What's New Six Years Later?

I knew it had been awhile since I last posted but it wasn't until I looked today and was shocked to see my last post was 2015. So much has happened since then both personally and professionally. I still own my own business, Big Mike Computer Services, and I have several streams of income besides the regular home users who call. 

For the last year and a half I've been installing pinpads for TD Bank. That was fun and made good money until Covid hit and had to wear a mask all the time. This was especially bad for me because I have COPD which means it's difficult for me to breathe normally, and having to wear a mask was pure torture. Fortunately I've been able to find a wearable face shield that doesn't hinder my breathing much at all.

Personally I think this whole Covid thing is really the beginnings of plan for mass extermination of humanity by the super rich of the world (like Bill Gates) believe they have been commissioned to be guardians of the earth and it's up to them to convince us 'useless eaters' we are bad and deserve to be eliminated like parasites of an infested house. That all goes along with the narrative that we are responsible for climate change and must be punished. They try to convince us that there's just too many people on the earth and we're all dirty and bad should feel guilty enough to donate our wealth to saving the planet while those who push this message fly around in private jets and have beachfront properties all over the world. The appropriate adage is "rules for thee but not for me".

That aside, there's been some great new technologies come along in the last 6 years. Some of my favourites include the M.2 SSD's, Apple AirPods (earphones), Intel i9's and AMD Ryzen (CPUs), DDR4, and Streaming tv, movies, etc.

On a personal note I've been married and separated in the last 6 years but it's left me with some great new family members and in-laws whom I love very much. I even have a stepson. He's awesome, very smart, and I'm so proud of him for starting and running his very own business which is now a corporation.

That's all for now. Happy computing.

     

Will the FixMeStick Help? Not Enough.

I had the opportunity to check out the FixMeStick for free recently, and  I can happily and honestly say that it won't be putting me out of a job any time soon.

A client phoned me a few weeks ago to get me to come visit to check out two computers. One was her husband's laptop which he used for business, while the other was the lady's personal machine.

Both machines were obviously infected and she had tried to use the FixMeStick twice on her own machine, but it did not fix it.  I ended up being there for about four hours fixing up the two machines.

I have had a few people ask me over the last couple of years about this so-called "FixMeStick" and chuckle as they jokingly suggested it might one day put me out of business. I would laugh it off but secretly I wondered just how sophisticated this device might be.

My client, Sheila, had purchased the stick last month with the hope it might solve her issues without having to call a real computer guy like myself. When it arrived she plugged it into her own personal machine first, updated it as per instructions, and then ran the scan. The scan took nearly 3 hours to complete.  Afterward she logged onto her machine and to her surprise she was still getting pop-ups and her browser was hijacked, and the machine was very slow. So she ran the scan again, taking another three hours.  To her sad disappointment she discovered afterward that the machine was still not fixed, and that's when she called me.

When I got there she told me the story of what happened and said she was very unhappy with the stick and asked if I, as a computer tech, could check it out and let her know what I thought of it. I agreed to try, and when I left her place I took the stick and the box with me and waited the opportunity to try it out for myself for the first time.

I downloaded MalwareBytes AntiMalware and installed it onto Sheila's machine and then updated it and ran a full system scan. It took quite a while to complete but when it was done it found 2379 threats, which I promptly quarantined, and then waited for the program to pop up a message for me to reboot the machine. After the reboot the machine worked a lot better. There were still some things that needed to be changed before I could give it a clean bill of health, and one of them was changing the default homepage in the browsers. (I usually change it to https://startpage.com because they don't spy on you.)  Often when a machine is infected with malware, one of the things that gets changed is the default homepage so that your browser is redirected to some sort of marketing page to phish information from you.  These are called browser hijackers.

A few days later I had the chance to try out the FixMeStick on an infected machine.  After scanning the machine I noticed that there was no way to remove the threats it found. That is to say, there were no buttons or links to delete what had been moved into the FixMeQuarantine folder. After completing the process of scanning with the FixMeStick I rebooted and after the machine was up and running again I ran a scan with MalwareBytes and it found a bunch more threats that the FixMeStick did not find.

In conclusion I would not recommend the FixMeStick. While there is a chance it might clean your machine, it's scope of repair is rather limited to scanning and quarantining potentially dangerous files. But it cannot change your homepage that was changed by a browser hijacker, and it cannot uninstall bad programs or disable crappy toolbars.  My advice is not to bother as you'll likely be disappointed.

Frustrating the Enemy

How to Annoy a Scammer

Although it's kinda sick, I love seeing these scammers getting annoyed and frustrated as they try to steal our money.  So many unsuspecting people in Canada (and elsewhere) are getting calls from some guy at a call centre in India who tries to convince them into giving them money via a credit card.

What they want to do is frighten you into giving them money to "fix" a problem on your computer.  They often say they are from "Windows" or the "Windows Service Centre," neither of which exist in reality.  Windows is a program, not a company.  Microsoft is the company, Windows is the product.  But because people are familiar with the term "Windows" they become confused and sucked into paying money to fix a non-existent problem.

