Archive for January, 2010
Friday, January 29th, 2010
Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
It’s about midnight, and I just rode home on my bike from the shop. I had a late night because Happy Hamster had to demonstrate how far above and beyond it will go for its business computer repair customers. You see, one of our customers is Alu wine bar, a popular bar near our store. As I began to close up shop at 6:30 PM tonight, one of the owners came running up to our shop. He told me that their primary computer for processing credit cards had crashed.
So, me and my technician, Matt Culp, ran to the bar to being investigating the situation. We tested the computer as well as we could, then took it back to the shop for further analysis. We quickly realized, when investigation with a powerful overhead light, that the computer had overheated and popped some of its capacitors. Unfortunately, because the computer was a specialized small form factor machine, there would be no way to repair it without ordering parts.
Waiting a few days to process credit cards is unacceptable to a business, so we jumped into action on plan B. We have all the parts in our shop to build new computers, so, on a dime, we turned around and built one for Alu. We transfered all the data from their old system, and we installed their brand new computer at about 10:30 PM. After a bit of set up, they were back in business and processing credit cards like normal.
Businesses don’t have time to wait, thats why the smart business choice is to rely on Happy Hamster Computer Repair.
Now, after a 15 hour day, I’m going to bed….
-Zac
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
Here is a fun one for you – did you know that no major computer manufacturer makes computers? There is no such thing as a “Dell” computer, at all, in fact. What you’ve got, in fact, is an Asus-Seagate-nSpire-Kingston-Intel-Logitech-Viewsonic-Liteon computer.
Dell does not make any component inside a Dell computer, instead, they buy parts from everybody I’ve listed above (and many more) and then put them all together for you. As somebody who has taken apart, and see the insides of thousands of different computers from many different manufacturers I can tell you a few startling things about the guts of your computers.
1) “It’s the model, stupid” – Regardless of manufacturer, neither HP nor Dell consistently builds higher quality computers. Each has some serious duds in the lineup, and each some standouts. They are tied for all intents and purposes my almost any metric you would care to measure for their internal components.
2) “Gateways are cheap for a reason” – Regardless of model, every Gateway we see has been constructed with the cheapest crap money can buy. Often times we don’t even recognize the brands they use, because they are such obscure knock offs.
3) “That super-expensive gaming machine you bought for thousands of dollars online sucks” – whenever a customer comes in with an “iBuypower” or a “Vigor” or any other super-expensive-elitist online brand name computer, we are shocked by the incredibly low quality of the construction. Frequently these companies use worse components than HP, and, on top of that, because they are hand built, they are frequently assembled in a very sloppy fashion.
So the next time you’re buying a computer, look for reviews for the specific model you want, don’t just pick Dell, and don’t ever buy a Gateway, please.
Thanks!
-Zac
Friday, January 22nd, 2010
Hey Everything in Portland Computer Repair Land,
When you see a computer advertised, it will often say it has an intel processor, or crucial RAM, but what about the internal components that they don’t advertise?
There are two very important parts in every computer that nobody ever advertises on the outside. One is the motherboard. The motherboard is the most expensive and most important part of your computer. It is the computer’s spinal column, responsible for transmitting all of the signals between the various components inside the computer. When you save a document, the command goes from the keyboard, to the motherboard, and from the motherboard to the processor. The processor processes the command, then sends it back to the motherboard which sends it over to the hard drive.
And yet, nobody ever advertises the motherboard! And believe me, there are substantial qualitative differences between motherboards. For example, consider the question of expandability. Different motherboards have different options for how they can be expanded to make your computer run faster, and live longer down the line. For example, ask how many RAM slots your motherboard contains. The number of available RAM slots will directly affect your ability to upgrade your computer down the line, and the cost of the upgrades.
A computer with 2 RAM slots will be much more expensive to upgrade than a computer with 4 RAM slots, a computer with two upgrade slots for extra cards (for example, to add wireless capability to your computer, or to add firewire support) has more room to upgrade than many new computers that come with zero expansion slots.
