Do you think it’s time for a new keyboard? This customer decided that “white out” on the keys would last for awhile. But as you can see one of the keys is even missing. No need to do things like this. Keyboards are very inexpensive and easily replaceable.

Dan
Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

Lately we have been doing alot of work that could of been avoided if people would clean out the inside of their computers. Now some people may not have any desire to open the case of their computer and look inside but it is necessary. If you have pets it is even more necessary.

Once you open the case if you have a can of compressed air you can spray it inside the case just to get rid of the dust inside. The problem comes from letting that build up to a point that it hampens the fan from running correctly and then destroys the computer.

Dan
Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

Had to do a replacement on a cd drive for an IBM Thinkpad. If you ever consider doing one of these on your own you might want to look at the picture and see what a pain it can be. Amazingly now newer computers it is much easier.

Dan
Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

Had a customer yesterday that brought their computer into the store and they already had a diagnostic done at one of the “big” chains. They were told they needed to replace the power supply and motherboard. This was all based on a light blinking on the back of the power supply.

Of course upon looking it over decided to test the power supply (failed). Then tried another power supply and the next thing you know it booted up correctly.

Have to be careful on who checks your computer and what they tell you needs replacing. Something this easy almost cost the customer about $400 (the quote they received).

Dan
Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

The day after Thanksgiving being “Black Friday” for retailers as is Monday to Online Shoppers being their “Black Monday”.

A reason for this could be that about 86% of Americans use the Internet at work so maybe they do not have their fill of shopping even though they are suppose to be back at work..

Read more about it here

Dan
Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

Had a few computers come in yesterday for the same problem. Seems to be a rash of customers with problems ranging from downloading Windows update to downloading IE 7. Looks like most of these problems are coming from the downloading starting and then for some reason it not finishing.

If you start to do a Windows update or download and install IE 7 you have to make sure you let it complete. It may even require a reboot of your computer when you are done. But, do not turn off your computer or anything else during this time.

Dan
Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

Well finally got the customer’s Starband all setup and working. But the speed is terrible. It’s bascially an expensive dial-up access. Will call Starband again and see if there is anything they can do about it but I am pretty sure I already know their answer.

Worse part is the router they sent is suppose to be faster than the last one the customer had purchased from them.  Keep this in mind should you have to venture into the world of “Dish Internet”.

Dan
Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

Had to do an upgrade yesterday for a customer to Norton Internet Security 2007. How wierd is it that you have to uninstall the old version prior to loading the new one. I’ve encountered this a few times now. Not only does it take forever but once you have it loaded the pc seems to crawl in startup.

I think Norton uses way too many resources on a computer. Personally i’m all about Trend Micro’s PC-Cillin which is located here

Dan
Comptuer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

Had to work on an internet connection upgrade today. The customer has Starband (it’s a dish provider) for internet access. Now if you have cable modem or DSL you should be thankful. This is an amazing setup to install. Starband sends a new Starband 480 so it should be as simple to take out the 360 and put the 480 in place of it.

Well,,,,Nothing is ever easy. The old setup had a USB from the 360 to the computer. Now with the 480 you can’t use USB (even tho the USB is on the 480) instead you have to use a cross-over cable from the 480 to the computer. Of course they don’t send a cross-over with the new 480. I guess they expect you to have one in your house.

Overall my feelings are the Starband is a poor service to have, tech support is terrible (slow, provides no answers), and setup is crazy.

If you need a dish type network you might want to consider Direcway instead.

Dan
Computer Medics of Northern Virginia LLC
www.cmonova.com

Sold another custom built computer today. As you can see from the picture they are extremely sharp looking.

Here is what is in them:
* Black & Silver Case with Blue LED Light in Fan
* Gigabyte Socket 754(800MhzFSB) Motherboard
* AMD Sempron 64 Bit 3100+
* 512MB PC3200 DDR Ram
* 250 GB Sata 7200RMP Hard Drive
* 52X24X52 CDROM-RW DVD
* ATI X550SE 128 MB Video Card, 3D Sound
* 56K Modem, 6 USB Port, On Board Gigabit Lan Port
* Cordless keyboard & Optical mouse
* Multimedia speakers built into the tower
* Windows XP Home
* MS Works 2006
* Norton Anti-Virus

Very nice system with high quality parts inside. This is our most popular seller.