owner's blog

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.

Excellus health insurance company advertises a program where you can earn up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per family, each year, if you just sign up and follow some programs on their website. Sounds like a good deal right? Sure, sounds like a good deal...

The reality is, that IF you can navigate through their website, and it is actually working, you MAY earn 1/5 or so of that money.

The sad truth of the matter is that their website is riddled with problems, including an endless loop of account lockouts which direct you to call a phone number that is only open during normal business hours. The lockouts make no sense either, as I did NOT enter in an incorrect password, or user name at all, yet even if something goes wrong on THEIR end for just TWO times in a row, their system will lock your account entirely:

Your Account Has Been Locked.

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.

A friend of mine just recently told me he bought a new laptop. 64 bit, Windows 7, and a low price. He knew he wasn't getting a high end machine for the price he paid, but it still cost a few hundred dollars.

The first thing he tried to do with it was install a piece of software on it that he uses often. There was only one problem, however, this particular software was not compatible with this version of Windows. There is an option to upgrade the software to a more current version, but the price would have been more than the new laptop! I gave him some options (one of which was to return the new laptop), but this problem could have been avoided if he had first consulted with me prior to buying a new machine.

Yesterday evening a tornado touched down just behind our location. It stopped about 100 feet from our backyard, then jumped and continued on. A neighbor's roofing was scattered throughout the yard.

The weather service out of Binghamton confirmed late Tuesday morning that a tornado touched down in a small area on Jackson Road in East Palermo, near County Route 4. Meteorologists say the ground damage is consistent with that of rotational winds and funnel clouds.

We grabbed our cats, then went straight for the basement.

Who says the life of a computer service business has to be boring?!