Computers are a part and parcel or our day-today lives. But the use of computers in the wrong way can have a negative impact on the environment. Therefore it is important that we imbibe green methods and choices while buying and using computers. There are several ways to reduce the amount of energy that your computer consumes while using it and by supporting more environmentally friendly disposal and manufacturing practices, you can save a lot of energy. Here is a list of things that you can keep in mind while purchasing computers and while using them in order to save energy.

• Choose Laptops over Desktops - If you are planning to buy a computer and are concerned about saving energy then choosing a laptop over a desktop computer will be the best choice. Even if you choose an external monitor and keyboard, the laptop consumes lesser energy than a desktop. Nowadays there are a lot of mini laptops available as well; these kinds of laptops consume very little energy.


• Check your computer’s power management settings - Save energy by checking your power management settings. Set it to a mode that will save energy automatically by turning it off or putting it to sleep whenever you are not using it. In this way the life of your monitor is also extended. Also consider reducing the sleep and display blanking timeouts, there is no need to set it to 15 - 30 minutes. Setting screen savers does not save energy. In fact, in some scenarios they consume even more energy; therefore it is better to disable it.


• Buy EPEAT computers - When buying a new computer check for the EPEAT logo. EPEAT is the best way to know about the greenest computers available. It rates computers and monitors on over 50 plus criteria such as manufacturing, use and disposal. One the basis of the rating, computers are assigned either a bronze, gold or silver status. If you already have a computer, then consider replacing it with an EPEAT computer.


• Unplug your computer when not in use - Whenever you aren’t using the computer, unplug it as this will help save energy. Often, when unused electronic equipments are plugged in, it draws significant amounts of energy, even when they aren’t being used. It is better to install a power strip and attach all computer devices such as monitor, CPU, printer etc. to this. In this way, when you switch the power strip off, the power is cut out from all the devices.


• Reuse and Recycle - When you want to dispose an old computer, consider recycling it instead of throwing it into the trash. Nowadays there are many organizations that accept old computers for recycling. Some shops hold exchange programs - give away the old computer for a new one.

These are some tips that will help you reduce your computer’s impact on the environment. Nowadays Green computers and practices are the need of the day. So we must all take steps to ensure a greener and safe environment and that includes following green measures while buying or using a computer.

Errors that occur due to video cards are known as visual artifacts. Most of the time, such artifacts are caused due to some hardware or software problem. So, one should keep updating their system hardware after certain period of time in order to avoid video card related problems.

Make sure that all the fans are working and especially the fan above video card is effective as overheating of video card may be the very first reason of such fault. Rise and fall of the temperature of video card depends upon the kind of program you are running. Running 2D program will keep the temperature of video card cool while running 3D program will definitely raise its temperature.There is one silicon chip present on the video card that runs slow due to increase in temperature. You can check this problem by using your system with CPU cabinet open and if by doing so artifacts go away, it means overheating of video card was the main reason. In order to lower the temperature of video card, you can under lock the video card. This will reduce clock rates of video card resulting in lowering the temperature.

Problem in video card can occur due to three sources. First is the Video RAM present in the video card, second is GPU which is a chip on the video and the last one is bus interface whose main work is to transfer data between video card and motherboard.If you want to play high graphics game on your computer, you have to start upgrading the system by upgrading the video card. There are some issues that may come while installing video card. It may happen that you find difficulty in replacing built-in video card with PCI express video card. In such case, check out the manufacturer details whether it is allowing replacement of original video card or not. You can also disable on-board video card from BIOS. Also check whether your motherboard has a jumper or not. Jumper helps in switching between built in and add-on video cards.

One may find difficulty in changing colour depth and resolution of video card. Solution for this problem is quite simple. You have to check whether your video card is being identified in Windows or not. If it is identified then you can update your video card from the manufacturer’s website. Sometime it may happen that your display works only in DOS or at booting time but not in windows. Such problem occurs only when your video drivers are either corrupted or expired. To fix this issue, enter into safe mode by pressing F8 and install proper driver. Overclocking video card may increase the speed of video card. To fix this issue, go in Safe Mode and use tools to restore the normal default speed of video card. If you are unable to change OpenGL or Direct 3D settings of video card then try to install video card vendor drivers as they comes with 3D and other advance options that will improve the video quality for sure.

Most of the computer operation requires video card in some proportion and any kind of problem will affect your computer system directly. So it’s better to troubleshoot video card related problem as soon as possible.

Computer provides hours of entertainment to its user. Good sound quality of computer will definitely add value to this entertainment. Here are some tips on enhancing the sound quality of your computer.

Ever imagined computer system without speaker? I know it’s too hard to even think of it. Whether you are gaming or watching video files, sound is must to have in a PC. It offers enjoyable experiencewhile you are surfing videos or listening to audio files. Most of the users want to have perfect sound system in their computer. Gamers are looking for ways to enhance the sound quality of their PC. For those who uses computer as media centre, want great depth and quality of sound.

First thing that one should do in order to improve the sound quality is position the speakers in right direction. Speakers should be kept as far as possible from each other and in opposite direction. This will help the speaker to give better depth of sound. Adjustment should be done in such a way that the distance of the speakers from your ear is same. If you are using a separate amplifier and speaker, then it’s important to check the polarity of the cable while connecting it to the amplifier. Perfect match will enhance the frequency response of the sound. If the speakers are delivering low or no bass, it means that the connections are not done properly. Always go for good quality sound card as it can make your system sounds good. So if you are using an old sound card, upgrade it to newer version and feel the difference in audio quality. Buying a new sound card will not cost you much, so go for good brands for better experience.

