The Best Computer ?

 Many customers ask on a daily basis what is the best computer. Well there are many brands to choose from and they all have pluses and minuses. I constantly hear other technicians complain that Dell Computers are junk. Well I have used Dell Computers for years and I never had a problem with any of them. The problem is that the technicians making these observations fail to realize that there are millions of dell computers out there and they only see a very small percentage of them. Plus they are a small company and put out a tiny amount compared to dell. They need to see that they have quite a few failures and in a small company, that's bad.
 I have been looking at some other brands of desktops and laptops lately. In fact Acer and Hewlett Packard are putting out some nice computers as of late. My advise is if you can buy an extended warranty on any computer for a reasonable amount, do it. I have seen desktops and laptops fail just outside of warranty. If it's a motherboard gone bad, it can be a very costly repair from a computer service center. I have found that most repairs are not too severe and could be repaired by the customer.
 The best thing that any customer should do is make a back up of their system. I mean make a system image and back up the documents etc....  This can be accomplished by using the back up program in the control panel of windows 7 and windows 10. Just remember that this back up is only for the computer it has been run on. I would suggest saving data like pictures and documents to a usb flash drive manually on a daily basis. There are other methods of backing up to the cloud using carbonite. Just remember the basic choice only backs up data, the middle choice and business make a system image as well as the data.
 So as for brands for the best computer, I would look at Dell, Acer, Asus, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and Sony. Toshiba's are okay, but seem to be lower end sometimes. There are also off brands that work as a basic computer, but are terrible at getting repaired under warranty. Just remember that any computer can fail at any time. It's just the unfortunate part of Electronic Components. I would always suggest checking out the reviews and ratings of the desktops, tablets and laptops you are looking at. The more the number of reviews, the better the information. You can then make an educated choice in buying a computer.
 Okay the last point on whether to have a computer built locally or buy from somewhere like Amazon. Yes there are plenty off excellent choices of dell computers at Amazon. Locally is nice, because the technical support is right there and you don't have to talk with someone on the phone. Now I have seen some companies that don't want to give a lot of support and want you to pay a good buck for it. I have also seen places of business use underhanded ways to get things repaired. For example getting a used piece of equipment off of say Ebay to replace a part. They also switch serial numbers to make you think it's the same computer, because the model is the same. I have also seen them use used parts from recycled computers in their repairs and new computer builds.
 My advise is to check out all the reviews on any company, before you buy something from them. So what is it like dealing with a manufacturer like Dell. Well you can end up playing phone tag with support. The best thing is to make sure you know what you are trying to get the person on the other end of the phone to realize. In other words thoroughly explain what is wrong with your computer. It will make it much easier for you and the technical support person. Also be prepared, because you may have to send it in for repair. That's why it's a good idea to have a back up computer in case yours has to sent out for repair. I have seen this happen and it's know fun for the customer.
 So do plenty of information shopping and get all the reviews, then make an educated choice.
 

Computer Repair Made Easy

 Is it easy to repair your own computer ? The simple answer is yes and no. Confusing isn't it. It all comes down to what kind of computer you have and what it's doing. In other words if it is acting slow, not going to where you tell it or locks up, you just may have a virus. Those are usually the tell tale signs that an infection has gotten into your computer.
 It is possible that a component in your computer may be failing. The most common is the defective failing hard drive. If you want to test your hard drive I would suggest downloading Hirens and burning the iso file to a cd disk. You can then boot off it and run the western digital software to test it or you can run the check disk program with the repair choice. If you have errors it's time to replace the hard drive. You may be able to clone it with programs like acronis or partition magic.
 If you can boot the system, I would recommend downloading rogue killer, free malwarebytes, junkware removal tool and adware cleaner. These all should be run from the safe mode with networking. Once they have all been run go through the programs list in the control panel. Look for anything that was recently installed and then uninstall it. Keep an eye on how the computer runs. If it's still having problems then save your data and reinstall windows fresh. Next you can reinstall your programs and move your data back in place.
 If you have a laptop computer or tablet, this is a whole different story as far as replacing components goes. With laptops you have many plastic parts and lots of little screws. Some manufacturers make accessing your hard drive or memory easy with a trap door on the bottom of the laptop. Now there are others where you have to disassemble the laptop to get at these parts. Replacing some lcd displays can be very difficult and they can easily be damaged. If you ever try to replace a lcd make sure to look for videos on youtube. There are plenty of excellent videos on a variety of computer related repairs.
 If you not at all comfortable with repairing your own computer, don't do it. Take it to a computer repair service center and let a professional do it. If you get good at working on your computer why not start your own computer repair service.