Computer Repair & Computer Services

2. No Battery Backup

Use a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to protect your computer. The $9 Surge Protector you bought at Wal-Mart just isn't adequate protection for your computer. Read this information about the Problems with Power today. Two brands of UPS's that I recommend are APC or Tripp-Lite. They both have good quality products and usually come with a $50,000 guarantee against failure. I have replaced hundreds of power supplies on computers over the years and the main reason was that the customer didn't have a UPS. Your hard drive and other components in your computer will last much longer (probably by years) if you protect your computer with a UPS. You can purchase a UPS from $59 to $99 that will give most computers the protection they need.

3. No Anti-Virus Protection or not up to date

Install a Anti-Virus Protection Program and also a Firewall to protect you from Viruses and Hackers. I suggest using the AVG Full Security Package, which includes Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Spam, Safe Searching and Safe Surfing on the Web, Identity Theft Protection & Firewall. Once you have the Anti-Virus Program installed on your computer be sure you keep the virus definition file updated on a weekly basis. The Anti-Virus software is useless and ineffective for new viruses if the virus definition file is not updated.

4. Computer kept in a Hot Room

Keep your computer in a temperature-controlled room. Usually a good rule of thumb is that if it feels too hot for you then your room temperature for the computer is too hot too. Over heating your computer on a constant basis just makes the life of the system shorter.

5. Dirty Computer

Dirt is another source of a potential problem. Dirt can dust can clog up the fans that keep your computer chips cool. A CPU fan that is not working can actually cause the Computer to shut down and sometimes the CPU will have to be replaced along with the system board. If you have an air compressor at home take the computer outside and take one of the side panels off of the computer an blow it out at least once a year. I would suggest every 6 months in an environment where there is a lot of dirt in the air or if there is someone that smokes that's using the computer.
Smokers I have one word for you "STOP".

6. Windows System not being updated

Keep your Windows up-to-date with all of the security patches for Windows and the Internet Explorer that Microsoft provides with their automatic updates. I can't stress how important these updates are in providing you with protection against hackers. There had been a lot of pressure put on Microsoft about Internet Security and Windows Security problems. You can plan to see a lot of updates coming your way. The best way to keep your Windows updated is to leave your computer on 24 hours a day. The cost in power is pennies compared to the dollars you will spend for a tech to fix your computer problems if you don't. The whole idea behind leaving your computer on 24 hours a day is while you're sleeping your Microsoft updates are automatically installed on your computer at 3:AM in the morning. Just make sure that you have your Microsoft updates set to automatically update your computer. It's a really good idea to keep all of the software you use on your computer updated, especially software that accesses the Internet. A good example would be the Adobe Reader or Flash Player. Security issues pop up now and then on almost all software that is used on the Internet, which in today's world is almost all software on your computer.

7. Downloading Free Software

Be careful of the word "Free" when downloading new programs to your computer or in email that you receive. Remember that that's there's nothing "Free" in this world without a trade off. Usually your giving away your privacy now days when you install these "Free" Programs. If you use your computer for Business then I recommend you use it strictly for Business and keep the "Free" junk software and MP3 sharing Networks off of it.

8. No Spyware or adware protection

Download and install a good spy-ware and ad-ware detection program. Usually you need two separate programs to check for everything. I suggest using a program called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for checking and cleaning up your computer for ad-ware. I would also suggest using a program called Spybot Search&Destroy for detecting and cleaning up the spy-ware that's on your computer. I think you are going to be surprised of what you're going to find when you run these two programs. Run them on a weekly basis and they will keep the spy-ware and ad-ware off of your computer. The ad-ware and spy-ware software slow your computer down and cause many more problems. If you're not familiar with these terms then read about them on Google or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spyware. You can download both of these programs at download.com run by cnet. All you have to do is type in the name of the name of the program that I mentioned above in the search window at download.com.

