New PC Buying Guide

Daily people ask for help with buying a new PC. So let me give you some practical tips. I know times are tough for many people right now so I'll keep that in mind.

1) Determine your budget first and stick to it. The bare minimum new PC costs $500. That does not include any bells and whistles. And does not include a monitor or printer.

2) Look at what you already have that you don't need to replace. Many people are happy with (or can live with) their current monitor and printer. If you are, then stick to this before you go to the store. Don't make the emotional purchase if you don't have the cash.

3) What do you want to do with this PC that you don't do now? Make videos? Play games? Photo Shop? If so, then you'll be paying more money. But you'll be thrilled with the results.

I suggest you go to Best Buy or Frys to make your purchase. I've not been a fan of Circuit City for 16 years or so. Best Buy has helpful people on the floor to help you with your purchase. And of course if you want our help you can always call us at 817 605 1819.

If you only plan to browse the web, do email, edit spreadsheets, and letters, then spend between $500 and $800 on a new HP, Gateway or Dell. These are quality machines that will last you for many years and offer great support. DO NOT buy Acer or other "off" brands. You'll be so sorry. They use cheaper parts and they tend to break down more.

If you fall into category 3 then really what you buy is only limited by your budget. You can't load up on enough RAM and disk space. Yes you'll need a DVD R/W (read/write). Most systems come with this anyway. But spend your extra money on RAM, hard drive space and CPU. If you need more precise specs email me and I'll be glad to help.

Also, do spend the extra $150 or so on MS Office. That's the industry standard Word and Excel (word processor and spreadsheet.)

I sincerely hope you have a very blessed and merry Christmas. Be thankful for the blessings you do have.

In Christ,
Matt Porter
Christian Geeks
(817) 605-1819
http://www.christiangeeks.com


These are all things you need to consider.

Protect against computer disasters for FREE!

This week the AV 2009 virus has done some nasty work. We've had several new customers contact us after having their PC's hit hard. 100% of these folks did not have Anti Virus software or backups. Unfortnately the AV 2009 virus did so much damage that these customers lost most or all of their data.

With every customer we come in contact with we always make sure they have Anti Virus software and some way to backup important files on their PC. If you don't have either of these, consider yourself naked and exposed. You will be hit, it's just a matter of time by surfing the web. Yes that's right, just surfing.

Here's the 2 products we recommend that you install now. And they are both FREE.

Anti Virus & Anti Spyware : AVG Free Edition I've seen AVG solve problems that Norton cannot. And it's free folks. You just can't beat it. It takes 2 minutes to install.

Free Online Backup - ClubBackup.com You get 1 GB of space for free. The software automatically takes care of everything for you. You install it, and your "My Documents", "My Pictures", drivers and Favorites are backed up and protected. Yes it's that simple. It takes 30 seconds to install. Seriously!!!

If you need more than 1GB then you can buy a monthly subscription for as little as $4.95. But really, most people have less than 1GB of important stuff. So that's plenty.

PLEASE take advantage of these folks. It pains me to see people suffer when they lose their hard drive. Especially when there are free and easy solutions out there to prevent this damage.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend free of computer problems. Wear loose fitting pants today. :-)

Matt

The Vundo virus and ground squirrels

This week we had a nasty virus to remedy. The "Vundo" virus made a terrible mess of one family's laptop in Coppell, TX. The customer made a very valiant effort to try to kill the virus herself but this one was particulary nasty. So she called us. While working on their PC at their home I was introduced to their pet ground squirrels. More on that later.

The Vundo virus disguises itself very well. It creates other files to do it's dirty work. Here's how we solved it.

1) The customer disconnected their PC from the Internet to prevent any further damage.

2) I downloaded the "FixVundo" program from Symantec and burned it to a CD. I also gave them the latest AVG anti virus software - the free version.

3) I inspected their PC for several key things then ran FixVundo.

