Fred, while I can very much appreciate your avatar of Obama the Socialist, your computing advice is terrible. Sorry.

First, Windows 8 is not that much different mechanically than Windows 7. The main difference is the interface that is now touchscreen-friendly. Yes, it's a dramatic shift, but you get used to it pretty quickly. If you still hate it, there are ways to get the traditional start menu back.

Getting a tablet is good advice, but saying Android sucks is like saying Pelosi is a lovely and intelligent woman. Way off. Android blows iOS away in nearly every quantifiable way. iPads are also overpriced. Yes, they are stable and pretty, but Android has surpassed iOS in almost every way. You just have to be more careful when it comes to a hardware manufacturer wen shopping for Android.

Tablets are also limited devices. Great for consuming or browsing, terrible for creating anything. Best thing you can do is educate yourself.

I have my Kindle fire set up as an android tablet and I would much rather have it than an iPad. Aside from the ability to do iMessage texting, I don't see any advantage that an iPad has that can justify the huge difference in price over the various Android based devices on the market.

If you like Windows 8, get a tablet but for a PC... bla... Seems every other OS that MS releases is poorly contrived. There is absolutely nothing wrong with sticking with Win7 right now. If you do decide to migrate to Win8, then do yourself a favor and make sure any existing software you are running well on Win7, as well as hardware, will run one Win8.

Not pointed out in the fix-it article, or the "Windows vs.iOS" debate, is this. What do you need this device to do? That tells you how to spend your money.

I discount any advice or opinion that ignores this basic starting point.

I've built my own computer, owned Dell refurbished, and now own a few Apple devices. I go cheap sometimes, and sometimes I pay up. The difference is I know why.

I haven't bought an over the counter machine since my first computer. I've been building and repairing machines since 1993. My reply to people wanting to repair vs. replace is if it is 3 years or older, going to cost over 150 bucks... replace it if it's a branded system.
On what kind of machine to get... there are all kinds of end users... some demand higher end machines and others can get away with over the counter branded stuff on the cheap. There's usually no "one size fits all". I could never get away with an over the counter system for the things I do.

What has happened over the past 10 or so years is that many of the "ma and pa" type computer build/repair shops have gone by way of the Do-Do. Lots of reasons for it, but one good reason is that more and more people are able to figure out more of the minor problems that years ago they had no clue.

As Charles alludes to, we found out that Windows 8 is the trip wire for hardware. Many, many devices functional in Windows 7 and previous will not work in Windows 8 and there are no driver updates from any manufacturers that will override that.

@OakLawnGuy... When it comes to "drivers" for hardware, most, if not all companies that do make them do not want to spend time, money and resources going backwards when a new OS comes out. Sometimes you can find drivers that someone else coded for your device or updated for some reason. Use those at your own risk. I do occasionally use drivers for my Nvidia graphics card that was coded outside of the the normal company released drivers and would suggest anyone that does choose to, to use at their own risk.

The same goes for application software. Companies know that sooner or later people will migrate to the new OS so they usually are more interested in making their software compatible.

Win8 will have it's fans, but I'm not one of them at this point when my present Win7 is going strong and does everything I need it to do.

Thanks, Charles! We purchased a lap top that has Windows 8 on it, but as you say other members of the family are quite happy with their 7s. 8 has taken a little bit of getting used to but it works pretty well for us.

Most people who actually give Windows 8 a chance seem to find that it really isn't all that drastically different from Windows 7. Basically, the new Start Screen does what the Start Menu used to do. There is nothing so horrible about Windows 8, as some would imply. I have yet to see any hardware that worked with Windows 7 but won't work with Windows 8.

Of course, some people simply will not tolerate any change and are completely unwilling to learn anything new. These people will hate Windows 8. They probably also hated Windows 7 when it first came out, and hated Vista before that, hated XP before that, and so on up the line. If you don't like change and don't like learning new things, then you should definitely put off buying a new computer with Windows 8 for as long as possible. As I said in my article, avoiding a software upgrade is one of many reasons to fix an old computer, rather than buy a new one.

Everyone has different needs and different reasons for buying a computer or a tablet, etc. These factors must always be considered when making any decision to spend money on a computer. It's no different from buying a car, a TV, a dishwasher, a pair of shoes, etc.

@Richard... I'm sure you are more than a capable tech. The fact that Win8 got poor reviews on release and the fact that it is probably one MS's most softest OS sells over all at release, pretty much speaks for itself. Of course it will have it's detractors (myself included at this point) and it will have it's fans. As you said, every Win-release does. Some releases are poorly timed and I think Win8, like Win-Vista was just that. Some releases were good, 98, XP and Win7.

