Client Success Story: The Magic Touch

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Not every computer we work on requires a long and complex solution. Sometimes all it takes is a little patience… And the magic touch.

The other day a lady came in to our office with an older Windows 7 laptop in tow, saying that the laptop just wouldn’t turn on anymore. She said that when she pushed the power button it seemed like the laptop got power, lights would come on and she could hear the fan spinning, but the screen would remain dark.

As she was setting the laptop, the power cord, and that laptop’s battery on the counter, she began telling me that she wanted to make sure that the laptop was turned off, but since she couldn’t see the shutdown button on the screen, she decided to just removed the battery.

Obviously under a great deal of stress and talking a mile a minute, she told me that this laptop was used for her business, and was in a hurry to get it fixed. She thought that maybe the screen had gone out, and might need to be replaced.

She then told me that she had just made the trip up to Grand Junction from Montrose to have the her laptop looked at, since over the past could of days she had taken the laptop to a couple places in Montrose, and was told that since the laptop was older, they couldn’t get the parts needed to fix the screen.

Before looking up how much it would cost to replace this laptop screen, I wanted to be absolutely sure that the screen was the problem in the first place. I wanted to connect the laptop to an external monitor and run a few quick tests, so I put the battery in the laptop, and pressed the power button, and everything came on like it should.

The poor lady obviously surprised by this unexpected turn of events, but I had a funny feeling that I knew what had just happened. I asked if it was still okay to check on a few things and then started poking around.

I asked if he had recently done any Windows updates, and she said that she had, right before the screen stopped working.

I knew right then what the problem was.

I ran some quick hardware and software tests, just to make sure that nothing else was wrong with the laptop. What I found confirmed my suspicions.

It seemed as if there was a bit of a hiccup with a Windows 10 Update, and by removing the battery and power cord, the lady inadvertently did a CMOS reset, which allowed windows to boot up and finish it’s update.

Everything else about the computer was in perfect working order.

Absolutely delighted, the lady reached for her wallet and asked me how much she owed for the repair. I told her that all I did was poke around a bit, I didn’t really fix anything, so there was no charge.

With a huge smile, the lady grabbed a handful of business cards and said that she was going to tell everyone about how helpful we were. I smiled and told her that that was exactly what I liked to hear.

She grabbed her laptop, and bounded out the door.

It wasn’t until then that I realized that I had forgotten to ask her name.

Regardless, helping our clients is the name of the game. If there’s anything that No Ware Computer Repair can help you with, please give us a call, drop us a line, or swing on by our office in Grand Junction. We’re always happy to help!

windows update failure

5 Most Common Computer Problems

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Here at No Ware Computer Repair, we have to solve a lot of computer problems. While some complications are more puzzling than others, here’s a short list of the most common issues that are brought into our shop.

Computer spill

One of the most common problems we come across is the “hardware mishap.” Typically this includes spills or drops, laptop screens being broken, motherboards fried, and others of the like. Hardware mishaps are pretty common and can be expensive at times.

dirty computer

Another problem we see a lot of is the “slow computer.” Older devices have a tendency to fall victim to this particular annoyance because as they age they can build up dust and grime on the hardware, and the software itself can become clogged with useless files that do nothing but take up vital storage and leave a device in a miserably sluggish state. In a fast paced world, the last thing people want is a computer that runs at a snail’s pace.

viruses found

Viruses are the bane of a computer user’s existence. Not only do they knock a computer from NASCAR level speeds down to leisurely strolls in the park, they can also do some serious damage. From the mostly harmless popups that occasionally assault the user, to the dangerously malicious ransomware that could cost you thousands, viruses are unfortunately still a frequent occurrence.

data loss

Data loss is an extremely overlooked issue that people don’t usually think about until it happens to them personally. It could be due to a myriad of causes; theft, hardware mishap, software failure, and so much more. It’s the reason we highly recommend using a cloud to backup all of that highly important data you might have on your devices. It saves you a lot of time and money in the long run. Fortunately, even if you forget to back-up your data, there are experts who specialize in data recovery.

