Computer Repair & Technology Services

I recommend free versions of antivirus software to my residential clients. Free versions can prove just as powerful as the paid versions. I usually recommend FREE AVG. I have been using the free version of AVG for over 10 years and really like it’s protection. Lately, I have been testing out Microsoft’s free antivirus software called Microsoft Security Essentials. I have put this free version through the ringer and have come to really like it. Residential versions of Norton/Symantec and McAfee are, in my opinion, are junk. They consume high resources and are attacked more frequently. Not only are they troublesome to the home users, they cost a lot of money each year.

I want to give everyone a challenge. If you use Norton or McAfee on your home computer; uninstall it and try any one of the recommended antivirus programs. Let me know what your experience is like. I would like to think you will experience a smoother desktop environment, less problems with viruses, and more money in your wallet.

Here are are the FREE ANTI-VIRUS programs I recommend most:

MICROSOFT SECURITY ESSENTIALS
FREE AVG

What free antivirus software do you like and recommend?

If you are intersted in the Samsung Galaxy, here is a free one! The instructions are simple. Just jump on over to the Android Police and follow the instructions.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/07/19/giant-giveaway-4-win-a-free-samsung-galaxy-tab-10-1-from-android-police-and-thumb-keyboard-for-doing-close-to-nothing/

iNFLUX PC is all about saving you money! We have our clients wallets in mind when we offer services. Here is the updated list of GoDaddy Promotional Codes for July 21, 2011. You can use these codes to save money on your hosting, domain fees, and other purchases from GoDaddy.com. Please let us know if any of these are no longer working and we will update the post. As of today all codes have been tested an verified. Keep in mind GoDaddy may automatically apply a code in which case multiple codes cannot be used. Enjoy!

Have you ever seen this message on your Android phone? I have been an avid user of Android since the very first Android Google Phone; the T-Mobile G1. I am now using the T-Mobile G2 which is really a HTC Desire Z and I love it. Now I have my eyes set on the G2x. I have never really experienced any problems with my phones until the other day. The market would show I have several updates that needed to be installed. I’d click the “Update All” icon and wait for them all to download. This is where I started noticing a problem. All the installations were for some reason unsuccessful. After clicking on the Installation was unsuccessful notification I would get an error message similar to the one here that said “Installation Error: Couldn’t install on USB storage or SD Card.” As you can imagine this to be super frustrating. What’s this? An Angry Birds update? Awesome! WHAT?!?! NOOOO! It’s not updating! I tried several basic troubleshooting steps like powering down the phone and powering it back on, mounting and unmounting the SD card, pulling the battery and SD card and replacing; nothing.

Here is a simple tutorial on how to fix the problem without losing any of your data. Although you will not lose your data it is always good practice to back it up before tampering with it. Please follow these instructions to get rid of this annoying Android caused Error Message. As far as I am aware all Android phones are prone to this message at one point or another. The problem appears to stem from a corrupt app installation and the temporary/cache file needs to be cleared.

1. Plug the phone into your computer via USB cable.
2. Tap the “Turn on USB Storage” on your device.
3. Copy the contents of your SD Card / “Removable Disk” to a safe place on your computer. *If you do not have a current backup of your data.
4. Find and Open the .android_secure folder on your Android’s SD Card.
5. Find the file named smdl2tmp1.asec and rename it to smdl2tmp1.asec_backup.
6. Tap the “Turn off USB Storage” button on your phone.
7. Unplug your phone, power it off, and power it back on.

Dell and HP are some of our favorite laptops to work on because of how easy the systems are to repair and their customer service is awesome! If you can get past the language barrier that is. Plus their support sites have just about every piece of information and software readily available for download. We worked on this Dell Inspiron 1440 which would not boot. Have you ever seen a computer boot up to a white blinking cursor? Nasty stuff right? No safe mode, no command prompt, no system restore, nothing.

First thing we think about is the data sitting on the drive and whether or not it is recoverable. Fortunately, we were able to back up all of the data sitting on the drive. The backup took nearly 15 hours combined. The drive was near death and the read / write speeds were terrible. We were finally able to backup the clients movies, music, pictures, documents, and everything else important. We performed the backup by pulling out the Western Digital hard drive and plugging it into a USB to IDE / SATA adapter. This tool is so important and makes life much easier when trying to get at information sitting on a drive. Simply plug in the old hard drive to the device, plug the device into a known working computer and within seconds you will have full access to the drive and can copy the files. Once you have the files in a safe spot you can play around with the old drive all you want. Ideally, everyone should already have a backup of their data but they don’t.

