Industrial Monitors

Writen by Kevin Stith

LCD or liquid crystal display monitors are now emerging as a popular choice for industrial monitors though there are people who continue to be faithful to the CRTs or the cathode ray tube monitors. LCD being a new technology has comparatively more advantages than the conventional CRTs. CRTs are not only bigger and bulkier than the LCDs, but they also have the disadvantage of consuming more power.

An LCD monitor is based on a very thin screen and is both compact and light in weight. In fact, it is the compact size of the LCD monitor that is one of the major contributing factors of its gaining popularity in an industrial set-up. Multiple screens can be integrated into the limited desk space. Also, because of their compact size, and light in weight, they are easier to move around, if required.

In terms of power consumption, the cost of operating an LCD monitor is one-third required to run a CRT. This also means less heat in generated by the LCDs as compared to CRTs. Another point in favor of LCD monitors is that due to their uniform brightness and the fact that these screens are covered with a flexible surface that is less prone to glare, these monitors are easy to the eye, in that they reduce eyestrain that may result due to long computing sessions.

Do a comparative study of their prices and you will find that CRTs are more affordable than LCDs. Yet, you also need to keep in mind that the longevity in terms of performance is higher in case of LCDs. Also, associated with this is the fact that an LCD monitor requires less power consumption.

This is not to say that the CRTs do not have any advantages associated with them. Viewing angle is a limiting factor with an LCD monitor. People can get a clear picture only if they view if from the front. View it from the sides and you will find that the colors seem inverted or the image seems to disappear. This is not the case with CRTs. A CRT screen can be looked at from a wider angle.

All said, CRTs and LCDs are based on two different technologies and so it naturally follows that they will have variant characteristics.

Industrial Monitors provides detailed information about industrial monitors, flat panel industrial monitors, industrial LCD monitors, industrial monitor manufacturers and more. Industrial Monitors is the sister site of Cheap LCD TVs.

A Dozen Ways Plus One To Save On Toner And Toner Cartridges

Writen by Larry Andrew

There is no question that toner is the most expensive part of owning a laser printer. Statistics show that the average laser printer life span is approximately five years. Over that five-year period, you will pay seven times as much for toner and toner cartridges as you paid for your laser printer. If your printer lasts more than five years, you will pay even more.

Here are a dozen ways (plus one) to help you save your toner cost.

1. Before you purchase a replacement toner cartridge, do a little homework. You need to know "what type" of toner or toner cartridge you are buying. Everyone's printing needs are different. For example, you may want to use one type of toner cartridge for draft printing and use a higher quality cartridge for your final print. Regardless of what you decide to do, you will always save money when you make an informed purchasing decision. Avoid the headaches that occur from spontaneous, uninformed purchases.

2. Buy compatible toner cartridges. Compatible toner cartridges are brand new toner cartridges made by third party companies. They are manufactured to the exact OEM specifications of your laser printer. The manufacturing technology for compatible cartridges has significantly improved in the past few years. The technology used by these compatible toner companies is as good as the technology used by major printer manufacturers.

3. Buy remanufactured toner cartridges. Third party printer companies produce remanufactured toner cartridges. They take empty toner cartridges, empty any excess toner waste and then refill the cartridge with the toner designed for your printer. These cartridges are then put through a quality check process to insure the drum and other cartridge parts are working correctly.

4. Buy a toner refill kit. A toner refill kit gives you the tools and instructions required to refill your own toner cartridge. It usually takes less than ten minutes. Be sure to follow the step-by-step instructions carefully. You can expect to refill a toner cartridge approximately three times before it must be replaced.

5. Replace the toner drum instead of entire cartridge. Many toner cartridges allow you to replace just the drum instead of the whole cartridge. Replacing just the drum will save you money.

6. Shop around for toner and toner cartridges. Don't purchase a toner cartridge or toner from the first company you come across. You can often find bargains by doing a little shopping and comparison. For example, you can go to an auction site such as eBay and check their prices for toner or toner cartridges. Some companies let you use coupons to save on purchases. Many toner companies will ship your toner order free. A little comparison shopping can save you a lot of money.

