Yes, you can put in the batteries ANY way you want!

I read yesterday that Microsoft, yes the infamous Microsoft has developed a new technology for batteries.  It basically means that you can install batteries (like AAs or AAAs) into a device in any direction, and it will still work! I know that sometimes the little icons imprinted in the battery bays trips me up, and this would be great as you can just pop the batteries in and not worry about them being backwards or turning your device into a pile of scrap!

This innovation is called Instaload, and Microsoft is planning on licensing it to manufacturers instead of making it themselves.  I gotta admit, this is pretty cool!

Click Click Clicky (part 2)

This kind of qualifies as an amendment to the last Click Click Clicky article, as I had an experience with a customer that just begged to be added here.

One of my friend’s aunts had her laptop in the shop this week because it wouldn’t boot up correctly.  We found that it had a bad hard drive.  We installed a new hard drive for her and were able to restore it using the recovery CDs that she had retained from when she purchased it.  All in all it was a pretty smooth operation.

This brought up an interesting thought though:  More and more I am seeing new brand name machines not coming with recovery CDs.  What used to be standard fare with any computer, desktop or laptop, that you purchased is now extremely rare.

If you read the fine print on your name brand machine, (pretty much all of them now are doing this) you may find that it says something to the effect of: “Please run BrandX utility to to create recovery CDs or DVDs”.  Basically these companies, in the effort to save about $1, have elected to put all of the recovery information right on the hard drive.  They usually give you a utility to use to make this recovery into a set of CDs or DVDs at your convenience.  The problem is that normally this utility is buried way down in a submenu somewhere and is very difficult to find.  So you never make the set of discs.  And then your hard drive crashes.  And nothing can be recovered.  And now you have no recovery discs by which to reload your computer with Windows and all of the other programs that came with it from the factory!  Oh the misery!  And the kicker is that brand name maker of your laptop will probably charge at least $25 plus shipping to send you a new set of discs.

So, the moral of the story is:  If you have a brand name computer, make SURE that you look for that utility and make those discs!  You will thank yourself in the long run.  Oh, and on a side note, all new UNI Computers always come with the Windows CDs/DVDs to reload the operating system, we feel it’s the right thing to do, even if it does cost one extra dollar

Click Click Clicky

Some of you will cringe at the mention of those words.  Some of you have had the good fortune to never have had experienced it yet.  And I emphasize ‘yet’.

For those who haven’t run into this before, click click clicky is what we at UNI call a hard drive failing.  Inside the drive there is a little arm and spinning disc, not unlike a record player, and when that arm starts banging all over the place and going crazy, it usually makes a click noise, which means you can usually kiss all of your data good-bye.

For any hard drive out there, it’s merely a matter of time before it goes south and ‘gives up the ghost’.  Some drives will last a week, some will last 2 years, some will last 10 years, and there’s no way to be absolutely sure when yours will have its last happy day.  Yours could be next, right as you are reading this article.

Let me bring you back from the brink though, and inform you that you have a multitude of options available to you to help keep this from ever seriously affecting you:

1. Have a good, solid backup plan. This can be quite a broad topic, but the basic components for the home user would be to keep super important files in more than one place.  Like on your computer AND your laptop, or on a couple different flash drives (use more than one, as they can fail without warning), or on a couple different external hard drives. (once again, more than one!)  Or all of the above.  Keep multiple older versions of files if you ever think you made need to ‘go back in time’ to an earlier revision of a paper or lawyer document.  Keep in mind that if you are a professional user that has a RAID array in their desktop that this does not count as a backup.

2. Invest in a solution to ‘image’ your computer. This is an amazing technology that has been around for awhile, but has only recently become popular.  It basically means that you take an entire point-in-time copy of your hard drive and save it to another location.  This way, if your hard drive crashes, you simply install a new one, boot up off of your image software recovery CD, and restore the image of your system, and viola! everything is back just like it never happened!  No reinstalling Windows, no reinstalling all of your software, no setting up your email application again, no setting up your iTunes again (shudder!).  The best thing is, if you have Windows Vista or Windows 7, this technology is built in and you have no other software to buy!  All you need is an external hard drive or an extra internal hard drive to save system images too.  If you are still running Windows XP, don’t fret!  UNI has a software application we sell that works great with Windows XP.  Even if you have Windows Server, we have options for imaging that don’t cost any more than it does to image a desktop computer!

3. Replace your hard drive before the warranty expires. This one can be hard for some people to swallow, as they think ‘why should I replace it if it isn’t broken yet.’  The best analogy I can think of is the timing belt on your car.  It’s a belt hidden in the engine that makes sure critical pieces work together.  If the belt breaks, it can cause $1000′s of dollars of repairs in an instant.  No warning, just driving along and then BANG! you’re coasting to a stop with a dead car.  This is why manufacturers have a specified time frame for when you are supposed to replace the belt.  Going longer is like playing Russian Roulette with your car’s engine.  No one wants that!

