Being in the service industry, we are sometimes a “necessity” for other people to do business. If computers, internet, email, websites are down, it makes it difficult for others to get their work done.

If it is too dangerous to drive, then we will not open our stores. Instead of going out and driving the dark streets early in the morning, we take our que from the people who hav already decided the roads are too dangerous.

Each store follows their local school district. If it is too dangerous for parents, teachers, and students, then it is too dangerous for our employees as well.

Hopefully this sheds some light on when and how we decide to be closed. Hopefully this reduces the number of irate phone messages we find the day after inclimate weather closes one of our stores.

We know you need your computers, laptops, printers and servers we are repairing back. We will do our best to fix them as soon as possible when we re-open. (as we always do).

Try to understand that the safety of our employees is important as well. Without them, there wouldn’t be anyone to fix your computers, laptops, printers and servers.

Unless your computer is 6+ years old, its probably a no brainer to have your computer repaired.

So you take it somewhere (hopefully us) and the prognosis is that you’ll need a new hard drive. What a pain.

If you purchased your computer new from Dell, HP, Gateway, Acer, etc, then you most likely have a little sticker somewhere on the case with your windows key on it. Great! We can use this to re-install your operating system with no problems. And the rest of your stuff?

Windows by itself is pretty basic. You get IE, Media player, Movie maker, Solitare, and Outlook express. Chances are, the main thing you use from that list is Internet Explorer. What about Word, Outlook, Nero, Nortons, Realplayer, Smiley face maker, family tree mapper, and all the other icons that were on the desktop when you purchased it?

All those programs have to be installed separately. None of those are a part of windows. When you buy a computer, they put all that on for you. Most consumers don’t realize that if you have to have your hard drive replaced, you have to re-install all that stuff as well.

Most of the big PC manufacturers give you recovery “solution”  built into your hard drive. Thing is, that helps you absolutely zero if your hard drive dies.

If you run the recovery program, it puts your computer back the way it was when you bought it. Thats great for a “recovery” from a software issue, like a virus, bad download, or a failed update. However, if your hard drive goes, so goes the “system recovery” as well.

One of the biggest issues we have is explaining all that to our customers. We have found that saying we’re going to re-install “Windows” does no good at conveying the message that Windows is all you will get. Even saying, all windows comes with is IE is still not enough. (they must think we’re joking)

When they ask “How do I get the rest of my programs” our first question is” Do you have your software cd’s?” If their answer is no, our next comment is to  contact your original retailer.

We can  install windows  because your product key is on the PC somewhere. The product key to the rest of your software should be in that big stack of paperwork you got when you purchased your pc.

Sometimes we cant get your product key from the PC. Someone may have removed it, or its too damaged to read.

Losing that key is like losing $100. You will be forced to buy your software again. Losing your recovery cd’s is like losing $500. Windows Pro+ office 2003 Pro + Nero = over $500 worth of software.

Most computers give you the option to create recovery cd’s from the recovery partition the first time you boot your computer. Make sure you do that. Sometimes the opportunity to do that expires after 90 days. Then you cant do it. You can try to call and complain to Microsoft, but it probably wont get you anywhere.

The main culprit is often times a noisy fan or a noisy few fans. Usually the bearings are going bad. ( More than you need to know about bearing here).

Some PC fans have temperature controlled speed sensors. When the system starts to overheat, the fan speeds up until the temp comes down. Pretty much the same way some car’s cooling systems operate.

Sometimes a loud fan means the system is not cooling itself properly. This applies to desktops and laptops. The cooling system may be too dirty, or filled with pet hair. (Happens quite often)

As computers become faster and faster, they also generate more and more heat. About 6 years ago, the simple heating fix was more fans or more faster fans. The faster the fan, the more noise it makes.

Starting about 2 years ago, there was a slow switch to larger fans that spin slower. A big fan moving slow, can move as much air as a small fan moving fast. Slower fan=less noise.

If your computer is too loud, come see us. We can make your bedroom a quiet or office place again!

Most DC jack do not have enough internal reinforcement to meet the demand caused by movement of the power plug. Quite often the DC jacks simply fail under normal conditions. After a year or two of usage, the thing just comes loose.  The issue that upsets customers the most is when the laptop gets dropped and the plug jerks the DC jack loose. (ouch) In rare cases, the jack was not installed well by the manufacturer.

So what do you do?

Most repair places will only offer to replace your motherboard. While that does work, its the most expensive option. However, it’s also the option that will probably last the longest. The second choice is to re-attach the DC jack to the motherboard. That usually saves you a few hundred dollars.

Like all things, you get what you pay for and most “re-attachments” never last as long as the original job from the factory.

Why you ask?

These PBC (printed circuit boards) are built by machines. Doing it by hand is not likely to match the precision accomplished by machines.