9. Not performing regular maintenance

Perform regular maintenance on your computer. This doesn't mean you have to go out and buy special software to do this. Microsoft Windows has all the maintenance tools built into it. Under Accessories-System Tools there are two very important programs. One is called Scandisk and the other is called Defrag. You should run a full scandisk of your hard drive at least once a week. Scandisk will search for any problems with hard drive and fix most problems it finds. If scandisk is continuously finding problems then this may be as sign that you need to get our hard drive replaced. I also recommend using the hard drive Defrag program at least once a month. Defrag will keep your hard drive optimized for speed and performance. These two programs can be run automatically using the scheduled tasks program in the control panel. Also in Windows 98 and later versions of Windows there is a System Information program located under system tools. The system information program can be used to backup your registry and to perform diagnostics on your DirectX that you have installed. There is also a program called Disk Clean. This program will clean up some of the junk files on your computer's hard drive and files that collect in the Internet Cache. You canuse the find or search feature in windows to find junk files that accumulate on your hard drive. Just do a search for filesor folders and in the search box enter: *.tmp, *.bak, *.chk, *.bad, *.old, *.prv, *.syd, *.fts, *.dmp, *.gid, ~*.*, *.~, *.$*, *.??~Please notice that all of the search criteria is separated by commas. When the search has completed select all of the files found and then delete all of them.

10. No removing programs properly

Remove programs in the Control Panel. There is a program there to remove programs properly. It's called Add/Remove. I wish that I had a dollar every time that some one has made a mess of their computer by not knowing how to un-install programs properly. I would say that 95 percent of all the programs that are installed on your computer have an un-installer installed with it. The program will be listed under the add/remove program in the control panel or have a link to the un-installer on the programs menu along with the program. Just click on start then find settings. This will take you to the Control Panel. Once you are there find the Add/Remove Programs Icon. Open it up and you will find a list of programs installed on your computer. Select the program you want to remove and then click on the add/remove button. If you have more than one program to remove then repeat the selection of each program that you want to un-install and click the add/remove button.

11. Re-installing Windows to fix problems

When you encounter computer software or system problems one of the worse things you can do now days is to re-install Windows. The re-installing of Windows in some cases does nothing but make matters worse. None of your programs will work. You can't find your documents. You can't access the Internet and there is no sound now. The best thing to do is to try to is try to research the problem by using the Google Search Site (google.com) or the Microsoft Knowledge Base at Microsoft.com. You can type in a phrase of words describing the problems or error messages that you are getting. If that doesn't work then turn the computer off and call Texas PC Clinic or a company that you feel confident in that will be able to fix your problems.

12. Not calling a Professional to fix your computer problems

Call a Professional to fix your computer repair problems. Experience is always the key to solving some of the complex problems on our computers today. When you have a next door neighbor, friend, or relative try to solve problems on your computer usually it only makes the problems worse. I've seen it hundreds of times in the past 18 years of being in the computer business. We all try to save money if we can but usually it will cost you more money in the end if you don't call a professional to fix your computer problems. I learned this lesson first had when I after I opened my store. Instead of calling a sign company to put up a sign for me I tried to do it myself and ended up paying $2,000.00 to the Hospital for a broken arm that I acquired after falling off of the ladder that I was using to install my sign. Call a professional!

Please email me or call 281-558-5523 if you have any questions.James L. McArdle - Texas PC Clinic - Professional Computer Repair.

The list below is made up of the daily problems that I run across and is provided to help people understand how to avoid computer repair problems. I understand that most of you that read this probably are knowledgeable, and all of this information is probably old news to you. If you are one of these people then this was not meant for you but for the person that needs help with their computer problems and computer skills.

1. No Backup

First and the most important is backing up of your important data on a regular basis. Since 1.44 Floppies can no longer hold enough data for backing up today, I suggest that you purchase a CDRW-CD-ROM Drive (A Recordable CD-ROM Drive). You can purchase a good name brand CDRW for $29 to $49 retail. Watch out for those really cheap no-name brands because they usually don't last very long. Make sure when you purchase the CDRW that it includes the Burning Software with it. Some CDRW's that are advertised very cheaply do not include this software. Next be sure to buy the recording CD's. You can buy the CDR's for backing up your data and making music CD's or CDRW CD's that you can format and use just like you would a floppy disk only these will hold about 650mbs of data. Just think of them as being a giant floppy disk. Another option is to purchase a External USB Hard Drive. Some of the External USB Hard Drives come with Back-up Software. They are about $89 for 320 Gigabytes. Also a USB Flash Drive is another device that you can use to back up your data. A good size to start with is a 32GB Flash Drive. They usually run around $40 to $50. The USB Devices are probably a better method than a CDRW Drive if you have a lot of data to back-up. An off-site backup service is good too for small to medium size companies. A very good off-site company to use is called Carbonite. Just go to carbonite.com and sign up for a free 30 trial. Or you can just use the offer that I have below to sign up for their service.

TOP TWELVE WAYS TO AVOID COMPUTER REPAIR PROBLEMS