I'm considering buying a computer on eBay that has a completely empty hard drive. The eBay seller is selling a bunch of these computers and the description says that they are "off-lease." Are off-lease computers okay to buy? Will the computer work if I just install Microsoft Windows on it? How many times am I allowed to install a single copy of Microsoft Windows that I' I own?

I have an older Toshiba laptop, a Tecra, and I want to change the order of boot devices so that it'll try to boot off a USB drive before it looks at the CDROM because I have a corrupt OS disk stuck in it. Problem is, I press f1, f8, f12, and just about every other function key I can imagine and nothing lets me get to the BIOS. Help!

One of the many different gizmos we were given at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show was a slick little portable speaker system from long-time audio component firm Altec Lansing.

Imagine a device not much bigger than a 2-inch tall Coke can that you can plug into your iPod or laptop and you've got an idea of what the orbit M speaker looks like.