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| Helpful Articles 
Beware of “Pizza Techs” “Pizza Tech” is a derogatory term that legitimate PC repair businesses use to describe low-priced, fly-by-night computer repair people who repair computers for just enough money to buy pizza and beer. Their rates are extremely low and reflect their lack of technical qualifications, business registration and ethics. They see nothing wrong with using or installing pirated, illegal or unlicensed copies of Windows or computer programs and will offer to install them for a very low price or for free. So why beware of them? Read more... Rogue Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware
 A problem many computer users are experiencing lately, is a dramatic
alert that their system is infected with multiple viruses, spyware and
trojans, or has a serious security vulnerability -— and it stubbornly
refuses to go away or to let the computer be used for anything useful.
To remove the viruses or to fix the problem, users are told they must
pay for the program that detected them. If it happens to you, don’t pay; it’s a scam.
Read more...
 Laptop Reliability
A recent SquareTrade, Inc. study of 30,000 laptops reported that 31% of the brand new laptops failed within three years — 20.4% from hardware malfunction and 10.6% from accidental damage. The most reliable brands were found to be Asus, Sony and Toshiba and the least reliable to be Acer, Gateway and HP. Those tiny netbooks failed from hardware malfunction in their first year 20% more often than regular laptops. The three-year projected malfunction rates for netbooks, entry-level laptops and premium laptops are 25.1%, 20.6% and 18.1%, respectively. Read more...  Say WOT? Video Professor a Scam?Who hasn’t seen the ubiquitous TV ads for the Video Professor’s “Free” computer training lessons on CD? They also appear on the company's website, and on sites listed in search engine results and in Facebook ads. Be aware that If you order the CDs and don’t return at least one CD within the ten-day trial period, it may cost you almost $300 USD, according to an article by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. Read more...  Virus Protection
Virus infections are the bane of many computer users. More and more viruses are really nasty and difficult to remove without re-formatting the hard drive and re-installing Windows from scratch. Given the increasing difficulty of removing infections, virus protection is vital. Yet, determining which anti-virus program provides the best protection is not easy. How does one decide? The most popular, recognizable or expensive products are not necessarily the best. Brand leadership can often be attributed to more effective marketing, not better performance. Read more...
Data Backups
What would you do if your hard drive crashed while you were reading this? Are there any e-mails, address books, files or documents you would regret losing forever? How about school homework/projects, or personal pictures that can't be replaced because someone in them is no longer available or they were a magical moment, lost to time? If you don't backup the personal information on your computer on a regular basis, you could really regret it one day, maybe even today! Read more...
 Hard Drive Images
A hard drive image is a file that contains all the software and data that resides on your computer's hard drive, including application programs, your documents, pictures, music, favorites and desktop items, configuration settings and the operating system. It can be used to restore your computer to work and look exactly as it did when you created the image -- in approximately half an hour, versus a few hours if you need to reinstall Windows and don't have a drive image! Read more...
Power Surge Protection
With thunderstorms, comes the risk of power surges caused by lightning strikes. Where we live, there is also the risk of power outages and momentary power interruptions due to rampant residential growth that has overtaxed the community's power distribution capacity. Read more...
 Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)?
Another device that offers protection from power quality problems, is an Uninterruptible Power Supply, or UPS. If your computer unexpectedly reboots itself when lights are switched on or an appliance on the same household circuit starts up, or during thunderstorms, you need a UPS.
A UPS contains a battery, a battery charger and an inverter which converts the battery voltage back into 110 volts AC just like that from a wall socket. In the event of a power failure, the battery continues... Read more...
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