Computer Work?

[hobbygiik]

I'm looking for anyone that needs some computer work done, I do virus removals, data backups, and other misc. repairs. PM me if you need some work done, I can not advertise through regular means, as I can get fired from my regular job for doing work on the side. I figure that everyone on here can appreciate discretion, and I'm in need of extra cash for my hobbies.

Thanks

[Sasquatch]

Many years ago, I was asked to leave a major corporation due to my off hour activities. But that was before the internet was made public. It is now easier to keep multiple lives going at the same time.

Some of my close friends are using a "moonlighting" phone & email address in the same manner that we use a hobby phone & name.

[hobbygiik]

It is hard to keep them separate though, where I work has a team of people devoted to finding employees working outside of work. Mostly by answering ads on CL and BP and trying to get a name/number to match to company records.

[Tara Evans]

This is good to know, I always would call geek squad.

[hobbygiik]

Geek Squad is pretty hit or miss, unless you find a good store to take it to, but they are also very pricey.

[uspc40]

Originally Posted by hobbygiik

Geek Squad is pretty hit or miss, unless you find a good store to take it to, but they are also very pricey.

They are very pricey for the services they offer. Chances are, you are paying those high prices to train a less knowledgeable tech. Then again, depending on what you need done, it can take hours to finish the job. I'm always getting PC help calls from friends. Good luck.

[LazurusLong]

A friend of mine had one of her computers go down.

It was under warranty although about to expire.

They told her it would be 2 weeks before they could get to it.

Her busiest week of the year was 2 days away.

I took it home and in about 2 damn hours I had the data secured onto a CD (3 copies for backup needs and "just in case", she did have to buy a new machine because the MB was fried and the original HDD had overheated but we got the critical software installed and opened the back-up file and not one bit of data was lost and she was able to open her shop the next day.

I did that sort of work for years but haven't done much lately because I have a friend who that is his only income and I refer people to him and he does a very good job. He'll charge a flat fee if the thing is dropped to his house, most times, about $45 for data recovery or OS re-install.

Anyone out there who is worried about the recent rash of virus' and trojan attacks, get rid of Norton or Mcafee and switch to ESET NOD. The best out there and has a very tiny footprint on the CPU and memory use. Those others suck up your processor speed and eat RAM like candy and even worse, you might as well not even have an anti-virus because they are so porous they'd be better named Swiss-Cheese.

[S-Man]

Originally Posted by Tara Evans

This is good to know, I always would call geek squad.

I'm sure you'll find a lot of volunteers on this board.

[uspc40]

Originally Posted by LazurusLong

\He'll charge a flat fee if the thing is dropped to his house, most times, about $45 for data recovery or OS re-install.
\

$45 for data recovery is a steal. I got a quote for data recovery for over $350 and it wasn't guaranteed. I ended up buying software and recovered the data myself. It was the best $60 I spent. You can never get years of pics back. I now have 3 storage devices that I back it up to.

[Lust4xxxLife]

Originally Posted by LazurusLong

A friend of mine had one of her computers go down.

It was under warranty although about to expire.

They told her it would be 2 weeks before they could get to it.

Her busiest week of the year was 2 days away.

I took it home and in about 2 damn hours I had the data secured onto a CD (3 copies for backup needs and "just in case", she did have to buy a new machine because the MB was fried and the original HDD had overheated but we got the critical software installed and opened the back-up file and not one bit of data was lost and she was able to open her shop the next day.

I did that sort of work for years but haven't done much lately because I have a friend who that is his only income and I refer people to him and he does a very good job. He'll charge a flat fee if the thing is dropped to his house, most times, about $45 for data recovery or OS re-install.

Anyone out there who is worried about the recent rash of virus' and trojan attacks, get rid of Norton or Mcafee and switch to ESET NOD. The best out there and has a very tiny footprint on the CPU and memory use. Those others suck up your processor speed and eat RAM like candy and even worse, you might as well not even have an anti-virus because they are so porous they'd be better named Swiss-Cheese.

Agree completely on anything Norton or McAfee. Both are bloated processor hogs. Kaspersky is another better alternative.

[Guest082216-1]

Consumer Reports recently reviewed anti-virus/spyware protection and rated Microsoft Security Esscentials very highly. Its free from MS and seems to do a very good job with a very small footprint. I own my own computer repair company in the mid cities and have been using it on my and my customers computers for a number of months. Since I started using it, I have not had a single customer return with a reinfected system. And I tend to get a lot of repeat business with Nortons and McAfee.

I especialy recommend it for older computers that lack the power to run the latest versions of some of the others out there.

[hobbygiik]

I'm a big fan of the NOD32 and Kaspersky, but Webroot works ok and the new Trend Micro Titanium is actually pretty nice. I was very surprised about the Trend as the last couple of years were not good to them. But, depending on what your doing on the net you don't even need an AV/AS software. Been running Windows on this machine for 2 years without any software and it's as clean as a preachers sheets.

[smartguy420]

anyone use system mechanic pro? I work with computers myself, Geek Squad will charge a arm and a leg... You be surprise how many people have so much clutter in the registry and everywhere else that the computer starts to stall wait to much.... A nice good reformat fixes that up...

[Guest082216-1]

Any tool that modifies the regestry without expert knowledege on the part of the user is BAD, VERY BAD. Even a single mistake can kill Windows. These programs actualy clean the registery, not fix anything. What they are cleaning are entries the program thinks no longer points to a valid file or program. These entries do NOT cause problems the vast majority of the time. Nor do most of them cause any kind of slow down.

Every "good" review I have ever found is by a source that has a vested interest in selling the product or gets paid advertising from the seller. The "bad" reviews tend to be by objective, 3rd party writers who are independent.

Some of these tools can be usefull IF you know what your doing.

I spent 8 years at Microsoft in support starting with DOS and ending as Technicial Team Lead for OS support in the Enterprise sector. And I have spent the last 8 with my own repair shop working on systems every day. More than 25 years with computers over all.

There are many reasons why your computer gets slower over time. Very few have anything to do with regestry problems that any of these "tools" can fix. When I see them on a customers system, I ask them to uninstall right away.

[smartguy420]

lol... i do not use registry cleaners that often.. I use system mechanic pro and cc cleaner...

Bottom line, is programs and software leaves bit of traces of info behind in computer, and over a period of time with downloading all that free garbage, software, or whatever the computer tends to get slow.

I have a tendency to make sure I read what I am installing, since most programs these days come with BS programs, or tool bars..

I can not count on my hand or feet how many computers I have seen infected with programs and toolbars that slow down the comp...

SO MANY PEOPLE DOWNLOAD FREE Garbage that is all it is is garbage!

Whenever messing with the registry always a good idea to back it up..

I seen it first hand these programs causing problems