Category: GeneralIt’s our number at Call That Girl!
If your internet goes down, how can you “Google” computer repair? We all seem to rely on our internet providers way too much. Just last weekend I had another problem, this time with my internet. (Remember in the past 2 months, I have had a laptop die on me and I watched a virus infect my computer). When the cable company did a “hit” to my tv to check status, it also reset my internet modem. I wasn’t on the internet when they were working on the tv, so I had no idea until later my internet was down. A few hours later, I found my internet was on, then off, then on….I had enough and hard wired my laptop to the router and it still didn’t work right. Then I reset everything, including my Linksys router and it still was off. I gave up for the day and the next morning called the cable company and yes…the modem needed to be reset.
Of course. I should have known or figured it out, but when we have problems like this, we think it’s our fault. Not always the case, but in this case I should have done the math early on and called the cable company right away, saving me frustration.
With all of that being said, if your internet is down and you don’t have Yellow Books anymore, calling us will maybe help you out down the line.
Office: 612-865-4475
Night/Weekend: 612-865-4475
We have found that “one size doesn’t fit all” here at Call That Girl!
Unfortunately, I have to blog about this yet again. On Saturday I had a networking colleague call in with the “black screen of death”. Her computer would not get past the black screen after it crashed the day before. Luckily, I know how to troubleshoot remotely with folks to get their computer back up and running, but she did not.
After we got her computer going again, I asked her what had happened that morning and she didn’t really know. So I did my “usual suspects” list of what can cause it (Antivirus programs or Windows Updates are the big two) and what do you know, after checking her computer, it appears Norton had done an update 19 hours earlier. I asked her when did this black screen happen. She stated that the day before at 5:00 she started having problems. She called at 11:30 on Saturday, so after doing the math…I have no one else to blame but Norton for causing this problem. I guess we could also blame Comcast as well. We can’t blame my client as they were offered it for free by Comcast. I don’t understand how Comcast can offer a product or service to their customers that is a well known product to crash computers.
My last blog about Comcast and Norton crashing computers, posted on Feb 12th has almost 30 comments on this same issue. It is the #1 blog if you search “Comcast Norton slow.” If you would like to see the blog, here is a link to it.
https://callthatgirl.biz/comcast-users-should-avoid-installing-nortonsymantec/
As much as I enjoy working with these folks, I always want to call Comcast and just complain that “one computer program doesn’t fit all”, meaning that they should check the computer’s age and memory to see if the Norton Security Suite can even hold the program and do it’s unscheduled sporatic updates.
If you are going to download the Comcast/Norton Security Suite or have already downloaded it, then please be aware of a few things.
Here is the link to Comcast’s site for the Norton installation requirements. I have read through this list and still think that 256 MG of RAM is not enough to run this robust program.
http://security.comcast.net/norton/resi/?cid=33_230
If you have any questions, feel free to comment.
If you want help with this slow down, please let us know!
If you want to get RID of NORTON and replace it with an awesome program, then click on the logo below. Install Malwarebytes instead. $25 for a lifetime license!
Are you wanting to get a bit more technical and learn to do a few things, but just don’t know how to do it? Call That Girl’s core business is repair, but we sometimes we will show you how to do a few things to not get that glitch back or make your business run smoother. If you are wanting to learn a few technical issues at your own pace, you should check out Modern Inconveniences, “Tech Guide”. It’s a really neat little book! The book has insert cards (kinda like the old school cookbooks) and every quarter, they will send you new cards to insert in, so you have easy reference very handy.
Tech Cards: Members receive six new Tech Cards per quarter by mail – a total of 24 cards over 2010! Tech Cards illustrate technology tools and how they can be used for small business owners, applications, helpful hints and step-by-step instructions. Collect them all to build your own technology resource library!
Notes: Each Tech Guide features a section to capture your questions and answers, jot down resources and suggestions.
Resource Directory: Need a quick referral for your business? The Tech Guide contains a Resource Directory for easy-to-search, categorized listings of helpful businesses that have the tools to make your job easier! Flip to the Resource Directory tab in your Guide, or visit the Guide online at: www.modernincon.com/resources.html. Over $750 in discounts!
