Yesterday, my wife let me know my company was nominated for the 2019 Fort Wayne Newspapers Readers’ Choice under the Best Computer Repair Store category. Click here for the link. I’m not a store, but this is the best category for me of the ones available. Likewise, let me know if your company is nominated so I can promote you and maybe vote for you. I also suggest you let your clients and customers know you are nominated so they can vote for you.
It’s interesting to see how different computer manufacturers design their hardware. Yesterday I was working on a Toshiba satellite laptop and was looking for the Windows key on the keyboard. Usually it’s on the bottom row near the Ctrl(Control) and Alt buttons. I didn’t see it in the typical location and finally found it on the top row near the Function keys. In all my years of computing, this is the first or second time I’ve found it here!
The Windows key has the Microsoft Logo on it and the key is used to access the windows menu. This saves time because the user doesn’t need to use the mouse to open the Windows menu by clicking on the start button. – they just use the keyboard since their hands are already resting on it.
A computer client of mine couldn’t find a folder on their new Dell Windows 10 computer last week. Earlier in the month I copied the files from their old computer to the new one and put them in a folder on the desktop. They were manually searching through the folder and never found it. I connected remotely through the internet and found it in a few minutes. My client was surprised I found it this quickly and wanted to know how. In every modern operating system like Microsoft Windows, Linux and Mac there is a search feature in the file explorer window or files folder(Linux). It’s usually in the upper-right corner with a magnifying glass icon. Type the name of the file or folder in the search field and the computer searches the location and any subfolders for your file.
One of my computer repair clients is a surveying company who surveys properties all over our area. Before they go out into the field, they do research on the property so there are fewer surprises when they arrive. One of the things they do is print plots of the properties on their two laserjet printers. It gives them a guideline so they know what to expect when they are searching for the property markers.
Shortly after I set up a new computer for them this year, I was contacted about an issue. They were trying to download and print a survey plot from the County web site. It was taking much longer than it should and my client didn’t know why. They were using Internet Explorer and I connected remotely and tried it in another web browser. This too was slow so I started looking for the reason. I ran the built-in Windows 10 diagnostics and found the resources were being used mostly for downloading Windows updates in the background. This was a new computer so many Windows updates were being downloaded. Once the download was finished, the plot downloads and printing were very fast again.
I like the way Linux downloads are handled because you have to start them manually unlike the Microsoft Windows way of doing it when it wants to. It is possible to set the windows update to manual instead of automatic if it is interfering with your work.
I was talking to a Fort Wayne computer repair client of mine last week about their Windows 7 laptop which was about eight years old. A few months previous I worked on it to make it faster. Typical software and operating system tasks were done and my client said it was faster when I was through.
Later, he talked to a friend who was a computer person and they discussed the laptop. His friend said he could install a SSD (Solid State Drive) in place of the hard disk drive and it would be even faster. The reason I didn’t do it was it was an older laptop and I don’t suggest spending money on hardware for an eight-year old laptop. Some hardware could fail on it right after I worked on it and my client would have wasted their money. Another reason is my client doesn’t use this laptop often and if they needed a faster laptop, a new one would be a better choice than putting money into the old one.
I have an old Lenovo Thinkpad that is one of my main laptops. It came with only 2 GBs of RAM and last night I increased that to 6GB. I set this laptop to dual boot to either Microsoft Windows 10 or Linux Mint 18.x. I opened Window 10 and only 3GB of the 6.0 is used although it knows 6 is installed. Linux on the other hand, uses all the 6 GB. I am perplexed why this is happening.
We all get spam email and it wastes a lot of time for me and probably you as well. One rule I have for myself is not to open the messages on my smartphone. I use a Linux computer so it doesn’t mess up my main communication tool if the message has a payload or it re-directs me to a dangerous web site. You might consider having one computer in your business for opening suspicious emails and web links just for this reason – you don’t want to infect your main computer or a smartphone.
Last last year, a client called and said Microsoft Outlook Express was prompting for their user name and password. Normally, it automatically starts and no credentials are entered. They use this program for their business email. Everything they do is tied to their email. When it has a problem, their business stops.
Part of the problem is their computer still ran Windows Vista which has been retired from Microsoft updates. My client has since got a new Windows 10 computer which I set up for them and their email has worked fine for six months.
But for this blog I will explain part of my troubleshooting methodology on their old vista computer and Outlook Express. My client entered their username and password and clicked ok but it wouldn’t go away. I connected remotely and tried the same thing and got the same result. I restarted Outlook express and it was ok this time! Their email worked for two days and then I got a call with the same problem. They couldn’t access their email with Outlook Express. I connected to his PC via Teamviewer. On the screen was a :windows security” box “Login to mail.comcast.net”. I tried their username and pw which failed. I played around with different settings in the email client and failed. I tried logging into his account via my Linux computer Linux via Firefox and it worked. I know it isn’t his login credentials. So went back to his computer. I went into windows mail settings Tools-Accounts- and changed some settings with no success. I got it to work by closing and opening Outlook Express.
Two days later my client calls with the same problem – the same windows mail login box was there. I cleared it and shut down Win mail and restarted and this time it Did not help. My client said he was on phone with his email/internet provider for over an hour without any help. I restarted his computer and no help. I tried entering his credentials and no help. Now will try logging in from internet web browser to see if his password has changed. I changed the password on the internet provider’s web site to what it used to be I clicked on forgot pw. The error hes getting is “-ERR[AUTH] Plaintext authentication disallowed on non-secure (SSL/TLS) connection Port 110. Secure SSL. ” maybe I need to change port incom I opened the Tools-Accounts- Advanced- i clicked this server requires secure con SSL. I got his email messages to pour in to inbox by checking the boxes “This server requires a sec con SSL” on both incoming and outgoing. This action changed the Out port to 25 and in port to 995. I noticed he has 7200 messages in his inbox, 1835 in Sent, 5783 in deleted. i don’t know if this is the problem. i do know the more messages in your email account, the more likely problems will arise. So we deleted many of the unneeded messages and my client continued using their email.
