Andrew got burned by the MicroSD counterfeit cards that Chris Marquardt talked about here. Leo says that Andrew bought them on Amazon and he says that Amazon has got to start vetting these vendors to make sure they aren't selling counterfeit or bogus SD cards. The important thing to remember though is "if it sounds too good to be true, it often is." Caviat Emptor.
John records music on his laptop, but his software is crashing a lot. When it crashes, it compiles error data for a long time. Can he turn that off? Leo says that John has a 64GB of RAM and that can take a long time. You should be able to turn off the memory dump in the system and security under "advanced." Hit the Windows Key and type startup and recovery. Windows+X select system, advanced, startup, and recovery, then you can turn off the memory dump. Select NONE. But Leo also says that if it's crashing, it could be that your drivers are corrupted.
Al has lost control of the synaptic of his trackpad with Windows. He disabled it, and then uninstalled it. But Windows reinstalled it and it's crashing. Leo says that Windows isn't installing a new driver, it's re-enabling the old corrupted one. R/C the trackpad, go to properties and delete the driver. That will force Windows to download a new driver and install it. You can also go to the Toshiba site, which makes that trackpad, and download the driver directly. Then reinstall it.
Ben is getting a "blue frowning face," which Leo says is the new bluescreen of death. Leo says it's likely a hardware or driver issue. Modern operating systems don't BSOD when an app crashes anymore. But low-level errors like drivers or hardware will cause it. If it's just doing it when he's doing nothing, it could mean a failing power supply. Also, make sure the drivers are up to date.
Penny uses a scanner with a sheet feeder with letter and legal paper, but it only scans 8 1/2x11. Leo says that there's a setting in her scanner that will tell the scanner how much to scan. She should see if she can change it.
Carlo has a small laptop with a USB 3.0 port. But suddenly, it won't read USB 2. What gives? Leo says that USB 3.0 is supposed to be backwards compatible as long as the plug is Type A. It could be a faulty connector, or the connector pins are dirty. The connector could have also shorted out. Shine a light in and look for some cruft, or even damage on the surface of the contacts. ScooterX in the chatroom suggests that it may be a driver issue. Go into the device manager (windows key + X) and look to see if there's a red X. Or delete the drivers and then restart to reinstall.
Sam had three laptops upgraded to Windows 10, but one won't work with the trackpad. Leo says that a driver may be missing. Leo recommends going to the laptop manufacturer website and looking for a driver package for his laptop. If that doesn't work, he should try using the Windows 8.1 driver. It should be OK to do so. Sam should look in the device manager for any red "X", which indicates devices without a driver.
Anthony has Windows 7, and he's started having problems with his keyboard and mouse after a recent update. He tried to talk to Microsoft about it, but the tech told him there was a conflict and the updates it was installing were actually for Windows 10, and it would cost him $300 to resolve it. Leo says whoever that was he was talking to wasn't Microsoft. Leo says in theory that could happen, but Microsoft Update is smart enough to not do that. It should only be installing Windows 7 updates for a Windows 7 machine.
Simon recently encountered the dreaded Blue Screen of Death. He suspected it may be his Chrome browser. Could it be? Leo says that modern versions of Windows don't really allow a program to call a BSOD these days. The operating system protects against it. But it could be a bad driver. Flakey hardware like a power supply or loose RAM can also cause it. But Chrome doesn't have system access to cause a BSOD. If he can replicate it, that could lead him toward the culprit. If it's crashing right away, that's usually a hardware issue.
Greg's mouse cursor is freezing and it's making a loud audible noise. Leo says he suspects the mouse is experiencing a hard crash of the mouse. Unplugging the mouse and plugging it back in will fix it. It's also a sign of a worn out mouse cable, causing connectivity issues. It could also be a problem with his USB plug, or even the USB controller chip on the motherboard. He should check the drivers. And then, try to get a cheap PCI USB card and see if he can make it work. If it does, then he'll know it's the motherboard USB controller. But Leo suspects it's the mouse drivers.
