Yesterday I set up an Apple Time Capsule for a customer News your world in Maryland.
Moving forward they’re going to use tlApple Time Machine on their Mac’s to keep them backed up and protected in case of catastrophic a loss.
It all went very smoothly and I was out of there in less than an hour.
🙂 🙂 🙂
I took the ICC over to zip code 20904 to help out a long time customer.
After an update Seamonkey would not load secure ( https ) sites properly. Per instructions from the Mozilla folks, deleted the cert.db file. No love. Restored system to an earlier time.
Removed the anti-virus (temporarily).
Ran windows update.
Re-installed norton.
Updated seamonkey, to the current release.
Now everything works as advertised!
During the re-update of seamonkey, a message popped up indicating the initial download of seamonkey had a problem. So likely the initial update of SM was corrupt.
Once again, simplifying, and re-applying updates from the top down …. Saves the day!!!
🙂
Posted in Computer Repair, computer virus
Tagged firefox, Seamonkey, silver spring, ssl
Mark L. of Beaverbrook Ct, your problem had me stumped for just a a few seconds. Seemed as if the switch on your speakers was busted … but luckily I always try to have my own laptop handy, and could rule that out.
Lucky for you, your computer had two sound cards. An on-board Realtek, and an add-on C-Media card. Seems like the add-on card was dead, so it was good to be able to move to the on-board. Of course we could have replaced the c-media card, with another, but since you simply want to hear the normal computer sounds, the on-board Realtek sound card, should be just fine.
Posted in Computer Repair
Today started off by on a positive note. Returned George B’s laptop to him, and his wife on S. Leisure World Blvd. It was a hardware problem, we were able to get him a new motherboard for $50. It was an older laptop, and one that had been quite popular, so parts were readily available.
The laptop seemed dead. There was no power to the laptop at all. We could have repaired the power chips, but a replacement motherboard was cheaper ( in this case ), so that is the way we went on this.
Posted in Computer Repair
B.K. of Gaithersburg, I am glad I was able to help you get rid of that nasty rookit virus. It was a nasty one where even running our normal set of tools did not quite do it. I had to re-write the master boot sector to finally get it clean.
Keep in mind, if this happens again, we can send you our Watza Emergency Repair and Recover disk. Boot from our emergency disk, and we can then scan for even the most persistent viruses remotely, even fix the boot sector !!
Regardless, I am glad I was able to help, and you seemed to be off and running virus free, when I left.
Posted in Computer Repair, computer virus
C.M. of Montgomery Village, sorry that Verizon changed their smtp mail server port without letting you know.  Probably they ran on ports 25, and 587 in parallel for a long time, and it was just last week that they decided to cut off 25.
Back when they made port 587 available they probably sent you an e-mail telling you to make the change. That probably went unnoticed, and time went by. Finally last week, the mail admins cut off 25, and you could no longer send email.
Anyhow, a simple fix, you should be all set.
Posted in Computer Repair, network problem
Sometimes a mouse problem, is just a mouse problem ….
J.A. of Gaithersburg. I don’t know what to say, except sometimes a mouse problem is just a mouse problem.
Not quite sure of what you expected, I try to look at the most obvious first. You had done many good and correct things before I got there. Scanning with multiple AV’s, and anti-spyware tools, you picked good ones to try, but you did not try a new mouse.
Also, you seemed very concerned about how much this was all going to cost, but had not tried the most simple, and inexpensive solution yourself.
I am not sure why your business IT department was convinced it was something more malicious then a bad piece of hardware, but even so, why not try the most obvious thing first?
Keep in mind, the folks in your company’s IT org are smart, but they never even looked at the log files, or anything specific to their computer. They had to go on only the information you gave them, and you did not have the solution. That is not a criticisim, or you, or them. Well, really if they had said, we have no idea unless we look at it, and that is not our job, then you would have been better off. So, shoot me, but I criticize them just a tiny bit, for trying to help, when they really did not have enough information to be helpful.
I know you felt a little silly about the result, but be glad it did not seem to be a bad motherboard, or failing hard drive, or rootkit virus. Pretty sure it was just the mouse ……….
Posted in Computer Repair, computer virus
HP — you are building some very nice computers right now, but there is one little detail that you have slipped up on.
It is easy to Work Around, but it is ANNOYING.
You are shipping your business desktop pro with a very cool keyboard that does not have a separate number keyboard. It uses less desk space, and really very few computer users ( at least few of my customers), use the number kepad keys. BUT there is no BIOS setting to allow the owner of the computer to manage turning the numlock on, or not on, on bootup.
The Numlock key wants to start up locked on nums. The keypad is integrated into the normal keys on the keyboard …. so …..
If you set up win7 to not require a login/password then you can turn off numlock the first time you login, and it seems to stay off …
If you watch it while you reboot, it actually come on during the bootup process, and once your win7 desktop starts … it is off. Easy Peazy.
BUT if you follow industry standard, or turn on the HP Protect options, then you must visit the login screen during bootup.
UGH — if you watch the numlock lamp, it is lit when you are sitting at the password screen. So every time you log in, you need to click off the numlock before you type in your password ( unless you have a left-hand only password).
The keyboard IS COOL, but you must either change the BIOS to never turn on numlock, or at least change the BIOS to allow the user to manage the BIOS. Given many users never need to look at the CMOS settings, it would be best to add the option, but default it to NOT turning on num-lock.
Ironically enough I am preparing a HP ProBook 4520s for delivery to a customer. It is a well priced, 15″ screen notebook, that HAS a separate number keypad. Go Figure — a Desktop Pro 3130 with a keyboard w/out number keys, and a laptop computer with separate number keys ……
My .02 — fix the BIOS on the 3130 leaving the number keys off is a good move, and take the number keys off of most of your laptops w/ 15″ screens.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE release a BIOS update for the 3130 to address this annoying problem.
Posted in Computer Repair, computer virus, Uncategorized
J.G. sorry about the sad state of your hard drive. I am glad we were able to diagnose it quickly. It is unfortunate to have a hardware problem in such a new computer, but at least it looked like imaging was an option that would get you back up and running quickly without data loss.
Posted in Computer Repair
Delivered one computer, and worked with a second customer to pick a new computer.
New Computer Setup Kensington 20852
E.H.on Tuckerman Lane in Bethesda, (or is that Kensington) , I hope you enjoy your new computer. The HP Pro Book Laptops are really head-and-shoulders above what you can get at the retail stores. It was great to see you will be getting a good 3.5 hours of battery life out of that one. I think you picked a good balance of medium processing speed, but more memory, to help get good battery life out of a mid-priced laptop.
Old Computer Evaluation – New Computer Sale – Kentlands, Gaithersburg, 20878
P.D. of Tschiffely Square Rd, Kentlands, Gaithersburg glad I could help you on your new computer purchase. The HP Business Desktop Pro line is really a bit better then the Pavilion line of computers you can find at the big box stores. In your case, you will see that you are really getting a good computer for the price. 64-bit Windows 7 Pro, 1 TB hard drive, and a fast dual core processor should work great for you.
Posted in Computer Repair
A day in the life of a computer repair tech 