DaveMason.com
ComputerTalk with Dave Mason
The official archive of all available ComputerTalk with Dave Mason radio shows. Spend some time with Dave. Listen to a full show or explore clips by topic.
3,475 unique clips. Each clip appears in one section. Historical conversations, not current advice. Full episodes remain available separately by date.
1414 clips, strongest first.
A listener cannot hear the show because its streaming provider is down. Although the technical failure belongs to a third party, Dr. Dave apologizes and says that because the show hired that company, the failure is theirs and they own it.
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After explaining how criminals compromise reputable websites, Dr. Dave uses infected Treasury pages to show why ordinary people cannot assume that a trusted institution’s site is safe or control every source of risk.
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Dr. Dave remembers buying an early GSM phone before Tucson’s service was ready. He says that an ordinary consumer should wait, but that he needed firsthand experience with emerging technology so his advice would be informed.
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Dr. Dave admits that repeating the same safety steps every week can wear him down, but listeners and even devoted fans still arrive with unprotected computers. Evil Steve answers that looking out for the audience is what being Dr. Dave requires, however repetitive or painful it becomes.
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After a confusing call shows why the basic facts must come first, Dr. Dave remembers a businessman demanding a phone with Bluetooth. The man has no headset, dislikes headsets and cannot explain the request beyond wanting a good phone, illustrating how branding can make people chase a technology they neither need nor understand.
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When a caller asks how to protect a replacement drive, Dr. Dave says the exact method depends on how important the data is. His essential rule is universal: make sure the routine is not so complex that it never gets done, because even the best-designed backup plan is worthless when nobody follows it.
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A caller named Dr. Dave's son Nick describes an unstable laptop after installing a new drive. Dr. Dave explains the subtle but important possibility that the change did not create the defect but exposed a fault already present, then says the investigation will require patient and methodical testing.
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Dr. Dave says many people who call his recovery service have intact drives and data but a damaged Windows installation. He distinguishes that condition from physical warning signs such as a dead or clicking drive and says the correct diagnosis can save time, money and heartache.
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Bruce has already tested an external drive, another device and the computer's ports. Dr. Dave explicitly orders the evidence and chooses the remaining low-cost cable test while warning that repeated experiments can endanger data.
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Caller Chuck says frustration may drive people to replace computers. Dr. Dave agrees that replacement can sometimes be valid, but explains that the same problems return unless owners accept a basic level of understanding, protection and routine upkeep.
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A caller’s DVD and streaming video have both stopped working, suggesting a complicated problem with many possible sources. Dr. Dave asks him to proceed through a troubleshooting tree patiently and methodically rather than promising a quick answer for a problem that may not be trivial.
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A thrift-store scanner caller says his market needs a practical “quick and dirty” result, not pixel-counting perfection. Dr. Dave praises the focus on actual outcomes and argues that careful simplicity need not be sloppy when tiny improvements cost more than users can see.
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When caller Jeff asks about a Microsoft security product, Dr. Dave immediately says he has not tested it and openly describes his general bias against all in one software. He leaves room for the product to be an exception, credits the caller’s experience and commits to investigate rather than pretending to know more than he does.
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Caller Tom describes image files from Mac-using clients that become unusable on his PC. Dr. Dave works through the possibilities, distinguishes a true JPEG from a renamed file, repeatedly qualifies his ideas and finally admits that he is grasping at straws and does not know the answer.
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A registry-cleaning question becomes Dr. Dave’s argument that a tiny improvement is not worth a large chance of making a computer unusable. Even when he trusts a tool, he insists on a backup because every risky change should leave a safe retreat and a graceful way out.
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Ken's improvised operating-system experiment and deleted recovery partition lead Dr. Dave to compare computer changes with driving: understand the destination and always preserve an exit before experimenting.
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A caller tries to join two hard-drive cables because both ends seem to demand another connection. Dr. Dave says experienced users may laugh, but the misunderstanding is entirely reasonable for someone who has never installed a drive, then calmly explains the direct connection.
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After a power interruption leaves Dan’s wife’s computer unable to boot, Dr. Dave explains that an error message is the computer’s best guess at a related clue. Sometimes it identifies the exact problem, but often experience is needed to interpret the broader failure before changing the named file.
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Charles worries that automatic backup may copy a Trojan. Dr. Dave acknowledges that possibility but explains that infection can be treated, whereas missing data may be unrecoverable or extremely costly to reconstruct.
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When Rob asks about preserving his wife's long-used Outlook setup, Dr. Dave first recommends replacing it, then immediately drops that preference once the caller says she dislikes new programs: “That's not what you asked.” He also reveals that his own email archive had grown beyond a million messages since 1999.
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When caller Daryl asks whether an operating system upgrade requires a backup, Dr. Dave gives a broader rule: the frequency, completeness and consistency of a backup should reflect how important the data is. Even a change that normally preserves files cannot justify promising that nothing unexpected will go wrong.
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A caller wants to protect an offline computer using discs alone. Dr. Dave explains that new drives can fail too and recommends two different forms of backup, balancing fast everyday copies with a separate longer-term copy because the files matter.
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Answering a caller with a badly infected computer, Dr. Dave says the most important tools are patience and a methodical approach. He compares a thorough repair to cleaning the same area more than once because effective real world work can require repeated passes rather than one quick action.
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Asked whether to assemble a gaming computer, Dr. Dave says the responsibility is not trivial even when every component is carefully researched. He builds machines for his own office but never for someone else, and asks the caller to compare actual parts costs rather than assume a custom build is automatically cheaper.
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Browse by year, then month, to find the episodes from that month.
442 proposed broadcast dates, plus 2 undated entries. Dates are based on archive filenames and may be approximate. Some broadcasts survive as separate parts or incomplete recordings.