I shifted from box building, repairs and the like years back to software instructor. My A+ and MCSE certifications as well as a few others are stuffed in a desk drawer these days, but I do still work on enough systems for family and friends to know when a new OS release is either good or it is below par. I'm not sure how MS runs their licensing anymore, but back when I was knee deep in hardware, they were quite heavy handed in getting computer makers to start installing their new released OS and the more they could get to quickly move on installing the new OS, the more they could crow about how well it was doing. That's pretty much not the case with Win8 for a number of reasons.

Good luck with your business.... Keep the fun in it.

Actually there was a bit more to my last comment but I got the infamous "Tolstoy" too many characters message from the Patch. Too lazy to go back and re-do it.

Cheryl, we do fix tablets. I would be happy to take a look at your tablet and let you know what it will cost to fix. There is no charge for estimates and no obligation.

I see you're very good at posting comments that add absolutely nothing to the conversation. Way to go! You must be very proud.

Oh he made a valid point, Frank. I agree with him. As to the topic. There's a use for any working computer. Rebuilding it yourself is much easier than some people let on and parts are available online or at warehouse outlets such as Tiger Direct just north of Fox Valley. I use a repaired Windows98 Compaq for audio playback in my workshop. If you don't need the old computer, recycle it, there are many people who can use the parts.

We always get it to work right when we fix computers. That's our job.

It now freezes and crash dumps twice a day.

Kerry,

Sounds like you went to the wrong place to have your computer fixed. I'd be happy to take a look at it and see what's wrong. No charge for the initial diagnostics.

Rick

It's really not difficult to fix most problems yourself with a little digging online. Granted, if it is a hardware problem, that changes the level of skill needed, but usually you can simply take the time to search for what is happening or research what processes are currently running and find out what is causing issues. Nine times out ten when I have helped family friends, the problem has been their teenage sons visiting sites of ill repute.

That being said, if you don't want to/can't spare the time it takes to learn (and sometimes deal with a little frustration along the way) contacting a good outside service can't hurt. But make sure they are good. My former employer used the geek squad, they swept the hard drive clean and couldn't get Windows to reinstall. They then offered to purchase their entire system for 50 dollars. It was a 2 yr old $2000 dollar machine.

One of the best you have ever seen? As a long time technology user, certified technical instructor, and Adult Ed teacher I would say it was OK for folks who know little about computer devices.

I'll say it again. If I was asked for advice on spending any money on any device (new, old, in need of repair), I would tell that person to think about how you plan to use the device. And go beyond the standard "Surf the net and do email" type of thinking.

How you plan to use something, anything, now in and the future is the best way to invest your money.

@yomammy... I can surely attest to that! Before more and more people wised up to getting better anti-virus software and keeping the definitions up to date, I loved it when there were outbreaks of something. Wasn't enough time in the day. Between the cheap porn sites and the gaming cheat sites the young people would go to, there was always some mess to clean up.

You were told wrong on virus protection. Although it will not prevent any encounter, it will reduce greatly the chances of getting something. Many people do not keep the virus definitions up to date and at some point a newer nasty will come out that old definitions won't catch.

The other issue is simple common sense computer maintenance. Empty out your Temporary folders on a regular basis, including your browser cache as well as running Disk Defragmenter. I am still amazed at how many people do not do these few simple upkeeps and yet complain they have issues when those few things alone will go far in making your system run better.

The other thing is cleaning out the dust on your fans/heatsinks. It does require taking the cover off to get to some of these areas and if a person is not comfortable in doing that, take it to someone who knows how to do it. I clean mine out every 3 month. Heat is a computer's enemy and when if the processor over heats, it will get slow, sluggish and eventually crash. It's the simple things that go a long way.

no- it just dosent stop everthing. and some dont even try to block malware.
and those pop ups---if you click em there is a good change somthing got installed.
and NEVER open emails/links you dont know.

If you click on every pop-up ad that you see on the internet, and open all of the scan emails sent to you, then you're right, virus protection is a waster of money. It's a lot like opening the door for a burgler, then complaining that someone stole your stuff.

Not sure if Kerry meant it this way, but I've been told that anti-virus SOLD over the counter can be a waste of money. A couple techie types have told me that there are a few free anti-virus programs that work just as well. An anti-virus program of some sort is essential. Like Charles, we no longer use IE except when forced to by a few sites we absolutely need to access, and Malwarebytes and CCLeaner have taken care of the rest. We have not been infected in any PC for years.

