Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,

Just wanted to drop a quick stats post on you all as February comes to a close. Remarkably, February managed to be even better than January. We expected a drop in February on account of the post-storm related rush we got in week 1 of January. However, instead, we actually saw a small increase!

The numbers are somewhat misleading as totals, because January has more days than February, so I will look at things in relatively:

Average calls per day in January – 6.83

Average calls per day in February – 6.88

Yes, the uptick is small, but considering how insane the first week of January was, it’s remarkable we  managed to not just hold steady, but actually grow slightly.

Thanks everybody!

-Zac

Hey Everybody in Portland Laptop Repair Land,

Laptop batteries cause a lot of frustration for our customers, so in this blog post I want to clear up a few misconceptions about how best to use batteries and preserve them for as long as possible.

First, know that batteries only last a short time. A new battery will work, even well tended, for 2 years at the outside, usually closer to 18 months, before it begins to lose serious amounts of charging power. A poorly tended battery might last as little as a year.

To keep your battery lasting as long as possible, remember a few things about batteries:

1) Batteries like to work. You should be charging and discharging your battery regularly.

2) Batteries hate being overcharged. If your computer will be sitting plugged in for more than a day or two, take out the battery and set it to the side. This tip, more than any other, will keep your battery functional for the longest amount of time.

3) Batteries hate being “kinda charged.” A loose DC jack, such that your computer kinda-sorta powers on sometimes and then goes off and on and off and on will kill your battery with remarkable speed.Get it repaired, even if you can sort-of make it work now, you’re destroying the battery.

Finally, and most critically, the battery is the only piece you must buy at full retail from the manufacteror. I can’t tell you how many stories we’ve heard about people who bought a $10 battery on Ebay that lasted for about a week. Yes, the battery is expensive, usually $50-100, but in this one case that price is actually worth paying.

I hope that helps clear up some misconceptions about batteries,

Thanks everybody.

-Zac

Hey Everybody In Portland Computer Repair Land,
Today I want to talk about the importance of keeping your coffee away from your computer. I don’t know why, but this week we have seen a rash of coffee related computer disasters. We have had several users lose complete computers by spilling coffee on the keyboard that soaks through to the motherboard and fries everything. Additionally we’ve had one user who spilled coffee on the top of her desktop, which then dripped inside and fried all of her components. All in all, coffee related disasters have cost our customers thousands of dollars in the last week.

So, let this be a warning to the rest of you, don’t use your computer when just waking up, sort of tired, and without your motor skills in full function, while having a large full cup of hot coffee next to your computer.

And, if you do spill it, keep the simple rules in mind:
1) Turn it off by holding down the power button for 5 seconds.

2) Remove all power, including the battery.

3) Lay the computer, face down, open, on a towel somewhere warm.

4) Leave it alone for at least 48 hours.

5) Pray you have not destroyed all that you hold dear.

And you should be all set!

Thanks everybody,

-Zac

Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,

I often tell callers that computer repair can be a lot easier than you think, and it’s true, often it is. However one must still always be careful!

Today I had a screw up that makes this point. I was replacing a laptop’s keyboard, the kind of thing I’ve done hundreds of times before, and I snapped off the tiny plastic bracket that holds the keyboard to the motherboard. This is disastrous, because as a tiny part worth substantially less than one penny, buying another is impossible.

So, instead of a 15 minute job to replace a keyboard, I’m now spending hours of my afternoon attempting to jury-rig something to “just sorta maybe make it work.”

Keep in mind, when you’re working inside your computer, no matter how easy the task, be watchful! Little tiny plastic pieces can be a serious pain in the butt.

Thanks everybody,

-Zac

Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,

I want to talk to you today about something true of all big box retailers – they do not want to repair your computer. At the Big Box stores, they train the repair people to sell sell sell! The staff at big box retailers frequently lie about the cost of a repair, because they make substantially more money if they sell you a new computer.

Consider a few cases from this previous week:

1) A client with a busted DC jack, which, as we discussed, earlier, can be fairly easily fixed for about $120-150 on a 3 year old computer was told he needed a new motherboard and hard drive, which would cost $500, and perhaps he should think about upgrading to a new laptop.

2) Another big box store told a client who had viruses that his hard drive had failed, and that “the rest of the computer would probably be dead soon, so why not just buy a new one?” on a 2 year old computer. (This job usually costs about $200).

3) Finally at yet another big box, in the most egregious case of gouging I’ve seen this week, a client with a busted laptop mouse – “Oh, there is no way to fix that, you would have to get a whole new computer” without the sales rep even mentioning the client could just buy a $5 external mouse and use that instead!