Your hard drive is the same way, and if you put your self on a schedule to replace the drive every 2-3 years max, you will avoid most drive failures from ever happening.  This is what I have done personally for the past 12 years, and I have never had a drive fail on me, not once!  Most hard drives out there have a 3 year warranty.  (All of the internal drives UNI sells have a 3 year warranty, some even have a 5 year)  So while you won’t be out any cash to get a new drive if yours dies during the warranty, is the risk of losing all of your data really worth it?  Also, it is much easier for a technician to copy the contents of an older working drive to a brand new drive than it is to try to resurrect data off of a  drive that has crashed!  By the way, beware of hard drives you buy from big box stores that are in pretty retail box packaging.  Most of the time these drives only carry a 1 year warranty! All of the hard drives sold by UNI, regardless of whether they are retail box or OEM packaging carry at least a 3 year warranty.

4. If you have a laptop, treat it with care! I’ve seen so many laptops that have had hard drives fail prematurely most likely because they were not handled correctly.  When hard drives aren’t powered on, they can take quite a bit of abuse without failing, but when they are actually running, the tolerance goes way down.  Being careful with your laptop will not only preserve its overall life (and keep the outer case looking nice) but it will go a long towards extending the life of the hard drive inside.

The path to data happiness lies in being prepared for things to fail.  Computers are not ‘fire and forget.’  Just like a car, they need maintenance, and just like a car, an ounce of prevention now is worth several pounds of cure later on.  Keep this in mind and you will have many less issues with your computer.  And as always, UNI is there to help all of it make sense and make sure that you have the right backup plan for your needs.

Dell Support

“Thank you for Calling Dell Support, my name is _[insert American sounding name]_.”

While the name could be as American as apple pie and John Wayne, the thick non-American accent is still a tell-tale sign.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with our friends around the globe.  I just prefer to do business locally when I can.  I enjoy bumping into my customers at Free State, Liberty Hall, or checking out the latest fashions in footwear at none other than FootPrints.  Big corporate businesses have buying power, economies of scale, massive marketing campaigns, and on and on…but these locally owned and operated Lawrence businesses have their own secret weapon: customer service.  I’d like to add the word “neighborly” – neighborly customer service.

The truth of the matter is that you’ll probably bump into one of the folks here at UNI as you run errands, eat, or play around town.  We’d like that to be a positive experience.  So unlike giant outsourced corporate call centers, we actually listen first.

Ok, everybody, when you call 1-800 computer support, no matter what symptoms you observe, what’s the first thing they tell you to do? That’s right, “reboot the computer.” Even if you tell them that the computer is as dead as a doornail, no power lights, no fans, nothing.  Still: “reboot the computer.”  How frustrating.

So instead, the tech team here at UNI will actually listen to you, ask a few questions to clarify if needed, and then the begin troubleshooting.  Now, to be fair, sometimes “reboot the computer” IS actually valid, but we want to make sure that we understand as much of the customer’s symptoms as we can before suggesting that proper course of action.

Bottom line, there’s no script here when troubleshooting.  Why? Because we hire only the best and then we make them better.  Then we allow them to prove themselves under close supervision.  Yeah, this puts a strain on staffing sometimes but it allows us to be the go-to team for neighborly customer service who will actually listen first, and then act.

Just in case you ‘need’ to go back…

My wife just started a grad school program, and is currently cramming her head full of all kinds of stuff that I barely understand.  Among these things there is a Windows based program that the students have to run in order do some of the studying.  This is all fine and good for my wife who has a PC laptop, but several of her classmates have Macs.

At first I was thinking, ‘well, too bad for them’, but I did a bit of research and found a program called Wine Bottler, which allows you to ‘package’ Windows applications in a format that a Mac can run them.  And it’s free.  Well how about that!

One of my buddies always tells me “Once you go Mac, you never go back.”  Well, sometimes you ‘need’ to go back, and here’s a great way to do it!

Videos, Email, Zipping, huh?

I was talking to a customer yesterday on the phone and he was telling me how he had these instructions from his online poker coach on how to download and watch this video demonstrating some mad poker skills. The directions went something like this:

Download these 5 emails I sent you. Go install this media player. Go install that zip program. Uncompress all of these emails and piece the files together to make a video about mad poker skills.

The customer was frustrated, he just wanted to watch the video!  Those instructions were in tech speak, and while they made perfect sense to me, I’m kinda nerdy, and they don’t really make sense to anyone not immersed in this stuff all the time.  I realized that this customer just needed those instructions in English, and not Tech, and then he’d be fine.  I had him come into the store, we checked in the machine, I made the files into a happy video, and wrote out the instructions for him in English so that the next time his poker coach throws him the curve ball, he’ll be armed with the right tools.

Anyone can be tech-savvy…

“NTLDR is missing” NTLD-What?

