DIY IT: How to Upgrade RAM on Your Desktop

Don't you love it when things sometimes work out? I'm very proud to say that even though I'm not that skilled in IT, I was able to upgrade my desktop's RAM - ALL BY MYSELF. Yes, you heard it right. Little 'ole me took out the scary-looking old memory modules and inserted the scary-looking new ones. But I have to make one admission: although I did do it alone, I had the help of a video tutorial that I found on YouTube, which is below.

My Dell Dimension 3000 desktop has been sloooow as molasses for some time now, and that's after regularly running anti-virus and anti-spyware scans, as well as doing a disc clean. When I bought my computer in 2005 (I know, it's a dinosaur) it came with 512MB of RAM, or memory in it, so I decided that maybe it was time to add a little more to that to speed things up. I started out by calling Dell, who wanted to charge me for the installation. Before plunking down any money I like to check other options so I went to the forums on the website where users were saying how easy it was to do it yourself and how glad they were about upgrading. [Finding things on the Dell site isn't easy, so to save you some time here's what I did: once on the site I entered "dell dimension 3000 ram upgrade" on the search box, which took me to a results page where I clicked on "forums" on the sidebar. There were over 1000 comments which I found very helpful and encouraging.]

After some comparison shopping I found that Dell offered a better deal on memory upgrades than anywhere else, so I placed my order and received it about a week later (that would be today). Looking for some installation guidance I emailed my friend who's an IT wiz, but not hearing back from him (and being the impatient diva that I am) I decided to do a search to see if there were any good "how-to" videos. Well guess what? They're not perfect but I found a couple. Below is the one I liked the best.



Expert Mike Heck goes through it step by step, but here's some additional comments I would add:

• Opening the side panel - he makes it look simple but I had trouble because the side panel was stuck and wouldn't slide over, so I used a flat screwdriver and a hammer to dislodge it.
• Inserting the modules - make sure the notch in the middle aligns to the middle notch on the slot, and then push down hard until it clicks into place by itself. I had to do this twice because the first time I closed the clips myself and it didn't work. When I plugged in the power outlet it started beeping and the computer wouldn't start. So I went back and tried again and this time I pushed in harder (they say you have to use 20-30 pounds of force) and it finally clicked on its own. When I plugged in the power outlet there were no beeps and it started beautifully.

That was it! One thing I miss about working for a corporation is being able to call tech support and having someone come over immediately. Now that I have to figure things out for myself I was really jazzed about getting over my fears and successfully upgrading my computer's memory so it can run faster. With the help of a video I mustered up the courage and learned I could do this myself, which is reward in and of itself...now I'll be looking for my next D-I-Y IT project!

Do you have any IT projects you feel proud of? Please share!

Related posts:
Are you Protected? Tips on adding anti-virus and backing up your files
Video:
Selecting an External Drive

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Open Source: A Free Alternative to Microsoft

When my computer started acting funny a few months ago the first person I called for help was my friend Carol Wade (left), who's worked in IT for many years and is a genius at solving computer glitches. She immediately suggested two things: 1) do an Ad-Aware scan, and 2) ditch Internet Explorer and use Mozilla Firefox as your web browser - it offers better protection against spyware and viruses. Carol's a big proponent of open source software like Firefox, and if a techie like her likes it so much, I wanna know why, so I asked her to come and talk to the Mogulettes about it. She prepared a handout detailing all the reasons she thinks its better, which I've pasted below.

What does "open source" mean?

• The “open source” movement began in 1998, when the Netscape Corporation decided to release the newest version of its Navigator Web browser with the source programming code openly available for users to view, and for software developers to tinker with.
• "Open source" has come to mean "free software," or rather, software whose source programming code is open, for use, examination, improvement, review and commentary by the general public. It is often also generally free for download and installation, without paying any purchase or licensing fees.

Is there such a thing as "closed source" then?

• Yes. Much of what we as computer users know is “closed source” software. The best example of this is also the most widely used and widely known, that of Microsoft Corporation. Very little of Microsoft’s software code is open source.
• Microsoft’s revenue is based on product licensing. That is, they pay developers to create their software; then, they ask end-users to pay high license fees to use their software. Microsoft then pays its developers, but keeps some money for itself.
• There are many hands in the pie (so to speak) with “closed source” software. There’s the company built up around developing consumer and business software. There are the company’s investors, shareholders and board of directors. Of course, employees and developers are a huge part of the operation as well.
• The final product is software, which the consumer ends up paying a huge cost for…were there fewer people involved in the process, it would be a lot cheaper.

So, open source is cheaper…

• As mentioned above, “open source” usually means free. Free to download and use, free to try and to get rid of, free to update and upgrade. This is the primary benefit of using open source software.
• Because the product is the first and only concern with open source software, there is nothing to buy; the people making the software are people who love programming.
• They’re not doing it to make money; they’re usually either sick of paying too much money for often expensive and buggy software themselves, or they work for one of those companies making expensive software, but want to give back to the community by writing simpler, cheaper applications.

Well…what’s available?

• You may already be using one or more open source applications! The popular Web browser, Mozilla Firefox, is one of the most widely used open source programs around. Firefox gained widespread use starting a few years ago, when viruses targeting Microsoft’s browser, Internet Explorer, hit critical mass.
• Believe it or not, the Firefox browser originated in that first release of Netscape Navigator, in 1998!

Here are some helpful hints:

1. There is an open source equivalent for almost every popular closed source application.
   
   
2. You get what you pay for: support for open source applications is not centralized, and have a WYSIWYG approach. Pronounced: “wizzy-wig,” it means, “what you see is what you get”! However, there are usually websites and forums associated with open source software, where developers and users can communicate solve problems in the design.
   
