Sunday, November 23, 2014

Recycle That Old Desktop Computer, Laptop Computer And All Computer Equipment

  It is unbelievable how much electronic stuff we accumulate over the years. The recycle bin fills up pretty much every week. It is not always some kind of computer equipment either. I have seen televisions, microwaves, old gaming machines like a ps2 or a xbox. There are stereos, speakers, cell phones, cameras and more. These things usually are just broken and not worth much. It is so funny to see the other technicians hover around the recycle bin to see what was junked. I have seen occasions where a part was used in a new system build, which in my book is a no no. I have seen a plastic part used to repair a computer or laptop that someone brought in for repair. My feeling is that this recycled junk belongs to the people who own the recycle bin. I feel you are stealing from them and that in itself makes it wrong. If the customer gave it to you and said do with it what you want, then it is yours. But if the customer say recycle this or put it in the recycle bin it does not belong to the company where the recycle bin is located. Sorry just had to vent a little.
  So anyways don't keep all that old electronic equipment like the old 486 computer taking up space in your garage. Go and have it recycled properly. Do not just leave it at the end of your driveway on pick up day. Dispose of it properly and protect your environment. Just think after you get rid of it properly your better half is happy and now you have room to fill up some new electronic junk, just kidding. Unfortunately we are living in a throw away society. Things are really not being designed to be repaired. It is more a repair by replacement society. That is why my advise is to teach everyone how to take care of your Desktop Computer, Laptop, Printer or whatever electronic component you have. So remember RECYCLE, RECYCLE and RECYCLE properly.
  Thank You for reading.
  
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My Favorite Antivirus Software Programs For 2015

 
   Once again as we get closer to 2015 customers are asking what is the best antivirus program out there today for your computer. The other question is what is the best antivirus program. They also ask which antivirus program will protect my computer from all infections. Unfortunately no virus software will protect your computer 100% . The virus writing people are very smart and very sneaky. They will find all the security issues and loopholes to ruin your day and get into your computer. Today we are seeing some really bad nasty computer viruses that are just wreaking havoc on customers computers resulting in the loss of all data. Data being Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos as well as anything that can be considered data.
  So far the top two virus infections are the CryptoWall and CryptoLocker infections. These nasty pc viruses will encrypt all the data on your computer so you either can not access it or for example if you open a document it looks like a bunch of gibberish. Lately I am seeing the system restore in windows either not work or there are only a couple of restore points that were there after the pc infection occurred. This causes a problem where a program called Shadow Explorer will not be able to unencrypt any of your data.
  So what is the best way to protect all your data. I would either save the data to the cloud with something like Carbonite. If you are saving it to a back up external hard drive I would not have the external hard drive connected to the computer all the time. I have had occasions where the back up external hard drive had the decrypt files on it, therefore resulting in it being useless. The only choice at this point is to wipe the hard drive out and reinstall your operating system, drivers, updates, printers and all other software.
  So then what is the best antivirus pc protection you may be asking. Well I prefer Avast Antivirus, AVG Antivirus, Kaspersky Antivirus and Norton 360 or Norton Internet Security. Bitdefender is also rated up high in the pc virus protection as well. I would also run Free Malwarebytes and Free Spybot, both of which are manual programs so you will have to run them. Check out my other posts for help on these computer infections. You can purchase the Antivirus Programs through my Amazon Store Below the posts.
  Thank You for reading and stay safe.   
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Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Cleaning Poweliks Virus From Your Desktop Or Laptop Cpmputer

  Came across another interesting virus on a customers computer. It was having a problem when the customer connected it to their network it would cause other users to lose the connection. It was also causing everything to slow down on the network. I had run all the virus cleaning programs on the computer and everything seemed okay from it working on my repair bench. It was not running slowly and it was going on the internet just fine.
  The customer had the computer back and called to let me know it was having the same problem again. I put the computer back on the bench and called the customer to find out what was happening on their end. They informed me that they had their IT department remote into it and scanned the system. I called their IT department and found that they had found the powelinks virus. I had never seen this before on the bench. So I started checking the internet with Google.
  I finally found a website that had information about this virus.  Here is a link to the website for the information http://www.adlice.com/poweliks-removal-with-roguekiller/ .This virus apparently attacks the processes in windows by inserting dllhost.exe files. What it does is insert various files in the registry that cause a number of dllhost.exe files to run. What they said to do was run Norton Power Eraser, RogueKiller and Sophos Virus Cleaner. I downloaded the Norton Power Eraser and Sophos Virus Cleaners off the internet. The RogueKiller was downloaded from Bleeping.com and did not take very long to download it.
  First run the Norton Power Eraser and it will reboot the system. Next I ran the Sophos Virus Cleaner and then the RogueKiller program. It does an initial scan and then you run another scan. There are some tabs that you can click on to see if it found anything. It did find a number of infections in the registry and these were deleted. Rebooted the computer and reran all other scans. Rebooted into the normal mode and check the task manager. I did not see any of the dllhost.exe files any longer. It is best to let the customer connect this in their system to make sure all is running properly. Never go in the Registry and delete what you think is causing the problem. Just another sign of a shotgun technician. If it still has problems then I would recommend saving the data, wiping out the hard drive and reinstalling software fresh.
  Thank You for reading.
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Monday, November 10, 2014

In Search Of Interesting Web Sites For Repairing Computers

  I am always searching the internet for interesting websites for repairing computers. I came across one that had a number of flowcharts to follow in the repair of a computer. I believe that these could become very helpful for the technician starting out or just the general person at home trying to repair his or her own computer. Why take the computer to a service shop only to pay a rather large repair price when you could do the same job for a lot less. Here is a link to the website I came across http://fixingmycomputer.com/ . I would say check it out and see if it helps.
 Another web site that has become extremely helpful in the cleaning up of viruses is Bleeping Computer and the link is http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ . They have alot of information on many different viruses and how to remove them. They have plenty of virus removal tools to download and use. There are many different web sites on the internet for repairing computers. The information can be for desktops and laptop. You can also find videos on youtube for repairing a particular laptop brand and model. My only advise is be aware  of the website if they want money or they try to install some kind of junk program like pc optimizer pro.
 There are also plenty of books available on computer repair. It is best to do some searching and determine what you may want.
  Thank You for reading. 
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Current Virus Alerts November 2014

                       Here is some information on current viruses as of November 10 2014.
                          Threat Activity
  As of this date it seems as though the best free virus programs to clean up viruses are TDSSKILLER.exe, Combofix, Free Malwarebytes, A-Squared, ESET Online Scanner, Clam Win Portable, Spybot Portable and Adware Cleaner. These can all be gotten from Bleepingcomputer.com  here is a link to the website http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/. They do provide and excellent amount of information and help when it comes to virus cleaning. Just remember that all virus cleaning should be done in the safe mode. I generally set the computer to always start in the safe mode with networking. Just remember to set it back to normal boot when you are done. I also use a free program called Adware Removal to correct the web browsers that are corrupted by the infections.
  I would advise to check out some of my other posts for help.
  Remember to keep your antivirus software up to date. I would install Free Malwarebytes and Free Spybot on your computer to run when needed or at least once a week. As far as paid virus programs go I would use one of the following, Bitdefender, Kaspersky or paid Avast Antivurus. I am not as fond of Mcafee Antivirus as I used to be and the same goes for Norton Antivirus. They are okay, but they don't seem to be stopping as many viruses these days.
  Well that's all for now, so Thank You for reading.
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