Every month clients call with questions concerning printers, laptops, copiers, etc. Many times we get the same question from different clients. Here are some frequently asked questions:

Q: Between notebook and laptop, which of the two computers has the fastest processor?

A:  There is not a difference between the two. You can get equal speed from both with equal processors/memory/hard drive. The rule of thumb:  the more you are willing to spend the faster a system you can obtain whether desktop or laptop. It’s always better to determine what software you need first and then select a system that runs the software at a good speed based on your budget and needs.

Q: I have set the bios to boot from CD and it’s not recognizing the bootable CD (Windows XP PRO). I need to fix my operating system. My Dell Dimension 4600 continues to loop around in regular mode and will only boot up in safe mode.

A: The first thing is to test that your laptop’s CD or DVD drive is working.  Download UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD) and burn it to a disc on another computer. On the PC you just use to create the CD test to make sure it works. Remember you may need to change the system settings to tell it to boot from the CD drive first instead of your hard drive. If you are not sure how to do this call our office.

Now take the CD and try it on your laptop.

If you cannot boot your laptop (i.e, cannot read) then you need a new CD or DVD drive for your system.

Now, if you are trying to restore your system from the recovery CD, most of the time if fails unless you format the hard dive first. When you format it you will lose all your data and programs. Call for details on how to get around this problem.

Q: Between laptop and notebook, which of the two computers comes with the greatest amount and secondary storage?

A: This is a common question that is a bit confusing to many people. It depends on what you are calling a notebook verses a laptop. If you are referring to the ultra thing notebooks, ipads or very small notebooks that do not use a hard drive to store information then they hold less than regular larger units.

Your computer has two types of storage: temporary memory (RAM) and storage memory.  The storage memory can be in a form of a hard drive, flashcard, USB drive, CD, DVD or other memory card.

Most laptops except for the very thin ones or very small devices have a hard drive as storage. If the notebooks you are comparing use a hard drive then they both can house as much as the other.

Check the actual drive storage amount 160Gb, 250gb, 300gb, etc.

RAM, temp memory is usually 1gb, 2gb, 3gb or 4gb.

This is just the second work day of the new year and already we received 7 virus computer repair calls for computer virus help and adware removal. I know you heard that it very important to have up to date best antivirus software and ad ware protection .  However,  people continually refuse to research the best virus software and spyware help.  They would rather listen to a store clerk who is not a computer virus specialist instead of certified virus removal technicians.

Case in point:  A new client called yesterday with a problem with adware and there internet.  They could not connect and when it did  connect it to them to a place they did not want their staff to be. This is a ordinary service call.  However, when they were asked if they can still use their Miscrosft Word or Exel they discovered those programs were having computer virus problems too.  They were using the standard off the shelf virus software recommended (Norton) by an very popular office store trained clerk.  Norton is ok but it’s not in the top 5 programs and hasn’t been for several years. It’s just the best know.

The technician was able to solve their problem but it took 3 hours of labor and cost $347 including installing the best rated anti-virus program on three of their computers  for just $49!  No re-installing there system was not a choice because they had a specialized POS system which they did not have the disks on site.  It could have cost them over $1500 to reinstall the system which have required them to upgrade their POS software to the current version all because of a computer virus adware problem.

Now if you have Norton anti-virus or McAfee then check these out and it’s time for renewal or you just can not afford a computer virus problem tehn check these out:

Bit Defender – 2 years 1 PC computer virus protection

Bit Defender – 2 years 3 PC’s virus protection

Bit Defender  -2 years 5 PC’s we use this in our office

PC Shield Total - I have this on my kids laptops virus software

PC Registary Cleaner – Great program to speed things up and to greatly reduce Windows program errors. This is a trial download.

Simply put: for a few dollars you get the best virus software on the market.  Do not settle for the Big name low protection. get one of the top 3 listed above.  Most computer and office supply stores will NOT CARRY these. they carry the high profit big names lower protection virus software.  Be careful. Be secure!