Windows 7 Freezing Problems and Possible Solutions

Studio 1557 freezes, can't control+alt+delete to gain control

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19303691/19646118.aspx#19646118

BIOS Power Management Settings

BIOS Power Management Settings

This area of the BIOS seems to be the most misunderstood. When these settings are not properly configured, the result can be systems that do not shut down correctly, or that enter or awaken from the Standby or Hibernate modes improperly. Since Windows has built-in power management, you'll want to disable all power management in the BIOS. Otherwise, the two fight with each other, and neither works properly. Motherboard manufacturers don't assume that everyone is using Windows, so many of these settings exist for non-Windows users.

ACPI Suspend to RAM : ACPI stands for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface - not to be confused with APIC or IPCA, which some people may find as options in their BIOS setup programs. The Suspend to RAM feature, sometimes referred to as S3/STR, lets the PC save more power when in Standby mode, but all devices within or attached to the computer must be ACPI-compliant. Some BIOS's offer an S1/POS option for this scenario. If you enable this feature and experience problems with the standby mode, simply go back into the BIOS and disable it.

Video Off Method : The DPMS (Display Power Management System) option allows the BIOS to control the video display card if it supports the DPMS feature. The Blank Screen option simply blanks the screen - use this for monitors without either power-management or "green" features. The V/H SYNC Blank option blanks the screen and turns off vertical and horizontal scanning. If your computer and monitor were built within the last four years, I recommend setting this to DPMS.

HDD Down In Suspend : This feature determines whether the hard-disk drive is automatically shut down when the computer enters Suspend mode. While most power settings of this type are controlled within Windows, if you find the hard drive is not powering down when the computer enters Suspend mode - assuming your computer even allows Suspend and Hibernate modes - then enable this option. Otherwise, the recommended setting is Disabled.

PWR Button <> : By default, all ATX computers will power off after the power button is held for more than four seconds. This setting tells the computer what to do if the power button is held down for less than four seconds. The options are to power off the system or enter Suspend mode. This setting is up to you.

Power Up On PCI Device : If you use Wake-On-LAN - typically employed in large office environments to turn on computers for remote administration - you will want this setting Enabled. Otherwise, I recommend you set it to Disabled.

Wake/Power Up on Ext. Modem : This setting tells the computer to turn itself on when a phone line plugged into its modem rings. Once again, this is used for remote administration. For other environments - in other words, most users - I recommend you set this to Disabled.

Automatic Power Up : This feature, if enabled, lets you designate a specific time each day when the PC will turn itself on. If that's useful to you, set it to Enabled. Otherwise, I recommend Disabled.

Time (hh:mm:ss) of Alarm : This field sets the time for automatic power-up, based on a military/24-hour clock. The Automatic Power Up field must be enabled to use this feature.

AC Power Loss Restart : This option lets you tell the PC what to do when power is restored after an unexpected loss of power. Disabled leaves the system off, while Enabled reboots the system. Previous State sets the system back to the state it was in before the power interruption. I recommend you set this to Disabled.

Power On By PS/2 Mouse : When enabled, this feature allows the use of a PS/2 (not USB) mouse to turn on the system. Disabled is recommended, so you don't accidentally keep turning on your computer.

Power On By PS/2 Keyboard : When enabled, this feature lets specific keys on a PS/2 keyboard be used to turn on the system. Disabled is recommended, as most people find this of an annoyance when they accidentally press the wrong key.

Tweak Firefox’s Password Saver Without An Extension

Fix for keyboard characters being mixed up

Alt+Shift fixes it.

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic20339.html

Free iPhone Apps that might be good to have

Free iPhone Apps to try

1. reQall
2. G-Park - Get directions to where you've parked your car
   
3. Shazam - Shazam gives you instant satisfaction when you want to know what song is playing.
4. 
   

Access a home server behind a router/firewall

Geek to Live: How to access a home server behind a router/firewall

by Gina Trapani

Recent Lifehacker features have covered how to run a personal web server, how to control your home computer from anywhere, and how to set up a personal wiki. For users on a home network with a router installed, home servers are not accessible from the Internet because of many modern routers' built-in firewall.

Today we'll cover how to open up specific ports on your router to allow access to a home server behind a firewall.

Please note: this tutorial is for advanced users. Your router's firewall is there to protect you from evildoers who try to control your computer over the Internet. Make sure that any service you expose to the Internet is secured with a strong password.

Enabling outside access to an internal computer on a home network requires that you set up NAT - "network address translation," or port forwarding. Forwarding sends requests for ports on the outside of your firewall to the right computer on the inside.

For instance, someone on the outside requests a page from a web server at your router's IP address. With port forwarding set up, your router knows to forward requests for port 80 (a web server's default port) to the computer with the web server running only - and none of the others on your network.

Port forwarding is only necessary when you want to expose a service to computers on the Internet outside your firewall. Some servers you'd want to do that with:

• a home web server
• a personal wiki
• a BitTorrent client uploading as well as downloading
• a VNC server
• a home FTP server

While all routers vary slightly, port forwarding is fairly simple. Here's how to get it set up:

Step 1. Determine your server's internal IP address.

All the computers on your internal network have an IP address which looks something like 192.168.0.XXX. Get on the computer with the server running and open a command window. Then type ipconfig to determine the machine's internal address, like so:

C:\Gina>ipconfig

Windows IP Configuration


Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

       Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . :
       IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.11
       Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
       Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.1

In this case, as you can see, the server's internal IP address is 192.168.0.11.

Step 2. Configure your router.

Most routers have an web-based administrative interface that's located at http://192.168.0.1. (This address does depend on your model. Consult your router user guide for more info.)

Once you've gone to the router administration, entered the password (if one is set up), there should be an area called "Port forwarding." There, you'll set the port number that requests from the Internet will come in, and the internal computer that should fulfill those requests. Here's a screenshot of my Netgear router set up to port forward 5900 to my VNC server, which is at 192.168.0.11 (see above). Click on the image to see a larger version.

Here's a table of common services and their default port numbers.

Service	Port number
Web server	80
VNC (remote control)	5900
Instiki wiki	2500
FTP	21
BitTorrent	6881-6990

Any other services you port forward for that I missed? Add it in the comments to this article or drop me a note at tips at lifehacker.com.

Gina Trapani is the editor of Lifehacker. Her special feature Geek to Live appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker.