A blog about the day to day events within the computer and laptop repair workshop in Perth, Scotland http://www.pcsolutions.co.uk/
Monday 30 April 2012
Friday 27 April 2012
The Birth Of A Hand Crafted Gaming PC
As part of our custom design and build service, Alex our resident Engineer has been building this gaming rig for a long standing client of ours and we thought it would be of interest to other Gamers to follow the steps.
We start with the naked gaming case
We start with the naked gaming case
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| Antec Gaming Case
This Antec 100 case is one of our firm favourites because of the qualityand the thoughtful design with respect to ventilation.
Ventilation and cooling is absolutely vital for a stable gaming system. A lot of people do not appreciate just how much heat is generated by a quality gaming system when playing a demanding game like Skyrim.
We have used an OCZ 700w which allows for upgrades as more components means more power.
Next up is the mother board:
In this case we are using the Asus P8 Z77-VLE with the Intel Z77 chipset. we like this board because of the extra cooling around the VRM and the Chipset. These features enhance the overclocking potential of this board.
The motherboard is now fully mounted into the gaming case. We pay particular attention to the cable management as it helps a huge amount for the cooling. It also makes the inside of the case look great.
The graphics card has now been plumbed in.
The card that is fitted is a Asus HD Radeon 7870 what is one of the new cards from ATI. It has great potential for stunning graphics in games such as Skyrim and Battlefield.
The rig is fitted with a Intel i5 2500k which is the very overclock-able chip as it has the unlocked multiplier , it also has a good amount of memory (8GB) to help with the overall performance of the machine.
Once the system has been fully tested for stability, speed and cooling, the gaming rig will be delivered to a very happy gamer!
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Tuesday 24 April 2012
The Laptop That Bounced
The laptop has surely used one of it's nine lives.
A customer brought this Asus netbook into us this morning and both were distressed.
The netbook had been dropped at the top of a flight of concrete stairs, and bounced all the way to the bottom.
The client was sure that the computer must have suffered terminal damage as it fell quite a distance
But remarkably it boots and the only damage that we can detect is cosmetic!!
A customer brought this Asus netbook into us this morning and both were distressed.
The netbook had been dropped at the top of a flight of concrete stairs, and bounced all the way to the bottom.
The client was sure that the computer must have suffered terminal damage as it fell quite a distance
But remarkably it boots and the only damage that we can detect is cosmetic!!
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| Bouncing Asus Netbook
This story has a happy ending as the netbook has been restored to full operational capacity despite it's tumble down the stairs
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Details of the Next Generation of Processors from Intel
Details of the new processor range (Ivy Bridge) from Intel were released to Intel Partners of which we are one :)
Particularly looking forward to using the new gen processors in our custom gaming PC build service.
More information on the new Intel Processor Generation can be found on our main site
Particularly looking forward to using the new gen processors in our custom gaming PC build service.
More information on the new Intel Processor Generation can be found on our main site
Friday 20 April 2012
Why Your Anti Virus Software Might Lie
As Perth's top computer repair shop, we deal with a LOT of virus infected computers.
A high percentage of our client's run a good assortmentment of internet security products. From Norton all the way to free ones.
Some even run two or three internet security products simultaneously in the mistaken belief that this strategy will improve their protection.
It is an urban myth that Internet Security products can give you a 100% cast iron guarantee against virus infections. This is because anti virus solutions are always reactionary.
By the time a new virus strain has been identified, a patch or defence developed against it, the patch issued as an update and then all the client machines collect the update (if they can) then the new virus strain has had time to party!!!
Do not underestimate the amount of very clever software and social engineering that goes into making and distributing a virus.
Most viruses are tested against the market leaders of anti-virus solutions BEFORE they are released into the wild. This makes sure the the virus can have the maximum impact
If you have the misfortune to get a virus infection, then the first thing the virus will do is disable your anti-virus software.