The problem we have seen recently with repairing newer laptops and desktops is the manufacturers not providing restorations discs for the computers. Manufacturers are putting the restoration software on secondary partitions on the drives which is fine until the drive completely fails; then what? Users rarely use the Restoration Disc creator software to burn the media onto disc before computers dies. If you are in need of restoration discs try calling your computer manufacturer to get a hold of them. In most cases the registered user can call up the manufacturer and demand they mail them a copy of the restoration discs free of charge. We called Dell and ask them to provide the discs but they needed us to provide the registered owners name, mailing address and phone number. This laptop has swapped hands a couple times but we were able to eventually track down all of the required information and one business day later we had the software in hand from Dell.

We ran several hard drive diagnostic tools and were not able to save the drive itself. Fortunately, hard drives are reasonably priced and it’s always cheaper to buy a new drive than to have the old drive physically repaired. We replaced the dead drive with a brand new one, restored the operating system (Windows 7), and restored the previously backed up personal files. The laptop is now ready to be returned to the owner. We are sure they will be happy with the system; it is better than new now!

Hot, Hot, Hot. A client’s HP Probook 6555b loaded with a 2.8GHz AMD Phenom II X2 N620 Dual-Core Mobile processor was shutting down while playing World of Warcraft. Actually, it didn’t really matter which game was being played. If the laptop was doing anything intense the machine would heat up and after time instantly power off. The experience was exactly like holding down the power button for 5 seconds; instant off. Ouch! What a pain it caused if right in the middle of something important and not being able to save first.

We used Core Temp to figure out what was happening. This is a free application which allows us to monitor the heat changes of a processor. We found the processor was spiking to almost 99° Celsius. OK, all you math wizards out there… what does this convert to Fahrenheit? That’s right 210°! Now that is HOT! Typically a laptop processor should remain somewhere between 50-65° C which is 122-149° F doing absolutely nothing. The temperatures may spike to 75° C maximum while working out.

Laptops as well as desktops have safety features built in which prevent the melting of your CPU. Many times the setting can be found in the BIOS. In this scenario the BIOS prevented the laptop CPU from failing due to intense heat by powering off the computer. We were able to determine the issue after pulling apart the system. Turns out the CPU/GPU Fan was not spinning fast enough. Once we replaced the fan we started seeing normal temperatures like those in the picture to the right. Usually failing fans give off hints like changes in noise. The pitches in the fan get high and low or even make grinding sounds bu this time everything sounded normal.

Keeping your PC free from dust and air cooled will help prolong the life of your processor. Fortunately the fan replacement cost was minimal in comparrison to a new processor or motherboard.

What’s the temperature of your PC?

Who doesn’t like Angry Birds? Well besides Green Pig, Mustache Pig, King Pig, and Helmet Pig? Angry Birds first came out on the iPhone and now is available on the Android Market. There are some hilarious Angry Birds YouTube videos to get you in the spirit, so go find them. In case you have lived in a cave since 2009, Angry Birds is a puzzle game that is super fun, funny, and addicting. Just load your extra grumpy bird into a massive sling shot and shoot it at those dang pigs hiding out in all sorts of structures. The more death and damage you do, the higher your score; the higher your score, the more stars you receive. Of course with more stars brings more bragging rights and valuable street credibility. Now there is a way to play the game from your very own laptop or desktop. No need to go out and buy an expensive smart phone and data plan just to start playing, so get started!

While Angry Birds is nothing new, now you can play it from your computer with Google Chrome! Go download Google Chrome Web Browser. Google Chrome is a much better alternative to Internet Explorer anyway and not just because of Angry Birds! Go play Angry Birds now!

Oh and don’t forget to download your Angry Birds Chrome Theme!

Sometimes a dead computer can be fixed for as little as $50. Every computer in the world has a power supply. The power supply provides power to the motherboard and all other internal components such as processors, memory, fans, and hard drives. Typically power supplies come with a 3 year manufacturer warranty but usually last between 4-6 years. In Arizona we have seen that life expectancy be even lower. It seems like 3-5 years is more common. Maybe due to more dust? Who knows? Many factors need to be considered but this is a rough guess. It really all boils down to run time hours. Manufacturers give an estimated hour life expectancy on their power supplies some at 500,000+ hours some are in the millions. Point being…the more you have your computer powered on the faster it will die.