   
3. There is open source software for both PCs and Macs. In fact, there are even entire open source operating systems! The basis for these systems were around long before Microsoft made Windows, and continue to influence a whole realm of low- or no-cost computing that is slowly moving into the marketplace (such as Red Hat Linux)

Five good apps to start with:

Browser: Mozilla Firefox
One of the best, easiest to use free Web browsers around, it uses tabbed browsing to cut down the number of open windows. It’s designed a lot like Internet Explorer, with security settings, bookmark organization, customizable toolbars and history reporting. It’s also easy to install, use, and migrate your bookmarks from Internet Explorer. It’s performance is very reliable.

Email and Contact Management: Mozilla Thunderbird
Tired of Outlook Express? Want a simple, light, uncomplicated way of managing email addresses and client information? Mozilla Thunderbird is Firefox’s email-management cousin that, like Microsoft Outlook, manages all your customer data easily and simply and without fuss. Thunderbird also doubles as a powerful RSS feed aggregator. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication," and is a method for skimming all the important stuff off the top of your favorite news and blog sites, right into your email reader, without having to visit the web pages!

Calendar and Time Management: Mozilla Sunbird
Thunderbird doesn’t have a calendar built-in, to save system resources for people who either don’t want or need a calendar application. They separated it out to Sunbird, a super-basic calendar and alarm/notification program for busy folks on the go.

Document Management: OpenOffice
Can’t afford outrageously-priced copies of the latest Microsoft Office Suite? OpenOffice is a fully-featured document-creation program similar, comparable to (and conversant with) all MS Office applications.

Photo Management: The GIMP
Need to crop and do other simple image manipulation tasks, without being hassled to purchase software from Adobe? Try the GNU Image Manipulation Program (called The GIMP for short) - leaner than Photoshop by miles, cheaper and pretty user-friendly.

So think twice before splurging on the new Microsoft Office 2007. Why pay for Internet Explorer, Outlook, even Photoshop... when you can get similar or better products for free?

What's your experience with open source? Chime in!

PS - To contact Carol, email her at c.wade@earthlink.net

Are you protected?

Last fall when I tried to download some information from my online bank account, as I normally do, my computer wouldn't let me. Thinking it was a server issue, I called my bank, but they checked into it and came back with horrible news: I'd been hit with a virus. Yikes! I ended up having to remove everything from my hard drive and re-installing it over again. What a nightmare! So when I met computer consultant Peggy Belanoff at a recent networking event, I instantly recruited her to come speak at our meeting about computer security, a topic that's very important to Mogulettes like us.

Peggy gives the Mogulettes advice on protecting our data

Here's a recap of her main points:

Anti-virus protection
To Mac or not to Mac - that is the question. Macintosh computers don't get viruses but they are more expensive, so Peggy says that if a someone is used to a PC it's okay to stick with it - just make sure you have a good anti-virus program. Also double check with your internet provider - they may offer free firewalls and anti-virus software. In addition to that, you need to have spyware protection, so download Ad-Aware from Lavasoft USA. Run it once a week or once every two weeks. Something else to look into: Microsoft has a free program you can download called Windows Defender.

My friend Carol Wade, a computer expert herself, suggests using Mozilla Firefox as your browser because it's much better at protecting from online threats than Internet Explorer.

File backups
Why backup your files? It's not only that you could get hit with a virus - data could get corrupted, or you could accidentally delete something. Better to be safe than sorry!

You'll only need to backup your personal files - for ex. Word documents, pictures, audio, video - if you've kept the original CD's for programs like Word, Excel, Quicken, etc. there's no need to save those. Documents usually take up less space than videos, pictures and audio files.

Here are the different options for backing up data:

1-Downloading your files into a CD-ROM is the cheapest alternative. CD's hold 750 megabytes of information, so you may have to use several to hold all your files. Make sure you get the ones that say CD-RW or DVD-RW which are re-writable because you can't record over the ones that say CD-R. The downside is it could get cumbersome to wait around for all your files to download unto the CDs.

2-External hard drives can hold up to 120 gigabytes of information, and come with programs included so you can set up automated backups. How large of a drive do you need? That depends on how much you currently have in your computer. Listen to the video clip below where Peggy explains how to pick an external hard drive.



How much capacity does your computer have?
If you have a PC (as opposed to a Mac), right click on My Computer, then left click on Properties - there you'll find how much RAM you have, which is memory.

To see how much hard drive you have and how much disk space you've used up, go back and left click on My Computer, right click on the 'C' Drive, and then left click on Properties. Ideally you should have half of your hard drive free - that'll make your computer run faster and perform better.

3-Flash drives are very portable but have little space, only between 2-3 gigabytes.

Additional tips from Peggy
If you travel a lot these products will let you access your desktop from anywhere: GoToMyPC for PCs or Timbuktu for Mac's. That way you can log on to any computer and have instant access to your key information.

Whenever you do an upgrade - like for example with Turbo Tax you need to upgrade it every year - check your system's properties and make sure they're compatible with what the upgrade requires, otherwise it could make your computer screwy. This also holds true for internet downloads. When I tried to download the new Goggle toolbar, which has Google Earth and all these fancy screensavers plus a ton of other stuff, it didn't sit well with my computer. Ultimately I had to uninstall it.

Hope this was helpful, and please add any of your own personal tips.

Until my next post, live mogul-isiously!!