You have some extra money, and come across an inexpensive laptop or desktop system at the local store. It was a great deal. Just a few hundred dollars, the latest operating system, a warranty, nice and new and shiny too!

One day you start it up, and it has this unfamiliar message on the screen:

This is one of many common scenarios.

If you've ever burned a DVD with your computer before, you may have thought that it was pretty cool. Up to 4.6 (or so) Gigabytes of data saved onto a small disk, the same physical size as a music CD. However, were you aware that there's also a higher capacity DVD available, called dual layer disks, or DVD DL? These disks can hold up to about 8.4 Gigabytes. Sure, there is the new capacity Blue Ray disks, but you need a newer blue ray burner for that, plus the disks are still quite expensive, about $5 each, or more. DVD DL disks can be purchased in packs of 30 or 50 bringing the cost down to about 80 cents each. Normal capacity DVD disks can be bought in bulk as well, bringing the price per disk down to around 20 cents.

The benefits of burning your data to dual layer disks are:

A few hours have gone by, and you're getting frustrated. You've been unplugging and reconnecting your hard drive continuously, even trying other computers. Still doesn't work. You've moved on to the next trick you read online, the freezer option. The drive powered on this time, but died about 5 seconds later. Now it won't even turn on. You're getting more bold in your technical prowess, and attempt another fix you read on a few technical sites, may have even seen a recovery expert talking about it on Youtube - the system board swap. At this point you're starting to invest money into it. However, the drive just sits there, unchanged, well, it didn't power up as before but there was the small black smoke that appeared after the board swap.

As each day passes, and we enter further into the technology age, people become more reliant on computers to play vital roles in their personal and business lives.

It's interesting to note that although this phenomenon continues to progress each year, the average computer user does not take any preventative measures to preserve their personal data, programs, and overall daily workflow.

That is why we decided to dedicate this Repair Blog on helping our clients plan ahead to prevent any dreadful circumstances that can come from relying so heavily on a device that is not preserved in some backup state.
We've prepared a quick guide to creating your personal home computer first aid kit, you can have peace of mind in knowing that your pictures, videos, programs, files, settings, banking data, etc. are recoverable should your computer crash or hardware fail.

Thanks to everyone who signed up for the specials we had available for the limited time. We have all your information and are scheduling everyone for appointments. At this time everyone should have a time scheduled.

We also want to thank everyone for choosing us for your computing needs. It's been great working with all of you!

We know, you want a nice new laptop for Christmas, either for yourself or as a gift. Those Black Friday deals seem pretty tempting too! Walmart is offering a laptop for $198. Staples is offering some from $299. Here's the thing... while you may get a laptop for that price, it will generally be the lowest end model, or worse yet, a model that has been known to have problems or has otherwise been reviewed poorly. If you've already done your homework on them, and were going to purchase that specific model anyway, then it probably is a good deal for you, but just be forewarned - we see an influx of lower end laptops brought in for repairs that generally exceed the cost of what they were originally purchased for. When you figure in the cost of software, that isn't necessarilly unheard of, however. I'm just trying to get everyone to think beyond the bottom line - cost.

OOOPPPSS!!
Just buy a new laptop? Do you leave it plugged in? Watch out for the power cord! One wrong move and you'll rip the cord out, damaging the power jack. Your new laptop won't be able to be powered on nor charge the battery if that happens. Power jack repairs are the #1 repair for laptops! We can fix it, but if you want to save yourself some money, this repair can easily be avoided.