Hardware and System Repairs/Reinstalls
Usually the cause of computers running slowly is either a virus or "left over" registry entries from software which is either not designed very well or has not been deleted completely.
Sometimes a repair can be effected very easily but if a system is suffering from multiple issues it can often be
easier and quicker to copy any required data and then reinstall the operating system and other software.
Hardware faults on Desktop PCs can often be repaired within 48 hours assuming any replacement parts are readily available.
Either way I will get your computer up and running as quickly as possible.
A local home visit costs just £30.00 which includes the first 30 minutes of your repair, further time is charged at £20.00 per 30 minutes.
Examples of recent repairs
CLIENT: I would like to fit an SSD drive to my computer and clean install Windows 10.
The client had an 4 year old i3 desktop computer that was running really slowly, by changing the hard drive to an SSD and reinstalling Windows 10 the computer felt, in his words, "better than brand new".
Total cost: £120
CLIENT: I would like to make sure that my children are safe online.
I set up a password on the parents computer login account and then set up a separate account for the children with full parental controls installed. The children could only access a "safe search" search engine, google was disabled along with Bing, Yahoo, etc. so that they could not access inappropriate material either accidentally or deliberately.
The parents could decide how long the children were on line each day and also see what the children had searched for by logging on to their own parental control account. Individual web sites could be blocked or allowed from the parents control panel.
Total cost: £60
CLIENT: I have spilled a small quantity of beer into my girlfriends 2 month old laptop.
This was one very unlucky chappie!
Although the beer seemed to have only affected one component, it was the most expensive part in the computer, the motherboard. You can see the damage caused below.
A replacement motherboard for this particular computer would have cost £185 plus about £70 for the diagnosis and fitting.
My client decided that it was not worth repairing and we agreed that I would take the laptop for spare parts to cover my time investigating the problem.
I think the girldfriend is still talking to him and the laptop is boxed up in my cupboard waiting for a compatible second hand motherboard to become available!
CLIENT: My daughters laptop has magically reverted to factory settings and lost 10 years of photos and her university dissertation!
For some reason this laptop had instigated the built in "factory restore" which had reformatted the hard drive and effectively lost all the clients data.
After trying 4 data recovery programs without success (and around 48 hours of machine time) we finally found one that would recover the data. The word files and photos were not named correctly but at least they were back and the client was very grateful that 10 years of memories had been recovered!
Total charged - £75.00 - This was probably not enough to cover the time expended but it was worth doing for the glowing testimonial that followed!
CLIENT: My 4 year old desktop computer was working perfectly and then today it would not power up!
This is a reasonably common problem and, as suspected, turned out to be a faulty power supply within the computer.
A new power supply was purchased and fitted into the computer and everything worked perfectly again.
Total cost including diagnosis, suppying a new power supply and fitting - £75.00
CLIENT: After downloading an installer for "Google Earth"my computer is running really slowly and is now not going to the web sites requested!
This client was the victim of one of the thousands of "scam" websites which do give you the software you have searched for but packaged in an installer which also adds other programs, viruses and malware to your system.
After manually removing the unwanted software and then running a full virus and malware scan the system was working perfectly again.
Total cost - £45.
CLIENT: After five years of use my laptop has got slower and slower until it is virtualy unusable
This computer had a build up of corrupted software, software that had not be completely uninstalled, viruses and malware, and the installed anti-virus was well out of date.
After uninstalling the outdated anti-virus and installing a fresh "free" anti virus program I ran various optimisation routines and removed all malware and viruses.
The computer is now running perfectly.
Total cost - £65.00
CLIENT: During a Toshiba Software Update they recommended a BIOS update to my laptop which then failed
This can be a catastrophic problem as the BIOS controls all of the base operations such as knowing what type of hard drive is installed and which drive to boot from. It also controls the ability to update itself so if the BIOS is corrupted it cannot repeat the update attempt.
To all intents and purposes the laptop looked completely dead apart from a flashing "charge" light.
NEVER UPDATE YOUR BIOS UNLESS IT IS ESSENTIAL AND YOU ARE READY TO ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES IF IT GOES WRONG, AND THEN ONLY FROM A BIOS CD, NOT FROM WITHIN WINDOWS!
Sometimes you can update a dead BIOS using a special bootable BIOS CD - this would not work on this particular machine and so the only solution available in this case was to obtain a pre-programmed BIOS chip from my supplier in Norway and solder onto the motherboard. This is a very tricky (and dangerous) operation as the eight legs of the bios chip are tiny and very close to other critical components.
The repair was successful but did cost £125 to complete.
CLIENT: I tried to repair my system but now it will not start at all
The client had attempted to repair the registry on his computer and had deleted some essential entries!
My attempts to repair the system automatically were unsuccessfull so it was decided to copy the clients data from the hard drive and then reinstall the computer to its "factory" state.
The client still had his installer for Microsoft Office and so I was also able to reinstall this for him as well and also to copy his documents, pictures and music back onto the computer.
Total cost - £70.00.
CLIENT: I have poor WiFi reception in my study
The client had purchased a pair of "plug in the mains" Network & WiFi extenders but the WiFi still did not work reliably in his study.
I advised him to return the "plug in" units (they very rarely work well) and I installed a professional WiFi repeater into the centre of his house.
He now has good WiFi not only in his study but everywhere in his home.
Total cost for repeater and labour - £90.00.
Processor speed
Two main factors determine the speed of a computer, which processor is installed and how much ram is available. The following chart is designed to help you buy the fastest processor that you can afford.
