A customer came in with a broken hinge on their laptop yesterday. I've seen this happen dozens of times on other computers. Unfortunately, it was a netbook. Please see previous blogs on my netbook comments. Had another customer come in with a Windows Vista machine that broke down. Fortunately, the computer was backed up and all the files were intact. Last customer came in with a unique issue with a program called Fink. Will have to do a bit of research for that one.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202
www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Netbook Rant

A customer came in yesterday with an Acer netbook that was not booting up. The power light would turn on but that was it, no hard drive spinning and nothing showing on the display. If you look at previous posts I've ranted about netbooks and acers before. I'm not a big fan of netbooks as they are trying to cram all the functionality into a smaller size. If you feel you need to get one, don't get the cheapest one out there thinking it's going to last forever. As with most things in life, if the price is lower there is always a reason. The screens on netbooks have no metal edging or brackets to them unlike their bigger laptop counterparts. Cost savings. The hinges are only attached to the backpanel and are only held there by glue and small 1/8 inch screws. Cost savings. The fan is smaller because the whole laptop itself is smaller. Cost Savings. Most of the time no optical drive. Cost savings. Less connectors like USB, serial, VGA out, HDMI out, etc. Cost savings. Atom processor, this is the same processor I've seen used in high end home entertainment systems. Cost savings. Most netbooks that are below $300 have about 2 year lifespans, 3 if you are really careful.

If you still feel the need to get one. Look for a good Asus, Dell, Toshiba or Lenovo netbook and be prepared to spend $500 or more. I hope this helps you out when purchasing.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202
www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

4 broken laptops

Had a few calls from several customers yesterday. 3 were existing customers and 1 was a new one.

The first customer had a computer that was brought into the shop after another company had sold her a defective hard drive. After determining she had a bad drive I told her to go get her money back. She said she wanted to try to install the hard drive herself after getting another one and was going to install the operating system too. What she really needed help with was installing the necessary drivers for her computer and to get the files that she had backed up before the hard drive failed back onto the laptop.

The 2nd customer had a virus on his computer that has been going around since about June of 2009 under a variety of names. Basically, he was locked out of his computer and couldn't run any programs. Been seeing a lot of these.

The 3rd customer brought his computer in a while ago and was running out of space on his computer so the hard drive will possibly need backed up, wiped clean and have everything reinstalled.

The 4th customer had a water spill on his computer and it won't turn on. Could be coincidental that he has a bad DC power jack but unlikely. This will probably take a complete mobo(motherboard) replacement.



BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202
www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Data Recovery, Windows 7 Install

Got in the shop yesterday and within 5 minutes a customer walked in and asked if I could help with their desktop. They had a Windows Vista desktop that was giving all sorts of issues. They wanted to see if we could get the data onto an external hard drive and upgrade their computer to Windows 7. Spent the rest of the time replacing a hard drive and installing an operating system and drivers on a server for a vet clinic client.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202
www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

2 Dell 1525 Repairs, sound card

Had a couple of customers come in yesterday with broken 1525 Dell Inspiron laptops with very similar problems. The first customer's computer was the worst with the entire top portion of her computer separated from the bottom. It looked like someone had broken the laptop over their knee like a stick. The second one was very similar as the back of the right hinge had separated from the LCD cover behind the screen. Been seeing a rash of 1525 laptops with the same problem lately. Easily fixable, just a bit odd.

Last customer came in with a desktop that was having an audio card problem. Computer is 8-9 years old but still runs, just no sound. Should be an interesting one to diagnose.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Recent Work

Had a couple of computers that needed a new screen come in today. Also did some work for a vet clinic to upgrade their computers to meet the minimum specs. Some of the computers were not upgradeable so I had to replace them with some more modern computers. Customer couldn't have been happier, now they want me to replace the old personal computer in the back office. Picked up another customer too and became their sole IT person for their psychology office. Been a busy month and I certainly can't believe it's October. Christmas is less than 3 months away, wow. Try contacting us if you need some help for some gift ideas.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Columbus Laptop Repair - 2 Dell Computers

Had a previous customer come in with a virus on his laptop. His computer is a Dell computer and he's had problems with viruses. The last time he had a virus it was the Personal Antivirus that locked his computer out of all the critical windows functions.

Another customer came in with a problem for a data recovery. In his case, the most economical solution for him was to recover the data rather than fix his laptop. He would've needed a new motherboard and the total costs would've exceeded the cost of the laptop.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Columbus Laptop Repair - Grand Opening

Well we just had our grand opening last weekend. We had a lot of traffic both from previous customers and new customers passing by. 4 people dropped off laptops for service and we handed out a lot of business cards to potential customers.

