Hi there,
Answrtek Services is mainly a computer repair company but we also do a lot of other things that are in the same realm as computer repair. We are located in Sonoraville Georgia close to Sonoraville middle school and just down the street from the entire Sonoraville school complex.
FYI - You say it as "Answer - Tech" and spell it as Answrtek
You can always contact Mike at answrtek@answrtek.com
You are your computer's worst enemy!
A computer should be a simple piece of equipment to operate and for the most part it is. It shouldn't be any harder to use than a toaster more or less. Once you know how to do something then that process should work seamlessly and flawlessly forever. The problem is that that's not how it works. It's how it should work but it's not how it does work. it should be a tool that works the same way every time you pick it up.
The truth is a computer has enemies, Five big enemies. And usually you are the worst one !
Here are your computer's five biggest enemies in order.
- The reason that you are its biggest enemy is because you have begun to think about your computer as a throwaway disposable device. Computers have gotten pretty cheap over the last 15 years. 15 years ago you could pay $3500 for a mediocre computer and today an above average computer can be bought for as little as $450. You think about it that way because you know that the paint gets chipped or it runs a little slower, or it doesn't have the latest and greatest software available running on it or it doesn't have enough bells and whistles. So you begin to think this thing is pretty old and I should replace it if I ever want to have a computer that will do what I need it to do. The question is exactly "What do you need your computer to do"? If the answer to that question is I need it to send and receive e-mail , and to surf the Internet, and I have to be able to create simple spreadsheets and simple word documents, then you if you have is a neglect problem masquerading as a need to replace. The reason why is because any computer produced since 2005 will fulfill those needs and more and don't need to be replaced. They may need repair. They may need maintenance. They may need service. But they don't need replaced. a very high majority of the time, what is wrong with the computer is installed between the keyboard and the chair. Don’t forget to do maintenance. You may need to clean up hard drive occasionally, you may need replace equipment occasionally you may need to install a video card or upgrade memory or even occasionally replace a hard drive with a faster drive, you may have a power supply dying, in any one of those things or usually even two of them is half of what it would cost to replace it, and you get to keep all your old software, music, pictures, videos, letters and everything else. So even though you may have the money it doesn’t make sense to throw out the baby with the bathwater.
- The second biggest enemy of the computer is every day air. Unless of course you live and work in a clean room. a clean room like the ones were they make microchips, or perform surgery. The kind where they measure dust down at the micron level. If that does not describe the room where you have your computer then about once every three or four months have somebody take a look at it and pull the side off of it. Take a look at the interior, and at the entire motherboard inside the case. Look in all of the fans that your computer has. If you see a lot of dirt and dust and if you smoke around the computer, take 60 min. a box of alcohol pads, a can or two of compressed air, a roll of paper towels and a vacuum cleaner and clean everything you can see. Make sure that you have unplugged the computer from the electrical source and that it is turned off before you pull the side off of it. As long as you don't unplug anything or move anything you really can't hurt it. However if you let dirt and dust and cigarette smoke and insects and spider webs and all other sorts of detritus buildup inside your computer case you are asking for trouble and asking for failure. if you let an accumulation of dust and dirt and debris buildup on a fan or hard drive you are allowing heat to build up and you are not moving air through the computer case the way it was designed. This is guaranteed to shorten the lifespan of your system.
- The third biggest enemy of the computer is related to placement. I see this all the time. I will get called to work on a computer and it has failed. When I look into why it failed, sometimes I just see that proper care was not taken in where it was placed. Computers are placed inside cabinets or that run all the time inside drawers or closets, or that are wired into enclosed spaces, even when these systems are brand-new they start out at a disadvantage and are guaranteed to fail before their time. Proper airflow must be maintained around and in the computer to keep it cool. One lady I know put her computer next to the floor vent. When I asked why they said that they bought it in the summertime and so it seemed like a good idea to have the computer right around the air-conditioning vent. This was in February, guess what happened? You have to give your computer room to breathe!!
- The number four reason it is pretty simple (and sometimes pretty hard to explain to a customer.) Children are the next biggest cause of computer problems because they text and drink Coca-Cola's and eat sandwiches and eat chips and ice cream and download music and click on links in e-mail and set up instant messaging programs and set up P2P software programs. They turn off spyware checkers and virus scanners in order to make the computer a little bit faster, they learn from their friends little tricks to make the Web Cam run just a little bit faster or the software respond just a little bit quicker or trying to make the Internet just a little bit faster and they end up telling you, "I don't know what happened I was just using that and it stopped." This is why you have to have software in place that is password-protected and prevents this. This is why you should have a regular backup routine. This is why you should ask a computer professional forward bias about what to do before it happens. Otherwise, about the 15th of August one of your dear little mini-you's will be telling you about the computer that doesn't work anymore and they need it for school next Monday, and oh By the Way today is Saturday.
- The last and most troublesome issue is the presence of liquid around the computer. Not liquid around a keyboard, but using the tower as a place to balance a drink. I've seen it happen far too frequently. I am always amazed that the buying public thinks because you can get a laptop computer for $400 and that you can run monitor to it, run a keyboard to it, run some kind of mouse to it and use it like a desktop, so therefore it is as good as a desktop for every function. It's just really not true. They call them laptops but you cannot use them on your lap really, unless you are using a computer socially. I could probably instant message back and forth with somebody on a laptop but I would sure hate to write computer code on it, manipulate large spreadsheets or graphic programs, do any kind of formal writing because the keyboards are so small or any other serious work that primarily begins and in on a laptop-based device . Actually a laptop is just the computer crammed into a small case with built-in heating and cooling problems that is unable to be upgraded because that's what mom and dad wants. The problem is that dad and mom also has the coffee sitting right there , and everybody else mimics that behavior with drinks and sodas and Kool-Aid and popsicles and ice cream and food and the next thing you know your laptop is full of water. Or the keyboard has stopped working because the two-year-old was pounding on it with X-Acto knife.
Think about it. The computer is just a tool. Hopefully you have rules for the road with your other tools like your automobile and you change the oil on a regular schedule, tires every so often. The same thing should happen with the computer. Every now and again it should be scanned with a reputable virus and spyware scanner. Every now and again it should be opened and vacuumed out. For most problems software will handle it. I don't make any specific recommendations because I don't represent any software companies and I do have a few of them that I just don't like, however if you run your virus scanner frequently and updated regularly is better than doing nothing at all.
Thanks for reading,
Big Mike at Answrtek
http://www.facebook.com/answrtek
