Reliable Computer Person?

[gavinb]

Hello Everyone,

I'm new to Sydenham, and was wondering if anyone could recommend a good computer person who could assist me sorting out my daughters PC's woes!!

I've looked through Yellow Pages, and Thompson's, but am interested in someone local.

Any assistance will be welcome

Thanks in advance

Gavin

[The Eagle]

Before you go anywhere and spend any money, please let me know what the problem is. Please try and give as much detail as possible, including what your existing set up is eg Operating System (XP?); amout of RAM etc etc
I will then try and give you some advice.

[blue-sky]

Steve Shaw has helped myself and friends for several years. He's always managed to solve our computer problems and (fortunately for me!) has immense patience. His number is 0800-011-2380.

[The Eagle]

Steve Shaw has helped myself and friends for several years. He's always managed to solve our computer problems and (fortunately for me!) has immense patience. His number is 0800-011-2380.

I am certain that Mr Shaw is good; however generally speaking any PC can be fixed .................but at what cost?
A recent survey took place where 10 faulty machines (a software fault was deliberately put on them) and were taken to repairers, including PC World. If I recall 2 found the fault (which should only take 5 minutes at the most) and immediately repaired it. The other 8 including three different PC Worlds wanted to change the hard drive and sell a new XP software package, and even telling them it was not repairable and they needed a new PC. The others wanted to charge a huge amount of money to repair hardware on the PC (nothing wrong with it).

My advice to you is seriously think before you seek repairs. With Vista (new operating system) coming out in the next month or so it might be worth investing in a new PC, even ones with XP.

Once again if you tell me what is wrong with your PC I might be able to point you in the right direction

[gavinb]

Thanks Blue Sky, and thanks Eagle!!

Before I give call Steven Shaw, I do as Eagle asked. It would be a shame to spend money when it is not required.

Okay Eagle here we go neither I or my daughter are that great with PC's so bear with me and my attempt at explaining our problem. We have 2 PC's one laptop, and the other a Desktop. The Laptop works fine, the desktop on the other hand wont start up as expected. When we start it we get a screen message with a blue background and white writing indicating there has been a problem of some sort with either some hardware or software we recently installed.

I had tried upating the Nortons security application a few days prior to this problem occuring. The installation never completed. At the time after downloading the new version of the software I was prompted to uninstall the version of Nortons running prior to installing this new version. Infact the software was doing this on my behalf all I had to do was say yes or no. Anyway I said yes, it did a few things I guess, and then rebooted. Since then we have not been able to get into the machine.

At times it comes up with varuous options indicating we can start the PC in different modes but none of them seem to make any difference.

The PC is a Dell optiplex GX260, with Windows XP on it.

I really hope you can help with this.

Thanks

Gavin

and I have not been able to get back in to

[The Eagle]

Norton .....GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Have you installed any new hardware you might have received at Xmas.....webcam, camera etc etc ????

Turn on the PC and keep pressing the F8 button...........until something happens. This will take you into the Windows Advanced Options Menu.

Move the curser down to Last Known Good Configuration - this is usually the last known time that it operated properly.
Click on Enter (carriage return).
It willl then display the operating mode (eg Windows XP), click on Enter again.
The sytem will then start up (hopefully)............if it does click on START>ALL PROGRAMS ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS>SYSTEM RESTORE
When SYSTEM RESTORE opens Click on RESTORE MY COMPUTER TO AN EARLIER TIME .......... select a date PRIOR to when your problems started (Norton change?) and click next etc
The PC will then reboot to the date PRIOR to your problems.
Hopefully this will now work OK.


If that doesn't work REBOOT the PC and continue pressing the F8 button once again...until something happens. This will take you into the Windows Advanced Options Menu.

Now move the curser to SAFE MODE (top option), when it starts up (dont worry the desktop display will probably look different) carry out once again exactly the same as above ie
START>ALL PROGRAMS ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS>SYSTEM RESTORE
When SYSTEM RESTORE opens Click on RESTORE MY COMPUTER TO AN EARLIER TIME .......... select a date PRIOR to when your problems started (Norton change?) and click next etc
The PC will then reboot to the date PRIOR to your problems.
Hopefully this will now work OK.

You can then try updating the Norton

If it doesn't obviously let me know, you can PM me if you like (saying you have left an update on here) as I will be in and out all day and will check for messages.

Regarding the Norton is this one you subscribe to, or is it a free 1/3/6 month trial version or do you get it free from your Internet Service Provider (BT?)

If you subscribe to it do you have all your details (account reference etc)......the reason being I would suggest TOTALLY REMOVING it ( I will give you further info later how to, Norton is not as easy as others to remove as it leaves bits everywhere) ....... I would then Install it again

[The Eagle]

Hope you haven't blown yourself up.........not heard further from you

[Annie]

Help Eagle!