I switched to "Bit Defender" about 5 or so years back. Although I pretty much thing all major brands of anti-virus software do a decent job, most of the biggies are very resource hungry and bloated and way more expensive than I think they are worth.

Bit Defender has done a really great job for me and is less expensive. If you are on their list, you usually start getting renewal notices and if you wait long enough, they drop the price to about 20 bucks for 3 licenses. No complaints at this point.

CCleaner is great too for cleaning out the pipes. Just be careful with the registry cleaner... use the option to back up the registry if you use that part of it unless you know what you are looking at. I usually use the registry cleaner after I uninstall some software.

Kerry, AV is the most important software on your computer. Unfortunately, viruses have really vanished now, and it has morphed to malware, and as long as you have that in your AV, which almost all do nowadays, you should be fine. Every tech has their opinion, including myself. The best AV's still get penetrated with new variations, its a constant fight with these writers. AV is not the stop all to protecting yourself though. You need a router with a firewall built in, you need to scan your computer, you need to be aware of malicious sites and emails. The web is a very dangerous place and to be honest in regards to your computer, you could have a bad piece of hardware or a bad driver. There are so many variables here, but again I cannot stress how important AV is.

I usually use Spybot and keep the immunization up to date. Between not using IE, a decent anti-virus, Spybot and using some extentions in my browser which prevents certain things from running automatically, I can't remember the last time I got anything nasty other than some re-direct a few years ago that caused my default search engine to change.

Malwarebytes is great as well. I haven't used it in a few years but it is good.

did it have a turbo button?

Windows 7 is a great OS and it will continue to be supported for years to come. So, there is no reason to leave Windows 7 and move to Windows 8, if what you have is working for you.

SSD (Solid State Disk) does make a huge difference in performance. It can make your computer able to boot in seconds, and make programs load almost instantly. If only the prices would come down a bit more!

Yep. XT - Turbo. 6-8 Mhz Memory came in sticks- 8 chips in a tube. Saved up for a upgrade video card - from a MDA to a hercules graphics adapter. Still monochrome.

BBS Power !

I loved my old Packard Bell 482 sx25 with a Turbo button. Played the original X-Wing and Scorched Earth games just fine. ;)

That's the problem with the big box stores. The people who do the work are often unskilled and inexperienced. They're under pressure to rush through jobs and spend the least amount of time possible on a repair.

We make house calls, including in the evening or on weekends when people are home from work, etc. We take the time to understand what's wrong and to make sure it gets fixed right. We would never wipe someone's hard drive without first making a full backup. Even if the customer says they have backed up their files, we still do the full backup first, just in case!

That's another thing I still find surprising. People who just don't back up their data files. It only takes a few minutes on most computers and yet people just don't take the time to do it. I use Acronis True Image and have it set to run automatically at the same time every other day and back up to alternating external hard drives. Some would call it over kill but it's one of my pet peeves.

And with Time Machine, macs making backing up easy.

I'll second that. Snow Leopard 10.6.X is awesome.

Mountain Lion - not so much. Mail bogs down terribly. Apple has yet to address it officially, best I can tell. There are fixes out there that involve attempting to disassociate your address book from iCloud, deleting some library files that relate to Mail, resetting Safari, turning off notifications, etc. It's a spotty fix at best. I finally gave up and bought Postbox. This is the first time I've been disappointed with OS X.

The main thing not mentioned in this article as it depends on what exactly is wrong with the PC. You can't say if it's better to fix it or replace it unless you know what's wrong.

Do you have pop ups, viruses, software crashing with strange errors, etc? Go try to install Malwarebytes and run a scan. If that doesn't fix it, well, it's free to grab your Windows restore disks and reload the machine. Puts your computer back to how it was the day you took it out of the box.

Are you having Blue Screen crashes? Well, that could be hardware or software related. You have to search the codes to figure out the most likely cause. If it's software, see the above answer. If it's hardware, well, then you have to do some digging and see if your machine has some sort of built in diagnostics.

Replacing a hard drive is a snap. HDDs are cheap, a couple screws gets out the old one and pops in the new one. Then go back to the first answer to reload your system.

If it's a system board, well, that's not a beginner DIY project and buying a new board is going to cost a lot. Paying to have it installed is also more cost since it's a tedious process.

And yes, you can buy a brand new laptop that will work for anything 99% of the people do for $300 - $500. If you're a gamer then that price will go up a bit and you'd probably want a desktop so you can swap video cards and things anyway.

