TechTidBit - Tips and advice for small business computing - Tech Experts™ - Monroe Michigan

Brought to you by Tech Experts™

Maintenance

Your Computer Needs A Spring Cleaning, Too!

Now that it is spring time, I thought this would be a good idea to remind everyone of how important it is to clean out your dirty PCs.

Your computer should be cleaned every three to four months, and more if your office environment is very dusty or dirty. Keep in mind, it’s not just for sanitation purposes, either.

The electromagnetic field put off by your computer attracts dirt, dust, debris, animal hair, and lint – just take a look at the back of your PC near the fan vent. Pretty gross, huh?

It’s Not Just Dirty…It’s Dangerous!
The dust clogging those case openings will cause the processor inside your computer to heat up—and heat is the biggest cause of component failure in computers. That dirt and dust can end up shutting down your PC and costing you real money!

So how do you keep your computer clean and free from dust? The best way I’ve found is to use a can of compressed air. You should also use some eye protection like safety goggles or eye glasses along with a dust mask. I’ve found that the dust that settles on computers is often a very fine type of dust and it easily gets into your eyes and nose if you aren’t wearing any protection.

First and foremost, take the computer outside! Blowing the dust off the computer and onto your desk or office carpet really won’t do much long term good.

When blowing the dust out of the ports, it’s best to use short quick bursts. Also, don’t aim the air directly into the port. Blow the dust out at an angle.

Be careful that you don’t hold that plastic straw nozzle too close to any part of the computer – the freezing cold could damage the components. For best results, hold the nozzle about 3 – 6 inches away from the area that you are trying to clean. Sometimes people think using a vacuum cleaner is better than the compressed air, but I don’t recommend it. A lot of vacuum cleaners come with crevice attachments or other brush heads and the problem is that the plastic can cause a large build up of static electricity which can damage delicate electronic components.

Never spray or squirt any type of liquid onto ANY part of your computer. If a spray is needed, spray the liquid onto a cloth and then use that cloth to rub down the component.

When cleaning the monitor, use a lint-free cloth (like the one you use to clean your eyeglasses). Paper towels, dryer sheets, and other cloths may scratch the monitor. Also, never use Windex or a commercial cleaning product, and never spray anything directly onto the screen. Instead, lightly spray a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water onto your cloth and wipe it down.

We’ll Clean Your  Computer For You!
Want us to do the dirty work? Then just give us a call and ask for our spring computer clean-up service. For just $39 per computer, we’ll clean your system, remove any dust and debris, make sure all of your security updates are installed, and perform an additional 23 essential system checkup steps.

No more grime, germs, or dust bunnies—we’ll get rid of them all as part of our Spring-cleaning special! Just call the office at (734) 457-5000, or e-mail us at info@expertsmi.com, and we’ll make sure your computers shine!

It’s Always A Good Idea To Investigate Computer Noises

In this article I would like to talk about one of the more scary aspects of computers and computer repairs, “Things that go bump in the night.”

As I was lying in bed the other night I heard a noise, and I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. As I got up to investigate, the sound suddenly stopped. When I laid back down the sound started up again, this time I was able to track the sound down.

It was a low level moan coming from my computer.  Thinking I could deal with it later, I shut the computer off and went back to bed.

The next day I returned home from work and was just settling down on the couch when my wife informed me there was “something desperately wrong with our computer.” She said she went to turn it on and it is making a loud noise now. She said she just turned it right off.  Sure enough, I turned it on and the cooling fan on the power supply was moaning away. I let it run for a few minutes and the noise seemed to diminish.

But, I knew it needed to be fixed: Not only do we need access to the internet for email and other things, the wife cannot live without her recipe websites.

I shut the computer down and I opened the case and found that the CPU fan was in dire need of a good cleaning. I cleaned it up and got all the dust bunnies out of it and lo and behold noises are gone.

I am sure nearly all of us have experienced noises from our computers. Some noises are normal. Although a computer is mostly solid state electronics, there are a few components that move, and as any computer engineer can tell you, if it is a “moving part” it will eventually fail.

Along with the cooling fan in the power supply, computers have cooling fans on the processor, and case mounted auxiliary cooling fans that provide additional cooling. All of these fans can and do occasionally fail. Cleaning does not always fix them and they have to be replaced.

The next component that moves and is subject to wear and tear is the hard drive. As I’ve explained in previous articles, this is where your important data and files are stored. As the disks inside the drive spins at a very high rate of speed they can eventually wear out and hit what is called the seek head. Once this happens damage to the disk’s surface can result in a loss of data.

