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Careers In PC Repair Services

Tech Geek — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 10:21:05 +0000

Working as a PC technician fixing computers may seem from the outside to be quite an easy job to get into and enjoyable (for those who enjoy fixing computers). This article looks at careers and roles in PC repair services along with the training and skills that are required.

Working in PC repair services can actually involve a broad range of roles. Bench technicians work from one single location (e.g. a computer repair shop) where faulty PCs are brought into them for repairs. Field technicians work in businesses supporting in-house computer systems. Technologies and services can also become widely specialized with some individuals focusing on laptop repairs, data recovery or back-up services for example.

Training and certification is not necessarily required to work in PC repairs, but it is fair to say that it will look better on your resume. Over time, experience does become more valuable as individuals specialize in one/two technologies. An initial qualification as a computer service technician (Computing Technology Industry Association) provides a good grounding from which to start in the industry.

The important thing to note about training though is the need for ongoing education. New technologies enter the marketplace and it is up to the individual to up-train in the new hardware/software in order for their skills to stay current. This can take the form of short seminars or workshops on new PC maintenance software, in some cases, so usually isn’t a large burden on your time, and employers are normally conducive to supporting such training for permanent employees.

The ultimate goal for many PC technicians though is to set up their own business as a one man or small enterprise providing PC repair services to their local community. Many start out by working from home or providing a house-call service (e.g. repairing internet connectivity) until their business is up and running fully.

Easy Ways for Slow Computer Fix

Tech Geek — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 14:37:14 +0000

Some time back, owning a computer was more like a dream because it was considered to be a luxury item. But as technology progresses, our dependency level increases and so has been the case with computers too. When they begin to run slow we need to look for real slow computer causes. Today, computers have become a necessity rather than a luxury. In such a scenario, we expect the computer to give us fast results for everything and help us by making our work faster, simpler and more efficient. But what if the compute hangs up and fails to do all of this for us?

Well, it is obvious that no one would want their computer to crash down when they are in the middle of some important work. And to avoid such a situation and keep the work going, it is essential for everybody to know some small tips about slow computer causes that come in handy in the worst case scenarios.

Defragmentation is one of the most basic things that you need to do for your computer once every two weeks. It helps to remove all the cluttered and corrupted files from your computer to give you a better speed and smooth functioning with the applications. You must also try and keep as minimum amount of stored data as possible in your computer. If you have files that you think you might need later, then you can always store them on some other external storage device. But try to keep your computer disk as light as possible.

Do regular virus scans as well. For slow computer fix, it is important that there are no viruses attacking your computer. Regular virus scans heal the ones that have already attacked your computer, and they also help you to be aware of the other potential ones that can attack your computer via the internet, via a USB port, some CD etc. All of which can be viable slow computer causes and also are ones that you can fix.

Registry Cleaner Pro

Tech Geek — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:21:28 +0000

Computers are very useful devices that are fast becoming a daily part of our lives. Proper maintenance is required however to avoid performance degradation. Computers can be adversely affected by damaged or bloated registries. In this article, I will explain what the registry is, why it is important to your computer, and how to properly maintain it to avoid performance degradation and potential system damage.

According to the Microsoft Computer Dictionary, Fifth Edition the registry is defined as follows: “A central hierarchical database used in Microsoft Windows 98, Windows CE, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 used to store information that is necessary to configure the system for one or more users, applications and hardware devices.” The registry provides a neater method of storing configuration settings for programs on a computer, replacing .ini files for each individual program.

Over time the registry inside your computer can become overloaded with unnecessary registry keys. This can cause performance degradation as it takes longer and longer for the computer to load the registry. The computer can also become damaged if there are too many incorrect or missing registry keys. As editing the registry by hand is very confusing and dangerous due to the high potential of making a potentially fatal mistake, it is best to use a program specifically designed to clean the registry.

One such program is called Registry Cleaner Pro, a registry cleaning program for windows. This program is designed to scan your computer for invalid or orphaned registry keys and delete the ones that are no longer necessary. This is much safer than hand editing as the program is designed to examine each registry key and only remove the ones that are no longer needed. A free 30-day trial program is available for free use, the registered professional version costs $39.95. Many people find this tool to be an excellent program to ensure proper computer performance but, as with any registry cleaner, be sure to back up your system before deleting any registry files.

Is My Hard Drive About to Go Bad?

Tech Geek — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 01:57:58 +0000

There is almost no task that is as stressful or anxiety producing as going through a hard drive crash recovery. A hard drive malfunction is stressful because years’ worth of work or thousands of pictures could vanish in an instant. A loss of data could also represent a significant financial loss or a difficult legal situation if you happen to lose documents that are required for some future court case. Fortunately, there are some simple things that you can do to prevent having the need to recover lost data in the first place.

One of the major components of most hard drives is one or more flat metal discs which are referred to as platters. These platters rotate on a spindle that spins at a very high rate, as high as 15,000 RPMs. The spindle motor relies on ball bearings to minimize the friction that occurs when the platters rotate. Although these ball bearings are designed to endure considerable wear and tear, they will eventually wear out and fail. Once one or more ball bearings have failed the increased amount of friction will heat up the spindle shaft. If the spindle shaft is exposed to enough heat, it will cause the spindle motor to seize and fail. Generally, ball bearings that are beginning to fail will give you audible clues about what is going on inside your drive. The sound could be a grinding or clicking noise.