Part 3 below...

Games aside, new computers can't run anything extra than an older computer can run. They can just run them faster. So if you want to spend a few hundred dollars so programs open a bit faster and have to think for less time, go for it. If you don't mind waiting a bit to save the money, then you don't need to upgrade unless it ends up being cheaper than buying a new one.

Mike B: You are correct: it depends what is wrong with the PC. However, I did mention that we offer free diagnostics and that we will tell you what's wrong with your computer and how much it will cost to fix it up front. In other words, we will help you determine what is wrong before you decide whether to fix it or not. I'm not sure how you missed that.

Our service is aimed at people who want to have their computers serviced by someone who knows what they're doing. If you know how to service your own computer, or you like spending your time playing around trying to figure things out for yourself, that's fine. If you just want your computer fixed quickly and reliably, and don't want to bother with doing it yourself, then you can call us.

One of the reasons I gave for fixing an old computer, as opposed to buying a new one, is avoiding the work of reloading all your software, reconfiguring everything the way you want it to be, backing up and restoring all your photos, music, documents, etc. Your suggestion to reload your computer with the recovery disks puts you back in that situation of effectively having a "new computer." You have to start all over with reinstalling all your applications, reconfiguring all your settings, etc. Many people use their computers for work/business and don't want the down time needed to go through all that. They just want the problem fixed quickly so they can get back to work.

Exactly why people should have a backup system running on the computer. Plenty of free ones out there or ones that only cost a couple bucks per month.

And yes, reinstalling the actual software programs you use does take time. However, most people find that they don't use most of the "garbage" on their PC so cleaning it up is a good thing.

With Windows XP it was recommended by most IT people to wipe and reinstall it every couple years because it woudl bog down over time and become horribly slow.

With Windows Vista you were kind of screwed right from the start as that OS sucks.

With Windows 7 you rarely have to worry about drivers as it finds them for you and a PC is much more reliable.

Windows Updates don't matter at all. You go to the website, let it scan the PC, and then click Go to let it start. It goes by itself while you go do other things. It's not like you have to sit there and watch it go unless you just really like doing that sort of thing.

What the heck are you talking about?

a back up I always use another external driver..as far as "Cloud" or any server backups...I used to have a site and the backups were kept on another drive for security..Now remember when everything switched over to Dual Core Processors?..well its incidences like this "Technology Changing" that will cause you to lose all of your info..Lost a whole site and on both drives...Me I think the drives did not work or were not compatible with the new processors...and people we paid like $1200 every 6 months for the server..was no joke..server was fast and could handle the traffic..but in the end their only humans working with electronics and can wipe out all of your info just like you..get an external drive and only use it for copies of your files..but also keep the original on your computer..as windows changes so does the external drive and internal drives..they become non compatible with new windows.or you have to update the drive which can cause you to lose all your info...Dual backups is the best...

lets say you had an external driver that worked with Windows XP ...now when you go to hook up to the new computer you just bought it will a does almost every single time that it is not compatible with new windows...but it is if you ZIP the file and put it to disk..then unzip it on the new computer...

That's totally incorrect. An external hard drive is simply data. You can plug that into any computer and it should read it just fine. It doesn't matter what version of Windows is on the other PC or what processors it has. Sorry you had a bad experience but sounds like someone didn't know what they were doing properly.

No Mike..the infor on the drive might just be data..but the program that runs the Drive to let it know its a drive runs its own drivers..and those drivers when you first plug up the driver it says installing drivers..the drivers for XP are different than VISTA as VISTA has different drivers than Win8...it takes driver and a program for your external to even think it is a driver...it is called formatting it...Your drive 9 times out of 10 will say you need to format your drive to this version of windows. you don't just make something and not put a program to it..thats called flashing it...no chip or computer board runs with out its own drivers and flashings.So info is not incorrect you just don't know what the hell your talking about....I have flashed and hacked more crap that most could ever think of

If you're using some sort of drive that requires actual software to be installed to use it (not including the drivers), then maybe you have some sort of compatibility issue.

However, just taking a USB flash drive or external hard drive from one PC to another (XP, Vista, Win 7, etc) does not mean you have to reformat the drive. Installing drivers has nothing to do with reformatting the drive. It simply let's the computer talk to the hardware you are installing but doesn't affect the data.

I have a USB drive that I routinely use on multiple machines running different operating systems and have never had a problem.

No- you can move external drives. Nine out of ten it will install a small driver/usb driver (automatically) so it can talk to the drive, but thats it. Unless you have the thing formatted in linux or some oddball thing.
How many period keys do you wear out a month?
Reading your posts pretty much gives me full-blown eyeball AIDS.