Currently working on a couple of Toshiba's with cracked screens and some software issues. One customer just bought the computer on Saturday and their grandson somehow got a virus on the computer. since it was still fresh out of the box the most economical solution for this customer was to do a factory restore.

I'm really busy with laptops I got from over the weekend and am playing catchup on computers right now but I guess that's a good problem to have.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Columbus Laptop Repair - Event & iMac Repair

Yesterday I attended the annual event called picnic with the pups at CHA who I do small business consulting for. It was a great time and I had a lot of people coming over and asking computer questions and checking if I could come out on an appointment.

I've got a customer's iMac in for repairs right now. It appears the operating system was corrupted somehow and it couldn't boot into a normal mode. I archived all the files after determining the hard drive was ok and then loaded the operating system. I'm currently moving all of the archived files to an external drive. The files that were archived were not accessible so I had to copy and mount to an external hard drive to eliminate the permissions on the files.

I imagine next week will be even busier with so many people asking for help with the computers at the event.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Columbus Computer Repair - Bad Memory

Had a repeat customer come in yesterday with a computer that wouldn't boot. The computer wouldn't even get to the Dell logo screen. This computer ended up having bad memory. I backed up the customers files anyway and tested the hard drive just to make sure everything was fine and the problem was definitely isolated to just the memory.

A customer from around the corner came in today with a computer giving a similar error. It would not boot as well. This also was a Dell and it ended up being the hard drive on this computer. Ended up replacing the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system.

Been a busy day. :)

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Columbus laptop repair - MSI netbook, HP Laptop

Had a customer come in with an MSI netbook the other day telling me it was running slow when connecting to the internet and she wasn't able to use it to access her online college class from Columbus State. The problem was that McCaffee Internet Security had downloaded itself when she upgraded Adobe and caused all sorts of problems since Norton Internet Security was also on her system. The problems were too numerous that were created and it was easier and more econmical for the customer to just get everything restored to factory condition. I had another customer who has an HP laptop that is overheating and shutting down. It has caused numerous operating system errors too because it would shut down while trying to boot. I imagine this computer will probably need a good cleaning and the operating system reloaded as the errors he has described are indicative of the operating system itself has been corrupted.


BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Columbus Laptop Repair - Dell Latitude LCD, Toshiba Satellite Data Recovery

Had 2 customers come in. The first customer went to a local laptop repair shop and was given an estimate of nearly $400 to replace his LCD screen on his Dell Latitude. He then called me to get a quote and I gave him a much more economical price to replace his screen. He had some trouble getting his laptop back from the previous repair shop but immediately came to me after getting it.

The second customer had a Toshiba Satellite laptop that stopped turning on suddenly. After a short diagnosis and finding out how old the laptop was I advised the customer that it was more economical to recover what data could be recovered and invest in a new laptop. Sometimes this is the case and I will always be honest with my customer when it seems we reached that point. I'll have more later this week if you're following.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Grand Opening Plans

One of my customers whom I've fixed laptops, desktosp, installed printers and wireless security cameras on the network has decided to help with planning the grand opening of the new office we opened in Columbus. I am transitioning from mobile repair service to a store and will still provide mobile service on the weekends. The grand opening will be on July 24th from 11 AM to 4 PM and we will be giving away different things and answering as many computer questions as possible.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Columbus laptop repair - wireless printer sharing

A customer was dealing with a printer issue. The original idea was to have the printer connected to a desktop computer and set up as shared so other computers with access to the network could print to it. The person who originally set up the printer had forgotten to share the printer and set up the correct port for it. The fix took about 20 minutes to remedy. After setting it up I checked if I could print from one of the laptops on the network to make sure everything was working ok.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Columbus laptop repair - Virus, spyware, bad lcd

A customer contacted me about an issue with their computer. It was only displaying in 4 & 8 bit colors. When I received the computer I saw that they had no antivirus and no spyware protection. I installed both (AVG free edition and Malwarebytes) and saw hundreds of infections. In addition, several critical windows processes/services had been disabled from the infection. After removing all the issues I reenabled the windows services that were disabled and began updating the computer to the latest revision. The customer originally came in with a burnt out lcd screen and computer running really slow and will leave with a computer that is running like it just came from the store.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Columbus Laptop Repair - Dell Screen Replacement

Slow week so far. Picked up a Dell laptop, about 5 years old, that needed a screen replacement. This failure is pretty advanced. The screen turns pink like the lights are going bad but then cuts to a dark screen a couple of seconds later.

