My Shiny Wesbite
We are very pleased to announce the launch of our website design service My Shiny Website. This arm of our business is solely dedicated to providing high quality low cost websites for individuals and small/medium businesses. Our prices start from just £399 for a complete 6 page website including emails. For more details please visit our website here.
This is an urgent security message.
Recently a hacker group called Lulz Security released a list of 62,000 emails and passwords on their website. While they have not disclosed where they obtained the information from or which sites is this information for, nonetheless the security implications are massive! Most of us only ever use one or two passwords for all our services. If this is the case with you and your email address is on the list then you are potentially open to identity theft at this very instance!
We urge you to please check the list by clicking here . To quickly check if your email address exists in the list or not you can use your browser’s search functionality (usually activated by pressing Ctrl and F keys together).
We advise all our readers and clients to keep changing their passwords regularly. Further we always advise to keep complex passwords. Creating complex passwords is not as tough as it may appear at first. To give you an example consider the ordinary phrase – kitchentowel
Following a series of simple transformations you can convert this phrase into a complex password
1. Follow the rules of English language and type the word as – KitchenTowel
2. Now replace “o” by number zero everywhere in the word. This now becomes – KitchenT0wel
3. Be excited about it. End the phrase with an ! as – KitchenT0wel!
4. For added security select your favorite letter in the phrase (your first initial, your loved one’s first initial etc.) and capitalize it. Say you decide on “i”. The phrase finally becomes – KItchenT0wel!
Thats it! Done!
We have taken a small phrase kitchentowel and turned it into a very formidable password containing a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letter, numbers and special characters. You can devise as many rules as you like and complicate the passwords further. Alternatively to begin with you might want to only follow steps 1 and 3 and keep your password relatively simple. The choice is yours!
If you would need any help from us on any topic discussed in this post please leave us a message here or email us at fixit@BritishPcRepairs.co.uk
Are you killing your laptop’s hard drive?
A hard drive or a hard disk is that thing in your laptop on which all your information (photos, music, documents, videos etc.) live.
A typical Hard disk
If you would like to know more about hard drive and various other important parts that are in your laptop please take a moment to quickly go through our previous post by clicking here
Over the past few months we have seen a sharp increase in the number of laptops coming in for repairs where the hard disk in the laptop has gone bad. Having your hard drive go bad is one of the worst things you could experience with your laptop. As all your files (music, photos etc.) live on your hard drive you can potentially lose all those precious holiday photos, videos, documents if your hard drive goes bad. Further in recent years most laptop manufacturers have started hiding the laptop’s factory image on the hard drive itself to cut the cost of supplying CDs with the laptops. Result? If your hard drive goes bad you not only lose your data but also the ability to buy a new hard drive and restore your laptop back up! While we at British PC Repairs can certainly get your laptop back up and running with a new hard drive relatively easily, still the sheer agony of the experience can leave you slightly jolted.
While there are a few ways to test a hard drive without having to open up a laptop, unfortunately there is no very simple or straightforward method to do so. Here we are listing some common signs that usually are symptoms of a hard drive going bad. Please do note that they are by no means conclusive! A lot of other factors such as virus infections can also lead to the same symptoms. If you would like to know more about viruses please see our informative article here.
1. Windows refuses to start – By far the most common symptom we have seen in all the cases of bad hard drives. Basically Windows refuses to start. When you start your laptop you will see all the normal screens for a while but eventually it will get stuck on the black screen with Windows logo on it and a bar under it. The laptop will stay stuck on this screen for an excruciatingly long time and then suddenly restart. You might catch a flicker of a blue screen with white text on it before your laptop restarts. This blue screen is actually a very well known screen called Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD).
A typical BSOD error screen
2. Laptop “freezes” a lot – Another very common problem seen in all cases is that laptop becomes progressively slow and reaches a stage where it is completely unresponsive. You can not move the mouse or press keys or pretty much do anything else. The only option available at that point is to switch it off using the power button. Which ironically makes the hard drive’s condition even worse!