Blue Screen of Death

This final failure has been making a lot of us in the tech industry scratch our heads. It seems to be a little counter-intuitive, but many computer users have recently been having windows update problems. Whether it be the percentage simply stopping, graphics drivers failing, or operating system glitches, if you’re having a problem with any of the above, just know you are most certainly not alone.

Regardless of what problem your computer is having, No Ware Computer Repair in Grand Junction can have your device up and running in no time!

The Four Main Types of Spills That Can Kill Your Computer

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coffee spill on laptop
Contributing to at least sixty percent of all computer repair problems, liquid damage is one of the biggest nuisances for the computer-age office worker. Even if it is easily preventable, there can always be accidents. Here are the four most common types of liquid spills that we see damaging our client’s computers.

Coffee

The biggest culprit of liquid damage by far has got to be coffee, likely because those of us that work at our computers all day, and likely all night, need a bit of a pick-me-up. The complex cocktail of chemicals and additives in coffee can absolutely destroy a computer’s inner-workings. They can even caramelize the insides of the device – as well as leave a rather nasty odor, due to the dairy products and sugar Many of us add to your coffee.

Water

Water would be just beneath coffee, contributing to about twenty percent of all cases of liquid damage. Oddly enough it really isn’t even the water that does the damage, it’s what’s within the water. A myriad of minerals in distilled or tap water can cause a short circuit, but completely pure, distilled water itself isn’t even a conductor of electricity.

Soda

Due to the sugar and acidity in soda and other soft drinks, they’re extra-corrosive on computer hardware, causing a lot of the same damage as a coffee spill. It’s probably best to keep any liquid fit for cleaning auto parts as far away from your electronic devices as humanly possible.

Beer and Wine

Surprisingly enough, the alcohol in beer and wine isn’t what damages your computer, in fact it’s pure isopropyl alcohol that a lot of technicians use to clean up the components of a computer. It’s actually the additives to alcoholic beverages that typically do all of the dirty work. Sugars, juices, and food coloring can all do severe damage to the circuitry of your computers or other electronic devices.

What should you do when the inevitable accidents do happen? It’s important to know the precautionary steps to take to prevent anymore damage from occurring. First of all, turn off, unplug the device and take out the battery, as electricity still conducts through it even when it’s powered down. You should also seek the advice of a reputable computer technician, like the ones at No Ware Computer Repair in Grand Junction.

Client Success Story: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

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About a month ago we had the pleasure of meeting Elaine. Elaine was passing through Grand Junction, on her way to one of the area’s many ski resorts.

Elaine liked to travel, in fact, since retiring she has spent a majority of her time traveling and taking pictures. Just like most everyone these days, Elaine takes her pictures using her smart phone. In fact, she takes so many pictures that she occasionally plugs her phone into her laptop to transfer all the pictures, so that she can make some room on her phone for more photos.

When Elaine turned on her laptop so that she could read the news while having her morning coffee in her hotel room, she was greeted with a black screen. She tried waiting, but nothing happened. Elaine then tried restarting the computer, but the screen remained black.

That’s when Elaine got on her phone and used Google to look for someone who could help.

Elaine called us, citing our reviews on Google, and told us about her situation. It sounded like Elaine was in a bit of a pickle, so we had her bring her laptop down to our office so that we could take a look.

While chatting with Elaine, we were told about how she uses her laptop as a way of storing all of the photos that she takes on her travels. Needless to say, she was extremely concerned about all of her pictures.

After assuring Elaine that we would do whatever we could to save all her pictures, we got to work.

It didn’t take long to determine that a botched Windows update was the reason that her computer wasn’t booting up. After doing a little more poking around, we decided that the best thing to do would be to pull all of the data, completely reinstall Windows 10, and migrate the data back on to the laptop.

We quickly learned that Elaine wasn’t kidding when she said that she has a lot of pictures on her computer. Almost 200 Gigabytes of photos alone had to be pulled off the laptop before we could proceed with reinstalling Windows. Once the pictures were backed up, everything else was a breeze.

