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 caller’s stuck disc tray responds immediately to Dr. Dave’s paper-clip instruction. Dr. Dave and Evil Steve then admit their own faulty drive has gone unreplaced for months, and he says the ordinary problem helped him understand the caller.
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Dr. Dave compares his limited time to strawberry jam that can be spread thickly on a few pieces of toast or thinly across many. The planned Test and Tune sessions are his answer for helping more people affordably, and he admits that he personally helped erect the classroom walls despite not having time.
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After exhausting his usual tools, Dr. Dave tells listeners that a client’s computer still drives the processor to full use whenever security software is installed—and says plainly that he does not yet know why.
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While warning a caller not to let registry cleaning software become too aggressive, Dr. Dave recalls sitting on the couch with his boys and laughing through The Princess Bride. He compares the Windows registry with the movie’s fire swamp, where progress is possible only if one knows where the flames and rodents of unusual size will appear.
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After a caller says computer trouble makes him feel like a no-brainer, Dr. Dave assures him that technology creates a never-ending cycle of challenges. The running joke in Dr. Dave's office is that a printer works perfectly the night before but absolutely refuses to print the document he needs an hour before a meeting.
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Dr. Dave admits that an unusually difficult repair had exhausted his normal confidence and left him nearly out of ideas. His remedy is human and practical: walk away for a while, run, sit outside, ride a bike or sleep, then return—sometimes the fresh perspective feels magical.
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An IBM continuous backup announcement leads Dr. Dave and Evil Steve to admit that people skip backups because the work interrupts everything else. Their own office now keeps redundant backups religiously because one painful loss created resolve, a later lapse caused another loss and the second steep price finally changed the habit.
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During another live studio adjustment, Dr. Dave recalls working with a radio host known for raging at producers. Dr. Dave and Evil Steve contrast that culture with their own, saying that while they may be smart-alecky, they do not often lose control or take themselves too seriously.
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Dr. Dave says the public repair sessions leave him exhausted but happy because he can solve problems people have endured for months and often save computers they had planned to throw away. Evil Steve turns the skill into the affectionate “computer whisperer” image.
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Dr. Dave’s office computer would not boot and even a diagnostic card pointed toward a motherboard or processor failure. By stripping the system down and first removing the most recently replaced card, he discovers that an inexpensive modem caused the severe-looking problem.
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After encountering an encrypted recovery case, Dr. Dave explains that restoring the files is not enough if the owner has lost the account, exported key or rescue disk required to decrypt them. He urges listeners to preserve that recovery material separately so important family pictures remain usable after a drive failure.
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Evil Steve’s attempt to pair a phone with a new car stereo becomes a funny critique of opaque interfaces and translated manuals: even after succeeding, he cannot explain how he did it and feels that the result arrived almost by accident.
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A Minnesota genealogy researcher collected relatives' old photographs, scanned them on a Windows 95 computer and burned them to a CD that his newer machine can no longer read. Dr. Dave explains the compatibility problem, offers several levels of recovery and promises an email follow-up when football preempts the caller's station—a small story about why digital family preservation requires continuing care.
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A highly technical acquaintance says he answers requests for help with “Google is your friend.” Dr. Dave admits that after twelve or fourteen years of answering radio questions largely from memory, he now solves many problems by searching for thirty seconds alongside his reference discs and accumulated experience.
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A caller admits having no antivirus, spyware protection or firewall. Dr. Dave explains the risk plainly, praises the caller’s honesty, avoids mocking him and uses a car-safety analogy to show that basic preparation makes the Internet manageable.
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Rather than discard a Pentium III laptop running Windows ME, Dr. Dave tries a lightweight Linux installation to learn whether the machine can still do useful work and jokes about “pushing the backside” of the technology envelope.
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Caller John is worried by a mysterious utility warning even though his computer works normally. Dr. Dave says one secret of being good with computers is knowing what to ignore, then explains why a recurring false or harmless warning may be one of those cases.
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A listener who lost the program during its station move says he found it again. His move from a 1996 Windows 95 Aptiva to a Vista laptop lets Dr. Dave demonstrate that advice depends on where the person is starting, while Evil Steve points him back to the online archive.
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Kyle asks where a beginner should start learning Linux without risking the only computer he needs for a dissertation. Dr. Dave calls Linux fun because it restores the hands-on experimentation of computing's earlier days, then draws an important boundary: that challenge is excellent for education or a hobby, but it may be the wrong choice when the machine's primary job is dependable daily work.
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A caller named Dr. Dave's son Nick asks whether following every recommendation can put too much on a computer. Dr. Dave says both ignoring all advice and becoming hypervigilant can create problems, warns that fake cleanup tools may themselves be harmful and recommends restraint rather than piling on software.
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After recovering, copying and backing up a client's data from an intermittently failing SSD, Dr. Dave decides repairing its broken connector would cost more than replacement. He nevertheless refuses to let a drive that passed through his hands expose its owner, so he takes a hatchet to the chips and fractures them before disposal.
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Caller Rebecca describes an online-account compromise, harassment and blackmail efforts and says she reported the incidents. Dr. Dave thanks her for speaking publicly, takes the experience seriously and tells listeners that victims have no reason to be embarrassed.
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Martha’s follow up suggests that letting the computer finish loading solved the connection problem. Dr. Dave turns that outcome into a racing lesson: slow down, observe the machine and accept its feedback instead of clicking repeatedly, then simplify automation when extra convenience has crossed into diminishing returns.
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An email about shaking monitors reminds Dr. Dave of an auto shop where a display wiggled unpredictably despite replacement equipment. The answer appeared only when he happened to see the air compressor start beside a circuit panel hidden across the wall, and moving the monitor three feet solved it.
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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.