You may have seen this before:

NTLDR is missing
Press Ctrl Alt Del to Restart

The NTLDR is missing error usually occurs right when you hit the power button on the computer.  White text, black screen.  No mouse cursor.  No desktop.  Only sadness.

‘NTLDR is missing’ usually means that a certain file or files on your boot hard drive are missing.  Luckily, they are actually really easy to replace if you have the right tools and know where the files are.  Usually this can be done with no loss of important stuff like pictures, documents, or email.

Every so often, this NTLDR is missing problem is caused by a hard drive that is starting to fail.  If you see this error, the best thing to do is to shut the machine down, and get it into a repair shop immediately.  If the hard drive is failing, continuing to run the computer could cause the hard drive to fail completely and cause loss of data.  At UNI, we can correctly diagnose whether the NTLDR is missing problem is simply that one or two files need to be replaced, or if it is a more serious issue such as a hard drive failing.

One more possible cause:  You see that little flash drive (thumb drive) that you left in your machine when you turned it off last?  Pull it out, and reboot the computer.  If it comes up, then your computer was trying to start up from the flash drive instead of your hard drive that’s inside your computer.  Since it doesn’t have the same boot files as your hard drive, it will give the NTLDR error.  Pulling the flash drive out forces the computer to start up from the internal hard drive.

Which AntiVirus is the Best?

To build suspense, we’ll start with what we don’t recommend.

First up? Free anti-virus software.  We’re always hoping for a free solution to come along and dominate the market.  But, unfortunately, it still hasn’t happened.  We’ve tried a host of options including the big “free three” AVG, Avast and Avira.  Unfortunately, they all fall short on comprehensiveness.  They simply don’t cover all the areas (vectors) that can be exploited on a PC.  Neither AVG, Avast, or Avira’s free option offer a firewall as of this writing, but we’re still holding out hope.

McAfee covers all the vectors but for some reason, we’ve seen more McAfee protected PCs come in with more viruses than any other anti-virus.  To be fair, it does out perform expired anti-virus solutions.  Yeah, sorry McAfee.  We can’t confidently recommend your product even though we’d make more money if we did.  That’s what you get more folks who are more Computer Technician than Retail Merchandisers.

Norton does a great job covering the vectors.  However, it’s a resource hog – meaning it is guaranteed to slow down your PC.   Additionally, Norton is the #1 selling AntiVirus!  Yeah, Norton…until you read the statistics that show Norton is also the #1 exploited AntiVirus.  The bad guys don’t like the really good guys.  So Norton will take more resources and come back bigger, better and stronger…until it’s exploited again.  And the vicious cycle never ends.

So, our current recommendation and winner of this article’s Best AntiVirus goes to…Trend Micro.  It covers all the vectors, doesn’t eat alot of resources, doesn’t come back to our shop with viruses or malware and the bad guys are too busy with Norton to target Trend Micro.

UNI on the Radio

Uninterrupted Power Source (UPS)

An unstable power source is a great hazard to your computer.  Power spikes and dips can have devastating results. Your best defense is an Uninterrupted Power Source or UPS for short.  We offer several different levels of UPS and have them in-stock today!  How does it work?  A UPS is actually a battery backup for your computer.  In case of a power dip or brown out, it is capable of  powering your computer and monitor for several minutes, giving you the time to shut your system down properly.  A UPS also guards against power spikes, if a spike is to occur, it is much less likely to harm your computer if it is connected to a UPS.  This is made possible by the UPS basically isolating your computer from the home or office’s main circuit.  The power surge is stopped at the UPS instead of being transmitted to the delicate components of your computer.  Stop by anytime and ask a sales associate for more details.

Laptop AC Adapters

Your Laptop is useless if you can’t charge it. UNI Computers is your source for laptop AC Adapters for both PC and Mac. We have access to AC Adapters for nearly every brand of laptop out there. Call in or stop by for details.

Supercharge your Network!

Is your network running a little slow? Is your wireless router just not quite up to snuff for today’s bandwidth hungry websites? UNI Computers has all of the network gear you need to make sure your connection stays on, stays fast, and stays reliable!

Parts and Accessories

We carry a full line of computer components and accessories, including:

• Motherboards
• CPUs
• Memory
• Hard Drives
• LCD Monitors
• Power Supplies
• Unique Computer Cases
• Laptop Bags & Accessories
• And Much More…

If we don’t have what you are looking for in stock, just ask us. Chances are we’ll be able to special order it for you.

UNI Basic

Basic

UNI reliability at a very affordable cost. The UNI Basic is no slouch and won’t break the bank either. Includes our 3 Year Warranty!

These machines come loaded with all of the necessary hardware to accomplish most of the tasks a user would ask for. Things like email, word processing, web browsing, and facebook status are handled with ease by this little performer! There is also room to upgrade later on, so you decide that you need a beefier processor, additional RAM, or even a larger hard drive, this machine can handle it. With the UNI Basic, you can rest assured that you are getting the best bang for your buck!