Hardware – eFriend Magazine

How to Restart Your Phone Without Power Button

efriend — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 16:20:03 +0000

Like a computer, a simple restart can solve many common issues occurred in your smartphone. Due to daily usage and the installation of different apps may freeze your phone, a network error or a signal connection problem may arise, a restart may be a quick solution to solve all of these problems. If you want to restart your smartphone, by holding the power button for a few seconds. Ins some cases, holding down both the Power and Volume Up buttons for up to 20 seconds will restart your device. In most phones, holding down the power button for 15 to 30 seconds will shows the phone restart prompt. On Samsung devices you might need to hold down the volume-down button and power button for 7 seconds to restart the phone.

Sometimes due to high usage the physical power button may not work properly or stops working. Power button is the physical button to power off or restart your device. If it failed to restart it is a tough time for you to restart the phone manually. Here are some methods we have find to restart your smartphone with out your power button.

The soft reboot technique
Your phone may start to boot when you plug into a charging adapter, then you are lucky. But in most cases, it won’t start by itself. In an Android phone, plug the charging adapter into the socket, then press the volume up (+) key and the volume down (-) key together for about 20 seconds. Your device will start to boot.

By connecting to your computer
If you are having a laptop or a computer, connect the device with your computer using the data cable that came with your device. When a prompt appears, choose the data transmission option, and the device may restart now.

Restart from the boot menu
The boot menu or the recovery mode in smartphones helps to solve some of the common issues on phones. You can apply update from ADB (Android Debug Bridge), or from SD card. You can wipe data or factory reset, wipe cache partition, view recovery logs, or can run local tests using the boot menu. Use the proper combination of keys to enter the recovery mode, in new Samsung phones, press the power button and volume up at the same time until the Samsung logo appears. Then let go of both buttons. You are now in recovery mode. The default key combination for Android Recovery mode is to push and hold the Power and Volume Down buttons at the same time while the phone is off. Pressing down the volume up and volume down button together for 20 seconds also helps.

You can just connect to a charger, and wait for it to wake up on its own is the easiest solution. You can see the battery status as it starts charging.

Speed Up Your Slow Laptop or Computer

efriend — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 17:50:56 +0000

If you are using an old laptop or PC, you may notice that your device takes too much time to open up windows explorer or installed applications. If you have used another system, you may quickly notice the difference or lag in handling various commands. It makes take a longer time to open up graphical applications or if you are editing or converting video. As the system gets old, it is a great chance to fill the device with junk files.

There are several reasons behind the sluggish nature of your laptop. Your system tray may have filled with too many programs. A lot of programs automatically setup themselves to start with your device, there may be tons of unwanted programs that you are installed from time to time, and there are certain programs that eat up the resources that you never use! As the time passes your disk may fill with a lot of junk files or duplicate files. Here are some easy ways to clean up and speed up your laptop.

Uninstall Unused Software programs
This is the first step you should do. Check the programs installed and the space eaten up by the program and the remaining space available in your OS drive (normally C drive). You can uninstall unused or unwanted programs from Control panel>Uninstall a program>Select the program>Uninstall/change. Before uninstalling check whether the program is a required one or not. You may note down the serial number of any purchased software before uninstalling the software to reinstall it later.

Close Programs in system Tray
Sometimes too many programs may be started with Windows and stay running in the background. Sometimes, some applications may not be closed when clicking the close button, it may be in the system tray to monitor the activity to provide better results. For example, if you used a system cleanup tool to clean up your system and you closed the application after the cleanup, but it may not be closed completely, it may reside in your system tray to track your computer performance to inform you about the time for next clean up! It may be a part of that program to support its users and there may be some options to disable it in the Settings or Preference tab of the apps. But most users don’t know such a feature exists in their program. You can see the programs in the taskbar by clicking the upward arrow toward the right side of the taskbar in Windows.

Disable Startup programs
There are a number of programs startup automatically with your Windows OS. If you are installed an Antivirus or a Download manager tool it may automatically startup with your system. The antivirus requires the automatic startup to detect and delete the virus as it enters into your system. The download managers require the automatic startup to detect the links of downloadable files and objects. Some software installs their automatic update feature in startup to monitor and update their software regularly. You can access the Task Manager by right-clicking on the taskbar (the black horizontal bar seen at the bottom of your desktop) and select Task manager in the popup menu (you can also use the shortcut: Ctrl-Shift-Escape). Initially, the tabs are at Processes, click Startup to see the startup programs. To disable a program, select the program that you want to block from startup, right-click on the program, in the popup menu select Disable. You can also see the Startup impact of the program in the Startup tab.

Update your Operating System
Nowadays, all OS has its own update program to automatically check and update the Operating system and the drivers installed on the system. To update Windows go to Start>Settings (gear icon) > Update&Security > Windows Update. Your operating system, drivers and apps are automatically updated to the latest version.