A friend sent me this video and after watching it I learned there are dozens, maybe even hundreds of these kind of videos on YouTube.  People are catching on to these pranksters and scammers and taking the time to hit them where it hurts and pump up their frustration level.  I recommend you watch a few of these to get ideas on how to scam the scammers.

For me it's difficult to keep a straight face while talking to these guys but I manage sometimes to annoy them.  Most of the time they call at very inopportune moments like when you're in line up to the check out at the grocery store, or washing your car.  But I encourage you to make these bastards as frustrated as possible so that they may stop calling Canadians for fear we are on to them.  Tell your neighbours too.

Until next time....
Happy Computing!

Big Mike

Uncheck "Start with Windows"

As a computer repair guy, I often get called out to do what most people call a "tune up" on their computer.  Typically they will say their machine has become very slow lately.  It takes a long time to boot up and shut down, and/or they see the little spinning wheel going round and round while waiting for the thing they just clicked on to come up.

 

There are lots of things that can slow down your computer and one of the first things I have learned to look for is Skype running in the systray down by the clock.  One of the last screens of the setup of Skype (pictured here) comes with a checkbox that is already checked for you (I unchecked it before I took this screenshot) that says, "Run Skype when the computer starts."

 

It is important to realize that your computer has limited resources of CPU, RAM, video, etc., and when you have tons of stuff running in the background it is cutting into those resources.  Now mind you, today's machine are far richer in resources than the ones of 15 years ago, but still, if you know what to look for you can really "trim the fat" off resource use so you can focus your machine's resources on what you want, and your machine will run better.

 

Unless you plan to use your machine for Skype most of the time, it really doesn't need to be running constantly in the background.  If you use Skype as your machine communications program all the time then, sure, run it all the time and have it load when the computer starts up.  But otherwise, you really only need to start Skype when you need it, and shut the program off when you are finished.

 

While I can understand from Skype's point of view why they would want to have that box checked by default.  They want people to use their software all the time, of course.  So would you if you had created a popular piece of software.  I'm sure I would.  But from my point of view as a computer user, I do not want Skype running all the time if I only use it once in a while.  I only want it to run when I want it to run and the rest of the time it can stay off.

 

Bottom line: read before you click.  Don't let programs dictate to you what should be running on your machine.  For the most part, you don't want anything but your anti-virus program to start with Windows.  So if you have 10 icons in your systray, have a look at what they are and see if you really need them.

 

For more information, please feel free to call Big Mike Computer Services in Nanaimo, BC at 250-740-1812.

 

Happy Computing!

Big Mike

 

Computer Slow or Dying?

A computer repair person is often called on to "speed up" a slow machine.  Typically the problem is software related where there is a virus, trojan, malware, or spyware which is slowing things down.  Other problems could include something called a "rootkit" which is a tiny program that runs before Windows gets up and running, and it has a certain amount of control of things that can allow any or all of the above problems come into the machine.

a dusty computer will lead to failure of components on the motherboard

Sometimes however, the problem could be hardware related.  RAM, for example, is susceptible to static electricity.  Actually, all the hardware in a computer is susceptible to static.  But besides static electricity, HEAT is also an enemy of computers.  Cleaning the dust from the motherboard, CPU and power supply often can extend the life of the unit.  Dust build-up can hold heat in and around the electronic components, causing them to overheat.  There are usually large capacitors around the CPU which will appear "popped" on the top where it would normally be flat.  This indicates the capacitor has overheated and means the motherboard will most likely need to be replaced eventually, and more likely to be sooner than later.

 So if a person’s machine is slow, take the side cover off the desktop machine and see if there's lots of dust in there.  If there is, blow it out with an air compressor.  If there is no available air compressor, one could perhaps be borrowed from a friend or neighbour.  One may also purchase a can of air from a computer store like BestBuy or FutureShop.  A good can of compressed air will probably cost about $10 - $12.  A trip to Costco could yield a six pack of compressed air for $20, it is too cheap and probably not the best stuff. 

Ways to Make Money With Your Computer

 

There are plenty of ways to spend money online.  What may surprise you sometimes is that there seems no end to the Get-Rich-Quick schemes one can find either.  But even if you don't want to get rich "quick" there are still lots of ways to just "make money" online.

 

If you do a StartPage search of "ways to make money online" you'll discover a whole host of ways and means to make money with promises of everything from making a decent second income to allusions of possible 6 or 7 figure yearly incomes. 

I'm going to go over just a few of them here today, along with my personal comments.

Perhaps like many of you I have tried a few schemes in my life to make money besides the traditional working-for-someone-else plan that many do today.

Now that we have entered the "Information Age" it is so easy to find ways to make money online in ways you probably never dreamed of.  And all you need is a recent vintage of computer, an internet connection, and some imagination and some effort, and you can make a lot of money.