If your drive has just started to make some unusual noises, you should transfer your data to a new hard drive as soon as possible. In fact, it makes sense to shut down your computer until you are ready to do the transfer. This will minimize any additional wear that would otherwise take place. If all goes well and you noticed the problem in time, you just saved yourself a major headache.

Using a Router to Connect Multiple Computers to the Internet

Tech Geek — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:10:06 +0000

Unlike ten years ago, it seems many people may have more than one computer in their home. While they have more than one computer, they would usually only have one Internet connection. Connecting more than one computer to the Internet isn’t hard to do, especially with the right hardware.

Connecting to the Internet with more than one computer can easily be accomplished by purchasing a router. The router is connected to the broadband modem and each computer, so it acts as an access point to the Internet. An additional benefit to using a router is that many include a hardware firewall, which provides added protection to any computer that is connected to the router.

The way a router works is that it obtains the IP address from your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This is the IP address that is used to access the Internet.

To connect your computers, the router assigns separate, internal IP addresses to each computer that you connect to the router. When a computer requests information on the Internet, it sends the request to the router. The router will then send that request out to the Internet using the IP address it is assigned by your ISP.

Once the Internet server processes the request, it then sends the data back through the Internet, which is eventually retrieved by the router. The router than determines which computer, based on the local IP address that was assigned, that request the data, and then sends the data back to the sending computer. This is how a router can be used to share one Internet connection with multiple computers.

Now one thing to note is that it is important to secure your router before using it. Make sure you change the administrative password on any router that you will be using to prevent unauthorized access. For wireless routers, you need to secure the wireless connection as well as anyone with a wireless network adapter would be able to connect to your router. Once they are connected, then that can use your Internet connection, and perhaps also access the computers on your network.

If you make a mistake when securing your router, or can’t remember your passwords, or just want to start over with securing the router, you can always reset the router. It isn’t difficult to reset a router, and there are many guides online that explain how to do it, such as this guide that shows how to reset the WRT160N wireless router.

If you have more than one computer that you would like connected to a single Internet connection, you should go invest in a router that can easily do the job for you.

Avoiding Malware and Spyware: Drive by Exploits

Tech Geek — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 09:58:27 +0000

Keeping your computer clean from spyware and malware is getting increasingly difficult. The net is simply overflowing with these programs and for the casual surfer without much knowledge of the issue, getting infected without even knowing is beyond commonplace.

Why is it a problem to get infected with these programs? Well, you will notice that for many, one of the first steps in how to speed up their computer, is getting rid of them. They also track your actions, collect data, selling it without your approval. Plus they can do damage to your system, for example causing you to lose work you have done on the computer.

But what are some essential things to know about internet security? What do people do wrong? Well, for example, some people browse the web using an old web browser, as for example internet explorer 6, and no anti virus or anti spyware program. This is a very risky combination since internet explorer 6 is highly vulnerable to all kinds of programs with malicious intent and in the absence of anti virus protection you could easily become a victim of what is referred to as a ‘drive by’ web exploit.

What exactly is drive by exploits? It is when people with little conscience setup a malicious website that will attempt to automatically install malware or spyware on a user’s computer, once he or she visits the site. The visitor is often lured to the site by links in emails or other black hat advertising techniques, where the user is led to believe that the site contains something of actual value.

Often drive by exploits are ’0-day’, a term used when the method has been discovered only recently and therefore there will not be any kind of fix for them yet. The result is that the ‘success rate’ of infection tends to be high.

Unless you have quality anti virus installed, that manages to detect what is going on, you will not even realize what is happening and the malware will be installed onto your computer.

How is this information useful? It highlights the point that it is important to always use a up to date browser and up to date anti virus. It is also very helpful to use malware and spyware scanning tools. Have the programs do weekly scans of your entire system.

No anti virus, anti malware, or anti spyware software will ever offer 100% protection, as new malware is constantly being created and it will take some time for anti virus programmers to locate these and include them in their detection lists.

It therefore stands to reason that having all the right programs installed is mo substitute to exercising caution while online. Don’t click suspicious links, don’t visit dodgy sites, and always be careful with what your downloading!

How To Reboot Your Computer

Tech Geek — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 18:38:12 +0000

We’ve all been there, sitting at our computer desk, starring at out computer screaming “reboot computer“! The computer is frozen again and no matter what you do to the keyboard and mouse, it’s stuck on the same screen. Not to worry, getting that computer to reboot isn’t that hard at all. It’s just a matter of knowing what buttons to push and for how long. Googling “how reboot computer” and looking at all the search results really shows how many people are having this problem.

Rebooting your frozen computer isn’t tough at all, in fact it takes less than 15 seconds to do. You just need to find the power button which is usually located on the front of your tower, then push and hold the button in for 8-10 seconds. The computer should turn off and then press it one more time to start the computer back up. That’s it! Because your computer froze and had to be shut off that way, you might see a screen that says your computer is checking the hard drive for errors. Don’t worry, this is completely normal and actually a good thing. It might find and fix the problem that actually caused your computer to freeze in the first place.

If your computer froze and just needed to be rebooted, consider yourself very lucky. A lot of people have worse problems with their computer rebooting. For example it might reboot randomly when they are in the middle of working on important things or even worse it might just sit and reboot over and over. It most cases this is usually due to a virus or some sort of malware picked up on the internet. Consider yourself lucky though and keep that virus protection up-to-date. It’s also a good idea to run some anti-spyware or anti-malware software from time to time to make sure your computer doesn’t get infected. There are plenty of free options available for download so you should be all set.