Most of the time, your anti-virus solutions is totally unaware that is has been 'doctored' and reports that all is well while in reality the infection is running amok and most likely bring down other infections in the background to from what is known as a 'nested virus infection'.
So if your computer is crashing, running slow or behaving oddly, then there is a high probability that you laptop or computer has been infected despite your AV solution saying all is well.
At this point, because your anti-virus solution has been ham-strung, the best solution is to take the infected computer to a local virus removal expert and get them to remove it
A high percentage of our client's run a good assortmentment of internet security products. From Norton all the way to free ones.
Some even run two or three internet security products simultaneously in the mistaken belief that this strategy will improve their protection.
It is an urban myth that Internet Security products can give you a 100% cast iron guarantee against virus infections. This is because anti virus solutions are always reactionary.
By the time a new virus strain has been identified, a patch or defence developed against it, the patch issued as an update and then all the client machines collect the update (if they can) then the new virus strain has had time to party!!!
Do not underestimate the amount of very clever software and social engineering that goes into making and distributing a virus.
Most viruses are tested against the market leaders of anti-virus solutions BEFORE they are released into the wild. This makes sure the the virus can have the maximum impact
If you have the misfortune to get a virus infection, then the first thing the virus will do is disable your anti-virus software.
Most of the time, your anti-virus solutions is totally unaware that is has been 'doctored' and reports that all is well while in reality the infection is running amok and most likely bring down other infections in the background to from what is known as a 'nested virus infection'.
So if your computer is crashing, running slow or behaving oddly, then there is a high probability that you laptop or computer has been infected despite your AV solution saying all is well.
At this point, because your anti-virus solution has been ham-strung, the best solution is to take the infected computer to a local virus removal expert and get them to remove it
Wednesday 18 April 2012
How to Choose The Right Computer Processor
We are often asked by our customers about what is the best processor in the market. Our reply is '"It depends on what your needs are"
By this we mean what are you going to use your computer for.
Intel, Microsoft, AMD et al are great at marketing the next greatest piece of technology but not everybody needs the latest and greatest.
Our main site has a nice video from Intel which will give you some pointers when choosing the processor for your computer.
This will also be of interest is you are thinking of buying a gaming PC or using our custom PC design and build service
By this we mean what are you going to use your computer for.
Intel, Microsoft, AMD et al are great at marketing the next greatest piece of technology but not everybody needs the latest and greatest.
Our main site has a nice video from Intel which will give you some pointers when choosing the processor for your computer.
This will also be of interest is you are thinking of buying a gaming PC or using our custom PC design and build service
Tuesday 17 April 2012
3G Dongle Problems
We are seeing a lot of machines coming in with networking issues cause by 3 G software.
The first step is to remove the 3G software using the Control Panel Add Remove Programs
Reboot your computer and then install the latest version from your Network operators site. This cures the problem perhaps 50% of the time.
Some times the installation can seriously mess up the Windows install and it takes a fair bit of sorting so we would suggest that you take the machine to a computer repair shop who should know how to sort the problem
The first step is to remove the 3G software using the Control Panel Add Remove Programs
Reboot your computer and then install the latest version from your Network operators site. This cures the problem perhaps 50% of the time.
Some times the installation can seriously mess up the Windows install and it takes a fair bit of sorting so we would suggest that you take the machine to a computer repair shop who should know how to sort the problem
Monday 16 April 2012
Virus Problems
Working on a system that has a very nasty virus infection.
The virus has disabled the USB ports and deletes any file ie a cleaner that is down loaded onto the infected system.
Have already scanned the hard drive in an external host and removed two infections but the computer is still infected
One last trick up our sleeve :) Even that failed :(
So it's a full rebuild despite all of our efforts and our anti virus partner's efforts.
The virus has disabled the USB ports and deletes any file ie a cleaner that is down loaded onto the infected system.
Have already scanned the hard drive in an external host and removed two infections but the computer is still infected
One last trick up our sleeve :) Even that failed :(
So it's a full rebuild despite all of our efforts and our anti virus partner's efforts.
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