We usually try to re-attach the DC jack when it can be done. Sometimes the PCB is damaged, and a new jack wont fix the problem either.

Then its either a new MB or a new laptop. Windows 7 is a nice upgrade anyway!

To enable this pseudo hack, create a new folder and then rename it:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Nice huh?

I’m not sure it’s my idea of playing God, but it is a handy way to get to all kinds of controls.

WHile Win7 came with many bells and whistles, finding them all is quite a pain.

Be careful with this if you run vista, it doesn’t work well and may crash the system.

Enjoy!

What a time waster.

The problem is because Windows Vista does not check for upgrade compliance. Therefore, you cannot use an upgrade key to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista.

Looks like Windows 7 followed the same route.

If you purchased the upgrade, just stick the CD in and don’t format first.

Their return policy stated it would be a restocking fee if the item was not defective. Luckily for me, this item was defective, as the fm radio nor the wireless downloads did not work. A person being helped in front of me did not like the return policy, as he just didn’t want his anymore. ( I assume it was working properly) He was very upset and made a scene.

Recently a customer purchased an item from us in order to “troubleshoot” his computer. We don’t do very many over the counter sales (not accompanying a repair), and 95% of them are so customers can troubleshoot their pc’s.

We are very up front about our return policy. It is on the bottom of every invoice (in very legible 12pt font) and we usually remind them in case they miss it.

Nonetheless, the customer wanted to bring the part back. Said it didn’t fix his problem, and did not want to pay the restocking fee. We told him how since it’s now used, we have to sell it at a discount. That didn’t change his position any.

Seems no matter what the retailer, how big or loud the restocking fee is communicated, nobody wants to pay it.

You (snail) mailed in your rebate form and months have passed and you’ve never gotten your rebate check (or card). You’ve called the company, written letters, but to no avail.

The company either sent you a denial letter, or gave you all sorts of reasons why you won’t be getting your rebate: you didn’t purchase it within the correct time frame, didn’t mail it correctly, or you forgot to include some obscure piece of information. Basically, you failed to jump through their hoops, and now they are going to keep your money.

What bull right?

Rebates are actually intended to be a hassle to discourage customers from redeeming them. After all, the more customers who forget or give up on rebates, the more dollars the manufacturer retains. “Rebates are a good business plan only when consumers fail to claim them,” ARS analyst Gary Peterson recently told The Wall Street Journal.

Why do rebates exist?

Rebates started as a marketing tool used by manufacturers to increase sales, by lowering the cost of a product in the eyes of a customer, without actually dropping the price on the shelf.

Why not just drop the price?

When a company drops the price of something, that money is automatically and immediately lost for each and every item sold, while rebates never result in all of the money being lost to the company. Thats where the system of denial and “lost” rebate forms come in. Even if they processed 100% of all rebates, consumers would never send in every rebate for ever item. A win-win for manufactures.

Rebates also give companies the ability to make money off your money. Customers are giving them an additional $100 for 3 months, and they lower the price for you $10. Now multiply that by a million customers, and they just made 3 Million dollars in interest.

Rebates help them not you.

A typical computer will use about 70-1oo watts. How much you actually need depends on your hardware requirements. Don’t think for one minute you need a 1500w power supply.

Add up all the various power requirements from the various devices and see what the total is. You can also get one of those in-line watt meters and see how much power your pc is using.

How much does your computer cost to run? Let’s say you have a big high-end computer  and you leave it on 24/7. That’s about 200 watts x 24 hours x 365 days/yr = 2,890,800 watt-hours, or 2891 kilowatt-hours. If you’re paying $0.14 per kWh, you’re paying about $245 a year to run your computer. (ouch)

Let’s say you have a computer that’s less of an energy hog, and it uses about 105 watts, and you to turn it off when you’re not using it. You use it for two hours a day, five days a week. That’s ten hours a week, or 520 hours a year. So your 105 watts times 520 hours = 54,600 watt-hours. Divide by 1000 and you have 55 kilowatt-hours (kWh). If you’re paying 14¢ per kilowatt-hour, then you’re paying $7.64 a year to run your computer. Big difference huh?

Having trouble convincing someone to switch to a LCD? A typical 17″ CRT uses about 80w. The same size LCD uses about 35w. No matter how much you use your monitor, an LCD saves you 43% every month. Depending on the cost of power, it can pay for itself in under a 2 years.

We take cash, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover. We stopped taking personal checks in 2007 after more than a few “bounced” checks. We started accepting them again in 2008, but then stopped in 2009. We were using a check guarantee service, and they jacked up the rate to the point we were decided to just stop taking personal checks.

Most retail stores don’t accept checks. Most places you mail payments only take checks.

Never send cash in the mail.