Detect the resource-hungry programs
You can find the resource-hungry programs from the Task Manager. In Processes, you can see the CPU and memory power used by the program, you can also see the utilization of the physical drive. To end a program right-click the application and click End task.

Update the Hardware
It becomes a little costly, but more effective. You can add an SSD hard disk instead of your old HDD hard disk. For a normal user, a 120GB SSD is enough, if you are planning to install some heavy application, get a 240Gb SSD. If you are a gamer you may need more space to install the entire game! I tested it on my laptop and it boots up faster like my smartphone! It’s not a waste of money, really worth it. Next, you have to check the amount of free RAM available, if you have too little memory to run applications, you need to think of your RAM upgrade.

Essential Guide to Computer Cables and Connectors

efriend — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 17:35:25 +0000

Computer cables are essential to connect various peripherals to the computer. As technology improved, different types of cables are evolved to connect the various device. For a normal user, it is very difficult and complicated to understand and identify the uses and functions of different cables. Here is a quick guide to identifying various computer cables and their uses. For the sake of convenience and understanding, here the cables are classified based on their uses.

Display Cables
There is a different type of computer connection cables are available to connect a monitor to the computer. VGA, DVI, HDMI are some commonly used display cables. Most monitors support more than one type of cable.

VGA (Video Graphics Array) cable
The VGA cable is used to connect analogue to connect the PC to monitor. It is a three-row 15 pin connector.

DVI (Digital Visual Interface) Cable
DVI cable is a video display cable to transfer digital video content. It can transmit uncompressed digital video, it can support DVI-A (analog only, DVI-D (digital only) or DVI-I (digital and analog).

HDMI (High Defenition Multimedia Interface) cable
HDMI replaces analogue video standards, it can transmit uncompressed video and audio data to an HDMI compatible computer monitor. HDMI can send the best quality video and sound to HDMI port.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) Cables
USB cables are used to transfer data or to charge a device. USB connectors are plug and play connectors to communicate with different peripherals.

USB-A cable
Based on the physical design of USB cable it is classified into three different types; USB type A, USB type B, USB type C. USB-A is a flat rectangular interface and uses flat contacts.

USB-B Cable
USB-B is square in design with slightly bevelled corners.

USB-C cable
USB-C connector is the newest USB connector.

USB 3.0 Cable

Mini-USB
This is is similar to USB but with a small form factor.

Micro USB
This is physically smaller than Mini USB to connect mobile phones, digital cameras and other gadgets.

Audio Cables
3.5mm audio cable
These type of audio cables are used to connect a various stereo audio device like PC audio, DVD player, mp3 player, etc.

XLR cables
XLR cables are for audio applications from professional recording sessions to live performances.

Ethernet Cables
Ethernet cables are used to connect the device with a network. We can connect our computer to the internet through an ethernet cable. Long ethernet cables result in slower transmission speeds.

How To Run a Benchmark Test

efriend — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 04:54:21 +0000

Do you want to know how your computer performance in a different situation? Do you need to test yourself, your computer, CPU or graphics card performance? Benchmarking is the term used to assess your hardware performance against millions of other systems. Sometimes, you need to know their performance of your system in numbers to check whether a new software or games work flawlessly in your system.

You can Benchmark the processor performance. You can test your Central Processing Unit (CPU) performance before going to buy a new game. The CPU is the brain of your computer, it not only accelerates the game performance but for the performance of the entire system depends on the CPU. The Graphics Card Unit (GPU) will directly impact on the performance of games and video editing. You can also benchmark your whole system to know how it performs in a natural environment.

So, you are ready to start to benchmark your system. Before starting the benchmarking application, close the running applications and the applications that run in the background. Benchmarking is a time-consuming process. It requires time to complete each process and wants to calculate the results. All require time and patience. It is not advisable to interrupts the benchmarking performance, as it affects the final result. Ensure you are having enough time and the computing power is not needed for you at that time.

Start Benchmark Test
Is your pc performing at its best or not? Let’s run a benchmark test to know how the components work in real time. You need some dedicated tools to test and analyze the working of each component, analyzing the results to displaying it.

PassMark
(https://www.passmark.com/)
The Passmark’s performance test includes a standard test suite to test CPU, 2D graphics, 3D graphics, Diska and memory tests. It tests CPU for hyperthreading and multiple CPU support. It executes complex mathematical calculations involving compression, encryption and physics simulation. The2D graphics test everyday applications like Word processing, CAD drawing, and internet browsing. The 3D graphics tests the 3D graphics hardware available on your system. The suite checks hard disks, solid state drives, and optical drives using sequential read, sequential write, random seek, read+write, etc. The memory check (RAM) includes cached and uncached reads, database operations, latency, and threaded read tests.

