Help for personal tech gifts that don’t work right

A record number of the holiday gifts unwrapped this year are going to be personal technology gadgets and gizmos. But it’s inevitable that some of those smiles will turn to frowns because those dad-blamed devices don’t work they way they were supposed to. So just where do you find help when you can’t get through to the support lines? My NBC-TV High Tech Talk segment has some suggested Websites.

One of my favorite help sites…Tom’s Hardware Guide offers lots of insight and background on the sound boards, video card and hard drive innards of today’s computers.
But for fixing them, try Everything Computers. It isn’t fancy but offers great step-by-step troubleshooting.

If you have a Mac and can’t find help on the Apple site, try Mac Fix It. It specializes in solving issues with Macs, and even has tutorials.

A lot of problems come from outdates=d software. Head over to Version Tracker. Here you can find the latest software for Windows and Macintosh computers.

And for everything about Windows and Microsoft software , go to the company’s help and support page.

I’m gonna let you in on a secret. I used to host a radio call in show where I’d help people solve computer problems. Most times I could. What I’d do, as they were explaining the issue to me, was type a search on what they were describing on Google. In seconds, I usually found the solution. They thought I was a genius. You can try the same thing.

The solution to what ails your technology is probably online.