Laptop Repair Recommendations

[jerich9701]

I've had it with our laptop and have decided that I need a geek or someone more knowledgeable than I to fix this thing. Software issues not really hardware issues. I don't mind someone who can come to the house or I can drop this thing off with them.

Just some examples of issues:
Can't check email in outlook, get a ton of pop ups about Bad images
McAfee can't connect to update and now won't even let me reinstall
There is a Trojan on the computer that McAfee can't quaratine

Also this computer is for personal use only, no business.

Thanks in advance. And I searched 'computer repair' for the last 12 months and nothing came up, are all Hornfan PCs working fine?

 

[LHB parent]

I had progressively worse problems over the last few months too and finally bit the bullet and reinstalled windows. It's a lot of trouble but very worth it. Just save all your data and write down all the software you've installed that you want to keep so you can reinstall it all. Not only do you get a like-new computer, but all that old junk you installed that you don't use anymore is gone.

Just make sure you can find all the original install disks for software you've bought. Downloaded software you can just go re-download.

When I got done rebuilding and getting things set up just the way I wanted, I made a disk image so that next time I don't have to start over from scratch. That will save a lot of time and I won't be so reluctant to do this next time - I put this off until I just couldn't stand it anymore.

If you don't have a windows CD to install from, you may have a recovery partition that was set up when you bought your laptop - depends on the brand. I have an XP-sp1 cd so the first thing I had to do after reinstalling was to go to windows update and get updated to sp3, which took several reboots and some time.

 

[mugsy]

get everything off the computer that you want (files, pictures, etc.).
reformat and reinstall your OS and programs.
get it set up the way you like it (passwords, settings, etc.).
go to www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
download and install it. (Its free)
take an image (i.e. ghost image) of your drive and save it.

every month or so reload the image.. . BAM!! fresh computer whenever it goes sideways.