Author Archive

Many people find shopping for a new laptop a bit daunting. Especially when a salesman is talking about gigabytes, megabytes, megahertz, hard drives, memory and so on. So I have composed a list of what you should be getting for your money.

Affordable Laptop price range : €300 -  €500

If your use for the laptop is just for surfing the Internet, checking emails or your Facebook account then this range would be for you. This laptop rage can also be used for the same reasons as the mid-range laptop but you might run into a few problems by installing or running too many programs.

Mid-range Laptop price range: €550 – €900

If you are a user that spends  a lot of time on your laptop for work, college or just pleasure this range would be for you.

High-end Laptop price range: €950 – endless

The type of user that would generally buy a high-end laptop would be Technicians, Engineers, Gamers, Enthusiasts and so on. these would be used to run multiple power hungry programs/games without giving the user problems.

Below will give you a rough idea on what specifications you should be getting for your money. Please note that technology changes every day with something faster and better so this should only be used as a guide line.

Processors:

The processor also known as the Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the brain of the operation, this is where all the programs instructions are executed and carries out all the computers functions. The speed of the processor is measured in Gigahertz which will be seen as GHz. I could go on about how it works but that is not important for now as I do not want to bog you down with information you don’t need. I want to make this as simple as possible. The cache memory is something to keep an eye on for the higher end laptops but usually in PC shops they only advertise the processor speed so we will stick with that for the moment. There are two main companies who design processors out there, AMD and Intel. AMD are the cheapest option but don’t let this fool you, this means you get more bang for your buck but what Intel do they do it well.

Affordable Laptop :

for the affordable laptop I would suggest getting a laptop with an AMD processor. You will get a faster processor for the price of an entry model Intel so keep an eye out for this. I would advise people to stay away from the Intel Celeron range and go for something like an AMD Semphron or even better an AMD Athlon. You should be looking for something like a 1.8GHz to 2.1GHz processor, the higher the better.

Mid-range Laptop :

For this range you should be looking at getting an Intel Core i3 which is around 2.2GHz. For the same price again you could get a laptop with an AMD processor with a 2.7GHz processor such as the Turion II Dual Core. Again it is up to you at the end of the day what you would prefer but both are great processors.

High-End Laptop:

This is where Intel start dominating the market. I would advise on going for an Intel processor for this kind of money. They are powerful and reliable. the processor comes in Dual Core and Quad Core versions which means 2 or 4 processors in one. The new type of Intel chips are now Intel Core i5 and i7. As explained earlier go for a higher cache memory which should be around 4mb or higher.

Next week we will be looking memory …..

Taking a screenshot of your desktop has many advantages. If you are receiving  an error message or just a simple message you are unsure about you can take a picture of your screen which then you can email it to us or the person that is answering the question. We find here at Home Helptech that when our customers take screenshots it leads us directly to the problem where we can diagnose it alot faster. There are two types of screenshots you can take, the first is a screenshot of the window currently open and the other will take a screenshot of your whole screen.

Screenshot of current window:

To take a screenshot  of your current window such as Microsoft word, Internet Explorer (Modzilla Firefox, Google Crome) or your email client press Ctrl + Alt + Print Screen together. The next step is to open up Microsoft Paint by navigating to start > Accessories > Paint. Once paint is open right click on the blank area and click on the right hand mouse button to bring up a menu. In the menu select Paste. The screenshot you captured will now be in Microsoft Paint. Save this file and send it by attaching the file to your email.

Screenshot of whole desktop:
To take a screenshot like the image below press Alt + Print Screen together. This is the best screenshot to take if Windows is showing multiple errors or if a virus has infected your computer and is showing multiple fake programs running.

If you have any problems with these steps or any other problems please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers and technicians and we will be delighted to perform the required steps to deal with your problem.

| Lo-Call 1890 219 219 (Ireland) | Freefone 0808-CALHELP (UK) |

| Business Hours: Monday – Friday 9:45 to 6:30 & Saturday 9:00 to 12:00

Read our latest update on this type of scam by clicking here.