As I mentioned earlier, my client has a new Windows 10 computer and his email hasn’t had any problems so far. As you can see, having an out-dated operating system and lots of messages in your email client can cause intermittent problems for yourself.
One day I was talking to a friend named Jim at Spiece Fitness and he mentioned someone was looking for me. I started rattling off names of people I knew at Spiece and when I got to the right name, he said that’s them! They were one of my computer clients and needed my help. I texted them to find out what was up and they needed a computer service call to their business to help set up some new equipment and troubleshoot some computers.
As you can see, It’s advantageous to be friendly with people at the gym and not wear headphones when you have a business.
Yesterday, my sister showed me a free media service which uses your public library. She’s a librarian in Johnson County, Indiana which is close to Indianapolis. The name of the service is Hoopla and it allows you to borrow books, digital music and other media over internet-connected devices. I created an account with my Allen County Public library card number on Hoopla’s web site: hoopladigital.com. You’ll need a library card so you can enter the number to gain access, but be aware not every library is a member of Hoopla.
So far I’ve logged-in to my Hoopla account on my smartphone and a Windows 10 computer with my email address and password. I can log in from any of my Microsoft Windows, Apple or Linux computers through a web browser. It also offers an android app in the play store which I’ve installed. In the first day I borrowed a Bruce Lee movie and a Microsoft Windows book. Hoopla remembered where I left off on the movie from being viewed on my phone. When I opened my account on a computer, the movie began playing where I stopped it on my phone. Hoopla allows a library patron to borrow 9 books a month which sound kind of low to me.
Give Hoopla a try and let me know how you like it or if you’ve been using it a while.
I was on-site at a business client recently working on a Microsoft Windows laptop. The owner reported it as being slow on the internet when they were browsing. Their main web browser was Firefox so I started examining it for malicious extensions and plug-ins. I didn’t find too much wrong inside Firefox so I started a malware scan with Comodo Internet Security. During the scan, I was happy to discover it found some malware in the Firefox folder and once it was quarantined, the computer and web browsing was much faster.
I can remember calling technical support in the 1990’s for various computer issues when I was a System Engineer at Needhams Business Machines. The people I talked to were easy to understand because they were in the USA and it was a pleasure speaking with them most of the time.
Nowadays, I’m usually speaking to someone in another country who may be difficult to understand. If it’s a large company, it can be painful being transferred from department to department trying to find the right person to help me. In other instances, they ask for all kinds of information and still can’t help me. A The exception is small, specialized software companies located in the USA. Calling technical support for them is faster to get through and they are easier to understand.
A disturbing trend I’m noticing is computer companies discouraging you to call them. This week I was trying to get help from a OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software company. I needed assistance getting their software to run correctly on a Windows 10 laptop. My client and I searched their website for a telephone number and never found one. All they offered was email support and when I sent them a message, they never responded to my email. My client had to email them and they still haven’t contacted me yet after two days.
As an alternative to phone support, I first try live chats with technical support on their web sites if available. Most of the time this has been beneficial for me for simple questions and sometimes troubleshooting. Some tech support operations offer remote support which can really save you time and grief. This is where they take control of your computer and fix the problem themselves. I use this service for my clients.
As you can see, I avoid calling technical support unless it’s the only way to get help.
One of my services is setting up new computers for businesses. People want me to copy their data and their programs to their new Windows computer. I can do only one of these requests, unfortunately. Copying user data is pretty simple in the usual case.
Copying a program from the old computer to a new one is impossible. Programs have to be installed from scratch on the new computer. One reason is there are many files in many different directories that need to be copied. There’s no way I’m going to know what files to grab off the current computer and place on the new one. Especially in the Windows directory and it’s sub-directories.
The only way I know to get your programs installed on your new computer is to install from the original source. This means you need to have the EXE file downloaded from the internet, or located on a USB drive or DVD or CD disk. Then I run the setup.exe or install file and go through the setup process.
I like to promote my business any way I can and one of the tools I use is pretty old-fashioned. Whenever I’m at the Credit Union drive-through or inside at the counter, I put a business card in the drive-through canister with my checks or hand one to the teller. This helps identify me plus this lets them know my computer business services.
After my business is transacted, the card isn’t always returned to me and this makes me happy. Maybe it got tossed in the trash or perhaps it’s on a bulletin board in the building. Maybe the teller kept for future needs.
A year ago, the Credit Union created a smartphone app for depositing checks. I started using it and it saved me time and I didn’t have to stop at the credit union to deposit checks.
The consequence of the smartphone app is losing contact with the Credit Union tellers. So once a month I still make a deposit in person so they’ll remember me and my computer business.
Last week I was eating lunch at a restaurant and as I was walking up to pay, something interesting happened. One of my computer clients and a networker was just ahead of me in line. We hadn’t seen each other in person for several years, yet we recognized each other. He had a friend with him and we knew each other from a few networking group meetings. After a little conversation he said he sees me somewhere. And then he realized it’s on LinkedIn or Facebook.
This may sound insignificant, but it says a lot to me about Social Media posts. I have many connections on LinkedIn and Facebook, yet few ever comment or like the things I post. Whenever I run into someone I haven’t seen for a while, they usually say they see me on Social Media and may even mention a particular post they enjoyed. So when I get concerned that not many people comment on my posts, I remember that many people see my stuff, but few will comment or click the Like button.