To purchase a book, see the little book over to your right on my website, click on it and it will take you to the purchase site. Or click on this link! Cost is $54.99.
Many of you have stopped printing pictures in the past few years and just keep your pictures on your computer. I too am one of those people. I was thinking the other day while I was retrieving a 6 year history of family pictures off a crashed hard drive how important those pictures are.
Why are we not printing these pictures and putting them in albums to share with our family and guests when they come over? Are those days now days gone by? The photo album memories I have from my childhood are precious! My mom and Aunt just shared an hours worth of laughs last night going through their storage. Will our future’s be full of “where is that hard drive with the Hawaii photo’s on them”…and then to find a computer to install the hard drive on to view them! (in 50 years, who knows how we will be using computers).
I recommend for those that are storing all of their pictures on their computers to upload them all to Walgreen’s or another company and get them all printed. It’s good for your photo albums and as a secondary back up! I uploaded all of my pictures two years ago and it cost $20 to have them all printed.
Just my two cents on this folks!
My computer that crashed last weekend is still in the shop! I think that it’s hardware. I’m too busy to figure it out right now…so I’m still using my mom’s laptop (the Green Dell Inspiron 1521). Thank you Mom! I think that I should buy a new one because I think I deserve it, don’t you think so? 🙂 This is a great question for my next blog “Should I just buy a new computer over fixing the broke one”.
Call That Girl has to report that we are thrilled to see the viruses are on “spring break” for awhile. While we usually see many virus infected computers in the shop, this week was somewhat easy for virus repair. When you are working in a business like computer repair, when the viruses are hot, we are busy. VERY BUSY…but when it’s slow, we have the time to work on other things, such as process/procedures and a new marketing plan for an opening of a 2nd location! Yes folks, you heard it here first….(((spoiler))). We are looking to open a location in Rochester, Minnesota in May/June.
Conor my marketing intern has been working on a marketing plan for the last two months. It is now finalized and I will be now working on finding a location and getting the new shop set up. Why Rochester? Why not! Rochester has 100,000+ Mayo Clinic patients that come to this city, and we are ready to help and support those traveling folks.
Next up, I met with a secret marketing partner on Wed night and plans will be formalized this week on this new adventure. I will expose this secret weapon in an upcoming Week In Review. I spoke to the Minnesota Chapter of the American Marketing Association on Thursday evening. What a great crowd!! I try to book a speaking engagement once a month (great marketing) and I was completely shocked when they asked me to speak to their group last January. Call That Girl has some great marketing ideas and sharing them, is what we always do. We will be blogging here in April about our 2009 marketing ideas, what worked and what did not.
Week ended with a “Back up your stuff” special for $59. We have that sale on board until April 3rd, so if you want in, let us know via email or give us a call to book an appointment.
That’s it this week folks, next week I will attending the The Original Twin Cities Social, March 31st 5:00pm – 7:00pm
It’s at Cooper Pub in St. Louis Park! Since my office is almost next door, I will for sure be there!
Yes, it happened to me last Sunday morning. I had spent many hours on Saturday working on a few work documents and even though my Mozy.com backs up daily, I had decided to do a manual back up. Took 6 minutes and I left the computer on for the night.
I wake up on Sunday morning to hear “beep…bloink”. You should have seen my eyes, bursting out of my head. What happens to my clients finally after 15 years of doing computer repair, happened to me. Thankfully I borrowed a laptop from family and I was up and running again, with all my documents/spreadsheets and Outlook pst files all as they were the day before.
We just had a newsletter about backing up, but due to my situation this past weekend, we will be running a “back up special”. Not everyone knows how to do computer back ups (even though they have an external hard drive) or how to go online and set up a data back up program. Call That Girl is seeing many computers in the shop that do not have their data backed up. This is something you need to think about now, rather than later. Yes, we can usually get your data off the hard drive, but there are times we cannot due to the hard drive being corrupted.
“Back up special” Special Price, $59
Here’s the rules:
We will back up:
Back up options
Call us to book an appointment at 612-865-4475 or email info@callthatgirl.biz