Not surprisingly laptops don’t really like heat. Using your laptops while keeping it on beds, couches, cushions, rugs, leather sofas or any sort of padded surface traps heat under the laptop. Laptops are pretty cleverly designed to remove large amounts of heat when they get hot. However all such places mentioned above traps heat under the laptop which really really kills the hard drive. A lot of us also shut the laptop lid down without switching it off and leave it for long period of times on the bed or sofa or the carpet. In a lot of cases closing the laptop lid down does not really turn off the laptop. Your laptop is still running, it is still on your bed and the heat is slowly killing the hard drive.
As we mentioned above, a lot of times when laptop runs slow or takes a long time to respond to our commands a lot of us just press and hold the power button in anger to turn the “thing off”. However doing this is not advisable as it does not gives the hard drive the time it needs to “spin down”. Using the power button without shutting off your laptop properly can really accelerate the rate at which your hard drive is going bad.
It is hard to explain this properly without getting slightly technical so I will keep this short. Magnets are to hard drives what is kryptonite to Superman. Normally you wouldn’t have a magnet lying around your laptop however a lot of us like to do a little DIY with our laptops. Often people end up using screwdrivers that have light magnetic heads. And not surprisingly while you are with all good intentions trying to open up your laptop to clean it up a little, your screwdriver’s magentic head is slowly killing your hard drive!
This is a bit of a controversial area here. While it is not summarily proven, often some software packages have the effect of “grinding the hard drive down”. Windows Vista has a very famous “prefetch” option that is famous for this effect on laptop hard drives.
Some laptop manufacturer’s such as DELL and SONY build a set of tools within the laptop which can be used to check the health of the hard drive. Usually these tools can be launched by pressing a few special keys (most commonly a combination of F12 and Ctrl or Alt) keys.
If your laptop does not has these tools you can use other options such as Ubuntu to check for your hard drive. We will shortly do an article explaining how can you do that.
However this is not really something which is straight forward or should be done lightly. This is a specialist job and the potential for losing your data is extremely high! If you are unsure please give us a call on 07545 819 363 or contact us by sending us an email at fixit@BritishPcRepairs.co.uk. You can also contact us by sending us an email from this site by clicking here.
As explained above heat, magnets and the power button are the most common causes of laptop’s hard drive going bad. If you are concerned about the health of the hard drive inside your laptop please do not hesitate to call on 07545 819 363 or contact us by sending us an email at fixit@BritishPcRepairs.co.uk. You can also contact us by sending us an email from this site by clicking here!
DELL is running a lot of clearance deals on its website right now. There are great savings of up to £589 to grab! You can use the code WW$TNP80TS$JMR for an additional 10% off for all clearance systems!
If you are unsure of what laptop or PC is good for you we recommend you read our article here. If you are still unsure feel free to drop us a comment here or email us at fixit@BritishPcRepairs.co.uk. Click here to go to DELL’s website for deals.
Happy shopping!
Have you ever wandered into PC World or Currys with the intention of buying a new laptop or a computer but ended up completely confused with all the technical jargon and acronyms used to define technology? Do you sit back and wonder if a laptop is actually worth £500? Have you ever tried determining which laptop or PC is a good value for money and what makes a laptop really worth its price tag?
If you have answered “yes” to any of these questions above then this post is for you. Here we explain few of the most commonly used terms employed to define “what is inside” a particular laptop or PC and what all these terms mean. We also aim to highlight what are the most critical parts of a laptop or a PC and what you should really look out for. If you need more information on any of the points mentioned here or need advice regarding buying a laptop please do not hesitate to write to us at fixit@BritishPcRepairs.co.uk or by calling us on 01372 890 123. You can also contact us by sending us a message from this side. To do that please click here
A typical memory chip
This is perhaps the most commonly used term and also often the most commonly “misused” term in this industry. Salesmen simply love to confuse customers by using this word repeatedly to define multiple things within a laptop. What actually is “memory” and how is it different from the “storage capacity” or the “hard drive” of the laptop?
