520-323-7775 5325 E. Pima St., Tucson, AZ 85712 Big Mike's Blog JAN 18 7 Hp Laptop Battery problems. If you have a HP notebook check out the list below for possible battery problems. HP said this week that it’s recalling about 50,000 consumer notebook batteries for free, which were originally sold as part of a HP notebook itself or as a standalone accessory. The company said it had received eight reports of those batteries “overheating, melting, or Getting Crispy.” Those reports included property damage and burns. Specifically, the affected notebook models include the HP ProBooks (64x G2 and G3 series, 65x G2 and G3 series), the HP x360 310 G2, as well as the HP Envy m6, HP Pavilion x360, HP 11, HP ZBook (17 G3, 17 G4, and Studio G3) Mobile Workstations. The batteries were also sold as accessories or replacement batteries for the HP ZBook Studio G4 mobile workstation. In each case, the batteries could have been sold as part of the notebooks, or as replacements. HP said the laptops and batteries had been distributed at popular retail outlets including Amazon, Best Buy, and HP.com., from December, 2015 though December, 2017. Although 50,000 of the affected batteries were sold within the United States, an additional 2,600 were sold within Canada, HP said. Posted in Mike's Blog by bigmike. DEC 17 12 Intellectual property theft is real. Turn off mass storage device on USB ports. Turn off mass storage device on USB ports. With the incredibly large size of thumb drives today Intellectual property theft is a real issue with even the smallest companies. Good management software can set this up and manage it to allow a thumb drive as needed. The software we use at Pelstar to control clients security and policies does this well, if you have an IT service provider ask them about it. It the past some of this software would cause problems with other USB devices such as keyboards and cameras. Now the software does a good job by automatically allowing devices that cannot be used as a mass storage device. Here is a link to do it if you are in control of a domain using group policy. https://prajwaldesai.com/how-to-disable-usb-devices-using-group-policy/ Here is how you do it on a single machine, WARNING! If you are not familiar with modifying permissions be very careful or you may block yourself out. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/823732/how-can-i-prevent-users-from-connecting-to-a-usb-storage-device Posted in Mike's Blog by bigmike. DEC 17 1 Is it worth to upgrade to an SSD Many people are bringing new life to old machines by replacing the Spinner drive with an SSD, that’s a good thing. If your computer has at least 4GB RAM (better to have 8) and has a cpu better than a dual core, (call me if you don’t know) you get impressive life out of older machines. Posted in Mike's Blog by bigmike. NOV 17 28 Big brother has spoken BEWARE! getting a PC with the new Intel 7 series or the Ryzen series from AMD will force you to get Windows 10! Have you seen this? Unsupported hardware Your PC uses a processor that is designed for the latest version of Windows. Because the processor is not supported together with the Windows version that you are currently using, your system will miss important security updates. We knew Microsoft was planning to block installation of Windows 7 and 8.1 updates on systems with Intel 7th Generation Core processors (more memorably known as Kaby Lake) and AMD Ryzen systems; we just weren’t sure when. Now, the answer appears to be “Now.” (Actually started in April 2017) Users of new processors running old versions of Windows are reporting that their updates are being blocked. The block means that systems using these processors are no longer receiving security updates. The new policy was announced in January of last year and revised slightly a couple of months later: Kaby Lake and Ryzen processors, and all new processors on an ongoing basis, would only be supported in Windows 10. Windows 7 and 8.1 would continue to support older processors, but their chip compatibility was frozen. Strangely straddling the two policies are Intel’s 6th Generation Core processors, aka Skylake. Some Skylake systems will continue to be supported in Windows 7 and 8.1. Others will not. Certain Skylake models shipped by 16 specific OEMs will continue to receive update support. But other Skylake systems will also need to upgrade to Windows 10 to receive ongoing updates. Posted in Mike's Blog by bigmike. NOV 17 22 Windows updates causing problems We have seen several office (Word, Excel, Outlook) security updates fail and then the email connector for QuickBooks and other programs to fail. you will need to do a repair on office first then see if more needs to be done. Here are good directions to do office repair, it’s easy and one of the things you can do yourself. Repair or Re-install Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016 Outlook 2016 Open up the Control Panel on your PC (and show All Control Panel items, if necessary) and click on Programs, then Programs and Features. Find Microsoft Office 2016 in the list and highlight it.(Selection also say Microsoft Office 365) Click Change. Select Quick Repair and Repair then follow the prompts. Outlook 2013 Open up the Control Panel on your PC (and show All Control Panel items, if necessary) and click on Programs, then Programs and Features. Find Microsoft Office 2013 in the list and highlight it. Click Change. Select Repair and Continue then follow the prompts. After the repair is finished, please try the sync again. Outlook 2010 Open up the Control Panel on your PC (and show All Control Panel items, if necessary) and click on Programs, then Programs and Features. Find Microsoft Office 2010 in the list and highlight it. Click Change. Select Repair and Continue then follow the prompts After the repair is finished, please try the sync again. Outlook 2007 Open Microsoft Office 2007. On the Help menu, click Office Diagnostics. Click Continue, and then Start Diagnostics. Outlook 2003 Open Control Panel (Start>Settings>Control Panel) Select Add or Remove Programs. Select Microsoft Office/Outlook Click the Change. Select the Reinstall or Repair button, click Next. Select Detect and Repair. Click Install and follow any prompts provided by the repair tool. Posted in Mike's Blog by bigmike. Older posts Links Cheap Inks and Toners Pelstar Virus Removal Remote Online Backup Wild West Domains Our Location Pelstar Computers 5325 E. Pima St. Tucson, AZ 85712 520-323-7775 mike@pelstar.com Home Virus Removal Computer Repair Business IT Remote Backup Shop Pelstar Blog Contact Us Recent Posts Hp Laptop Battery problems. Intellectual property theft is real. 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Is it worth to upgrade to an SSD Big brother has spoken Windows updates causing problems Archives January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 July 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 December 2015 October 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 January 2014 November 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 March 2013 February 2013 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 March 2011 February 2011 Meta Log in Entries feed Comments feed WordPress.org Latest IT security news 2.1 Million People Affected by Breach at DNA Testing Company November 30, 2021 Ohio-based DNA testing company DNA Diagnostics Center (DDC) this week disclosed a data breach affecting 2.1 million people. read more Eduard Kovacs 'Sabbath' Ransomware Operators Target Critical Infrastructure November 30, 2021 Since June 2021, a relatively new ransomware group called Sabbath has been targeting critical infrastructure in the United States and Canada, including education, health and natural resources. read more Ionut Arghire Hardware Security Firm Axiado Banks $25M Investment November 30, 2021 Axiado Corp, a hardware security firm based in San Jose, Calif., has banked $25 million in what is being described as an “oversubscribed” Series B funding round. read more SecurityWeek News Source Code Security Firm Cycode Raises $56 Million November 30, 2021 Cycode, a startup that specializes in source code security, on Tuesday announced raising $56 million in a Series B funding round. read more Eduard Kovacs Copyright © 2011-2021 Big Mike's Blog Pelstar Computer Systems & Michael Peller | Log In