 

In no particular order, here are three ways I have personally seen people make money from the Internet...

 

Send-Out-Cards - I personally know a lady in the town where I live (Nanaimo, BC) who has affirmed she and her husband make well over $100,000 per year sending out greeting cards.  She has been doing it since 2004 and has paid off her mortgage, her car, and pays for most things with cash.  I'm not sure what her initial start-up cost was, but I know it wasn't much compared to what she earns today.  Greeting cards are always nice to get; they usually bring a smile to my face before I even open them, no matter who they are from.  This lady loves the way she earns a living, and it shows.

 

Banners Broker - This company was introduced to me in April 2012, and I have since met several people who are making money with it online.  It involves purchasing and selling internet advertising traffic.  Google Ads is a similar business.  But those who are into it see it as like a slow-moving internet game of making money where you are actually playing with real money.  I personally know two people who signed up for BannersBroker.com in 2012 and are now withdrawing over $2500 per week into their pockets.

 

Article writing is a great way to get started making money online.  There are no startup costs other than a computer and internet connection, and you can be up and running in mere minutes.  There is a bit of a learning about things like Search Engine Optimization, aka "SEO" and keywords, and you will need to be patient. In time, this can be a pretty good source of passive income.  Here's a list of ideas you can blog about.

 

There are lots of ways to make money online and these mentioned here barely scratch the surface.  Do some research, and - if you are diligent - I'm certain you can find something that you can do if you are willing.

 

I'll write more on making money on line at a later date.  Until then...

 

Happy Computing!

 

Big Mike Nanaimo

http://bigmikecomputerservices.ca

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is Antivirus Enough Security?

Original story: Tim McGrath

The Washington Post, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal all suffered significant security breaches during 2012.  All were running anti-virus software that failed.
It is reported by an anonymous IT worker: “They had the ability to get around to different servers and hide their tracks. They seemed to have the ability to do anything they wanted on the network.”
CNN Money reports: “During a four-month long cyberattack by Chinese hackers on the New York Times,  the company’s antivirus software missed 44 of the 45 pieces of malware installed by attackers on the network.”

If this happens to large world renowned newspapers, what is a Small Medium Business (SMB) suppose to do?

Experts say that antivirus software is still a good, basic thing to have. Owning an antivirus solution is like putting the Club in your car — it’s not going to stop a determined thief, but it’s going to make stealing your stuff more difficult.   The amazing thing is I have heard the manager of a 65 store chain insist that their 5 year old router and anti-virus software is ‘all the protection we need’ !!
When reading a report on Email based Malware in July 2012 “… focus on most this report is the atrociously low detection rate for these spammed malware samples. On average, antivirus software detected these threats about 22 percent of the time on the first day they were sent and scanned at virustotal.com. If we take the median score, the detection rate falls to just 17 percent. That’s actually down from last months’s average and median detection rates, 24.47 percent and 19 percent, respectively.”

“That’s a stunning wake-up call to people and businesses who think they are fully protected by their antivirus software. “
“Even the most modern version of antivirus software doesn’t give consumers or enterprises what they need to compete in the hacker world,” said Dave Aitel, CEO of security consultancy Immunity . “It’s just not as effective as it needs to be.”

Solution:
First thing to do, get a preliminary security assessment! The security auditor will check a lot more than just if you have anti-virus.

Story by Tim McGrath  http://its-secure.ca/blog/anti-virus-software-that-failed

For more information locally regarding your security, call Big Mike Computer Services in the north end of Nanaimo today:

240-740-1812

http://www.bigmikecomputerservices.ca

Happy Computing!

Can't Boot? Try Unplugging All USB Devices.

Today I was called to check out a computer that would not boot.

As it turned out, the problem was that he had a USB printer attached that was powered. It happened to be a Canon Pixma printer that was plugged into the wall for power and p...lugged into the laptop via USB.

Here's the deal. USB ports are powered. Not only that, but many of today's printers have card readers, which show up as drive letters on your machine. So what happened in this case was that the laptop was looking to be booted from a USB device such as a USB stick or cd-rom, OR another media drive like Compaq Flash or SD chip, etc. See how that works?

Nowadays USB sticks have all but replaced external DVD-RW as the primary or secondary bootable device. From the factory these little ACER ONEs are set to look to boot from a USB device, and if nothing is there to boot from it usually next tries to boot off the hard drive. Sometimes the next boot device might be to boot off the LAN or network.

In my case today, it hung looking to boot from a USB drive letter that had nothing to give back. As soon as we unplugged the USB printer and rebooted the machine, it booted up just fine as normal.

Check out my website: http://www.bigmikecomputerservices.ca/

Happy Computing!
Big Mike

Where Did 2012 Go?

Hard to believe it's 2013 already. I was so busy in 2012 I didn't get much chance to blog.  Happy New Year (x2), Happy Valentines Day (x2), Merry Christmas (x1) and Happy Easter (x2), etc.!