What is it
Simply put “memory” or RAM is a temporary area your laptop uses while you work on it. Nothing is written permanently onto this “memory or RAM”. As soon as you switch off your laptop, it is wiped clean. It is not equivalent to the storage space that is available in your laptop (explained later). To confuse matter further both of them are measure in the same units (gigabyte or megabyte) as they are both effectively storage areas. The difference been – one is permanent and the other (RAM or memory) is temporary!
Importance
Memory is important upto a certain factor within laptops or PCs. There is a certain minimum amount of memory a laptop needs to work optimally. Any lower than that and the laptop or PC will constantly be slow running. Similarly a laptop can only work with a certain maximum amount of memory or RAM. Any more than that and it simply goes unused!
General Myth
Contrary to popular believes throwing a very large amount of memory in a laptop WILL NOT make it any faster beyond a certain limit. In fact in the past few years a number of laptops were sold with a lot more memory in them than the laptop was capable of handling! Why? Simply because it is often easier to confuse the user between memory and hard drive and sell more laptops!
As a general rule of thumb a modern laptop should have a minimum 2GB (gigabyte) to 4GB(gigabyte) RAM.
Intel's i3 Processor
This is perhaps the single most important factor that determines how fast or slow your laptop will be. This also defines the raw power or speed your laptop possesses. You may think of it as the “Brain” of the CPU. Along with the “memory” explained in point 1 above, these two are the most important factors in determining the speed of your laptop.
What is it
A processor (also called CPU or “chip”) is effectively the brain of the laptop. It is the single most important factor that dictates the power of your laptop. Not surprisingly this is also the most important part that determines the price of your laptop.
Importance
As explained this is the single most important part of your laptop and can be thought of as the “brain” of the laptop. There are two main chip makers “Intel” and “AMD”. Intel chips currently have slight edge over AMD chips in terms of laptop’s computational powers and electricity consumption. Out of the (baffling!) range of Intel chips available for a normal home user, the chip called “i3″ should be the best one to go for.
2.5" SATA Hard Drive
This is a small brick like thing installed in your laptop which is nothing but storage space for your laptop. All your music, movies, documents, videos, iTunes library, Windows (explained later) are actually stored on this thing. This is the “permanent storage” space in your laptop. Things that are stored here stay here when the power is turned off. It is also measure in Gigabytes just like the RAM.
What is it
Hard disk is the storage space in the laptop. This is the part where all your files etc. live.
Importance
While theoretically you can run a laptop without a hard disk inside it, such a laptop will be of limited use as you will not be able to store anything on it ever!
A typical laptop motherboard
You may think of it as the main board on which every part (processor, memory, hard disk etc.) are kept or installed. This board contains all the circuits that are necessary for various parts to talk to each other. This board is like the nervous system of the entire laptop. This is also the costliest part in a laptop. In most cases if a motherboard goes bad within a laptop we usually advise our clients to not spend any money on the repair of the laptop.
What is it
A motherboard is the nervous system of the laptop. It is responsible for making all the other bits and bobs in the laptop talk to each other. If this board goes bad it is often not worth spending money on the laptop anymore.
Importance
Almost always the most expensive part in a laptop, this is the thing that keeps your laptop running. This controls all the other parts on your laptop. If your laptop goes too hot, it is this board that decides to shut it down. To get to this part we need to completely strip the laptop down.
In order of importance this is how the following would appear
1. Motherboard
2. Processor
3. Memory
4. Hard Drive
So the next time the sales man at PC World tries to sell you a laptop with “oh so much more memory on it!” you can very well tell him that you would rather buy a laptop with a better processor in it!
iPhone, iPad and now iTable!
Designers have unveiled a new groundbreaking unique design that beautifully marries the aesthetically pleasing looks of our beloved Apple devices with ordinary household furniture. First in this category is the iTable.
Designed to look like a giant stack of iPhones, the table has LED cup holders and (hold your breath) touch sensitive triggers! You simply swipe your hand over the trigger area of the table and as if by sheer magic a complete dock for iPhone slides out. And yes it charges your phone as it plays your music! There isn’t a price set on this table (yet) but judging by Apple standards it is unlikely to be cheap. And no, sadly you will not be able to jailbreak this table.