Get the new screen later this week and will replace it turning the computer repair around in about 4 days.


BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Broken MacBook, Burnt out LCD and Bad Power Connector

Had 3 laptops come in this weekend. The first laptop that needed repaired was a Dell that would turn on for 5 seconds before the screen went dark. More than likely this is an issue with the inverter going bad. If the LCD lights were going bad (white's on screen look pink on bootup) then the screen is probably at fault.

The second laptop was a Mac Book. The customer had dropped it and bent the frame. The disk for reloading the operating system was stuck in the superdrive as a result. The computer did not operate correctly and every attempt to reload the OS failed. More than likely the superdrive was damaged in the drop and will need replaced. A new bottom frame will probably be needed as well unless I can bend the aluminum frame back into it's original shape.

The third laptop is a Dell that had the LCD lights actually have a bad solder connection and was sparking across the terminals. This melted some of the plastic on the LCD and caused the screen to go dark. I am going to replace the inverter along with the screen on this because I'm afraid the inverter may have been damaged drawing too much current as a result of the sparking inside the LCD.



BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

I picked up 3 laptops yesterday.

The first laptop was a Gateway laptop that has a dc power connector. This will take approximately 2 hours to fix. In addition, the customer was not able to connect to his wireless network so I will have to fix this after the connector was fixed.

The 2nd laptop was a Dell 1521 that had a very pale image on the screen and no backlight. The customer stated that the bottom portion of the screen got very hot and then the light went out. 90% of the time this is an inverter issue and the the other 10% is a bad screen. With the inverter being the cheapest component, this is always the first item to try.

The 3rd laptop was an acer that had a broken screen. I always like hearing the stories about how the lcd screen was broken. I've heard everything from the customer stepping on the computer to it getting hit with every object under the sun. In this case, it was an elbow that took out the screen. A cracked screen is usually indicative of a spider web fracture pattern across the screen and multiple lines and colors not normally seen. Some of the screen still works but regardless it needs replaced.


BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Last night I picked up another computer (desktop) that was having some overheating issues. This computer was turning off after a couple of hours of being turned on. I didn't have time to dig into it to see what was the matter but I'm guessing that it's probably attributed to dust or debris in the fans and proper heat dissipation is not occurring. I will be working on this one tonight and the other laptops that came into the office. Hopefully a quick repair and turnaround is a possibility tonight.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

More computers

Well, after dropping off a customers computer I was asked to look at her sister's
computer. This one is a dell and runs really slow. It is a desktop which is ok but
I prefer providing support for laptops. Another custome had a couple of compaq
computers for me to look at. Basically it wouldn't boot and the other had a pink
screen. I will hopefully be making 1 good computer out of two. Last one I will be
looking at is a friends computer who appears to be having overheating issues.
That's all folks.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Computers, Desktops & Laptops Oh my...

This week has been an interesting week already. I will be working on a desktop computer that is a Compaq Presario this week that keeps randomly shutting down. Sounds like an overheating problem since it is shutting off after a couple of hours of running every time. Also have a Dell Studio laptop in the pipeline that will need a screen replaced. This one's a little unique in that it has a HD LCD on it which tends to be a little pricier than normal.

Last week I picked up a couple of laptops that both had a bad DC power connector. The first was a HP that also needs a new screen, battery and the customer also wanted a memory upgrade. The other laptop had a hard drive going bad in it so data recovery was needed too. Disassembly of those types of laptops are always fun as there's a lot of electronics crammed into a little space. The last one I picked up last week was an acer that had picked up a virus. I was able to use my favorite tool, CCleaner, to help clean that laptop up. From the same customer location I picked up an SD card that was accidently formatted and had vaction videos from Disneyland on it. I really enjoyed being able to drop off a DVD that had the recovered videos and making another customer extremely happy about getting their data back.

Last week was a busy week and this one doesn't look like it's going to slow down at all. Looking forward to a couple of screen replacements and another power connector replacement.


BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901

Back up and blogging

Well, back to blogging about the repairs again. I just finished a huge project for an animal shelter that involved converting the entire network from hardwired to wireless and installing network cameras saving video feed to dedicated hard drive storage.

I'll be returning a gateway, dell and hp computer to their owners today. The gateway had a bad power cord, the dell a bad inverter and the hp needed a new dc power connector.

I will then be picking up a compaq for a fan replacement, a hard drive for data recovery and I have another dell in the shop for a power connector replacement. Looks like a busy weekend.

BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202

www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901