Keep in mind, those are just the things I’ve heard this week! So as always, I warn you away from the big boxes, they do not want to do repairs, and they do not want to help you, they just want to make comission which they get for selling new computers.

Thanks everybody,

-Zac

Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,

It’s time for a quick late night tip with the hamsters!

Did you know that you can easily create a shortcut on your desktop from anywhere in your “all programs” menu?

All you need to do:

1) Open your start menu and find something you want on your desktop.

2) Right click on the item

3) Select the “send to” option about halfway down the context menu (context menu is the menu that comes up when you right click)

4) Select “desktop”

And boom! That is it! Instant desktop icon.

Have a good night everybody,

-Zac

Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,

There is a little scam that printer companies pull I want to make sure you are all aware of. HP and Dell and others would like you to believe that you can have a printer incredibly cheap! Often times printers are as little as $50-150. These companies never report, though, the number that actually matters: price per page printed.

The price per page makes all the difference in the world for the long term operating cost of a printer. And, it does not take a full size office to make it worth the cost of buying an entry level laser printer around the $200 mark.

Consider an ordinary college student. Lets look at how much printing they might do in a typical month. There are always papers to print, and, with rough drafts, a 5 page paper will probably end out taking up 20 pages. Lets assume 15-20 of those papers a year, and thats 400 pages. Then we must consider the non-papers that get printed, school assignments, readings, notices of off campus parties. These things (especially readings!) can easily add up to twice the volume printed for papers, so lets assume a typical college student prints about 1,200 total pages a year. That will be roughly 5,000 pages over a 4 year college education.

If, at the start of those 4 years, you buy a $100 printer that costs $0.10 per page to print, you will have spent $600. On the other hand, if you had instead spent $200 for a printer that costs $0.05 cents per page, you would have only spent $450. You can see how big that difference is, a full 25% less over the course of a college education. Now keep in mind that your laser printer will probably last years longer than your inkjet, and it starts to really make sense to look at the long term costs of these things.

So that is today’s tip, when buying a printer, look past the shelf price to the lifetime price, and then spend a little more now to save a lot more later.

Thanks Everybody,

-Zac

Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,

Just want to take a moment to wish you all a happy Valentines day! I hope you all remembered to get your computer or laptop something special to mark the day.

Have a good weekend,

-Zac

Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,

This is a celebratory post, as Happy Hamster Portland Computer Repair has broken into the top three on google for the search, “Portland Computer Repair.”

Let me give you some numbers to give you an idea of how great that news is for us

Of the 608 people who have called since we opened:

48% found us on google

10% found one of our newspaper ads

6% found us on citysearch.com

5% were refered by previous clients

4% found us on yahoo

4% found us in the Dex yellow pages

and no other source has statistically significant numbers to report.

That gives you a sense of just how important google is to our business, and how excited we are to be nearing the top of the rankings for computer repair.

Thanks everybody!

-Zac

Hey Everybody in Portland Computer Repair Land,

I have another cautionary tale for you all today. Many of us either run or get involved with small businesses, (heck, this is a small business!) and don’t really know what a small business needs for computer support. Often unscrupulous or overzealous salesmen from so called “business IT companies” will try to up sell a small business on all sorts of things they can’t possibly need, or maintain without very expensive maintenance contracts.

For example, we were contacted today by a small business with three computers in their office. They had been sold, by some previous company, a complete Microsoft server running windows HPC 2008, which is Microsoft’s huge enterprise level server. This is the kind of server that Nike uses to coordinate things amongst thousands of users around the globe, not the sort of thing a small business needs. They called us in because something had gone wrong with the server, and they had no idea how to work with it (no wonder, it’s the kind of thing that requires a trained network engineer to even log into).

We were able to get them sorted out, but the larger point to the story is that businesses need to stick to their guns with regards to what they need, and not to get sucker punched by high priced salespeople. If you run a business with 5 or 10 computers, all in one location, you do not need a big expensive server. If you have a few guys in the field and want to be able to e-mail them from one account, you do not need a big expensive server. If you have two offices and you want them to be able to share files, you do not need a big expensive server. All of those features can be achieved with small, relatively cheap, low maintenance solutions, and don’t let anybody else tell you differently!

No exact moment can determine when you need more expensive IT solutions, which makes it all the more important you find a company you can trust to give you honest advice about these things. Hmmm, I think I have one of those in my pocket around here somewhere…

Until next time,

-Zac