We call hard drives with this condition “serious clickers” due to the fact a clicking noise is very audible during the process of the seek head moving across the disks.

If your computer is making any funny noises, make sure not to delay getting it fixed, serious problems can result from failure to address and repair noisy fans and clicking hard drives. Tech Experts has a staff of trained certified professional technicians to help isolate and eliminate these “noises in the night.” Give us a call at (734) 457-5000.

Tired of Dumping Money Into Your Network?

Read On To Discover How You Can Make Those Darn Things Finally Pay Off!

If you ask most business owners why they invest in computers and technology, you will hear things like “to increase employee productivity,” or “to improve customer service” or even to lower operating costs, make information more accessible, and give them a competitive advantage.

But the question is, are the computers in your office actually contributing to your productivity, or do they act as a money-sucking stumbling block to your businesses success?

In this dog-eat-dog world, you cannot afford to have anything slowing you down or interfering with your day to day operations. Especially the tools you rely on in your computer network. If you want to learn how we can help you experience fewer interruptions, problems, and downtime, AND lower the overall costs associated with your computer network, then you’ll want to know about our “Experts Total Support” plan.

This program was designed specifically for small business owners that do not have a full time IT staff taking care of their computer network.

For a small, fixed monthly fee, we will monitor and maintain your computer network 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to make sure all systems are running at peak performance. We’ll also make sure critical network maintenance such as security and virus updates, backups, and system optimization happens when it should to avoid bigger, more expensive problems from happening.

Our Free 60 Minute “Technology Tune Up” May (Finally) Make Your Computers Pay Off

To introduce this new program to all of our clients and prospects, we are offering a free, 60-minute “Technology Tune Up” to the first five businesses that contact us this month.

In less than 1 hour, we can come in and examine your computer network, talk to your employees, and provide a very revealing analysis of all the under utilized or overlooked capabilities being wasted in your current computer system. We’ll also look for security loop holes, check your system back ups and virus protection, and look for other hidden problems lurking in the background, waiting to turn into bigger, more expensive disasters.

After doing this analysis, we can not only advise you on how to improve the speed. reliability, and security of  your computer network, but also on ways you can improve your overall office productivity.

Normally we charge $297 for this type of service but we are giving it away FREE as a special promotion this month to demonstrate our “Experts Total Support” plan. To secure your spot, simply call our offices at (734) 457-5000 or e-mail us at info@MyTechExperts.com and we’ll schedule a convenient time for us to come out and conduct this tune up.

No Risk, No Obligation, No Hassles

You will be under zero obligations to do or buy anything if you sign up for a FREE Technology Tune Up. This is just our way of introducing our new network maintenance program to you and we certainly don’t expect everyone to sign up.

So what are you waiting for? Call us right now while you’re thinking about it. Remember, we are only giving away five tune ups on a first come, first serve basis so call now while there are spots left!

This offer will expire as soon as we have five companies signed up, or on August 29th. Call today!

How to Declare Freedom from Slow Computers, Downtime, Viruses, Hackers, and Computer Problems Finally and Forever!

Are you sick and tired of worrying about the security of your network against the latest spyware, virus, or hacker threat?

Would you like to have peace of mind knowing that your backups are working properly and storing your data in a secure, easy to restore format?

Do you want your network to always be “up” and running fast?

Then we have a service you need to know about…

It’s called our Experts Total Support plan. This program gives you fast, 24-7 computer support, maintenance, and monitoring for one low, fixed monthly rate without any surprises, hidden costs, or the expense of a full time IT staff!

Why Do you Need This?
Having a secure, reliable computer system is no longer a luxury for businesses today. If you can’t access your e-mail, financial information, client database, or other critical data, you’re OUT of business.

Plus, you must keep your data secure from corruption, loss, and theft; if you don’t, it could not only cost you dearly in downtime, but it could also cause your reputation harm when customers find out your network (and their data) has been compromised, stolen, or lost forever.

How Does It Work?
The concept is simple. For a fixed monthly fee, we will monitor and maintain your computer network 24/7, 365 days a year. We will make sure your anti-virus, spyware, and security patches are up to date. We’ll monitor your network for looming problems that could turn into downtime or data loss such as hardware failures and disk space problems.

