Lisa Hendrickson is the owner of Call That Girl. She is an Outlook Expert and Microsoft 365 Consultant.
A few weeks ago, I received an email from Pinterest telling me that I had a friend on Facebook following me. Naturally I was excited to have a new follower, until I noticed that when I went to click on that email….my entire Outlook just froze up. Now I didn’t get the Outlook 2010 white screen of death, but my Outlook just froze completely. At first I was a bit shocked, but after a minute or so it unfroze and I was back to business. I thought it was a one-time glitch, but apparently not. It started happening each and every time I received an email from Pinterest and it’s starting to irritate me. Here is an example of the email…
After doing some investigation, I figured out that it’s a back end plug in from Facebook causing this issue. I found this out when I finally opened Outlook and some random rogue plug in showed up. I’m very annoyed because it came and went so fast and I can’t find it in my Outlook settings anywhere to disable it.
I wanted to blog about this for those that are having the same issue. Please comment below if you are! I will contact you if you leave your email. This is an issue that has yet to be fixed and I want it resolved!
This short list of questions is very important for your computer repair technician to ask you when you bring in your technology to the repair shop. Be prepared to answer questions like…
Saturday A.M. I got an alert from Google that someone in Austria tried accessing my account on a device. Interesting…never had this happen before. I’m guessing they noticed this either by too many log-in attempts or they caught the IP address (how the computers track where we are logging in from). I logged into Gmail, read the alert and changed my password anyway. I know that no one had it but me, but I guess you can never tell.
As much as I am not a fan of using Google for business email, I am a fan of using it for free accounts over Hotmail or Yahoo because of the security. When clients call in and say they have been hacked, I have only seen one or two come in from Google, most, if not all, are from Hotmail, Yahoo, etc. I’m happy to post that with this Google suspicious email alert I got, I became more of a fan of using it for free email needs. There’s an example of the message below.
Drat, that power cord. Always causing problems! Most clients call us for a few reasons in regards to power issues with their laptop. Sometimes we can fix it, sometimes we cannot. Most of the time, we can fix it, but the cost is roughly $150 (it’s a hardware repair, done inside the computer and very labor intensive). If the hardware, also known as a DC jack, is fine, then the problem is most likely a dead power supply (cord).
How to figure out if it’s your power cord:
Unfortunately, there’s not always a clear cut sign as to which is your problem. One thing you can tryif you have another that fits and is the same voltage (using a different voltage charger can mess with your computer) is to plug in a different power supply and see if your computer gets a full charge. If it does, then your power cord is most likely the cause. If this still doesn’t work or you don’t have an extra cord, you can drop off your computer for a free diagnosis and let us figure out what exactly is going on!
What to do if it’s your power cord:
Ah, the question is posed yet again. What’s more important? Your data (stuff like pictures, music, taxes…) or your computer itself? I tell everyone that your stuff is way more important than a computer. I’ll explain with a short story.
You buy a computer. Many of our clients bought their first ones in 2003 when prices dropped like flies and you could buy them online easy. Many of our users still have these computers! The computers are starting to age, though, and are getting near the end of life. But those same clients, in all of these 9 years have never backed up their data. Are they lucky? Yes!! Losing your data can happen fast! Ask someone whose computer got zapped by a power outage; the computer is fried and sometimes the data is destroyed. Not all the time, but it has happened. Hard drives can also go bad just because…for no reason!
Backing up your stuff is so inexpensive, it is almost silly not to do it. External hard drives can be as low as $50 for 320 gigs and that can probably get all of your stuff on it. Online back up is a wee bit more at $5.99 a month to get started with 50 gigs. Click on the icon below to try online backup with 2 gigs for free.
Now back to the question, what is more important? A computer nowadays can cost $300 to $500 to replace a basic tower unit. How much are those pictures worth? Yep, they are priceless. Those music collections took years to burn on your computer and who knows how much time. Do yourself a favor and back up today! If you need our help, fill out the form below or call us to get help!
612-865-4475
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I’ve had a few clients call in this year with problems with the Office products they purchased online. They either downloaded a pirated version and had to get their money back from their credit card, or they just had tons of issues with the installation causing many other problems.
When most of us need software, we go to our favorite search engine (mine is Google) and type in what we are looking for. Many of us want to save money, because software is expensive! But….if you end up buying a product that is from a site selling illegitimate copies, you will have a few more headaches to deal with as Microsoft will not activate products they do not sell licenses for. As well, 30 days after a purchase, you may have problems. Or, if you try to re-install, you will have problems.
Or you may not and get lucky. I recommend just paying full price; own it and use it as you wish.
Here is an example of a search in Google for “Microsoft Office.” These are the top 4 searches. The top 2 are actual paid ads from Microsoft. The 3rd one down…is a store selling products for WAY CHEAP. I would be leary of buying that product.
Having issues with your Microsoft Office products? Fill out the form below and we’ll help you out!
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