Then, beyond speed and upgrade cost, there is raw quality to consider. If your motherboard says, “Foxconn” on it, it will fail in 12-18 months, because Foxconn builds the cheapest piece of crap boards in the world (and supplies every motherboard for the Gateway corporation). If your motherboard says “MSI” on it, don’t expect more than 24 months out of it, because you probably won’t get it. And when a motherboard fails, you’ll be out of pocket serious cash. The average motherboard replacement, parts and labor, costs $300-400!
Finally, lets consider the power supply, a part few people know exists. You see, your computer can’t use the power that comes out of the wall, so inside the computer there is a box that converts the power from the wall into power your computer can actually use. This box is called the power supply, and its the single most important thing you will buy.
The power supply matters most because of the damage it can do if/when it fails. Often times when a power supply fails, it will surge with power, or provide insufficient power before it stops working. When it surges, it frequently overpowers and destroys many valuable components inside your computer. A failing power supply can take out your hard drive, motherboard, and processor, and by itself become the cause of buying a new computer. This means, for want of a high quality power supply (price of $60 or so) you can lose all your data, and almost everything else in your computer.
Finally, wattage matters a great deal. Power supplies are rated in watts, and if your computer draws more than 80% of the wattage rating of the supply, the odds of failure skyrocket.
So, the next time you go to the store, ask a few questions -
1) Who manufacturers my motherboard, and what kind of warranty do they provide beyond the included 1 year warranty for the computer?
2) How much expansion is available on my motherboard so I can grow with my computer in the future?
3) Who manufacturers my power supply, and what kind of warranty do they provide beyond the included 1 year warranty for the computer?
4) What is the maximum load of my power supply as a percentage? How much wattage does it produce?
5) Does my power supply have extra wattage available for upgrades in the future that may draw additional power?
If your sales rep can’t answer those questions, don’t buy it.
Thanks,
-Zac
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
One big thing to think about that nobody ever advertises is the quality of the wiring job done inside a computer. Inside your little 2 foot square box there may be 5-15 feet of wiring, depending on how many components your computer has. You may wonder why the wiring matters, but the answer is simple – heat.
Computer components get a rated life from the manufacturer for various temperatures. For example, an Asus motherboard is rated for 500,000 hours at 60 degrees Celsius, which is 140 degrees. That may sound hot, but it’s actually fairly normal for a high end computer.
Now, as the temperature rises, the lifetime of components will rapidly decrease. This means your cost will also rapidly increase. A great example of this is HP’s laptops, the DV2000, 6000 and 9000. HP’s faulty design means most of these computers overheat and fail within 2 years, instead of the 5 years that a previous generation HP lasted.
So now that we know heat matters, we can get to why wiring matters.
As you may or may not know, that noise you hear from your computer is the fans running. Your computer has 2-5 fans inside blowing 24/7 when the computer is turned on to move heat out of the computer. That cooling action, though, only works as well as air can move through the case. If your case is wired poorly, air can’t move through the case, and that will stop heat from leaving the case.
So next time you buy a computer, ask them to open the side, and look at the fans. Check and see -
1) Does any wiring obstruct the fans? Can air move smoothly through the case?
2) Are there any wire “bundles” hidden and tied up in the case that might create dangerous heat pockets?
3) Are any areas of the case out of the range of the fans? Is there only one fan at the bottom of the case, but lots of items up at the top of the case?
The way your computer is wired can be the difference between a machine that lasts 18 months and one that lasts 4 years, even with identical components.
Thanks!
-Zac
Monday, January 11th, 2010
Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
Over the next few posts, I’m going to talk about a topic that has been raised frequently in the shop the last few days – how to pick the best computer for your needs. At Happy Hamster, about 25% of our business consists of building and selling our custom laptops and desktops to our customers, so we know a fair bit about the process.
The first thing people bring up is always, “why buy from Happy Hamster, why not go to Best Buy or Office Depot?”
And the first answer is probably the most difficult thing to tell somebody – because you probably can’t pick the best computer by yourself. This isn’t really your fault, though. Big Box stores emphasis all the wrong features in a computer, and give you no context for what anything means. Basically, you’re not given enough information, and you don’t have the kind of time you would need to do the research to learn all of it.
Pop quiz – can you tell me which of these computers is faster?