Most of us don’t know about installing third party software on our computer system. Third party software like win amp helps in having better control over the audio quality.

Third party software will help you in controlling the audio quality via graphics equalizer and filters. You can tune in the sound the way you want. Most of us like bass while other love to have techno beats in it. In short, you can play any audio the way you want. One improvement that you can do in order to improve the sound is buying a good pair of speakers.

Having a good quality speaker matters a lot if you are looking for better audio quality. Try to go for Dolby digital speakers as they are not just any normal speaker but have much better and crisp sound quality.

If you want to avoid access of wiring while placing the speakers at distance, you can go for wireless speakers too. Very first advantage of using this speaker is that it gives you freedom to place the speaker wherever you want without bothering about wires.

Computer with poor audio quality is of no use to many of us, we can’t deny this fact. Many of us like to work while listening to songs over computer. Anyone can enhance the sound of PC by following some simple steps.

Apple Wireless Keyboard is fully equipped with unique features. Apart from its ultrathin design, it supports Bluetooth pairing, shut off feature that helps in conserving energy, one touch access in top row keys, and much more. No doubt Apple Wireless keyboard does the expected job in a great way.

Latest Apple wireless keyboard has space saving design. With every new release of Apple, you will find some or the other kind of improvement from its former version. Previous version of wireless keyboard was using 3 batteries while latest wireless keyboard uses 2 batteries and has a unique power saving option known as “cut off”. It is affordable, has good look and is cleverly design. Design of Apple wireless keyboard is simply remarkable. The outer layout is made of aluminium and uses white keys instead of black to give it a nice look. Its newly designed keys help in reducing dust related issues which are common in keyboards with standard keys. Top function key row also has shortcut keys for audio track, dimming and brightening. Latest Apple wireless keyboard omits numerical keypad from the right side of the keyboard thereby reducing its dimension to 12.8 inch with height of 1.4 inches only.

Reason for omitting the number keypad is quite obvious. According to the survey done by Apple, most users do not use number keypad on daily basis that is why Apple has reduce the size of the number keys which means now your right hand can easily perform well on the alphabets. Recently Apple has added a new mouse Track pad at the right side of the keyboard. Wireless keyboard has been designed in such a way that it makes you feel as if you are typing with laptop keypad. Back portion of the wireless keyboard has glossy white finish and has a cylindrical bar that includes two AA batteries. At the back side you will find two rubber strips at both ends of the laptop and one thick rubber bar at the middle of the keyboard that prevents the movement of your keyboard while doing work. You can replace the batteries quite easily on your own. Keeping energy conservation among its main objectives, Apple has added one feature in its keyboard using which keyboard will shut down automatically after a long period of inactivity and resume as soon as you press any button.

It uses Bluetooth feature to get connected to computer. On pressing the button at the right side of the keyboard near battery compartment, you will notice that a green light turns on that means the keyboard is ready for getting connected to computer. You can use this keyboard within the range of 30 feet from the computer system giving you the freedom to type from anywhere you wish like.

Apple wireless keyboard is compatible with its latest iOS software used in iPhone and iPod touch. So you can use wireless keyboard with these devices too. You can use function keys to adjust the brightness, track control, volume control on mobile devices.

If you are crazy about latest gadgets available in the market, I am sure Apple Wireless keyboard is the very next item in your personal collections.

Drivers are a kind of software using which computer can communicate with an external device or hardware. In order to install any external device a computer needs a specific driver or software to support the device. Webcam is a similar device that requires a driver in order to be installed on a machine.

We need webcam driver in order to install webcam on the computer. Without the driver, computer system will not understand how to use it. If you are purchasing a webcam, you will get one disk driverto support the installation. In case of damaged driver disk, you can either repair webcam driver or download the driver directly from the internet.

While using a disk driver for webcam all you have to do is plug in your external webcam through USB port and insert driver disk in the CD drive of your computer. Once CD gets auto load, click on install option and follow all the on-screen instructions. After completion of installation, take out CD from the CD driver and restart your computer. This is one of the safest methods for installingwebcam driver as chances of virus are very less in this method. However you can also install webcam driver from a file.

Suppose if your newly purchased webcam does not have driver disk then you candownload it from the internet. You can either search for it on Google by mentioning webcam’s serial number and manufacturer name or can directly look for webcam driver on the manufacturer’s website. You can find it printed either on the disk or in user manual that comes with webcam driver CD. Most of the sites have free webcam drivers while for some websites, registration process is required. As soon as you find your webcam driver click on download option and that file will be saved on your computer. Open those file and plug in webcam to your computer. Inside folder you will find on .EXE file, so click on it and select RUN in order to install webcam driver on your computer. If the downloaded file is of ZIP format, right click on the file and extract it. After that double click on the setup file to run and install webcam driver file. In this case too, after installation you have to restart your computer.

Other than CD/Disk or files from the internet, you can use webcam driver from USB stick or pen drive too. Most of the time, webcam drivers has installation setup for almost all kinds of operating system available. But if you are among the unlucky ones, you have to download driver that matches your operating system. You can use driver of previous Windows version, for example if you don’t have driver for Windows 7, you can go for previous Windows version like Windows XP.

May be the driver CD that you get with webcam is not the latest one. If this is true then definitely you will find some problem in installing webcam. In such scenario, only option left with you is either buy a new webcam that has fully updated driver disk or install a new operating system. You can also update webcam driver in order to make it work for your webcam. All you have to do is check out on manufacturer’s website for updated drivers. You can also take the help of third party tool like Driver Finder that scans your computer for the webcam and also check whether webcam driver needs to be updated or not.

Installing webcam driver is as easy as installing any new software, all you have to do is readthe instructions carefully and keep updating drivers.