When Elaine came to pick up her laptop, we had a brief sit-down, and discussed how she was backing up her photos, and brainstormed a better way for her to get the job done.

We ended up setting her up with Dropbox on her phone and computer, and taught her how to upload her files so that they would be saved in the cloud and synced to her laptop. She was absolutely ecstatic when she uploaded her first set of photos on her own.

After the work was done, we sat with Elaine for a while as she showed us some of the pictures from her many travels all around the world over a nice cup of green tea.

Is your computer giving you trouble? Call us now to see how No Ware Computer Repair can help you!

beach laptop

Client Success Story: Breathing New Life into Old Computers

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Not too long ago, an old gaming laptop came through our doors. It was one of those “Republic of Gamers” machines that Asus was cranking out for quite a few years. This laptop was about five years old, and obviously well used. Our client, Bill, had paid a pretty penny for this machine all those years ago, but now it was having trouble keeping up with some of today’s games. He brought it in to us hoping that we could work a little upgrade magic to improve the performance and make this old machine game-ready again.

We had a long talk with Bill we learned that he had recently retired and like to spend some of his newly acquired spare time playing video games. After accessing the situation with the laptop, we came up with a plan of action and got to work.

The first step was the hard drive. We replaced the old mechanical hard drive with an awesome new SSD, and then loaded up a fresh installation of Windows 10. Then working some of our data transferring wizardry we were able to copy his Steam library from his old Hard Drive onto this new one. This made all his games ready to go with at the click of a button.

Next, we upgraded his RAM from the 8GB that came with the laptop to a whopping 16GB. Which, combined with the new SSD, made this old beauty just as (if not more) zippy than some of the new gaming laptops that are just rolling off the factory line.

There is nothing better than being able to game on the go. Sadly, the battery in this beast was only holding enough of a charge to last barely an hour. So that too got an upgrade too! A brand-new battery that allowed game time for up to 6-8 hours when unplugged.

We finished everything off by giving the system a thorough cleaning and gently wiping down the case, to keep everything running nice and cool and looking extra sharp.

When everything was done, we called the Bill in to pick up his laptop. Upon arriving at the office, he could hardly believe his eyes. The first thing he noticed was how clean and tidy the machine was.

We had Bill boot up the computer and load up a game to see how speedy everything was after our upgrades. The ear to ear grin showed us that he was beyond pleased with the results of our work. With a gleam in his eye, Bill left with his revitalized computer with a spring in his step, obviously eager to get in some quality gaming time.

Do you have an old computer that could use some new life of its own? Bring it on down to No Ware Computer Repair in Grand Junction! We can give your old computer the 1up it so desperately needs.

Granddad gaming

Traveling With Your Laptop – Part 2

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Let’s face it, most of us keep our lives, the lives of our children and some of our friends on our laptops. Losing this information can be catastrophic, especially when traveling. Last week we began covering the basics of how to keep your laptop safe. This week we will continue that discussion, and talk about some things that you can do to keep your laptop safe during your travels.

Traveling with your laptop [Read more…]

Traveling with your laptop – Part 1

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These days we take our laptops everywhere with us, to the coffee shop, to the library, on vacation. In our blog about safe wifi we covered how you can keep your data secure.  What about moving it from place to place or worse getting it conventionally through Airport security! If you have ever traveled through one of these checkpoints with a you know what a pain it can be.

This week we will review how to keep your laptop safe from breakage and thieves and cool during your summer traveling. Let’s start with some basics: [Read more…]

Keeping it cool (Part 1)

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Imagine it: Late one night, while you’re chilling on the couch with your laptop in your lap – where, given the name “laptop” you would think it belongs – watching the latest season of “Supernatural” and you begin to think to yourself that the special effects in this episode are more realistic than normal, because just as the Winchester Brothers light up the latest corpse it seems that you can actually feel the heat on your legs.  [Read more…]