Now it's Spring, and with it comes a time of cleansing.  Bring your dusty PC to Big Mike Computer Services in Nanaimo and have the dust blown out for free.  Call 250-740-1812 to book your appointment.  While you're there, have Big Mike put your machine on the bench for a quick check up.

Big Mike Computer Services is located at 6132 Mystic Way, Nanaimo, BC.

We do hardware upgrades, virus removal, malware removal, RAM upgrades, tweaks, troubleshoots and transfers.  Need your data backed up or recovered?  Call Big Mike today.

250-740-1812

A Bogus Call From "Windows" Reveals Scam

Be wary of anyone claiming to be from "Windows"

A few weeks ago my friend Monique called me and reported that someone from "Windows" called her and said that her computer had been sending out private information about her and the person wanted her to download and install something.  She told the guy that she didn't really know much about the computer and asked if he could call back in half an hour when her husband would be in.

That's when she called me.  The big red flag for me was the fact that the guy said he was calling from "Windows."  I asked Monique if she was sure he said "windows" and not Microsoft.  She was sure.  So I came over and we waited for the phone to ring.  I was not disappointed.

When I got on the phone I asked the guy where he was calling from and he said England.  He had a bit of a non-British accent but I'm not sure what it was; possibly Indian, I'm not certain.  He confirmed he was calling from Windows and I asked him if he meant Microsoft and he repeated that he was calling from Windows, from the technical division. He said that a technician would help me solve the "problem" and it may cost money if the problem was really severe.

I pretended to play along to see what he was up to.  He wanted me to download a file from a website which would allow him to "inspect" the computer.  I was familiar with the program because it is a legitimate program similar to VLC used to log onto people's computers, usually used by technicians and engineers to take over a PC.  I deliberately frustrated him by pretending I just couldn't log onto the site, claiming it must be the virus that is interferring.  And he did get frustrated much to my pleasure.  He kept trying to get me to log onto a different website which was a redirector to the legitimate site.

If I had been a bit more keen I would have asked for his name, number and company name.  Instead, however, I just thanked him for the information and said I would reload my machine from scratch which would thereby destroy the virus.

In conclusion, let me tell you that this was indeed a scam which I looked up after the phonecall.  Here's more info from Microsoft's site.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-security/phone-call-scam-received-call-from-a-technician/6ed2b99c-20ff-468b-a69b-aec78b93f287

I'm glad Monique called me because I have not had to deal with that scam before or since then and it was good to have that experience.

That's it for now.
Happy computing!

Big Mike

A Little Tap'll Do Ya

Recently I was asked to try to save the data on a failed hard drive.  This was a fairly new 2 terabyte Western Digital "green" drive.  I was told the drive just "up and stopped" one day and the drive letter disappeared.  I've had the opportunity to retreive data on lots of drives before, and this, I thought, would be no different than the hundreds of others I had managed to get data from.

I hooked the drive up to my test machine and hit the power button.  The machine took a long time to initialize the drives, and then gave me a failure message from the one I had hooked up.  I felt the top and bottom of the hard drive and it didn't feel warm, nor did it feel like it was spinning the platters inside.

My first thought was that it was indeed 'hooped" and beyond my level of repair.  So I called my client and told him what I had discovered.  He said he was between backups on that drive and that there was some stuff on there that was very important.  I told him there were some data recovery companies in BC and we could ship his drive over to one of them but it was not a cheap process.  He wanted to know how much and I said it was at least several hundred dollars for sure.  I told him I could do some research for him and come up with some sort of plan.

I called around and talked to a few recovery companies on the mainland, and came up with the best deal I could find and that was about $750, and if no data could be recovered, then no charge.  But I also had to send a second drive for the data to be copied to and provide a list of the most important folders on the drive so they would at least have something to search for while the drive was running in some capacity.

After working out a deal and confirming with my customer how to proceed, I was getting ready to send in the two hard drives via Purolator.  But during a quick meeting with my engineer friend, I had an idea I would try.  He said it was possible that the platters were just "stuck" because they were in the middle of a read/write when something happened.  He suggested I try holding the drive parallel to the floor and quickly spin the drive back and forth with my hand.  The idea, of course, was to make the case spin faster than the platters, thereby breaking them free.  I tried that a few time but it didn't work.

Then I had another idea.  I was thinking of times when I have had worn brushes on a car starter and had to tap tap tap on the side of the starter to make it move just enough to move past the flat spot so I could start the car.  I took a little hammer and tap tap tapped on the edge of the hard drive in the same manner.  Then I hooked the drive up again to my test machine, and VOILA!  It spun up.

I was so excited.  I allowed my test machine to boot up and I was able to read the drive.  It needed to run a CHKDSK to correct a few small errors, but after that it was able to operate normally.  I called my client and told him the good news.  He was all smiles.  I told him of my new plan to copy his data to a spare drive I had and then to run a thorough diagnostic on his drive.  He agreed.