I was being all cleaver and using my recovery disc on my desk top comp and its bitten me!
My computer was slow and kept freezing so i thought i'd run the recovery disc through it. All was well it removed all my old xp files and put new xp files on then it asked me a question about where i wanted it placed or something ( iv'e forgotton exactly what it said)so i selected something???
and it has come up with a totally blue screen with the message:-

Stop:c0000221 (bad image check sum) The image user 32 d11 is possibly corrupt.The header checksum does not match the computed checksum.

Any ideas? I can't believe i didnt just leave it alone haha.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have

[The Eagle]

Annie

Have you installed any new hardware (webcam etc) and software that caused the PC to run slow? If you have you probably do not have the correct drivers for it. Uninstall the software drivers for that recent hardware you fitted and look for the most recent drivers from the manufacters site?

To get your pc back operating carry out the same as I put in the above instructions.........get into safe mode/or last known configuration.

When you get it restarted let me know as I will then suggest you run spyware program, empty cache scandisk and defrag etc etc

[Annie]

Thanks Eagle i'll try that today and let you know.

[Annie]

Hiya Eagle,
I,ve tried all of the above and it still comes back to the blue screen with that message,I can't get the start menu up at all,
when i go into safe mode it brings up lots of lines with diskette this and that then it goes back to the blue screen etc. any ideas or have i totally blown it?

[blue-sky]

I'm sure The Eagle means well but it's clear from the above examples that such problems can't be solved just by chatting on a forum - indeed, they are probably being made worse - which is why I stick to my original recommendation.

[The Eagle]

There is a lot of truth what blue-sky says however it depends on each individuals knowledge of PC's. The point I was trying to put over was that many problems can easily be resolved by the user, if that fails and they take it to a specialist make sure you get a quote first ...................... eg if they say the hard drive needs replacing most places will probably charge you in the region of £150 Pending on your PC it just might be worth buying a new PC.

Annie I have sent you a PM

[Annie]

Thank you Eagle i have Pm,d you back,
with regards to the post by Blue Sky,
personally i learnt something by the advice given by Eagle in his previous post, and while it hasn't solved the problem it has shown me how to get into the computer even with a "Blue Screen"
so to learn something new is always important don't you think?It may be something little to one person but to another its knowledge.

[Annie]

Hiya Eagle,
i just want to say thank you for taking the time to ring me and trying to sort out my computer.
I have looked on a couple of the websites you told me about, but i have a lot more reading to do hahaha,but i'll keep you updated as and if i find a solution.Thanks again annie

[gavinb]

Eagle,

Sorry I have not been back to give an update!!
Well th problem is still there. I did try the suggestions you mentioned. I was not able to get into safe mode as the PC would go to the blue screen and all the white writing on it. I've so many times now and still get the same blue screen!!

It is very frustrating, especially as I do not know what I'm actually doing.

I am conisdering buying a new PC cos I want to toss this one in the bin.

Gavin

[ctssydenham]

A recent survey took place where 10 faulty machines (a software fault was deliberately put on them) and were taken to repairers, including PC World. If I recall 2 found the fault (which should only take 5 minutes at the most)

Hello All,

I work for a small Computer Repair Center along Kirkdale, we have 2 engineers who service the locality. What I can say is Eagles comments are acurate to some extent. I have read the article he was quoting from, which was written to highlight issues the PC repair industry are facing. In my opinion professional PC repair services are needed. Not everyone has the background to begin troubleshooting a PC problem. Not many PC problem can be resloved in 5 mins, how do you know if its a software or hardware problem? Do you guess? Do you use tools, How long will it take? I doubt 5 mins, most PCs these days take about 2-3 mins just to fully boot up!!!

I can't speak for all PC engineers, but the ones I work with are knowledgeable, one of them our senior engineer has worked in IT for 10 years before joining us. and I doubt he guarantee that he could reslove a PC problem in any amount of time since there are so many variables. I'll give an example which is very similar to the problem Gavin worte about:-

A customer called the office to ask for assistance on his Compaq Laptop. He had not updated his antivirus in a very long time and decided to purchase Nortons online. After purchasing and downloading the antivirus software he tried installing it. Apparently his laptop was running Nortons 2005, and that needed uninstalling first in order to insatll the new version he had just downloaded. Anyway here's were the problem began. He could not successfully uninstall the 2005 version, and was also unable to get the PC the boot up into windows. He got the blue screen of death (blue screen with white text).