At this point FixVundo takes a while to run. She introduced me to their pet ground squirrels. I never had met such a critter. Part squirrel, part rabbit. Truly a very cute pet. No they did not stink. They were just simply cute and low maintenance. I was very impressed.

At this point I let FixVundo run, told them I'd call later that night and come back the next day.

When I called later than night she had run FixVundo a second time and it did make some progress.

The next morning she ran it again and it seemed to clear up the problem - about 99%. There were still some remnants so I made a 2nd trip to their house.

There were some registry entries that needed to be deleted manually. The FixVundo program was supposed to do this, but it failed to do so. Most likely the virus was smart enough to detect FixVundo and tried to work it's way around it.

I was able to nail down and delete the registry entries, the .TMP files and the EXE's that needed to be killed.

When I left she was very relieved that she did not have to completely wipe her PC and start over from scratch. She had info that she couldn't figure out how to back up and didn't want to take the time to recreate it.

Oh get this, the AVG Free anti virus did a better job cleaning up after the Vundo virus than Symantec did. Surprised me too. But it made a believer out of her. Go figure!

That's it for this week. And if you are looking for a rodent pet that's not creepy, and actually very cute in a bunny rabbit sort of way, consider ground squirrels.

Have a blessed week!!!

http://www.christiangeeks.com
(817) 605-1819

Computers and Thunderstorms

I've learned something the hard way many times over the years. Computers and thunderstorms do not mix!

Yes I use high dollar surge surpressors, and I do highly recommend them. I've lost track of how many hard drives I've lost, how many network cards, power supplies, motherboards, you name it. Power surges are the death of computers and your valuable data.

So what do you do? If you are under a thunderstorm drop what you are doing, shut your computers down and unplug them from the wall. No joke here folks. Simply shutting them down isn't good enough. You must unplug them from the wall. Your network cable, and phone cable too (if you are still on dialup.)

I was with a customer today that described 4 wierd things they had to replace on their new name brand systems that could only be explained by power surges. Some office buildings power lines are not conditioned properly for computer networks. And you get spikes in power from time to time. There's not a lot you can do about it other than have good backups.

But if you have the opportunity, when you hear thunder, start shutting down and unplugging. You won't be sorry.

If you are a victim feel free to contact us. http://www.christiangeeks.com/ We'll be happy to help.

Keeping Email in Sync on your smartphone 24/7

ChristianGeeks.com is a computer service and repair business based in Southlake, TX. We serve the surrounding area including Keller, Grapevine, NRH, Colleyville, Roanoke and more.

I have several blogs for different purposes but I will use this one to document common computer problems I solve that may help you.

This week the biggest thing was for a client in the area in the Wealth Management business. He wanted to get his SmartPhone email to stay in sync with his Outlook Email 24/7. Regardless of wherether he is in the office, home or traveling.

Let me start by saying this. I like Outlook. It simply works. It manages email well for most people, and manages your calendar and contacts too.

I also have a Windows SmartPhone. The AT&T Tilt to be exact. And I absolutely love it. But that's a story for another day.

This gentleman hired other "geek" companies to get his phone to sync with Outlook 24/7 and nobody could get it to work. He then called us.

I paid him a personal visit to his office and solved it for him. Here's what I did.

1) I backed up his contacts and calender.

2) Instead of having Outlook stay in sync with the MS Exchange Server I changed it to read POP3 email. Yes it's the same server, just reading it as POP3 instead of Exchange.

3) On his SmartPhone I disabled the Outlook account and created a POP3 email account. I pointed the POP3/SMTP to his server with his user ID and password.

So now both his PC and his SmartPhone are reading the same emails. When he plugs his phone into his PC his Calendar and Contacts sync up nicely using Outlook.

Yes he still uses Outlook exactly the same way. But Outlook just reads the email from the server differently. My client doesn't know any difference. Or care.

He gets his email on both his PC and his phone no matter where he is in the world. And he's happy.

Stay tuned for more tech tips in this blog. Let me know if this kind of thing is helpful to you.

Also let me know send me any questions you have. I'm always happy to help.