Well, it took awhile to do all that but overall the result was good.  My customer paid me for my time and expertise.  And it was lest costly than 'Plan A,' so he was pretty happy.  Me too.

So the next time a drive doesn't spin up for an unknown reason, you have something you can try before you send or throw it away.

Happy Computing!

Big Mike

What's Wrong With 2 AntiVirus Programs?

I just finished repairing a client's machine that had stopped being able to boot with an accompanying "blue screen of death" (BSD). Every time I tried to boot the machine it would get to the part where it was about to display the Welcome Screen, there'd be a BSD, and then the machine would reboot leading to the same result.

Although I cannot say for certain, I suspect that if my client had taken this machine to FutureShop or Staples, he might have been told his computer would need to be reloaded with Windows.  What did I do to fix it?  I hooked his hard drive up to my Test Machine and ran chkdsk.  That fixed some garbled entries of the Master File Table (MFT).  I was then able to put the drive back into the client's tower and was then able to boot.

Once it was booted up I was able to make an educated guess as to what happened and why the machine crashed in the first place.  I saw three things right away that I believe were unwitting culprits.

1. System time was off by about 15 minutes. Windows Update depends on your machine being in sync with Microsoft's servers.  Some updates just won't happen if the time it out by more than a few minutes.  Having the time go astray is often the result of a low battery on the motherboard.
2. Recent updates had glitched after a reboot.  Once I was able to fix the MFT and get the machine up and running, it finished these recent updates.
3. There were two AV programs: BitDefender and Avast.

So what's wrong with having two anti-virus programs?  When I asked my client later he said that he thought two would be better than one and that they would work together as a team.  I politely informed him that this is not the case.  In fact, the two programs will compete to try to do the same job.

Suppose one program detects a virus and quarantines it (as it should).  Later, the second program scans the same machine, and finds the virus again, but this time it's found in the quarantine folder of the first AV program.  The second program will try unsuccessfully to quarantine it but won't be able to because the file has been locked (quarantined) so as not to contaminate the machine again.

What happens after that varies.  Sometimes the machine just gets really slow.  Sometimes it crashes.

Can you see how this would be a problem?  Two anti-virus programs do not work together "as a team;" rather, they will fight to see who can do the job first.  It is my hope that after reading this article you will know better and save yourself some future frustration and cash.

Happy computing!

Big Mike

Staples May Inadvertantly Sell Your Data

In the June 22, 2011 edition of the local paper I saw this headline:

"WATCHDOG: STAPLES RESOLD HARD DRIVES WITH PERSONAL INFO"

The article went on to talk about the federal privacy watchdog says Staples Business Depot stores failed to fully wipe personal info and data from laptop computers they resold.  Apparently this has been an on-going problem, which is not good.  After the audit Staples responded saying it was actively testing several means of fully wiping data from returned products without damaging or destroying hard drives or operating systems.

Today's blog is about how to make sure this does not happen to you or your data.

The article did not say exactly how these problems manifested themselves but I can make an educated guess.  I suspect a scenario where someone buys a laptop, uses it for a few days, and then brings it back saying it's not for them or they'd like one that's a bit better.  But in the meantime while they had it they set it up for themselves and copied or stored data, not thinking it needs to be erased before bringing it back.  Or, perhaps someone bought an external hard drive to back up their stuff and then realized it didn't have enough storage space.  So they bring it back and trade it up.

So what can you do?  Here's a simple solution.  And you don't have to be any sort of computer whiz to do this.  If you have purchased a new laptop from Staples or Futureshop or whatever, and you've used it for a few days and saved stuff to it's hard drive, what can you do to make sure someone else doesn't have to deal with your data?

1. Open the Control Panel
2. Find/Click on User Accounts
3. Click on Manage Another Account (Win7)
4. Find/Click on Create a New Account
5. Give the new account a name (such as "BigMike" or "User2")
6. Put the radio dot on "Administrator" account (rather than Standard User) and then click the "Create Account" button.
7. Do not create a password.
8. Log out of your account (for the last time).
9. Log onto the new account from the Welcome Screen.
10. Go into Control Panel, find User Accounts, and delete your old account.
11. If it asks if you want to keep the files, say NO.
12 Log back out and turn off machine.

It's ready to go back to the store now, or even to give to your neighbour or relative without fear of your data being accidentally left on there.  As long as you didn't store data in any other folder other than your own Documents/Pictures/Music folders, all your old stuff should be gone now.

The other thing you could do would be to do a Restore to Factory Default on the laptop.  This takes a long time, however, and is probably not necessary unless you've got a virus or corrupt data.

If I were the Tech Director at Staples, even though it would take extra time, I would insist all the techs learn how to restore to factory settings for laptops so there's almost no chance of any old data being found.*  That said, read how data is erased below.