We went over and picked up the laptop, he had explained the problem to the engineer and asked him to please get Nortons off as thats what he had been trying to do prior this. So the engineer tries various means to get into the Laptop and uninstall Nortons. He sucessfully boots into the laptop serveral times over a 2 hour period via safe mode and normal means. He even unistalled Nortons however the Laptop would run a few miniutes then crash to the blue screen ot death.

So after 2 hours he calls up the customer to explain his findings and ask a few more questions, and it here that he learns that this infact has been an on going problem over the last 3 months, and has been getting progressively worse. Armed with additional information, the engineer then did a hardware scan of the Laptop using Compaq's bios diagnostics tools, which showed that the hard drive was faulty!!

So a new drive was put in and the customers data setup, and applications restored. The job took 2.5hrs to diagnose, and 4 hr to resolve - a day basically!! We cant justify charging for a day, so we compromise, and we loose out in the long run.

This is typical for most PC repairs, mis information, and problem identification. PC world's approach may not be that bad after all atleast they are not wasting time (time that most customers dont want to pay for).

I suggest that Gavin that you check your hard drive, dell have a utility to scan their hard drive and it is accessed by pressing F12 I think when the PC is booting up. You might find that thats where your problem actually lies.

Best of luck

Emma

[BingBong]

How hard is it? We have a pc on broadband and a laptop on a separate dial up, both AOL, which seems like we might be paying twice.

I'd like the laptop to work on broadband around the house, but don't want the computers completely linked to the point where anyone on the laptop can completely access the main pc and crash it.

I don't understand rerouters and other jargon like that, and suspect that this is one 'ctssydenham' might be able to answer. So far I've ben quoted about £270 to sort it out from another local 'pc fix' company.

We also have ntl cable tv so I'm thinking maybe in their new Virgin incarnation this might be an option for the laptop.

I'm confused! Answers in words of few syllables, please!

[admin]

I don't understand rerouters and other jargon like that, and suspect that this is one 'ctssydenham' might be able to answer. So far I've ben quoted about £270 to sort it out from another local 'pc fix' company.

The simplest solution is a router (about £40) that would also give you WiFi for the future. For now you just plug both directly into the router or even connect wirelessly. Each PC can operate independently. The other doesn't even need to be turned on. However if you are thinking about migrating from AOL I would do this at the same time.

(AOL have recently been bought out by CPW/TalkTalk but there are no plans yet to merge the brands)

We all have our favourite broadband suppliers. It depends on how much you want to pay. The best do cost a little more but conversely you can spend the same and get some really dreadful service. Always run suggestions against the comparison lists at http://www.adslguide.org.uk. Useful to have BT & Zen in your comparison to see how good or bad things can be!

Besides price - the most important factors are reliability and customer service. Note some superficially attractive deals tie you into 18 month contracts while others are happy to trust you with a month. Important if you might be moving ...

When you decide and presuming you have completed your minimum term with AOL you simply ask them for your MAC code. You give this to your new choice. Most offer 'free' migration. In about 2 weeks you get about 30 mins downtime while the engineers (far away) switch your connection. That's the point you want help installing your new router. Should take all of 30 minutes.

We charge one bottle of wine for successful completion of this service which is consumed on your premises with your help in the following 30 mins

Here are some suitable routers if you go ADSL. Don't bother with an ISP's USB freebie although some are now offering suitable routers. BTW Cable is different and you would go with the kit NTL supply. Choose one with plenty of 4/5* reviewers.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/cat/Wireless/s ... -/-Routers

Admin

[The Eagle]

The advice that admin has given you is excellent. As he says we all have our favourite ISP and without a doubt, especially with customer services some are considerably better than others. Personally I would not touch freeserve/wanadoo/orange with a barge pole. Great at taking the order, then they couldn't care a toss. They even use 0870 number for customer service and also now charge you if you require your MAC code.

As Admin says there are offers (all very similar) about, some offer free routers. Be careful as some are NOT wireless routers so to get your laptop connected to the internet you will have to connect cables to where your router is. How old is your laptop, has it got a built in wireless card?

I am not recommending it but your would not go far wrong going with BT Broadband (takes cover and tin helmet on). Pending on how much you will be uploading/downloading each month go for option 2 or 3. The reason I say that is you get a free wireless Bt Home Hub Router.
On all packages you also get free calls to 01 and 02 numbers after 6 and at weekends. It really is a mine field out there and the more you look the more it will do your head in

As a matter of interest someone I know migrated from another ISP to BT. They knew absolutely nothing about PCs or networks and THEY set the Home Hub up themselves and were up and running within 45 minutes (it took 20 minutes to load the CD). Four weeks later they then bought a laptop with a built in wireless card. It literally took them 3 minutes (with my help on the phone) to connect the laptop to the wireless network.