (Dell XPS 10, Kindle Fire) the bad (Surface RT) and the ugly (iPad 4, Surface Pro) among others. Very cool stuff and definitely worth taking

How to find/follow twitter username via Hootsuite

Hootsuite is wonderful for keeping up with multiple twitter accounts and other social networks. However, if you are surfing the web and come across a twitter account that you want to follow, it can be a little intuitive to figure out how to follow someone. Therefore, here are the steps: #1 Look for the magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of the Hootsuite They call that feature ‘Quick Search’ and you can enter a twitter username in and

Windows 8 swipe from left problem on touchpad / laptop [solved]

Q. I have a brand new Asus laptop with all the latest drivers but one thing is DRIVING ME CRAZY! When I am dragging something around using the trackpad or even just scrolling sideways sometimes my laptop randomly switches apps 🙁 I am running Windows 8 and any help is appreciated!!! –Ambra D A. Thank you for your question Ambra, I believe I know what is happening and how to solve your problem: Your trackpad is inadvertently triggering the Windows 8 ‘swipe from

List of MD5/SHA1 hashes for various Windows OS ISOs

Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008 R2 Volume License (VL) English Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_server_en-us_VL-GRMSXVOL_EN_DVD.iso Size: 2,996,799,488 bytes SHA1: AD855EA913AAEC3F1D0E1833C1AEF7A0DE326B0A Windows 7 Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit: Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso Other name: en_windows_7_ultimate_x64_dvd_X15-65922.iso MD5: F43D22E4FB07BF617D573ACD8785C028 SHA-1: 326327CC2FF9F05379F5058C41BE6BC5E004BAA7 CRC: 0x1F1257CA / CRC32: 1F1257CA Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit: Name: 7600.16385.090713-1255_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRMCULFRER_EN_DVD.iso Other name: en_windows_7_ultimate_x86_dvd_X15-65921.iso SHA-1: 5395DC4B38F7BDB1E005FF414DEEDFDB16DBF610 CRC: 0xC1C20F76 Windows 7 Professional 64-bit: Name: en_windows_7_professional_x64_dvd_x15-65805.iso SHA-1: 50127304441A793EE51B3F501289F6599A559E9F CRC: 502C42C1 Windows 7 Professional 32-bit: Name: en_windows_7_professional_x86_dvd_x15-65804.iso SHA-1: 697FA06554502FB21D30275273B25747299C020D CRC: 578725D1 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit: Name: en_windows_7_home_premium_x64_dvd_x15-65733.iso SHA-1: 336779EA6B65F63E11A609B4D021439C47AB315B CRC: 56D954E4

ASUS X202E hard drive upgrade instructions (replace w/SSD)

The X202E-DH31T is a very cool little laptop and for the price ($400-$500) it is definitely one of the best touchscreen options out there! Unfortunately, it is saddled with a relatively slow hard drive and the RAM is soldered in. 🙁 PERFORMANCE TIP: replace the slow hard drive with a fast SSD. 🙂 See instructions below! *Bloatware removal is of course recommended as well  🙂 After upgrading to a SSD, commenter RJ suggested putting the old hard drive in a

ASUS S200E SSD Upgrade Guide

Here is a step-by-step photo tutorial for upgrading the S200E to utilize a fast SSD! 2016 UPDATE: My top SSD recommendation is the Samsung 850 EVO series. They start at around $70 for the 120GB version and they go all the way up to 2TB. Huge performance improvement vs the default HDD. RATING NOTE: while this upgrade is a little more difficult than some others, the new SSD still resulted in a HUGE performance improvement so I give this upgrade