Until next time,
Happy Computing!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*NOTE: You have probably heard that even when you delete data from a hard drive it is not really "gone."  This is true but let me tell you what the means.  When you delete a file or folder from a hard drive, it normally goes to the Recycle Bin.  While in the Bin it can be restored if necessary, so you know it's not really gone permanently.  If you hold the Shift button down while deleting a file or folder, it will ask you if you want to "permanently" delete this file.  That's because when you hold the Shift key down while deleting it skips the Recycle Bin and erases the index entry on the hard drive.  In effect, the file is deleted and it would be difficult to get it back.  Difficult that is, but not impossible. 

When the index entry is erased, it's sort of like removing a section from the Table of Contents of book.  Just like a ToC in a real book, it doesn't delete the actual pages where the information is written, but it erases what page it was on, making it difficult to find again.  The file or folder can still be recovered again with not too much trouble if you know what to look for.  As soon as another file overwrites the spot where your file or folder was, it is essentially gone.  Same goes if the drive is defragged.  Your data is "gone" for all intents and purposes.

The RCMP has software that can get back data that has been deleted or defragged up to 6 times.  If you are REALLY paranoid, you can download something called the "Guttman" process which erases and overwrites the hard drive 7 - 32 times.  Very little chance of getting your data back if you run this process.  You could also defrag the drive and each time will push your old data further and further away from being resurrected.

Buy New, or Upgrade?

Which way do you go?

This week I had a client (whom I'll call "Joe") who has a diagnostic device that requires a serial port on a computer to plug into. For a long time he had been using a Compaq laptop, circa 2004, which had, as many laptops of the day, a serial port.

Well, Joe's laptop has definitely seen better days. The battery was toast and the hard drive was just about shot, but salvageable. It could use more ram too at only 768 megs. Adequate, but not great.

At this point, Joe is asking what it costs to replace all this stuff and I do a quick check and it would normally be well over 3 or 4 hundred dollars with labour and taxes. He figures he could put that money into a new machine instead of fixing up the old one. But a new one could be $600 and up after all is said and done. Then a person would need to purchase some sort of adaptor to turn USB into a Serial port. Unfortunately, there are potential issues with these adaptors and not ALL serial port devices will work through them. There was a chance Joe could spend several hundred dollars getting a new maching, only to find out later his usb/serial device works but it sometimes is flaky or inaccurate, or slow, or stops responding.

To upgrade, a new 160 gig drive to replace the 40 gig is about 80 bucks or so. As for a new battery, I called one place and they wanted $178!!!! I was a bit shocked. I called another place and was able to get one sent to me for about $80. Pretty good deal compared to the first quote, that's for sure. To max out the ram on that laptop would be about 130 bucks and bring it up to two gigs of ram. Great for Windows XP.

Since Joe didn't have much money we decided to upgrade, but not everything; just the hard drive and battery. These are the two most critical things. The ram can wait. So we ghosted over his old drive to a new one and replaced the battery, and now it runs like it was new. Joe is happy.

If Joe is happy, I'M happy.

Things that make ya go "hunh?!?"

Recently I worked on a machine that was giving me a false message. It was telling me on boot up that the bios needed to be updated and was asking me to insert either a cd with the xxxx.rom file or a usb drive with the same.

After a lot of time spend trying to "please the machine" by running bios updates in various ways, it became apparent that the real problem lay elsewhere. I removed all the pci cards and powered up. No change. There were four sticks of ram; I removed two of them them and powered up. Hey, it booted! Something with the ram. After trying various combinations I was able to determine which of the four was the problem.

This is kinda like your car stalling with a message on the dash saying you're out of gas. But then you get out and see you have a flat tire. You fix the tire and suddenly the low fuel light goes out.

Sometimes things aren't always what they seem when fixing pc's.

Custom Building a Computer

If you are a small business and you need a computer to do a particular task, it might be a good idea to consult someone (such as myself) to see what sort of parts would make a good machine for your particular needs.

For example, if you wanted to edit video, you would need a much more powerful machine with higher end parts than you would to, say, create spread sheets or type a newsletter. Or if you were a serious hardcore gamer and had a really huge budget, you would want to build a better machine than what it would take to, say, surf the web and play your favourite movie on dvd.

But you know what? You don't need to be a computer whiz with years of experience to know what you want in a new computer for your specific needs. The hard part is deciding which way to play with numbers so you get the best bang for your hard-earned buck.

Here are a few pointers you may find helpful.

1. If you are into editing pictures with Photoshop, believe it or not, you do not need a high-end video card. What you need is lots of RAM power, rather than video power. So there's no need to spend a bunch of money for a video card unless you're doing something with video files or you're a gamer.