7. Buy in bulk. You can usually cut your cost by volume purchasing. For example, you can purchase multiple toner cartridges instead of just one. You can purchase bulk toner to refill your own toner cartridge. Once you have a toner refill kit (see number 4 above), all you will need in the future is the toner. You can usually get the toner from the same company where you purchased your toner refill kit.

8. Don't replace your toner cartridge at the first sign of streaks on your paper. Many people think they should immediately replace their toner cartridge when they see a light streak on their paper. Don't change the toner cartridge. Take it out of your printer and gently shake it several times. Your toner cartridge usually has ten percent of its toner still in tact. By gently shaking it, you can get several hundred additional pages of quality print. Repeat this process until you can no longer print more than thirty pages of streak-free pages before you must shake it again. Then, replace the toner cartridge.

9. Buy toner cartridges with separate drums. Some laser printers have the toner cartridge and drum in a single unit. Other printers have these two components separated. When possible, buy a toner cartridge with a separate drum unit. A drum will typically last about 20,000 pages whereas a toner cartridge will yield only 3,500 pages. Over time, laser printers with a separate drum will cut your cost because you can replace the drum multiple times compared to the toner cartridge.

10. Check the toner cartridge yield before you purchase. If you do a little homework, you'll be able to determine how many pages a toner cartridge is expected to print. For example, a toner cartridge may print 5000 pages with five percent coverage. The industry rule of thumb is that the number of pages a cartridge will print is based upon five percent coverage. This means that only five percent of the page will be printed on. Of course, this estimate will vary if you use a lot of graphics, text, bold letters, etc. However, with these estimates you can get some idea of which printers and toner cartridges will cost more or less over its normal life cycle.

11. Enroll in a toner recycle program. One way to cut cost is to enroll in a toner-recycling program. These programs allow the company to recycle their unused toner and toner cartridges. These programs provide refilled toner cartridges, which are much less costly. Some recycling programs also help in collecting and refilling your toner cartridges. If you have a problem, they will provide free assistance.

12. Order your toner and toner cartridges online. In most cases, you will find that purchasing your toner cartridges online will save you a lot of money. These online toner companies do not have to maintain a storefront. They can pass this savings in overhead along to the consumer. These online companies also sell multiple types of toner cartridges. Most retail stores sell name brand cartridges, which are more expensive.

13. Always purchase from a reliable toner company. Last, but definitely not least, always purchase your toner and toner cartridges from reputable online companies. You can avoid a lot of headaches on that "great toner deal" by following a few simple guidelines. Visit our website to learn "What You Should Know Before Purchasing a Compatible Toner Cartridge Online".

Larry Andrew has owned and operated his own educational consulting business for over twenty years. He has extensive experience in teaching, computers and software. He is the publisher of http://www.compatible-toner-cartridge-guide.com.

How To Backup Your Hard Drive

Writen by Otis F. Cooper

We all know that we should back up our system as soon as possible. But if you're like most of us, you will get to it tomorrow. The problem is that tomorrow rarely ever comes until you experience a serious computer failure and then it's too late.

Taking the time to backup your data or entire hard drive is not as painstaking as it may seem. And the rewards of doing so will be great should your system experience a crash.

WINDOWS AND OTHER BACKUP SOFTWARE

If you have Windows XP you will need to install the new Windows backup utility from the Windows XP cdrom. Just place the WinXP cdrom in your cdrom drive and locate the line D:VALEADDMSFTNTBACKUP.

Here you see the first letter as D but if your optical drive has a different drive letter, exchange the D with your drive's letter. To install the utility, click on the file named NTBackup.msi.

The backup utility will be installed to the system tools group. Click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, and Backup. There is a neat wizard that will walk you through the backup process.

WinXP's backup utility will backup your entire hard drive and will make a recovery disk to boot.

One neat third party backup software you can try is NewTech InfoSystems at http://www.ntius.com where you can download their trial version and put it to use for 30 days. And if it's your cup of tea, the full version will run you about $79.95

INCREMENTAL OR DIFFERENTIAL BACKUPS

You should back up your entire hard drive when you perform your first backup. After that it is best to perform an Incremental backup. This type of backup only allows you to backup files that have changed since your last performed backup.

