I fixed my wife's computer and am willing to help others
Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2011 11:40 am
About two years ago my wife’s computer was hit by some kind of malware. Norton scanned the computer for an hour and didn’t find anything. I used another program and it ended up getting rid of the virus but then when I re-booted, I found that I destroyed Windows by destroying the virus. I got the computer back up but a technician thought that the hard drive was going bad. Some of the Microsoft updates helped the computer by getting some of the malware out.
Because we were busy and needed it for work, I never really had a chance to fix the computer. It was painfully slow booting up. It took 15 minutes to half an hour to start up and then some of the updates reduced that time. But there were problems with the computer freezing when it came off of “stand by” and sometimes the computer would operate really slow and just freeze.
We kept getting reinfected apart from my backups and I kept scanning the computer and removing the malware. I finally had some free time before New Year ’s Eve when we had a registry error. Removing and reinstalling the wireless software didn’t fix the problem so I used the service tag to order myself a new hard drive and it happened to be bigger. After I backed up my important files, I opened the case, grounded myself from static electricity and removed two connectors to the sata hard drive. I rolled it out and replaced the drive. I vacuumed out the computer of dust and used the emergency disks that come with the computer; I reinstalled the operating system. I also removed and replaced the cell battery but you have to be careful in doing this because if it doesn’t have enough of a charge then your computer won’t start up and I do this for a reason and from experience. I used a second computer to download the drivers and there are really only four drivers that I need but I was careful and read every one before installing. The drivers are .exe files and all I had to do is double click on them to install them.
The computer seems to be faster than it has ever been. It may be the updated drivers were more efficient ones. It may be because I had a bad hard drive.
I ordered a sata case for the old hard drive and it works. Before it came, I needed to get some of my wife’s email addresses off of the old computer's operating system. Putting the old hard drive back in allowed me to boot the old computer and salvage the old email addresses. My sata hard drive enclosure came and I copied some other files off of the old hard drive.
Fixing your computer is sometimes a process of elimination. I’ve had service technicians only take my money just to snoop through my computer and not really fix anything. I’ve talked to other techs and I also know where to get free support.
I’m happy. I’m happy with myself because I’m showing you that it isn’t always that hard to fix your computer. I saved us money that we didn’t have. Sometimes fixing your computer is cheaper than buying a new computer. Hopefully we can get another couple of years out of it.
Disclaimer: Make safety a priority. Make sure the power cord is disconnected and don't touch any of the circuits. Ground yourself and protect against static electricity. Also, back up any data and know beforehand what drivers you need to fix your computer. It is even good to take a digital picture of how things were before you touched them. Give yourself about 4 hours or more and two or more sittings.
Because we were busy and needed it for work, I never really had a chance to fix the computer. It was painfully slow booting up. It took 15 minutes to half an hour to start up and then some of the updates reduced that time. But there were problems with the computer freezing when it came off of “stand by” and sometimes the computer would operate really slow and just freeze.
We kept getting reinfected apart from my backups and I kept scanning the computer and removing the malware. I finally had some free time before New Year ’s Eve when we had a registry error. Removing and reinstalling the wireless software didn’t fix the problem so I used the service tag to order myself a new hard drive and it happened to be bigger. After I backed up my important files, I opened the case, grounded myself from static electricity and removed two connectors to the sata hard drive. I rolled it out and replaced the drive. I vacuumed out the computer of dust and used the emergency disks that come with the computer; I reinstalled the operating system. I also removed and replaced the cell battery but you have to be careful in doing this because if it doesn’t have enough of a charge then your computer won’t start up and I do this for a reason and from experience. I used a second computer to download the drivers and there are really only four drivers that I need but I was careful and read every one before installing. The drivers are .exe files and all I had to do is double click on them to install them.
The computer seems to be faster than it has ever been. It may be the updated drivers were more efficient ones. It may be because I had a bad hard drive.
I ordered a sata case for the old hard drive and it works. Before it came, I needed to get some of my wife’s email addresses off of the old computer's operating system. Putting the old hard drive back in allowed me to boot the old computer and salvage the old email addresses. My sata hard drive enclosure came and I copied some other files off of the old hard drive.
Fixing your computer is sometimes a process of elimination. I’ve had service technicians only take my money just to snoop through my computer and not really fix anything. I’ve talked to other techs and I also know where to get free support.
I’m happy. I’m happy with myself because I’m showing you that it isn’t always that hard to fix your computer. I saved us money that we didn’t have. Sometimes fixing your computer is cheaper than buying a new computer. Hopefully we can get another couple of years out of it.
Disclaimer: Make safety a priority. Make sure the power cord is disconnected and don't touch any of the circuits. Ground yourself and protect against static electricity. Also, back up any data and know beforehand what drivers you need to fix your computer. It is even good to take a digital picture of how things were before you touched them. Give yourself about 4 hours or more and two or more sittings.