Tag: Saint Paul Computer repair
Computer Repair Minneapolis
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!
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!
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!
Call That Girl’s Guide to cleaning the inside of your computer
Yes folks, you have to clean inside your computer (not if you have a laptop, but we’ll touch on that later).
Clean inside my computer????
Yes, I said it! Do you know what the inside of your computer looks like? It’s a metal box with parts all over it connected by a huge board called “the motherboard” or (fatherboard as the ladies like to call it).
If you are interested in seeing what’s going on and how many dust balls are in that box, let’s take off the cover or “shell” as geeks call it and find out! (reminder…if you have pets, expect A LOT of dust and fur!)
1.) Unplug all cords! This machine must not be connected to any power.
2.) Take your computer outside
Usually there are clips on the side that snap and you slide off half the case, it’s not just as simple as opening a box, but it will slide open.
For other models, you may have to unscrew some of the exterior screws. Sometimes half the cover comes off, other times the whole thing will come off and there you will be seeing your computer naked!
Most people I have seen clean out their computer, just get a vacuum and suck all the dust balls out. (even I do that usually…) But…there are some concerns with that. Electric static can zap your computer and fry some of the pieces. So for you “Average Jane/Joe”…I just recommend just hand grabbing all the big pieces. Then after you have them out, get a can of “Dust Air” and start spraying air on all the dirty components.
You will especially want to get the back area where the power fan is, and where you plug in your internet cords, monitor, etc. Those are very dusty! (as they are so close to the fur and dust in your house).
After you find it all clean and good to go, put the cover back on and plug it all back in. Your computer will may or may not run faster or better, but I have seen some really scary fur balls in one of my computers and I feared fur fire LOL. Never know….it was a huge furball.
LAPTOP USERS
Nope, you can’t just take it all apart and dust it out (ok, shouldn’t…it’s a pain to put it together)…but you can clean the keyboard and I do recommend that. Why? Because the keyboard is a part of the “machine” unlike a regular computer that has it detached. Keeping your keyboard clean will help keep your laptop working especially after warranty. Just get a can of dust air and give it a good “spraying down” and then check for huge crumbs and what not. A cookie crumb can cause a key to stick and give you hours of drama….so just check that out on occasion and you’ll be in great shape!
If you have any questions about this or want Call That Girl to do a regular computer cleaning and show you how to dust out your computer, call 612-865-4475 for an appt.
What is your hourly rate to play Google Tech?
Not really a computer tip and trick, but this is a good topic for those that “try to fix their own computer problems”.
Example: I am not a good web designer. I have dabbled in it since the 90’s, but when it came to starting up Call That Girl in 2007, I said “No way Jose!” am I doing my own website! I knew to outsource that right away. I called up Scott who I worked with many years ago and asked him if he was still doing them. He was thank goodness and I gave him my specs and a week later, up was my site for $200.
I would have wasted more than a month to do what he did and not as good as he did it. While he was off doing my site, I was starting to build my network, going to networking events and plotting my marketing empire. I did not have time to waste on website building.
In my world, I am finding many folks who are trying to play “Google Technician”. They get a problem and Google it trying to fix it. Some have good results, but many do not. They call me up after many frustrated hours and I often fix their problem in just 15 minutes. Most of these folks are worth more than what we charge an hour and they are wasting their bill time trying to figure these things out.
(((Lisa scratches head)))
This is perfect time to call us and at least ask if we can fix it affordably. Our minimum rate is $25 for 15 minutes. Not bad for something easy for us and not so easy for you is it? Most computer repair technicians play “Google Technician” after we have tried to fix your issue without success, but the difference between “us and you” is that we know the systems and how to easily put those fixes in place, quickly.
I will close by adding, please be careful “deleting” anything! I have seen some folks make their problems worse by deleting sytem files or the registry to fix issues. Be careful out there.
Happy computing!
Lisa
Tip for easy back up of your important files
Many of my clients are not backing up, yep…I know. I keep going on and on about this, but I can never stress how important it is!
If you are not doing a daily, weekly or monthly back up, here is an easy solution for those extremely important files:
Email them to yourself!
I do this on occasion “just in case” and I do daily back ups!
I keep copies of my emails on my server for 5 days, so that gives me ample time to get any emails I need. If you are using hotmail, gmail, yahoo, etc…then those are kept on their servers until you delete them.
Let me know if you have any questions about doing this, email me at info@callthatgirl.biz