2. If you want to build a decent gaming machine, don't cheap out on the power supply; get a really decent one. If you buy a cheap one you're just looking for trouble. Remember that clean power is what your machine really likes. The power coming into your home is not "clean" power, meaning there are constant spikes and dips and noise on the powerlines. Having a battery backup power supply (or UPS) will clean the power for you so your power supply doesn't have to. Now, I say this about gaming machines, but really, my advice is to stay away from cheap, light power supplies altogether unless it's just an emergency temporary fix.

3. Don't worry about maxing out the ram on your motherboard. Just get what you can for now and fill in the rest or upgrade later. Just because your motherboard is capable of supporting 24gigs of RAM doesn't mean you have to make it full from the start.

4. Make sure the front side bus (or FSB) matches or exceeds the speed of your RAM. RAM will typically get faster and cheaper so you can fill up later. For now, however, it would be okay to get a motherboard with 1333MHz FSB and DDR3 RAM at 1333MHz. It would also be okay if your FSB was 2000MHz and your RAM was 1333 as this would still work well and you could always upgrade the ram later. It's not so easy to upgrade the motherboard.

5. Look for the "sweet spot" when it comes to getting the best bang for your buck with your CPU. For example, you could buy an Intel Core i5 2.8GHz for $173. But right next to it is the Intel Core i5 3.1GHz for $177. It's a "no-brainer." Spend the extra 4 bucks.

6. Harddrives. Have you noticed that some brand names of hdd's are using colours to designate various designs now? For example, Western Digital sells "blue" drives, "green" drives, and "black" drives. What's the difference? Speed. The Green drives are spinning at 5400 rpm while the Black drives are spinning at 7200 rpm. Black drives are almost twice the price of Green drives at the moment. If you can afford it, go with the Black drives. If you need a "value" machine, go Green.

As I mentioned, playing with the numbers is the harder part of building a new machine. In general, I usually spend the most money on motherboard, CPU, tower and power supply. The other stuff I don't mind "cheaping out" on like the DVD burner or card reader. Personally, I like spending a bit more on a nice case rather than just a ho-hum run-of-the-mill tower that everyone else has. But that's just me. Some people don't give a dang about how their case looks, just so long as everything fits.

Hope that helps.

i3, i5, or i7? Which is best for you?

i3, i5, or i7? Which is best for you?

I don't know if you can read this nifty little chart to the right here, but Intel has three main naming conventions for their CPU's.

Here's the short story:

ALL i3's are dual core

SOME i5's are dual core

OTHER i5's are quad core

ALL i7's are quad core

If you're going to be reading and writing emails on your computer and maybe burn a cd or two, an i3 is probably ideal for y our needs.

If you will be editing audio and maybe playing the odd high end graphics game now and then, you'll want at least an i5.

If you want to be using Autocad, hardcore gaming or any other 3D rendering stuff, or video editing, you'll want the i7's quad core processing power.

And, of course, they range in price accordingly, with the i3's being the least expensive.

5 Things to Consider when Buying a Computer

What to look for when buying a computer.

This is a rather huge topic so this blog post will hardly be "exhaustive" by any stretch. Rather, these are just a few simple things you may or may not already know about buying a new computer.

1. What will this computer be used for? If you want a travelling machine that you can take on holiday and type emails along the way, you don't need anything high end. Almost any cheap (or rather, "inexpensive") laptop will do. Creative writing, spreadsheets, databases, power point presentations are all pretty easy on any computer and none require a lot of horsepower. On the other hand, if you are planning to record and edit high def video, a cheap machine just will not do the job. If you're semi-serious about editing video then more than likely you'd want a desktop type PC that won't be moved around much after it's initial set up to get that job done, so a laptop will not likely meet your needs. Try to do at least a bit of homework by talking to some computer literate friends or co-workers before you go shopping and at lease figure out what you need this machine to do.

2. Does it need to be portable? Here's something to remember: a laptop is a compressed and flattened down version of a desktop computer. What is gained in space is lost to upgradeability. What is gained in portability is lost to less available internal components. Eight hundred dollars (at today's economy) can buy a pretty skookum PC these days, or a decent laptop. More than likely you'll get a better bang for your buck with the desktop than you would with the laptop. Also, desktops can usually easily be upgraded with a new video card, more ram, nicer monitor, faster harddrives, processors, etc., while you are pretty much stuck with what you get with a laptop.

3. Laptops are meant to be portable, not durable. They will not take much in the way of physical punishment. If you accidently drop a laptop or have one get yanked off the coffee table onto the floor by someone tripping over the power cable, you can almost be assured of some damage.

4. There are three main criteria I look for in a new PC.
- CPU speed. Amount of RAM. Harddrive space.
Firstly, I want to know the CPU speed in GHz (ie. is it a 3.2GHz, or 2.3GHz?). The higher the number the better and the number of cores is good to know too. There are single core processors, dual core processors, tri-core processors, quad-core processors, and even hexi-core processors. The more cores the better. The lower numbered ones will be cheaper, of course, but will be working the hardest to get the job done.

