These days there is a virtual sea of techs out there willing to poke, prod, and fix your computer with their latest quick fix.

Recently I had a customer bring her computer to me. Her issue was simple or so it seemed, computer freezes when dialing up. I know what most are saying right now, dial-up? Really? Yes some people still use the old school tones and whistles of the 56k modem. She had the computer built locally from what I would consider a reputable shop but when she went back to ask about the issue she was told that they would not touch it because it is dial-up. I am not going to include names of businesses here as I am not interested in slander. I find a couple things wrong right off the bat here, 1. you sold the machine to them could be a hardware issue you take it in and look at it, stand by your work. 2. In this economy turning away business as well as likely preventing that person from coming back again is financial suicide.

So turned away but determined this customer took her machine to a box store in our town who assured her that their all in one fix software tuneup would solve all her issues and so she let them do this “test” and “tuneup”. I put these words in quotes because whatever software they ran did not find clean or tune up anything. 85 bucks later this customer takes her machine home plugs it in and guess what? Freezes when dialing up. I am sure at this point she is frustrated beyond all get out but she takes it to yet another “tech”. Again with the quotes, I say “tech” in quotes because this guy kept the machine for a whole week, said he would replace the modem, then called them and told them it was working. 100 bucks later the modem was not replaced and the original issue persisted.

This customer was referred to me and I had the machine brought in. After I removed 3 viruses, multiple pieces of spyware, and 5 other programs that promised a healthy registry I was then able to run the 20 Windows updates that were needed. After optimizing the machine I also tested the dial-up connection on 20-30 different sites – no more freezing. I got the machine back to the customer and told her I wanted a call if there were any other problems. Just got a voice mail the next day telling me that everything is working perfectly which made me feel pretty good.

There is a sea of tech out there and many of them are sharks and bottom feeders that give the rest of us bad names. The long and short of it is there is no quick fix for removing viruses and spyware these days, it takes skill, knowledge, and with some machines determination.

I have heard to many times now from customers about some tech they have talked with that tells them… “That can’t be fixed, get a new computer.” I have been fixing computer for over 10 years and let me tell you, anything can be fixed.

The most recent time I heard this was a local customer who had a fairly new HP laptop running windows vista. She had contracted the XP Security fraud virus and a tech in her town told her to get a new machine that virus could not be removed. This makes me so mad to hear of these stories, if she had not had the sense to call around for a second opinion she probably would have went ahead and spent the $1000 bucks on a new machine. I fixed her computer up in one evening and took it back to her the next day.

The moral of the story here is if someone tells you that it can’t be fixed to buy something new, get a second opinion.

As for me I can fix or diagnose anything it just takes patience and perseverance.