Following a lot of interest in our previous post (click here) and having been called in person by these scammers, we decided to write another blog post on this topic. More people seem to be receiving calls from a company in India pretending to be a computer repair company. They are now using the name Online PC Care. The phone number changes every time they call and when you answer the phone you will hear silence for 3 or 4 seconds followed by music for a further 3 seconds until the so called “technician” answers on the other side. They will know your First name and/or Surname. They will start to ask you if your computer is slow ( some even tell you it is slow, how are they supposed to know!). they will then proceed to ask you what type of operating system you have, is it Windows XP or Windows Vista. The technician will tell you the reason that your computer is slow is because your computer is full with “junk files” that are stored on your computer when browsing the internet. They will ask you to follow some steps that will show you the junk files and these are the steps:

1. Turn on your pc
2. once Windows is running click on the windows key and R
3. In the dialog box type eventvwr
4. Now go to Windows Logs on the left panel and select Application

From here they will show you some errors, after this they will talk you into giving them control of your PC or Laptop by remotely accessing it over the internet. At this point we are still unsure to what they do but after some time will ask for your credit card details. Be very careful not to give them your details. If you have been caught by this please call a trusted PC repair company such as ourselves to give your machine a once over. Make sure they have not installed any key logging software or left any remote access software on your computer that can grant them access to your PC.

Read our latest update on this type of scam by clicking here.

Below is a video of the same scam:

If you have any problems with these steps or any other problems please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers and technicians and we will be delighted to perform the required steps to deal with your problem.

| Lo-Call 1890 219 219 (Ireland) | Freefone 0808-CALHELP (UK) |

| Business Hours: Monday – Friday 9:45 to 6:30 & Saturday 9:00 to 12:00

Please be aware of the facebook email going around at the moment. It will come from support@facebook.com and will have a .zip file  attached claming to be a new password change when in fact it is malware to infect your computer. Please delete this email as soon as   you recieve it.

If you have any problems with these steps or any other problems please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers and technicians and we will be delighted to perform the required steps to deal with your problem.

| Lo-Call 1890 219 219 (Ireland) | Freefone 0808-CALHELP (UK) |

| Business Hours: Monday – Friday 9:45 to 6:30 & Saturday 9:00 to 12:00

On installing Windows 7 RC 1 on my PC the other day I  installed LogMeIn Free with no problems. On trying to access my home PC from a computer outside my network it denied me access even tho the password was the same.

It eventually locked me out.

 after a while I finally discovered what the issue was:

Usually with Windows XP and Windows Vista you only need your Login name and Password for that machine to gain remote control of that machine. But with Windows 7 you need to enter your “computername”/”user name” as your username for it to work for example look at the screenshot below

Username : Homehelptech-PC/David

Password: Letmein  (dont even try… its not my real password)

after this you should be able to access your Windows 7 machine. Good Luck!!

If you have any problems with these steps or any other problems please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified engineers and technicians and we will be delighted to perform the required steps to deal with your problem.

| Lo-Call 1890 219 219 (Ireland) | Freefone 0808-CALHELP (UK) |

| Business Hours: Monday – Friday 9:45 to 6:30 & Saturday 9:00 to 12:00 |

Sometimes when windows xp service pack 3 is installed some devices may not work as well as they did before the installation. here is a guide to removing Service pack 3 and rolling back to Service Pack 2.

there are 3 types of ways you can remove the Service Pack :

Use the Add or Remove Programs application in the control panel

• Click on the Start button in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen
• Now click on Control Panel on the right had side of the menu
• Select  Add or Remove Programs and a new window will appear
• Tick the Show Updates box and scroll down to Windows XP Service Pack 3
• Highlight it and click Remove

Use a removal wizard that is stored in a hidden folder

• Click on the Start button in the bottom left hand corner of your screen
• Click on My Computer and a new window will appear
• Select Tools and click on Folder Options from the drop-down menu
• Click on the View tab at the top of the new window
• Scroll down to Show Hidden Files and Folders and make sure the radio button is ticked.
• Click Apply and OK
• Now open your Hard Disk Drive where Windows is installed usually (C:)
• now open the next folders Windows > $NtServicePackUninstall$ > Spuninst
• Click on Spuninst applacation
• follow Uninstallation Wizard steps and let it restart your computer if needs be.

