Dell

Boy this word dell often makes most computer technicians shake. They tend to see so many in for repair that they write them off as one of the worst computers out there. Yes there were problems with the dv series and failing motherboards. Besides that they are right up there with all the other brands of laptops out there. As for my self I have been running dell computers since back in the 80s. I can truly say I have not had any problems with them.
 I believe that most of the problems with dell computers are how the average customer takes care of them. One of the things that most procrastinators of dell computers fail to realize is there are millions of dell computers out there, so the failures are going to look like more than other brands. I am a computer technician and have been since the 80s as well as an electronic technician. I see some dell desktops and laptops come through for repair, but this averages out with all the other brands like lenovo, asus, acer, msi, sony, gateway and apple.
 So what are the most common problems with dell and other brands of computers these days ? Well I would have to say failing hard drives and viruses as well as corrupt windows 10 computers. Yes windows 10 seems to be easily corrupted. Sometimes it can be repaired by the reset choice or a good system restore point, but the majority of the time it has to be reinstalled fresh after saving the data.
 I have seen some technicians try to roll the registry back to a previous backup. The problem with this is either things were installed previous to that or there could be some corruption in it. I have had technicians do this only for the customer to come back and say this is missing or that email is gone. I had one technician do this on a computer for me and it failed the following day. I therefore ended up doing the saving of data and then the fresh load. Basically it was just a waste of time, so I don't recommend it.
 Okay back to the subject at hand. What should you do if you purchase a dell computer. My advise is to look into a extended warranty. This way if something fails after the first year you can at least get it repaired under warranty. Yes I have seen this happen and recommended to the customer to call dell and they offered the extended warranty at a fair price and the customer did not have to spend thousands on a new laptop.
 So would I recommend a dell computer ? The answer to that is yes I do recommend dell computers, unless you would like to search for parts to repair it.

               
  

Microsoft Is Calling You In 2017

Microsoft Called And Said I Was Infected

 It's 2017 and we get customers all the time that call and say Microsoft called me and said I have a virus. Most unsuspecting customers do not realize that this is a fake call. It especially is not Microsoft calling you. It is a person who is trying to gain access to your computer. Generally once you give them the okay to remote into your computer the damage is already done. One of the first things they do is turn off the restore in windows. This way once you find out what they were doing you have no way to restore your computer to a previous good date before they were in there. They also remove any image backup you may have in a system.
 So what else do these scumbags do to your computer. Generally they have installed a password so you can not enter your system. They may demand some money to have the password. They have also generally infected your computer with some kind of virus, malware, spyware and adware. There are some individuals that believe they can get back into the system. I have seen some websites out there having a person change and copy various statements into the registry. This may seem to work for awhile, but I have heard of the password problem coming back after a period of time. This is because it is sitting dormant in the system.
 Okay so what do you do now ? Well the only course of action is to clean the hard drive of any infection you find. The next step is to save the data to another hard drive. Next re-install windows on your hard drive, activate, re-install all software, set up printers and copy all your data back to the system. Yes this is a tedious mess and will take some time. The worst part is if you had a windows 8 system originally. You will have to re-install windows 8, activate and install all drivers and updates. Next you will have to update the system to windows 8.1 as well as all windows updates. Then finally you will have to re-install windows 10, drivers and updates plus activate it depending on your windows 10 installation. All I can say is oh boy what fun. This takes alot of time and labor and on a older system may not be cost effective.
 Okay so what should we do in the first place. First you should always have a back up of your system and data. That can change depending on your operating system. Windows 7 has it's back up in the control panel. You would have to have it set up and run previous to this infection. Windows 8, 8.1 and 10 have the file history for data and a manual image back up of the system. Always run the back up to an external hard drive and only connect it when the back up is due to run. This way if disaster or Murphy's Law appears you have a way of getting back to where you were.
 The Moral Of The Story Is NEVER LET ANYONE HAVE ACCESS TO YOUR SYSTEM UNLESS YOU KNOW THEM !!!
 MICROSOFT DOES NOT CALL ANYONE ABOUT INFECTIONS !!!

How To Back Up Your Computer

Back Up That Data Or You Could Lose It

 I get customers asking all the time what do I do so I don't lose my data. Well there are two main ways to save or back up your data. The first is using the back up program in the control panel. You should have a external hard drive to run the back up to. I would recommend a 1tb or 2tb external hard drive. They are fairly small and are pretty reliable. Windows 7 and windows 10 have the same back up program in the control panel. It works very well for the computer it's on. It is not meant to be recovered to a different computer.
 The second way of backing up your data is to the cloud. The most common way is using carbonite. Just be aware of your particular package. The cheapest package only backs up data, so get second package that make a system image as well as backing upon data. It's very difficult to use and it takes the pressure off you on running your own back up. Plus your data will not become infected and is safe.
 There is a third way and is just doing the copy and paste routine to a external hard drive or to a usb flash drive. Just make sure your usb flash drive is big enough for all your data.
 So remember to back up your data and stay safe.