Secondly, I want to know how much RAM it has. Older 32-bit machines have a maximum of about 3 gigs of ram. Some can take 4 gigs but will only read 3.5 at the most. The newer 64-bit machines are usually 4 gigs and up. Sixty-four bit is the way to go if you're buying a new machine today. For those who have older software, SOME of it will not work on 64-bit machine, but that 'some' is very few. Most 32-bit programs will run on 64-bit machine just fine; there are of course exceptions. But we move on.

Lastly, I look for harddrive space. Usually, the more the better, but if you'll be using the computer to write a novel and keep notes and maybe some pictures, you won't need a whole bunch of harddrive space; even a few hundred gigs is probably far more than you'd ever normally use. On the other hand, if you're the person who likes to download stuff and collects every video your friends have sent you in the last 10 years, you'll want to make sure you get lots of disk space. As of today, a laptop sized 1TB sells for roughly $140 to $160 here in Canada. (In five years, if you are reading this blog, you'll either laugh at that price or cry. I remember seeing my friend pay about 800 dollars to upgrade his 486 from 4 megs to 8 megs of ram; when 2 megabyte chips were $200 each. Ouch! I myself paid over $500 for a 10gigabyte harddrive. You would be hard-pressed to even find a 10gig drive today. And it sure wouldn't be a months' rent for it either!)

5. If you are considering building a computer yourself or having one built for you, please don't buy a cheap power supply; and if your data is important, make sure you also buy an uninterupted power supply (UPS) to go with your power supply. That is so you won't have to deal with power issues later on. Get prepared now rather than wish you had later.

I hope that helps.

Upgrading Your Laptop

Most people think laptops are better because they are smaller and take up less space. This is certainly a selling feature of a laptop but there are limitations to laptops of which you should be aware.

Firstly, laptops are meant to be portable, not durable. Meaning, of course, they cannot take much in the way of punishment. If you drop it, there's a good chance it's toast.

Secondly, laptops are not very upgradeable. About the only things you can upgrade in a laptop is the hard drive and the RAM. You will not be upgrading the CPU or the video card.

In my line of work where I repair a lot of computers, a laptop really does me no good. I can't hook up someone else's drive to my laptop, I can not test their RAM or back up their data. But for someone who is on the go all the time and they need their computer, a laptop is awesome!

If you are going to attempt to upgrade either the RAM or the hard drive in your laptop, always remember to remove all sources of power so you don't accidently short anything out. Remove the battery and unplug the laptop before upgrading anything. It doesn't take much to render a stick of RAM inoperable with a static charge. Try to be standing on cement floor or wear a wrist strap and have it attached to ground.

Have a Battery Backup for your PC

This black box you see pictured here is called a "UPS" which is an acronym for Uninterupted Power Source (or Supply). It can save your computers' butt (and probably yours too) one day.

I know it says "APC" on it but that is the company that makes many UPS's. What this mysterious looking box does is provide automatic battery backup power for your computer and monitor in the event of a blackout. This leaves you ample time to finish what you're working on, and turn off your machine until the power comes back.

What happens if there's a black out and you don't have a UPS? A few things. Firstly, your computer will power down instantly, and if you happened to be working on something at that moment, or in the middle of saving a file, you will find that the data you were working on will most likely be corrupt. Secondly, your power supply can possibly get "surged" when the power gets restored, and that's not good for you power supply. It's like a punch in the gut.

A UPS is not just a back up power supply, it also provides "clean" power to your computer. The power coming into your home is "dirty" because it is not a steady stream or flow of electricity; it actually contains numerous small spikes and lulls in power. A UPS cleans this up and provides you with a steady clean stream of power and that's good news for your power supply.

A cheap power supply will not handle spikes and lulls well and it's components will become weak over time. And that can have an adverse effect on your motherboard and other components. A good power supply can handle them better because they are built with better quality parts (a heavy power supply generally indicates a good power supply). A surge protector is a good thing, and can usually do what it claims it can do, but it cannot provide the same protection that a UPS can.

When you buy a UPS, there's one very important thing you need to keep in mind. The number on the front (you see the 1500 in the picture above?) indicates the maximum wattage that it can handle being plugged into it for a certain length of time. Consider the power supply in your computer. If it's a 500 watt, it would be a good idea to get a UPS that is numbered as 600 or better. Some UPS's will have a "VA" in front of the number. VA is short for volt-amps. If you have 1000 watt power supply, get an 1100 or higher numbered VA. This way, you should be able to plug in your monitor, modem and router to your UPS as well. Often when the power goes out, your phone and cable still work, but ordinarily you can't access them because you have no power. With a UPS, you will. The higher the VA number, the longer you can remain powered during a black out.

So while the neighbourhood is dark from a power outage during the next rain storm, you'll be snuggled up behind your computer still happily pecking away on your keyboard. I say that tongue-in-cheek, of course, because the purpose of a UPS is not so much to keep you working during a black out, but rather to give you time to shut down properly without losing whatever you were working on.