No son that's probably Aids....

If you just copy the files to the external hard drive, then you should be just fine if you then plug it into another computer with a newer (or older) version of Windows. But if you're using backup software, then there is a chance that the backup is stored in a proprietary format and requires a compatible software to read the backup. It all depends, and there are far too many backup software options out there to make a general answer. But as part of the backup process, you should know what is required to restore from the backup -- whether it's a copy of some proprietary backup/restore software, or an open source format, or a simple file copy, etc. Storing/backing up is only half the process and doesn't do you any good if you can't restore it.

That's exactly why you should find a tech that operates as a teacher. If I work with someone and they want to know why it happened, how to avoid it, what to do differently, etc, I'm happy to educate them on better internet and computer practices. However, some people just want it fixed and don't care how it was done. Being able to read the technology level of the user makes it easy to know how type of words to use to explain what happened.
Most of the virus/malware/spyware problems can be avoided with two things.
Antivirus Software - I recommend Avast since it's free and does an amazing job
Spyware Removal - I recommend MalwareBytes. It's free and also does a great job.

I think the problem a lot of us have who fix computers (especially just on the side) is that a certain amount of what we end up doing is cleaning what could have been solved with very simple preventative maintenance (updating your virus software, using virus software, clearing your cache occasionally, running some sort of spyware/adware removal) and many people (not all) think all of that is beyond them. They just want things to work. I've often heard "I don't know how to run that scan.." when it is simply clicking run. As with any service job, when you run across many people who aren't willing to try it becomes an issue to teach them. I'm not saying that is the proper approach, but if they want to pretend they can't learn because it is a "tech thing" then I am going to treat it like it is beneath them.

Bob Levi:

I think you are exactly right. Too many tech people have a habit of using a lot of technical jargon and have a tendency to treat people like there is something wrong with them if they don't understand all the details of how computers work.

I've been told by many of my clients that one of the things they appreciate about me is my ability to explain highly complex technical matters in simple terms that anyone can understand. If you read some of the other blog posts I've done, I think you will find that they are all written using language that non-technical people can relate to and make sense of.

I realize that my clients are not computer experts. If they were, they wouldn't need my services. They just want their computers to work smoothly and efficiently and they hire me to make that happen for them. I will take the time to explain what you need to know, without overwhelming you with tech-talk that makes no sense.

Mike B:

I often find that I get calls from people who think something is wrong with their computer, but the real problem ends up being that they just don't understand how to use it properly. Educating people is a big part of what we do. People frequently make the comment that "they don't need to know how to fix a car just to be able to drive one." However, they do have to know how to drive a car in order to get around safely and reliably. In the same way, you don't need to know all the details of how to fix a computer in order to use one, but you do need to understand some of the basics in order to use your computer safely and efficiently. We take the time to make sure our customers know and understand how to use their computers.

Fair enough...I call your type the "ignorance in bliss" group. Your money is worth less to you than learning some simple steps to keep it running. Perfectly fine by me. I will take your money. :)

That's probably overkill for most people (running CCleaner every day) but it's much better to do it too often than to never run it. :)

I also recommend backup solutions that are automatic. Mozy is free for limited data. My personal favorite is Crashplan. If you have a 2nd PC you can back up the first one to, or two PCs that can backup to each other, it's completely free for as much space as you can fit. You can pay them to do their Cloud Storage option if you want to, but I don't. I have one PC in my house that all my other PCs back up too. It won't help if the house burns down, but helps for everything else. That way I never have to remember to back up. It does it every day for me.

CC everyday is a bit much
maybe once a week---and even then...
Sounds like you attempt to do the right things. Most dont.

This depends on exactly what the problem is. There are utilities you can use that allow you to connect your messed up hard drive to working computer and run some recovery tools on it. Sometimes they work great if it's just a major OS fail. Sometimes they don't if the drive is physically malfunctioning. Even so, paying thousands is only a last resort. I used to use GetDataBack all the time and it worked great. Under $100.

However if you ship it somewhere like Gillware Inc, then you can be paying closer to the thousand dollar mark. That's why backing up is important.
Mozy Home - http://mozy.com/home/free/ 2 gigs of space free. Automated updates.
Dropbox - www.dropbox.com - stat with 2 gigs free and can increase that. Store all your important stuff in the Dropbox folder and it's automatically backed up.
Google Drive - www.google.com/drive - same as Dropbox
Lots of free backup options out there.