For more details see the video
Thank you all for your kind words about our last post regarding virus infections on laptops and how to recognize them. If you not yet read that post we recommend that you go through it here
We have been evaluating a lot of legally FREE antiviruses available in the markets for end users. While there are many such antivirus softwares out there, we would like to mention a few which we feel confident in recommending personally. In our personal order of preference these are
Provided by none other than Microsoft, Microsoft Security Essentials has quickly become our antivirus of choice. We found this antivirus to have a fairly decent detection rate when it comes to finding viruses. What we particularly like about this antivirus is that it does not slow the laptop or computer down. It does not intrude while working and does not randomly block programs it thinks are “suspicious”. We certainly recommend this one over any other. You can download Microsoft Security Essentials from Microsoft’s own website by clicking here
Download Avira Antivirus
Our second favorite anti virus has to be Avira. This company does quite a few excellent products. While their free antivirus is as good as Microsoft’s offering we find it slightly annoying to see the advert screen urging the users to upgrade to its professional edition. While the occurrence of this screen is not very frequent, more often than not you end up seeing this screen as soon as you switch on your laptop or computer as at that moment Avira does its automatic updates and shows the screen. You can download Avira by clicking here
Download AVG Antivirus
AVG’s offering used to top the charts till about an year ago. However during the last year or so Avira and Microsoft have both managed to have toppled AVG of its favorite spot. This is not as much due to AVG’s own product’s decline of quality but more down to the fact that Avira and Microsoft offered superior products to the users. Many users still feel comforted seeing the much loved multi colored icon next to their system clock in their laptops and computers, we however feel that AVG needs to up its game if it wants to grab its top spot back. You can download AVG by clicking here
As always if you need more advice or help in choosing the right antivirus for your needs or are looking for some help installing any of these antiviruses we mentioned above please do not hesitate to get in touch with us by calling us on 01372-890-123 or emailing us at fixit@BritishPcRepairs.co.uk. Alternatively you can use our main website page at www.BritishPcRepairs.co.uk/ContactUs.aspxto get in touch with us.
In an astonishing display of their reach and potential a group of hackers have managed to infect thousands of computers and laptops that visited certain popular websites like Autotrader, Vue and London Stock Exchange.
The scam started when on Sunday a group of cyber criminals hacked into the servers of an advertising firm. The group was then able to serve malicious adverts on these websites. These malicious adverts were able to infect a visiting user’s laptop or computer and subsequently asked for payments to remove the supposed “infection”.
To find out some of the common signs of virus and malware infections you might want to read our “guide of symptoms” at www.BritishPcrRpairs.co.uk/VirusRemoval.aspx
If you visited any of these sites recently we advise you to get in touch with our security experts as soon as possible by calling us on 01372-890-123 or emailing us at fixit@BritishPcRepairs.co.uk. Alternatively you can use our main website page at www.BritishPcRepairs.co.uk/ContactUs.aspx to get in touch with us.
We are very excited to introduce a revolutionary FREE service called Dropbox that not only lets you keep your precious documents and photos safe online but also lets you access your files from anywhere in the world! What’s more, you can set up a relationship between any number of computers and laptops and iPhones that you use so that you can access your files from any of these laptops or computers or even iPhone. Any file or document that you change from one place automatically gets updated everywhere else!
You can use this service absolutely FREE. There is no catch!
For a limited time you can download all these software for FREE (legally)
Ashampoo Burning Studio Advanced
Advanced SystemCare Pro
Auslogics BoostSpeed 5 Special Edition
novaPDF Lite Desktop 7
+ others.
The download link is http://store.v3.co.uk/?act=search&cat=13
However please remember to un-subscribe from the newsletter(s) afterwards and be careful about ticking/un-ticking the boxes for 3rd party spam!
Another great software find brought to you buy British PC Repairs!