Geekbench
(https://www.geekbench.com/)
Geekbench measures your CPU performance in real-world applications. It computes the performance of the GPU. In Geekbench the higher the scores are better. The double the score means double the performance. It tests for Crypto, integer, floating point, memory. The crypto measures the crypto instruction performance for performing cryptography tasks. Integer workloads measure integer instruction performance for performing processor intensive tasks, the floating point measures various floating point operations. The memory workloads measure memory latency and bandwidth.

Cinebench
(https://www.maxon.net/)
Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite for evaluating the computer’s hardware capabilities. It tests Cinema 4D software’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user.

3D Mark
(https://www.3dmark.com/)
The 3D mark is a gaming benchmark tool. 3DMark includes everything you need to benchmark everything from smartphone, tablet, notebook, or your desktop gaming PC.

PCMark10
(https://benchmarks.ul.com/pcmark10)
This software benchmark the performance of all types of PCs, from tablets to desktops. PCMark 10 analyze the complete system for modern office needs using tests based on real-world applications and activities.

CPU-Z
(https://www.cpuid.com/)
CPU-Z is a freeware it gathers processor name and number, codename, process, package, cache levels, mainboard, and chipset, memory type, size, timings, and module specifications (SPD), real-time measurement of each core’s internal frequency, memory frequency.

Unigine Heaven
(https://benchmark.unigine.com/heaven)
It tests for extreme performance and stability test for the video card, power supply, cooling system. It also checks your hardware in stock and overclocking modes with the real-life load. Heaven Benchmark is a GPU-intensive benchmark to test graphics cards to its limits. The basic edition of Unigine Heaven is free to use.

Basemark
(https://www.basemark.com/)
Basemark tools test the PC hardware for increasing the performance of your PC. Basemark web 3.0 test your system performance in real-time from your web browser.

User Benchmark
(https://www.userbenchmark.com)
UserBenchmark can identify many PC problems and help you to get the best performance possible from your computer. It can suggest the PCs underperformance reasons, may be due to hardware or software issues.

Novabench
(https://novabench.com/)
Novabench is a free benchmark software to tests your computer’s performance. It can test CPU, GPU, memory and hard disk read and write speed.

SiSoftware Sandra
(https://www.sisoftware.co.uk/)
You can use SiSoftware Sandra to analyze your device performance.

There is a huge list of benchmarking software available for a different purpose. The most popular benchmarking tools commonly used by tech experts are discussed here. You can also use POV-Ray, Prime95 software for CPU stress testing. The benchmark score tells us the best stuff at the best price. You can check a few benchmark test results to know the best hardware and games to buy for the money. Check this CPU, GPU, SSD and HDD benchmarks to know the best hardware for your next purchase.

Best CPU for Gaming-2019 Edition

efriend — Sun, 02 Jun 2019 04:04:37 +0000

The computer gaming industry is booming and the market value grows to billions. The three major gaming sectors are PC, Console, and Mobile gaming. The PC gaming industry is ruled by powerful processors and awesome graphics processors. New games come with advanced graphics and 3D visuals, to display it in stunning quality high-end processors and graphics card is needed. Here is some good computer processor that you can consider to purchase a new PC.

Configure You Gaming Rig – Premium Gaming PC
Intel Core i9-9900K
Intel Core i9-9900K is a Coffee lake 8 core, 16 thread, 3.6 GHz processor with max turbo frequency 5.0 GHz. It has Intel UHD graphics 630. It has TDP of 95W, max memory size 128GB.

Intel Core i7-9700K
This is a 14nm 8 core processor with 8 threads. The processor has a base frequency of 3.60GHz, max turbo frequency 4.90 GHz. It has Intel UHD graphics 630.

Intel Core i7-8700K
This is an 8th generation processor having 6 cores, 12 threads having Intel UHD graphics 630. It has 3.70 GHz up to 4.70 GHz max turbo frequency.

Mid-Range Gaming PC
Intel Core i5-9600K
This 9th generation processor has 6 cores up to 4.6GHz turbo frequency. This processor has 6 cores, 6 threads unlocked processor. You can also consider the 8th generation processor like Intel Core i5-8400 and Intel Core i5-8600K. This 8th generation processor has 6 cores, 6 threads, 4.0 GHz max turbo frequency. Intel Core i5-8600K is a 6 core, 6 threads desktop processor with Intel UHD graphics 630.

AMD Ryzen 7-2700X
This 2nd generation Ryzen processor from AMD has 8 core, 16 threads having a base clock of 3.7GHz, a maximum boost clock of 4.3GHz, TDP 105W.

AMD Ryzen 5-2600X
This is a 6 core CPU, 12 threads having a base clock frequency of 3.6GHz, a maximum boost clock of 4.2GHz, TDP 95W.

Budget Gaming PC
AMD Ryzen 3 2200G
This unlocked quad-core processor with Radeon Vega 8 graphics offers fast and smooth performance. The 4 core processor, 4 threads, 8 GPU cores, base clock frequency 3.5GHz, the maximum boost clock frequency of 3.7 GHz.