Differential Backups copy changed files that have been added since you last did your entire backup. This type of backup is more detailed than incremental backups and is easier to restore.

BACKUP STORAGE DEVICES

You can backup your files on cdroms and have the files compressed to save both space and backup time. WinXP will compress folders, subfolders, and files during backup.

You can purchase compression software that will do the same, saving you cdrom storage space. The compressed files are automatically uncompressed once they are restored onto your hard drive.

You can also use a second hard drive as your backup storage device. We use two backup hard drives to be certain Ultimate PC Repair is up and running 24/7.

You can either purchase an internal hard drive and install it to your ide cable, or you may want to purchase an external hard drive that connects to your Universal Serial Bus or USB Port.

The advantage of the external drives is that they have very large amounts of storage space, transfer data fast, and can be moved from your computer to any other computer.

We use the Western Digital 170 Gigabyte External Hard Drive and we simply bounce it around to either one of our four computers with the greatest of ease.

USING ONLINE BACKUP SERVICES

You may also consider online services for backing up your data. If you lose all your backup data, say due to a natural disaster such as a flood, your online data is right there waiting for you.

Another advantage of online backups is that you can access, upload, or download your data from any location. It is best to use high speed internet access if you're considering online data storage.

One such online backup service is Istorage located at http://www.iomega.com/istorage and charges from $2.49 a month for 50MBs to $17.95 a month for a big 1,000MBs of storage.

Or you can check out FilesAnywhere located at the url http://www.filesanywhere.com

Still another online service to try is CapSure located at http://www.capsure.com

Backup your system now in one way or another if you have not done so. If you have critical data that you simply cannot do without, take the time to invest in a backup device or one of the many online backup services.

Stop and perform those backups as soon as possible. You will be thankful you did should something go wrong with your computer. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

About The Author

Otis F. Cooper is the author of the award winning PC Super Pack, the Computer Training By Video course. For hundreds more free PC repair tips, sign up for his bi-monthly newsletter and learn the PC free at http://www.ultimatepcrepair.com

Refurbished Rugged Laptops

Writen by Max Bellamy

Refurbished rugged laptops are the renovated laptops specially designed to meet adverse conditions. Refurbished or used laptops are affordable secondary computers, ideal for use in harsh, rugged conditions. Rugged laptops possess specific system configuration, which makes it competent to work in the most taxing environment. Refurbished rugged laptops offer the opportunity to own a rugged laptop at an economical price.

Laptops that function erratically are returned to the manufacturer. The manufacturer repairs the error and revives the laptop, utilizing the expertise pool of the company. Leading manufacturers, who are focused on the performance of their products, incorporate the latest update in the series to the refurbished laptop. The manufacturer cannot market it as a brand new piece since the technological revision is on a used frame work. The freshened-up rugged laptops are marketed as refurbished rugged laptops.

Refurbished rugged laptops provide all the facilities of a new rugged laptop at a much lower price. The prices are slashed up to 60% in most cases. Refurbished laptops meet common standards set for rugged laptops. They can withstand various environmental pressures such as heat, cold, dust, fog, humidity, rain, gunfire etc. They are competent to work in difficult environments such as at sea, oil rigs, high mountains, warfront etc. They are distinguishable because of their sturdy outer casing which ensures protection. Refurbished rugged laptops can assure a longer life for the hardware and are recommended as a substitute for standard laptops.

Refurbished rugged laptops are available through the remarketing services of the manufacturer. Leading retail chains also provide refurbished laptops. Online sites offer options for auction also. Many attractive offers come with regular discounts. Refurbished rugged laptops usually have assured warranty. Warranty period varies with the manufacturer.

Panasonic Toughbook CF28, Panasonic Toughbook CF-29, HP nr3610, HP nr3600, Itronix GoBook IX300 etc are some available models of refurbished rugged laptops.

Refurbished Laptops provides detailed information on Refurbished Laptops, Cheap Refurbished Laptops, Dell Refurbished Laptops, IBM Refurbished Laptops and more. Refurbished Laptops is affiliated with Used Cheap Laptops.