Oh! Gizmo

By David Ponce

[ The following concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site. ]

Throwing an epic tantrum is one way to try and solve your PC-related problems. “Trying” is the important word here because aside from becoming really popular on video sites (if you happen to film your jolly interlude), you will likely not fix much. Count on people like us and other experts to try and point you in the right direction instead. This week, we continue our weekly recaps of our work in the Laptop Experts campaign.

This week we pondered the wisdom of installing Vista on older laptops. How old, you say? We’re not too sure, but old and Vista shouldn’t share a sentence. We then debated the merits of one processor over another and took a crack at the stuck-in-safe-mode for ever and ever issue. Finally, one poor fella with a cracked LCD screen asked our advice.

Tune in next week for some more of these, and as always, if you’d like to help us give better answers, you’re more than welcome to do so.

[ Laptop Experts ]

By David Ponce

A lot of good, temporarily PC-stumped folk have been getting their computer related aches and pains relieved through Toshiba’s Laptop Experts campaign. Here’s a short run-through of what I’ve been dealing with.

I start off by wondering how to hook up your PS3 to your laptop, only to then tackle a seemingly simple webcam inspired mystery. It all seems like fun and games until I’m literally stumped by a third party replacement battery acting up. Always buy from the source, I guess. That’s one I still haven’t answered. But it’s ok, since the last question that week was a simple question of resetting a password. Three out of four, not bad.

This week’s even better. There’s Flash video freezing on fullscreen, wireless printing, wireless mice battery comparisons and the ever popular “Helps, lost me drivers, do I nuke PC?”

As usual, you guys are invited to take a look and if any of you feels they can do a better job, please, by all means, jump in.

[ Laptop Experts ]

[ This article concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site. ]

By David Ponce

Well, you guys actually participated last week and we picked “marmota” as the $50 winner! He was chosen randomly from the entries that actually helped us draft coherent answers. You can find those here, here and here.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, we’re giving $50 away each week, drawn from the pool of readers who help us answer some user-submitted, PC-related questions as part of the Laptop Experts campaign currently running on the site. We’re doing it again this week. $50, paid through Paypal.

So yeah, some PC users are frustrated (surprised?). This is your chance to help and maybe make a buck. The first question is below, the rest after the jump.

Trying to reload a M45-S169 laptop hard drive. Bios sees hard drive but windows/restore cd doesn’t using the original restore disk. I put harddrive in another computer and I can see it format it, delete partitions, pretty much any thing, but the original restore cd doesn’t see it. Any suggestions?

Read the rest of this entry »

[ This post concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site. ]

By David Ponce

Hey guys, so last week we invited you guys to participate in the Toshiba Laptop Experts campaign. We even offered some giveaways. Well, let’s just say we weren’t overwhelmed by the response, but hey, at least one guy got himself $50’s worth of stuff. So I’m doing it again this week, and I’m offering $50 again to the person that helps most, this time cash (by “cash” I mean Paypal, so you better have an account).

The difference is the questions that follow have not yet been answered. Matter of fact, they’re giving me a bit of a headache. So aside from getting the cash, you can get the warm fuzzies at knowing you helped me (and a poor stranded PC user) out.

First of three questions below, the rest after the jump.

TOSHIBA M205 SHUTS OFF SUDDENLY THEN REBOOTS. Super quick blue screen of death, can’t even read it as it shuts off too quickly. Driving me nuts. I have 2 M205, I don’t use too much, now it’s doing it!!! Power brick maybe? Trouble is they do it on both power cords. What in the world’s going on?

Read the rest of this entry »

By David Ponce

[ The following concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site. ]

Regular readers will be familiar with our involvement with Toshiba’s Laptop Experts program. I’ve personally been tackling some questions over the last few months, and as much as I’d like to think I’m doing a flawless job getting readers their perfect answers, the truth is there are probably quicker, easier ways to accomplish the same things. And I’m convinced you guys can help. To make it more interesting, I’m throwing in some prizes. It’s not Powerball lottery material but I’ve got about $50’s worth of stuff to give away: iTunes gift cards, thumb drives, etc. I’ll paste three questions below (along with a link to my own answer), and you guys can take a crack at them. Answer either in the comments to this article, or better yet, on the Laptop Experts site itself.

I’ll be dictatorial and pick what I consider the “best” effort at a better answer and you guys can then feel free to call me names and such.

I have a toshiba satellite l355-s7812, and I want to recoard live TV. What cables or programs do I need? Thanks [ My answer here. ]

I bought a sony vaio laptop. it works fine, but the dvd does not work. Someone took a look at it, and the bios is password locked. I bought it off someone second hand. Can anyone help? [ My answer here. ]

My HP Pavillion tx1127cl’s screen remains blank after it comes out of standby, and have to force shutdown and restart. [ My answer here ]

If you guys are curious about other questions being asked, follow the link below.

[ Laptop Experts ]

By David Ponce

[ Disclosure: This post concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site. ]

Toshiba’s been running a campaign called Laptop Experts (which we’ve talked before), that’s been gaining some decent traction. It’s not a simple “Look at my banner; come buy my product” deal. Instead, they’ve built a site where users can ask questions about their computer problems (any computers, not just Toshiba’s) and a small team of experts has been given the task of answering them. While anyone can answer questions, those tackled by the experts get labeled as such. And believe me, there’s no lack of questions.

Now you too can become an expert… if you’ve got what it takes. Visit this page and submit your application. If accepted, you will be granted expert status and will be able to contribute to the growing community.

[ Become An Expert ]

By David Ponce

I want to take a second to talk to you about something you may find useful. But let me make it clear it concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site.

Some of you may know we have been partners with Federated Media for all graphical ads on OhGizmo! for quite some time. We love them not only for making it possible to make a living without showing you ads about punching a monkey to get a free iPod, but also because the FM team really likes to think outside the box.

Case in point, the Toshiba “Laptop Experts” campaign. On this site, readers can ask about their computer problems (not restricted to Toshiba products, by the way) and may get their questions answered by one of the several bloggers participating. Up until recently, the only way to get a question answered was by visiting the site and posting your question. But now there’s a little widget you can download (pictured above), allowing you to ask anything you like right from your desktop, without ever needing to even open a browser window. Your question will then be submitted to the team and you’ll be notified if and when it gets answered.

The download link is below. You should be aware that you’ll need to install Adobe AIR to get it working, but it is pretty slick.

[ Laptop Experts Widget ]