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
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
Showing posts with label update. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
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
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
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
BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202
www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
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
BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202
www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901
Friday, April 10, 2009
HP Laptop, HP Netbook, Apple MacBook Pro
Been about a couple of weeks since my last blog here in Columbus, Ohio. Been really busy, here's of the highlights of some of the laptops I've worked on since my last blog.
A traveling comedian was here in Columbus and had an HP netbook that was bogged down with some viruses and spyware. Not really sure how I feel about netbooks yet. They're great for quick lookups on the internet and fit in the purse or bookbag but but so do most of the smartphones on the market. The have a large solid state drive on them but don't expect them to be as powerful as their larger laptop counterparts. Kind of limited on storage so if you're looking to keep music, video or pictures on them you may want to consider external storage mediums when you purchase one. In any case, a quick loading of Ad-Aware & AVG and several Windows updates later this guy was back in business and telling jokes.
The next customer had an Apple MacBook Pro that had met with root beer and believe it or not the laptop won. This particular Apple laptop had 4 wide electrical tape covering the bottom of the entire keyboard tray protecting the motherboard against anything spilled into the laptop. The customer was very fortunate that Apple had designed this laptop so well. That being said, it still took almost a complete disassembly of the laptop to clean up all traces of the frosty beverage. Be careful if you eat or drink around your laptop, they don't like to get wet.
The last laptop I'll be talking about was a mess. This customer had taken her laptop to Geeksquad and contacted HP support about it. I've had many customers have regrets about this very type of thing because they think they're going to get great support and they have no way of knowing if the guy or gal behind the counter or on the other side of the phone is someone just out tech school our an experienced IT consultant with many years of experience. In my experience with customers, it's usually the former based on them coming to me after the service provided to them. In any case, this customer had quite a few issues going on with her laptop. She initially had called me because she couldn't print or get on the internet through Internet Explorer. Upon closer examination, I had found that the customer service she had contacted before had used remote login programs to access her computer and had failed to remove software or instructed her how to do so when finished. I also had found that they had disable several critical system processes that prevented her computer from updating Antivirus, Antispyware and Window's update. The system event log files I examined showed many, many conflicts with the Remote Login feature that was installed. The customer service had also installed many, many startup programs and screwed up her printer drivers by doing a partial install of her printer software and telling her to shut the computer off in mid stream. NEVER shut off a computer in the middle of installation of anything, especially hardware. There are many, many things happening accessing window's system files and you are guaranteed to screw things up. I managed to get her computer up and running to a tolerable condition in my opinion. I also asked when her business would have some downtime so that I could do a complete system restore on her computer since there were many other issues going on and I still could not get the USB controllers to behave properly. In short, just because you have a warranty with your laptop and wherever you bought it from does not mean they're going to fix it or make things better. I'm not trying to sell myself but I let my work speak for itself, give me a call and I'll give you an honest and fair assesment of your computer. Happy Easter everyone.
BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202
www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901
A traveling comedian was here in Columbus and had an HP netbook that was bogged down with some viruses and spyware. Not really sure how I feel about netbooks yet. They're great for quick lookups on the internet and fit in the purse or bookbag but but so do most of the smartphones on the market. The have a large solid state drive on them but don't expect them to be as powerful as their larger laptop counterparts. Kind of limited on storage so if you're looking to keep music, video or pictures on them you may want to consider external storage mediums when you purchase one. In any case, a quick loading of Ad-Aware & AVG and several Windows updates later this guy was back in business and telling jokes.
The next customer had an Apple MacBook Pro that had met with root beer and believe it or not the laptop won. This particular Apple laptop had 4 wide electrical tape covering the bottom of the entire keyboard tray protecting the motherboard against anything spilled into the laptop. The customer was very fortunate that Apple had designed this laptop so well. That being said, it still took almost a complete disassembly of the laptop to clean up all traces of the frosty beverage. Be careful if you eat or drink around your laptop, they don't like to get wet.
The last laptop I'll be talking about was a mess. This customer had taken her laptop to Geeksquad and contacted HP support about it. I've had many customers have regrets about this very type of thing because they think they're going to get great support and they have no way of knowing if the guy or gal behind the counter or on the other side of the phone is someone just out tech school our an experienced IT consultant with many years of experience. In my experience with customers, it's usually the former based on them coming to me after the service provided to them. In any case, this customer had quite a few issues going on with her laptop. She initially had called me because she couldn't print or get on the internet through Internet Explorer. Upon closer examination, I had found that the customer service she had contacted before had used remote login programs to access her computer and had failed to remove software or instructed her how to do so when finished. I also had found that they had disable several critical system processes that prevented her computer from updating Antivirus, Antispyware and Window's update. The system event log files I examined showed many, many conflicts with the Remote Login feature that was installed. The customer service had also installed many, many startup programs and screwed up her printer drivers by doing a partial install of her printer software and telling her to shut the computer off in mid stream. NEVER shut off a computer in the middle of installation of anything, especially hardware. There are many, many things happening accessing window's system files and you are guaranteed to screw things up. I managed to get her computer up and running to a tolerable condition in my opinion. I also asked when her business would have some downtime so that I could do a complete system restore on her computer since there were many other issues going on and I still could not get the USB controllers to behave properly. In short, just because you have a warranty with your laptop and wherever you bought it from does not mean they're going to fix it or make things better. I'm not trying to sell myself but I let my work speak for itself, give me a call and I'll give you an honest and fair assesment of your computer. Happy Easter everyone.
BRM Laptop Repair
3171 N. High St.
Columbus, OH 43202
www.BRMLaptopRepair.com
laptop.repair@gmx.com
614-313-9901
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