There are several symptoms to know if your power supply has failed or is starting to fail.

• Computer does not power on after you push the power button.
• Computer flashes a steady amber or green light after the power button is pushed.
• Computer powers on for 10-15 seconds then powers off.
• Computer randomly shuts down, reboots, or freezes.
• Power supply indicator light (on back) is not green while plugged into a known working power outlet.

We have been repairing so many computers that have dead power supplies. If you have the guts to pop open the case of your computer you can find the power supply typically at the top back position of the case. The big cable you plug into your wall outlet plugs directly into the power supply. It’s generally the biggest component inside of the case and is a big black or silver box. On the outside of the case you will see four phillips head screws on the outer edges. Pop out those 4 screws, unplug power supply cables from inside of the case and it should pop right out. Put in the new power supply, replace cables and screws and you are back in business.

Power supplies run anywhere from $50 to $150+.  We need to be onsite to make this repair and are able to serve the entire United States. If you want to give it a shot yourself we will walk you through it over the phone or provide some helpful online step-by-step videos if you have another computer to view them from. We have seen several power supply replacement jobs in Goodyear, Avondale, Peoria, and Glendale Arizona. Most recently we visited Real Living Property For You. The receptionist PC was not powering on and we new right away what the problem was. We had a brand new 450W power supply in hand and installed it. The install took about 5 minutes and the computer was powered back on and running in no time.

What other symptoms have you seen with a bad power supply?

iNFLUX PC is proud to introduce our new business logo this month. For several weeks we have been brain storming and surveying the public with these ideas in order  to reach our final logo decision. 14 days later we have our newest member of iNFLUX PC Technology Consulting & Services; the logo. We find this logo design is more professional, exciting and fits our high speed business style. We hope our potential clients will see this logo as a symbol of us moving forward with technology.

Whether you own a small business startup or a large corporation you can count on us as your logo designer. All of our logo styles are custom created from scratch. We do not use logo templates to create your business identity. We have access to top graphic designers around the world who are willing and able to create a logo that works for you.

Starting a small business is no simple task. Trust us to handle the tough part of creating the face of your company. Please visit our Logo and Graphic Design page for more information and samples.

Want to uplift your computer right away without having to shell out a massive amount of money? The best thing you can do to instantly see a performance increase in your PC is to upgrade its memory. RAM plays a huge part in the responsiveness of your computer. Everything your computer processes relies on the amount of memory your system has; why not max it out? This is like buying the super-unleaded gas for your car versus buying the cheapest unleaded possible. You’ll see a noticeable different instantly.

Each type of computer motherboard has a memory limitation as well as the version of your operating system. Many consumer grade systems today have the ability to max the memory out at 4GB, 8GB or more of RAM. How much do you have? These systems typically have two or four slots available for your system memory. Whether you run on a laptop or a desktop, more than likely you are NOT maxed out. Computer manufactures typically sell you a system with the least amount of RAM possible. At first your computer runs super fast but as you add more and more programs that run hidden in the background the system slows down. Going back to the manufacturer to complain about slowness is what they hope you do. They will upgrade your RAM to fix the problem but it will come at a great expense.

Depending on the type of operating system you may also be limited. 32-bit operating systems like x86 versions of Windows XP can only utilize 3GB of RAM, while Windows Vista x64 or Windows 7 x64 can handle anywhere from 4GB to 192GB of RAM. I recommend that Windows XP systems run with a bare minimum of 2GB’s of RAM. Windows Vista and Windows 7 users should have a bare minimum of 3GB.

What happens if you don’t have enough RAM? Windows XP sitting idle with nothing else running in the background will use 500+MB of RAM. Windows Vista and Windows 7 will usually sit idle at 1GB+. Keep in mind this is just sitting idle, doing absolutely nothing. Each time you open a program or a web site you are using more and more RAM. Your operating system will recognize you do not have enough RAM and temporarily store your programs in what is called a page file. This file sits on your hard drive and is accessed like your memory but at much slower speeds. Ideally you want to have enough RAM so your page file is used as little as possible.

Upgrading your memory (RAM) is the way to go! It instantly speeds up your PC and your multitasking capabilities. Find out how much RAM you have today! We have been helping our clients all around Goodyear, Avondale and Phoenix Arizona upgrade their systems to get great performance with their day-to-day tasks!