“INTEL QUAD CORE WITH TWELVE GIGS OF DDR2 RAM AND A FACE PLATE WITH YOUR NAME ON IT – $1,500″
“PHENOM QUAD CORE WITH 12 GIGS OF DDR3 RAM AND A FACE PLATE WITH YOUR CHILDS PICTURE ON IT – $1,600″
Which of those computers is better? Well, to know that, you would need to know the difference between an intel quad core and a phenom quad core, DDR2 and DDR3, and the relative value of different face plates. Most customers simply don’t have the time to do that kind of research.
Even for those of you who just said, “of course I know the difference! DDR2 is faster than DDR3!” I would say oh really?
Did you consider if the RAM is running in single channel, dual channel, or triple channel configuration?
Did you consider if the RAM is one chip, two chips, or four chips?
Did you consider the manufacturer, and that identically numbered RAM can have wildly different performance standards?
Do you know the latency of each piece of RAM?
Did you consider the speed of the RAM? Not just DDR2, but is it DDR2-600, 800, or 1033?
If you didn’t think about each of those factors (and a host of others) you could still be led to make the wrong choice about which computer is actually faster. The computer with DDR2 could actually be faster than the computer with DDR3, if one is built by a competent builder who mates parts correctly, and the other is built by a moron who doesn’t know what hes doing.
Over the next week or so here, we’ll go over the major factors to consider when buying a new computer, desktop or laptop.
Thanks!
-Zac
Sunday, January 10th, 2010
Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
One of the big things windows 7 does well is search. Most of you are used to ignoring the search option in windows, and just hunting for a file until you find it.
Stop doing that!
In Windows 7, search is fast, efficient, and very good at finding what you’re looking to get.
Here is how it works -
1) Windows indexes everything on the computer by file type (picture, music, document, etc) and by name.
2) Windows saves this index, so when you want to do a search, you have zero wait time, it already knows where those things are.
Then, to do a search, simply click your start menu (round button in the lower left hand corner with the windows logo) and start typing in the search box at the bottom. You can look for either types of things, such as typing in “pictures” to bring up all pictures, or you can search for a specific file, like, “resume” to find your resume. As you type, the search box will start to bring up what you’ve requested instantaneously. The search box will sort and categorize the things it shows you by their location in folders on your computer.
So give it a shot! Windows 7 search is amazing, and marks the first time you can search for a file on a PC faster than you can on a Mac.
Thanks guys,
-Zac
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
Hey everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
Today we took in 8 computers all with the exact same virus. If you have a window popping up on your computer that says, “Internet Security 2010″ and claims you have viruses, that is, itself a virus. Do not click on it, do not give it your credit card information.
This is a brand new version of this virus and so far we have not seen any anti-virus programs that can successfully block it. We are not sure how people are becoming infected with it, but please be careful online until the anti-virus companies catch up with it and learn how to block it (give them a day or three).
If you are already infected, please call us immediately so that we can assist you. Under no circumstances should you give your credit card information to this program!
Thanks,
-Zac
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010
Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,
Around the Holidays I got in touch with the boss of the first computer repair company I ever worked for, A+ Mobile PC Doctors of Boston. We had a great little chat, and so I thought I’d share some background on one of the places that made me the successful technician I am today. A+ Mobile PC Doctors is a computer repair service in Boston, Massachusetts that has built itself to become one of the most respected companies for computer repair services on the East Coast. They taught me the values that I used to start up Happy Hamster. A+ Mobile is professional, efficient, and reliable and they can fix almost any residential or commercial computer repair issue. I learned from them about how to perform remote computer repair, onsite computer repair in Boston and beyond, and about the value of taking the hassle out of computer repair by offering services like pickup and delivery.
So here is my plug for my old company – If you know someone looking for a dependable, efficient Boston computer repair company, do them a favor and recommend A+ Mobile PC Doctors. And if you’re ever in town looking for laptop repair in Boston, make sure to visit A+ Mobile PC Doctors on the web, or call them at 1-866-417-3945! Some of the services that A+ Mobile PC Doctors offers include virus removal, spyware and malware removal, data recovery and data storage, PC repair services, computer repair services, home networking, business computer networking, telecom / telephone services, low-voltage cabling for residential and commercial locations, and wireless networking.
Thanks everybody,
-Zac
