From the Mailbag

Ashley:

Yes, you can purchase a computer for around $400. However, at that price point do not expect high performance. It will be an adequate "family computer" - i.e. OK for email, homework, Web surfing, YouTube, etc. The Dell Inspiron 24 3000 that you mentioned looks decent ($399.99). It has a 1.8GHz quad-core AMD processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and comes with Windows 10 64-bit installed. That computer should be OK for you and the children. Happy shopping.

Salvatore has an external hard drive dock and a powered speaker bar. Recently, the power adapter for the speaker bar failed and he wants to know whether he can use the adapter from the dock for both devices. MAYBE. As I recall, voltage is pushed by the adapter and amperage is pulled by the device. Therefore, the voltage of the adapter must EXACTLY match any device that it is connected to. However, the amperage marked on the adapter may be GREATER THAN OR EQUAL TO what is marked on the device. You must pull out the magnifying glass and carefully read the label on both the power adapter and the speaker bar. So long as you can satisfy both of the rules above then you should be OK.