Posted on Fri, Nov 18, 2011
This week’s blog is more of a plea: before you get in too deep, call a professional. This week I have dealt with some problems that have been made worse by people doing things they thought would help, but didn't.
We are honest guys and girls; we genuinely want to get your problems fixed for you. If I don’t think the printer or computer is worth fixing, I will not accept the job or charge you to tell you so. I know that some problems look like they can be solved after five minutes on Google, and some can, but this is not true for the majority. Following random online instructions may actually lead to more harm!
If you are not very familiar with a Registry, do not edit it! If you are not sure how to take a printer to pieces, please don’t try it!
Have a great weekend!
Kristen Hewes - Hardware Technician
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Nov 11, 2011
This week I worked on a printer that was not printing black. This is a simple fix - just swap out the defective print head for a new one.
After this was completed, I put the machine back together only to get a lovely hitching noise from the scanner bed. Now seeing as I had not touched the scanner bed, I was slightly confused by this. After taking the machine apart a couple of times and ending up with the same results, I really started to wonder what was up.
Upon putting it back together again and checking the connections, I noticed that the CIS flat cable that connects the scanner to the board had some worn connectors.
If you are familiar with these cables you will know that at the end of them are small metal ends that are printed onto the cable that wear off.
Now here is the trick to fixing them: with a pair of scissors, very carefully cut across the cable taking just enough off to remove the worn ends, and voila! Plug the cable back in and it’s as good as new!
Have a great weekend!
Kristen Hewes - Hardware Technician
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Mon, Nov 07, 2011
I do not usually endorse products, but when I come across one that is good and works well, I feel I should share the wealth.
The product is called Driver Genius, and that’s what it is! It is a driver locator software that I seem to use more and more. I get a lot of reinstalls for computers and laptops. Some of them come with good driver support and some do not. Even the good ones get old. Windows 7 is good at finding a lot of drivers, but for the specific system board drivers or the hard-to-find drivers, it does not always find what you need.
Once you install Driver Genius and update the database, you just set it to scan and it will find everything you need. I have used it on a bunch of machines at this point and it has not let me down, so check it out!
Kristen Hewes - Hardware Technician
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Oct 28, 2011
This week, I want to talk about recovery disks. New computers usually come with recovery disks. These are the disks that have a preloaded version of Windows on them. (It is the version that came with the system when you bought it.)
I am guilty of this myself; I have been known to throw them out, thinking that I will not need them. Please put them away somewhere - it does not matter as long as you can find them again. I have often been asked by a customer to save their data from a failing hard drive only to find out that they do not have the recovery disks. This is a problem in 2 ways:
- It slows down the repair of the computer. Unless you have a copy of Windows lying around, those disks are needed to get your new hard drive up and running again.
- It will cost you more money. If your laptop is out of warranty, the manufacturer will charge you for recovery disks or you will have to buy another copy of Windows.
These disks usually have a bunch of bloatware on them and you do not have to install it all, but they also come with a full set of drivers for the machine. This can cut down on the time needed to search for them, making the whole process just that much smoother.
Have a great weekend!
Kristen Hewes - Hardware Technician
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Oct 21, 2011
This week, I came across a Windows problem that I have never seen before: the infinite loop bug. It started when a customer brought in a laptop stating that it would not boot up. I tried booting it myself and when the laptop I turned it on, it went straight into startup repair.
I let it run until it finished, at which point it informed me that it could not repair the problem and shut itself off.
Upon rebooting the laptop, it made it to the Windows splash screen, then blue screened. Hitting F8 got the laptop into repair mode and I set it to not restart on error, so I could see the code, and this is what I got:
STOP: C0000135 the program can't start because %hs is missing. Try to reinstall the program.
So, using the internet, I did some research, and found lots of results and reasons that this could happen. The first explanation had to do with AVG, but was from 2010 and had already been resolved so it was no good.
The second explanation had to do with an error Windows 7 service pack 1 installation. This was also no good, as the customer had Windows 7 installed weeks ago.
The third explanation was it happened while plugging in an external drive. This was a possibility, but I really had no way of knowing. Armed with this information, I started working through the fixes.
I checked the ram and the hard drive integrity, no problems there! I moved on to a chkdsk, which came back clean. I tried /fixmbr and /fixboot, but they did not work either. I tried a new boot.ini as well, but to no avail. In the end all I could do was grab the data and reinstall Windows. Sometimes there is just not a good fix.
If any of you have any ideas or fixes,please feel free to comment and give me some help for next time!
Have a great weekend.
Kristen Hewes - Hardware Technician
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA
Posted on Fri, Oct 14, 2011
I am lucky enough to have received a Google+ invite, and, I must admit, I love it!
I have had a Facebook account for years, and also dabble in Twitter, but honestly I find this to be a much better way to stay in touch with friends and keep them separated into groups. For me, Facebook has gotten bloated and cumbersome. On top of that, I used to play games on there. That lead me to having 700+ friends, 99% of which I don't know. So, I stopped using it.
Along came Google+ and a fesh start. Now, I have a few circles set up, with different posts to each, depending on the subject matter. School friends, family, work friends, and gaming guilds, and none of them have to read anything that is not aimed at them!
If you get the chance to check it out I highly recommend it!
Have a great weekend.
Kristen Hewes - Hardware Technician
Give Us a Call 617-731-6319 and Ask a Professional IT Support Technician Any Questions You May Have!
Sincerely, Terminal We Serve All of Greater Boston and Cambridge, MA