SeaTools for DOS is an easy-to-use test that can help determine what is preventing you from accessing your data on your hard drive or help determine why the hard drive is failing. This test will work on both desktops and notebooks and will test all hard drives (HDD) and solid state drives (SSD). Below I will be going over the DOS edition of SeaTools; alternatively you can use SeaTools for Windows if you have access to Windows on the malfunctioning PC. There are two methods of running SeaTools: a blank CD or a blank USB device, both of which will…
Author: Justin Vendette
You always see those “top 10 most recommended applications” articles around the web and at times some may be useful. I’ll be going through my personal selection of applications I have installed across my three devices! Below I’ll be going through applications I personally have installed on my Samsung Galaxy S3 with a description of why I use each one. My devices are: a Samsung Galaxy SIII running Android 4.1, my Asus VivoTab Smart Tablet running Windows 8, and my Dell Inspiron laptop running Windows 7. Android The applications that I install on my phone are a little different from…
Today, I’ll be doing a review of one of AMD’s newest flagship graphics card, the Radeon HD 7970. AMD was extremely kind and sent us a new PowerColor PCS+ HD 7970 for my review. With AMD stepping up to compete against their competitor, NVidia and their new GeForce GTX 700 series, you can see how a lot of time, process, and thought went into this new HD 7970 model. Throughout the article I’ll be looking over five major areas of this graphics card (GPU): unboxing the item along with the included contents, build quality/design, performance, the PowerColor’s add-ons, and my…
Back in June, Samsung won a lawsuit against their major rival, Apple, claiming that older devices such as the iPad 1, iPad 2, and the iPhone 4S were infringing on Samsung US patents. On June 4th 2013 the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) came to a conclusion that a sales ban for most older Apple devices will be put into effect. The sales and import ban for Apple was set to begin Monday of next week (8/5/13). Even though this Apple vs. Samsung battle has been going on for years now and Samsung having to take heavy hits such as…
Microsoft reported early this month that they had sold 140,000 Xbox 360s during the month of June. Being the best-selling video game console in the United States, the Xbox 360 has hit its 30th consecutive month as being number 1 in sales. This wave of sales for Microsoft generated a retail profit of $197 million during June alone. With the uprise of the brand new 2013 Xbox One console things aren’t looking all too bad for Microsoft. Just locally around my area two major sellers, Wal-Mart and GameStop, have already sold out of their pre-ordered devices. “The Xbox One pre-orders…
Some months ago I wrote a full review on my personal Galaxy S III, which I still use as my main phone today, and with over 10 million SIII units sold you can easily say that Samsung hit this one right on the head. With the amazing success of the S3, Samsung recently released their new flag-ship smartphone; the Samsung Galaxy S4. I was very fortunate to receive a review unit of the Galaxy S4 for a TSF article review. The device runs on Sprint’s Simply Everything Plan with incredible 4G cellular speeds. In this review I’ll talk about the…
Just a few months ago the technology giant Microsoft released their brand new gaming console, the Xbox One. Replacing the eight year old and outdated previous generation, the Xbox 360. An odd name indeed. However, gamers all around the world were happy to see a new redesigned console, controller and Kinect sensor. When Microsoft did their first unveil they didn’t have much to say; in fact they said they would speak more about the Xbox One at E3. E3 was a few days ago and Microsoft held their Press Conference just like they do every year, announcing new game titles,…
For the past few months many people have been discussing Intel’s brand new 4th Generation Processors, also known as the Haswell microarchitecture. These new CPUs are the successors to the old Ivy Bridge CPUs, that even by today’s standards are still somewhat comparable to the Haswell CPUs. Just like the past three generations, the i3, i5, and i7 Core names have stuck to help differentiate between the cores. When designing new CPUs the company has a development model that they call the “tick-tock” model. These new Haswell chips are “tock” which translates to mean that the cores have received architectural…
When buying a new monitor there are so many different displays it may become confusing which one to buy. There are LCD, LED, and Plasma displays and to make matters even more confusing there are three different monitor panel types to choose from. Below I’ll be explaining the differences in the different displays and panels. First we have the most popular display, LCD, or Liquid Crystal Display. This display is typically a flat panel display that uses a fluorescent back light with the video displaying on the liquid crystals. LCDs are used in a wide range of monitors such as…
Have you ever wondered what those tiny 80 Plus stickers found on power supply units mean? Well in the following article I’ll be going over what each type of 80 Plus certification means. 80 Plus is a voluntary certification program set in place by Ecos Consulting in 2004 to promote efficient energy use in computer power supply units (PSUs). In the early days of desktop computers, many PSUs were very inefficient with a lot of energy being lost as heat. In 2004, Ecos Consulting created the 80 Plus program to identify energy efficient PSUs. The 80 in 80 Plus means…