We’ll also watch your backups to make sure they truly are running and not giving you a false-positive reading, and we’ll constantly optimize the health and overall speed of your network. After all, nothing is more frustrating than a slow computer!

Last (but not least!) we’ll be able to provide remote support through a highly secure Internet connection to provide almost instant support whenever you need it. No more waiting around for a technician to show up!

FREE Network Check gets you Started…
If you want to find out how our Experts Total Support plan can help your business, call us for a FREE Network Health Check. At no charge or obligation, we’ll come onsite and…

  • Look for incorrect network configurations that show up as unexpected downtime, application errors, printers not working, e-mail problems, etc.
  • Assess your current security against data corruption, theft, hardware failures, power outages, computer viruses, worms, hacker attacks, spam, and even employee sabotage.
  • Scan for spyware that is secretly stealing your company’s bandwidth, jeopardizing the speed of your computer system, and embezzling confidential information about your company.
  • Check your data backup system to ensure it is working properly and accurately backing up all of the critical information you NEVER want to lose.
  • Diagnose slow, unstable PCs and perform a quick network “tune up” to make programs load faster.

When we’ve finished, we’ll give you a network ‘report card’ that will reveal any weaknesses in your security or trouble spots on your network that could lead to bigger (more expensive) problems.

Normally we charge $297 for this, but if you call during the month of July, we’ll give it to you for FREE as our gift for introducing our Experts Total Support plan. Again, you are not obligated to sign up for this program or pay us anything for this service—but you have to hurry!

To get signed up now, call 734-457-5000 or go online to www.ExpertsTotalSupport.com.

SHHH! We’ve Got a Dirty Secret To Confess!

We’re Guilty Of This Computer Sin… Are you?

We have a dirty secret to confess…

We don’t clean our office computers as often as we should. Yes, we’ll shake the crumbs out of the keyboard from time to time just like everyone else, but that could hardly constitute as a “cleaning.”

With spring in the air, we thought this would be a good opportunity to remind everyone to clean out those dirty PCs. After all, you should do this every 3 to 4 months. And, it’s not just for sanitation purposes.

The electromagnetic field put off by your computer attracts dirt. Just take a look at the back of your PC near the fan vent. This dust and debris accumulates, and acts just like insulation, making your computer run too hot.

It’s Not Just Dirty… It’s Dangerous!
The dust clogging those vents will cause your CPU to heat up—and heat is the biggest cause of component failure in computers. That dirt and dust can end up shutting down your PC and costing you real money!

Here’s a general overview of how to clean your computer…

A Warning Before You Start Scrubbing
Never spray or squirt any type of liquid onto ANY part of your computer. If a spray is needed, spray the liquid onto a cloth and then use that cloth to rub down the component. You NEVER want to get any of the components inside the computer wet and you don’t want to spray cleaner directly onto a computer screen!

Also, when vacuuming the dust INSIDE your computer, make sure you use one that was designed specifically for the job and not the one in your closet. Standard vacuums create static electricity that can damage the internal components of your computer. Instead, use a portable battery powered vacuum designed to do this job.

Tools You’ll Need
You will also need:
– A screwdriver to open the computer case; just be very careful not to unplug, unscrew, or knock anything out of place!
– A can of compressed air.
– A computer-approved cleaning liquid such as rubbing alcohol or mild cleaning agent like dish liquid diluted down.
– Cotton swabs (Q-tips).
– A lint-free cotton cloth.

Tip: Wiping down the outside of your computer tower with a solution of one half vinegar and one half water will minimize static.

Before you begin, turn off your computer. Start by getting out all the dirt, hair, and dust with a vacuum. Do an extra good job around any ventilation locations as they will help to keep a steady airflow thereby keeping your internal components cooler.

When cleaning the fan, we suggest you hold the fan or place something inbetween the fan blades to prevent them from spinning. Avoid spraying compressed air into a fan or cleaning it with your vacuum since it may cause damage to some models.

Compressed air is great for getting all the crumbs, dust, and dirt out of your keyboard, but be sure to also wipe down the keys and surface of the keyboard.

When cleaning the monitor, use a lint-free cloth (like the one you use to clean your eyeglasses). Paper towels, dryer sheets, and other cloths may scratch the monitor. Also, never use Windex or a commercial cleaning product, and never spray anything directly onto the screen. Instead, lightly spray a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water onto your cloth and wipe it down.

Want Us To Clean Your Computer For You?
Want us to do the dirty work? Then give us a call at (734) 457-5000. We’re running our annual “System Spring Cleaning Special” for just $59 per computer.

