Tag: laptop

If your Laptop is severely Damaged, can anything be Saved?

| February 15, 2011 | 0 Comments

Check out this picture of a laptop that was actually recovered from a house fire.

You are going to find this hard to believe, but the computer repair tech that worked on this laptop was actually able to retrieve all of the data off the hard drive. Not everyone would have been so lucky.

At CTG we are often asked if anything can be salvaged from a severely damaged laptop. And the answer is, each scenario can be different. You might be able to salvage a part off of a recently damaged laptop, but in the end what will probably matter most is whether your data can be saved.

We depend on our computers to keep all of our memories, taxes, personal documents, work documents, notes, calendars, emails, family weekend gatherings, weddings, videos, movie collections, just about everything we do in today’s fast moving technology world.

If your laptop was accidentally dropped, in an unfortunate house fire, stolen, or the hard drive crashes repeatedly, what would you do without your data? Starting from scratch can be pretty scary.

This is why CTG always recommends that you back up your data and computers regularly, and if you need assistance please Call That Girl today so we can assist.

Call us to schedule an appointment for a “cost efficient” 30 minute session to insure your hard drive is backed up daily, weekly, or monthly. After all, your “stuff” is very important to us.

If your laptop is damaged severely, it can still be recycled. Please visit http://www.ecyclingcentral.com to find a location convenient for you where you can drop off any laptop or other device. Typically the charge for dropping off a laptop is around $20, but well worth the good karma.

To book an appointment with CTG please fill out our contact form below or simply call 612-865-4475 today.

Does your cursor or mouse move while you type?

| February 8, 2011 | 0 Comments

Ah, this is a common problem with many our clients.

Does this happen to you? You’re typing like a mad person and all of a sudden you see your mouse/cursor move to another spot on your screen. And you’ve noticed for awhile now.

This is a common problem with laptop users and it actually has a medical term associated with it.

Smallhandwristlaptoptouchpad Disorder, otherwise known as SHLTP.

Ok, that’s a joke.

What is really happening is that your wrists or hands are touching the “touchpad” on the laptop ,the little square soft area under your space bar. This is a hardware piece of your laptop that you can use as a mouse instead of attaching a mouse. Not everyone knows this but if you touch it while you’re typing, the cursor/mouse will move on you.

The people having most of the problems with this are women with smaller hands.  Some of the touchpads on laptops are wider or more delicate to the touch so you may not even see this problem.

You can disable this function or just keep aware of this and maybe you can avoid touching the touchpad.

If you want help with disabling this feature, Call That Girl today and we can remote in your computer and disable it for you.

Laptop and Virus Repair for Minneapolis Minnesota

| February 1, 2011 | 0 Comments
After a few months of restructuring the business, we have now reopened our Twin Cities drop off location in St. Louis Park. We offer sit down, side by side service…no counter to stand at and you can see your computer boot up and ask questions when you leave our office. We recommend it!

Interested in having us do your hardware repairs? Call others first and get quotes or save yourself and be sure you get the most affordable, fast turnaround repairs by Calling That Girl! Our St. Louis Park location offers friendly service and knowledable technicians.

Minneapolis Office (Call us first please to insure the best level of support, somtimes our remote services are best!

Hours 10am-6pm
PC/Networking Support
Laptop power jack replacement and repair
Laptop screen replacement
Laptop keyboard replacement
Desktop computer hardware repair
Crashed hard drives
Data recovery
Blue screens of death repair

5871 Cedar Lake Rd. #214
St. Louis Park, MN 55416
612-865-4475

Computer Repair Minneapolis

| January 2, 2010 | 0 Comments

Why choose Call That Girl?

We are a great choice for the home users! Benefits of using  our services:

  • Our easy to connect “remote login” is an affordable solution to take care of many computer problems
  • We will talk to your children if necessary to train them to use the computer in a manner that is safe
  • We will help guide you to make better decisions with your computer
  • We do a follow up at the end of every support call to make sure you know how to avoid mistakes
  • We offer a quick call follow up for free if you have a question or two

Our personable technicians will talk to you on “your level” and support you and your family with the choices you can afford. (Sometimes having the “neighbor kid” fix your computer only goes so far).

Please see the list of services below, start making your list of questions, and call for a home visit today!

If your internet works, we prefer to remote into your computer to fix any software issues. We only ask you to bring your computer into our shop if if you have the following issues:

  • Bad Virus/Internet is not working
  • Computer crashes/Blue or Black screen when you start the computer
  • Refreshing the computer (bring it back to the day you bought it)

Service Options

Phone Support: (our most popular!) $25 for 15 minute minimum, $75 per hour

Here at Call That Girl we offer or phone support as a fast, convenient, and affordable way to treat a wide range of issues. Our technicians will guide you through the steps needed to effectively resolve your problem, while at the same time offering their expertise so that you may prevent future computer difficulties.

Home/Office Support: Starts at $85 an hour and goes up depending on where you live.

In-Shop Support: $75 per hour (average cost of repair is $112)

Extra’s

  • Client Agreement form
  • Delivery and onsite pick up available! http://www.bontime.com
  • Call That Girl accepts credit cards and we use Logmein Rescue for remote support.
  • Diagnostic charge? Not with Call That Girl!
  • Before every appointment our technicians will discuss with you the current security of your computer and will suggest backing up your machine’s document, pictures, music, etc. Your “stuff” is important to us too!

Ono! My computer froze!

| December 28, 2009 | 0 Comments

Sometimes an application or your computer will freeze and you can’t do anything…or can you?

There are a few things that can cause computers to freeze:

  • Too much going on: Having too many programs open at once and moving too fast for the computer to manage the bigger applications
  • Overclicking keys “Overclicking” doesn’t help at all. It’s equal to hitting the elevator button 15 times to get it there faster. Hitting the enter or delete key once is all you need. Hitting it faster or harder, only confuses the computer and will halt to a big freeze.
  • Downloading: Downloading large files and trying to do many things at once
  • Low hardware memory for what you are doing
  • Lack of sleep reboot or turn off your computer sometimes, they get tired too!
  • Check the heat If your computer is hot or boiling hot, turn it off at night

TRICK to save your stuff if you are in the middle of a deep freeze:

  • Start with the “alt + tab” trick, find your work that needs to be saved,
  • Then hit “Ctrl + S”, it will bring up a “save as” box.

If this fails, I recommend just leaving your computer for a few minutes and let it settle down. Sometimes we work too hard and the computer/application can get “confused”.  Letting it rest awhile, will give the application time to figure itself out. And clicking-clicking-clicking trying to get it to work, only confuses it more.

Go get something to drink, take a break and come back and see if the mouse moves again.

What if you did all of that and the computer is still frozen? Shutting off the computer is sometimes the only choice you have. If you have “auto-save” features in your documentation/email programs, you should be able to get back your recently worked on work. If you do not have auto save on, then you will probably have to start over.

Finally…to turn on Auto-save, you must open a new document, name it and save it on the hard drive. This is a must!!!

Go Ahead.. Ask A Question!

| December 26, 2009 | 0 Comments

Blog That Girl is the blog of “Call That Girl”. The technical diary of a woman running her own computer repair business. Listed in this blog you will find documentation, tips and tricks and maybe a few rants and raves from my life as a woman running her own business. Thanks and enjoy! Lisa

This area is an open blog for everyone! Feel free to post a question in the comment field below, and I will try my best to give you a fast answer!