I mentioned this on Buzz out Loud and a fistful of people wrote in and called to remind me that Microsoft fixed that issue a while back. Here's how to activate background downloads.

Go to My Xbox

Choose system settings

Then console settings

And go down and select shutdown

Then select Background Downloads

And select Enable.

Now when you turn off your Xbox, downloads will continue in a low-power mode until the download completes.

Hope that makes your downloading on the Xbox a little more convenient.

Any of the following issues can be truly annoying with your MacBook: the battery won't charge, the power adapter doesn't work, or, my personal favorite, the Mac won't go to sleep, or worse, won't wake up from it. Here's how to solve some of these power annoyances.

First, try a basic restart. Click on the Apple in the menu bar and select restart. If the computer won't restart, try the following.

Use option-command-escape to force quit any programs that may be stalled. Press control-command and the power button to force a restart of the machine. Or, if that doesn't work, force a shutdown by holding the power button down for 10 seconds.

Once you've restarted the Mac, see if you're still having power problems. If you are, here's a last-ditch trick you can use on an Intel-based Mac to try to fix your Mac's sleep or other power-management problems. Thanks to joeyjoeyjoey in the #CNETFans chat room for this one.

First, shut down the system entirely. Use the power button trick if you need to.

Unplug the power and remove the battery.

Do you have a MacBook Air or 17-inch MacBook Pro? Yeah, they don't give you a way to easily remove the batteries on those. We'll get to you down below.

Once you have the battery out, press and hold the power button for 5 seconds, then release it.

Reconnect the battery and the power.

And power on the computer. Hopefully that fixed your problem.

Now if the battery doesn't come out of your particular Mac, you still need to turn the MacBook off, but make sure your power adapter is connected and plugged in.

On the keyboard press the left shift button, the left Control and left option buttons, along with the power button all at the same time, once. Only use the left side buttons, not the ones on the right.

Wait five seconds, then start the computer back up. And there you have it. If the problem was unstable settings in the System Management Controller, they should be fixed now.

A word about sleep issues. Before you resort to the power management, remember that connections can prevent the MacBook from going to sleep. Bluetooth connections, network connections, and even just playing music or DVDs can interrupt sleep. My MacBook Pro wasn't staying asleep because my EVDO card was in the slot and it kept checking the network connection, interrupting sleep.

See our Quick Tip on sleep problems for more information on troubleshooting the Mac sleep issues.

Bedroom laptops and iPhone mods.

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Turn iPod Touch into an iPhone

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Gateway MC7801u

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TweetDeck

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Create your own WiFi hotspot on a Mac

Your video calls

Brad from Wisconsin asked about small bargain camcorders. He's considering the Sasmsung SC-MX20 but he might also want to take a look at the Flip Video MinoHD.

Teresa in California akaA RogueTess needed some help picking a camcorder for her son. Brian Cooley gave her some general advice and then pointed her on to our best 5 camcorders.

Carl from Washington State had his Mac turn off during a system update and now he's stuck. He'll need to reboot with the recovery CD in the disc drive and hold down the c key during boot up. Brian Tong also passed along a few other tricks to try.

Your calls

Want a cool MP3 player and cool headphones for seriously cold weather. Check around on snowboarder sites for product recommendations then cross-reference them with CNET reviews. Apple iPods aren't usually rated for temperatures below freezing. See this thread for a discussion of headphones. Also check out this ehow article on cold weather music gear.

If your computer continually loses power and restarts, start with the power supply, make sure all connections are tight, check that the CPU is properly seated. If none of that works, you may need a new motherboard. See this discussion for more angles on the problem.

Here are our favorite audiovisual receivers. THX is a sound certification program, not a technology like 5.1 or 6.1.

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Whether it's a regular text note, or a recorded video question, you can send it to cnetlive@cnet.com. Keep your videos to 15 seconds or less, post them to a Web site like Youtube, and then e-mail us the link.

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New Prius

HD Tracks audiophile music store.

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LG Vu

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Amaya HTML Editor.

Insider Secrets Secure your Wi-Fi network Best of the Web Wigix auction site Your calls

Microsoft's instructions for how to restore default power schemes in Windows XP.

Extreme Tech's tips for speeding up Windows Vista. Of course, there's the simple within Vista way (which our caller had already tried) which you can find in Tom's video.

Use Dupe Eliminator to dedupe your music collection.

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Battle of the non-violent robots

Gold and diamond-plated MacBook

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RIM BlackBerry 8820

Guest Matt Mullenweg from WordPress. Download of the Week

WordPress.

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Upgrade a Sony PS3 hard drive.

Your calls

Alex Osborne's Linux on Palm LifeDrive project.

Transfer files to Motorola Razr V3c from MacBook by Bluetooth from Fujitsu LifeBook U810.

PC Power Supply Wattage guidelines from About.com.

More steps for using the iPhone screenshot utility.