Our Microsoft and A+ Certified Technicians will clean out your systems, check for viruses, spyware, and malware infections, and get your computer in top-running form for your busy summer months.

No more grime, germs, or dust bunnies—we’ll get rid of them all as part of our Spring-cleaning special!

Call us: (734) 457-5000 Or, you can e-mail us: info@MyTechExperts.com

10 Warning Signs Of Impending Computer Disaster

These Tips Can Help You Avoid Expensive Downtime And Repairs

Computers rarely stop working overnight. In most cases, there are early warning signs that problems are brewing.

Here are 10 surefire signs that you need to get a professional to investigate your network ASAP:

  1. Your workstation or server starts running very slowly, freezes up, or crashes.
  2. Your web browser has been changed to another strange browser you’ve never seen before.
  3. You are getting an unusual amount of pop-up windows, even when you aren’t surfing the web.
  4. You don’t know if every computer on your network has the most current virus definitions.
  5. You don’t know if you have a firewall in place or the last time it was updated.
  6. You haven’t attempted to restore your data from a backup tape or other storage device in awhile, and you aren’t checking your backup log for errors.
  7. You receive e-mails accusing you of sending spam, and/or you find e-mail messages in your “outbox” or “sent” folder that you didn’t send.
  8. Your computer starts making a grinding, clicking, or loud whirring sound.
  9. The fan is constantly running.
  10. You are getting a growing number of error messages, and you are forced to create work-arounds to complete certain work tasks.

If any of these signs are present, you should contact a pro immediately to investigate further!

The old saying of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is especially true in the world of computers and all things digital; and if you are like most businesses, your computer network is critical to the operation of your company – so make sure you don’t procrastinate if any of these signs are present.

Ideally, you should perform regular health checks and maintenance on your network to make sure problems don’t crop up. Here’s why:

  • Critical security updates need to be applied at least once a month to protect you from a constant flow of new hacker attacks.
  • Firewall, virus and spyware protection need to be monitored and updated on a daily basis because new attacks are released daily.
  • Your data backup system needs to be monitored and tested frequently to ensure easy data recovery in the event of loss. The rate of tape drive failure is 100%; that’s why you need to frequently monitor your backups.
  • Servers and workstations need regular tune-ups to keep them running fast and error free.
  • Monitoring of disk space is important to avoid data loss, crashes, and storage problems.
  • Server event logs need to be monitored for early alerts to network issues.

One of the biggest mistakes business owners make is taking a reactive approach to network support and maintenance rather than a proactive one.

In other words, they wait until something stops working and THEN they call in the professionals to fix it. This approach not only costs more in the long run, but it also leaves you vulnerable to more devastating crashes such as data corruption and loss, virus attacks, and extended downtime.

Even NEW computers and equipment need regular maintenance because new threats are constantly evolving.

Fortunately, there is an inexpensive and easy way for you to completely avoid – even anticipate and prevent – these problems while making your network far more secure, reliable, and problem free.

We call it our “No Problem Network Support” plan, and it’s designed specifically for the small to medium business owner that doesn’t have the time, expertise, or staff to perform this regular network maintenance.

Thanks to advancements in support technology, we can now monitor your network 24/7/365 days a year and provide all the maintenance your server needs for a fraction of the time and cost.

For a flat, monthly fee, you’ll get 24/7 remote monitoring of your network to not only ensure that it is running at peak performance, but also to guarantee that your data is being backed up and secured, that your virus definitions are up-to date, that your firewall is configured properly, that your server is optimized, as well as keep an eye on over 100 system processes and alerts that could spell problems brewing.

If you hired a technician – even a junior one – to perform these basic network tasks, it could easily cost you $40,000 in salary, insurance, and hiring costs. If you were to outsource this type of service, it would easily run you $800 to $1,000 a month in hourly, on-site fees.

However, thanks to the No Problem Network Support plan, we can deliver all of these services to you for as little as $189 per month.

We’re so certain that you are going to LOVE this service we are willing to give it to you for 3 months, absolutely FREE, and without any obligation whatsoever.

If at the end of those 3 months you aren’t absolutely convinced that this service is worth every penny you are paying for the fast service and peace of mind, simply call or send us an e-mail that says, “this just isn’t what I had in mind,” and we’ll stop the service immediately—no payment, no obligation.

That way, you have absolutely nothing to risk. What could be more fair than that?