Restore to an earlier point

• follow our post on how to do a system restore below. make sure you select a date just before you installed Windows XP Service Pack 3.

If you have any problems with these steps or any other problems please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified technicians and we will be delighted to perform the required steps to deal with your problem.

| Lo-Call 1890 219 219 |Business Hours: Monday – Friday 9:45 to 6:30 & Saturday 9:00 to 12:00 |

A great tool built into Windows Operating Systems is the System Restore function. Basically what system restore does is it takes a screen shot of your computers important files from time to time so if anything goes wrong with your computer then it can be rolled back to a time when it was working just the way you liked it.

PLEASE NOTE : All files and folders should be backed up before trying any of the following steps.

For Restoring Windows XP:

• Make sure you are logged in as Administrator
• Press the Start button, move to All Programs, move to Accessories, scroll down to System Tools and click on System Restore.
• When the program starts it should look like the screenshot below

• Make sure that the Restore my computer to an earlier time is checked. Click on the Next button.
• Now select a time your computer was at a healthy point on the calendar. ( dates that the computer can revert back to are usually marked in bold font). Click Next
• A confirmation page will now display what time it is going back to before it restores.
• Your computer will now restart. Log in as Administrator again and your computer will now be at a point to where you wanted it.

For Restoring Windows Vista:

• Make sure you are logged in as Administrator
• Press the Start button, move to All Programs, move to Accessories, scroll down to System Tools and click on System Restore. Click Continue on the UAC warning window
• When the program starts it should look like the screenshot below

• Make sure that the Choose a different restore point button is checked. Click on the Next button. (You can also use the Recommend restore option and let windows choose a date to when your computer was healthy.)
• Now select a time your computer was at a healthy point on the calendar. ( check the Restore points older than 5 days box for older points). Click Next
• A confirmation page will now display what time it is going back to before it restores.
• Your computer will now restart. Log in as Administrator again and your computer will now be at a point to where you wanted it.

If you have any problems with these steps or any other problems please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified technicians and we will be delighted to perform the required steps to deal with your problem.

    | Lo-Call 1890 219 219 |Business Hours: Monday – Friday 9:45 to 6:30 & Saturday 9:00 to 12:00 |  

We had a laptop come in today with a problem with accessing the internet. It was a dell XPS laptop and around 6 months old. Norton Internet Security 2008 came supplied with the Laptop. We tried to access the firewall settings on NIS but it was giving us a message informing us that we had to be an administrator to access the firewall settings even though we were logged in using an administrator account. We believed it had something to do with the software so we uninstalled NIS and Internet Explorer worked fine. We tried to install it again but still the same problem. The only way to fix this problem was to download an update of NIS 2009.

Steps on updating Norton Internet Security:

Click on the link below:

http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/support/special/upgrade2007/vista/migration_start.jsp?site=nuc

• Click on the orange “BEGIN” button at the top of the page
• There should be two pull-down menus, on the “Select a product” bar highlight Norton Internet Security
• On the “Select a version” select  2008
• Click on “CONTINUE”
• There should be a table on the next page and on the last column called free update, click on the button “DOWNLOAD”
• A window will appear with a “START DOWNLOAD” button, click on it.
• When the File Download screen appears click on “RUN”
• In the UAC window click “CONTINUE”
• When the computer downloads the file click the icon on your desktop to run the update and follow the instructions.

 If you have any problems with these steps or any other problems please don’t hesitate to call one of our qualified technicians and we will be delighted to perform the required steps to deal with your problem.

  | Lo-Call 1890 219 219 |Business Hours: Monday – Friday 9:45 to 6:30 & Saturday 9:00 to 12:00 |