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John M.

John M.

Joined on 03/19/02

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Product Reviews
product reviews
  • 5
Most Favorable Review

Helps stability

PC Tools Registry Mechanic v 9.0
PC Tools Registry Mechanic v 9.0

Pros: I've used registry mechanic on the PCs and notebooks for a number of years now. While the 'Defragment Your Registry' only provides very slight improvement in boot time, I have found the 'Clean Your Registry' option quite useful. Running it after uninstalling a piece of software or a hardware driver helps to clean out the registry entries left behind, and helps system stability.

Cons: The only downside is that it requires an annual subscription (much like antivirus software).

Overall Review: Registry cleaners are what they are. Don't expect a dramatic increase in speed, but you should see stability improve -- especially if you frequently install and uninstall programs and drviers.

Most Critical Review

Flaky drive

LG  WH10LS30 10X Blu-ray Burner - LightScribe Support - Bulk - OEM
LG WH10LS30 10X Blu-ray Burner - LightScribe Support - Bulk - OEM

Pros: The drive is relatively quiet, and it quickly burned the single-layer BD-R I tested it with the day I got it.

Cons: It flat out will not burn DVD media of any type or brand. When attempting to burn, it will start to burn the lead-in then the drive activity light goes out and it disconnects itself from the SATA bus, failing to reappear until the system is rebooted. I've only had it a little over 2 months now.

Overall Review: I've owned LG drives dating back to some of their earlier CD burners, and this is the first LG product that I've had a problem with. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt if I can get in touch with them and can get a working warranty replacement; if so, I'll happily revise th 1-Egg rating.

Severe Image Ghosting

Rosewill RTCS-MLT-D103L (MLT-D103L) High Yield Black Toner Replaces Samsung 103 MLT-D103L/XAA 103 MLT-D103S/XAA - Retail
Rosewill RTCS-MLT-D103L (MLT-D103L) High Yield Black Toner Replaces Samsung 103 MLT-D103L/XAA 103 MLT-D103S/XAA - Retail

Pros: When I caught this one sale, the price was less than half of the OEM (Samsung) toner cartridge. Text appeared crisp.

Cons: After installing the Rosewill cartridge, I experienced severe ghosting when printing images. To make sure it wasn't a printer problem, I re-installed the old Samsung cartridge. The ghosting was gone, which leads me to believe that there was either a faulty imaging drum in the Rosewill unit, poorly formulated toner, or both.

Overall Review: It's entirely possible that I just received a bum unit as Rosewill products have, generally speaking, been pretty reliable for me in the past.

Shaky connection

SteelSeries 61050 7H Headset
SteelSeries 61050 7H Headset

Pros: If you hold the USB connector to the left 'can' in just the right place, they sound great. They're also fairly comfortable.

Cons: The connection to the above left can doesn't stay stable. If you touch it or the cord, the sound suddenly becomes very distant.

Overall Review: I really wish I'd listened to the other reviews before I bought this, but the price on the flash sale seemed too good to pass up.

Rebate and support problems

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4650 1GB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Graphics Card 100254HDMI
SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4650 1GB DDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Graphics Card 100254HDMI

Pros: The card performs well for the price.

Cons: Every single Sapphire video card I have tried to get a rebate on has been a painful experience. Sending and re-sending documents -- and they love to deny claims. And good luck trying to find a US support number for the company.

Overall Review: Due to this poor support level, this will be the last sapphire product that I buy. I will recommend against purchasing them to my clients as well

11/11/2010