But if you decide to keep the service, we’ll bill you a flat monthly fee that you’ve agreed upon up front — no surprises, hidden costs, or extra fees.

And, to make it even more of a “no-brainer,” we’re going to offer the first 5 clients a very special VIP discount to create an even greater incentive for you to sign up TODAY.

To take advantage of this FREE 3-month trial, contact us at 734-457-5000, or e-mail info@expertsmi.com.

Defragging Your Hard Drive Can Make Your PC Run Fast

Defragging your hard drive is one of the most overlooked PC maintenance tasks, yet one of the simplest ways to keep your PC running fast.

When your files are organized, your hard drive has to work less to retrieve data, which speeds up the computer.

In Windows XP, open My Computer and right-click the hard drive, then click Properties and look under the Tools tab.

You will select the hard drive you want to defragment and click Analyze to see the state of the drive. The computer will take a moment to test the hard disk, then show you a graphical representation of the drive. Mostly blue bands indicate a healthy state on contiguous files.

Scattered red bands indicate fragmented files. If you have a lot of these, Windows will prompt you to defrag and you should accept when ready.

You’ll want to schedule your defrag, since you won’t be able to use the PC while this utility is running. Consider doing this when you leave the office for the day – it could take a few hours to complete depending on drive size.

If defragmenter produces errors, consider running defrag from within Safe Mode, where most services are stopped and nothing is using the drive.

How often you defrag the hard drive depends on your usage. If you constantly add and remove large files, you will need to do this often. If you do general PC work like checking Emails, working on spreadsheets, etc you will only need to perform this task about every two months.

Professional System Cleanings Are Essential To A Problem-Free Summer Computing Season

We spend a lot of time talking with clients, and writing in our newsletters, about the importance of keeping your systems clean from spyware, pop-ups and viruses. With the warm weather of summer approaching, it’s important to talk about physically cleaning your PCs.

The dirt, dust and debris that accumulate inside your computer’s case and power supply acts just like insulation, and can make your system run much hotter than it should.

As this extra heat builds up, it can cause erratic operation, lockups, random shutdowns, and in some cases, even data loss.

Tech Experts provides a comprehensive, professional system cleaning service that starts at just $59 per PC, with discounts available for multiple machines.

Our 15-point inspection program is designed to keep your equipment running smoothly, and to pinpoint potential problem areas before they turn into expensive repairs.

If you’re an adventurous sort, and would like to tackle this task yourself, here are some tips:

1) Compressed air is your friend – but make sure you get the “greenhouse gas friendly” canisters. If this is the first time you’ve cleaned your computer, and you’ve had it a while, you will probably need several cans.

Start by disconnecting all of your cables and power cord, and open the PC’s case and take it outside if there’s a lot of dust inside.

Give it a few quick blasts from the can, with the goal of getting all the dust bunnies out of the box. Avoid extended spraying, as the air that comes out of the can is quite cold, and can cause condensation to build up on the electronic parts if you hold the spray button down too long.

Use the nozzle straw attachment to get to hard to reach places like under the motherboard, between the cables, and through the internal air vents.

2) Now turn your attention to the rest of the computer. Particularly, dust out the fans and intake grills, paying special attention to the power supply. If you have a notebook, this is even more important, since these fans are especially prone to clogging.

3) Clean your keyboard, since you have the canned air handy. A few quick sprays will send whatever you’ve accumulated in the keyboard (hair, dust, crumbs, etc.) flying out. Next, you’ll want to clean the surface of the keyboard. Most are pretty tough, so any regular multi-purpose cleaner should work. We prefer to use glass cleaner, such as Windex. Be sure to spray the cleaner on a cloth, and not directly on the keyboard. Wipe the keyboard thoroughly, getting off any gunk or debris that is fixed to the keys.

4) You can use the same technique on your mouse, which you can clean on all sides, but pay special attention to the underside. Mice pick up a lot of junk on the bottom, so just scrape off anything that accumulated there. If you still are using a non-optical mouse (one with a little ball inside), pop the cover off, use a damp cloth to clean the rubber ball, and use a cotton swab dipped in alcohol to clean the rollers.

5) You can clean your screen just like you would a window, using any mild commercial glass cleaner. Again, be sure you spray the cleaner onto a cloth, and wipe with that, and do not spray the cleaner directly onto the screen.

Or, just give us a call at (734) 457-5000 and schedule our Spring PC Maintenance checkup.