Blog Cambridge Computer & Laptop Repairs, Services & Support

Computer Repair in Impington

April 21, 2019 by Kevin Price

Today I went to an address in Impington, Cambridge to assist a nice old lady who was having problems with her computer running slowly. An initial diagnosis took just a few minutes and I track the slowness down to a failing hard drive. I brought the laptop back to the workshop and successfully cloned the hard drive onto a brand new solid state drive. After running through our standard cleanup routines and checking for malware, the computer ran a lot faster.

Most hard drives are what we call “spinners”, a bit like an old fashioned record player, in which a magnetically coated disk is spun around 5400rpm and a head floats about a micron above the surface to read the data. This is a relatively slow process as the computer is relying on a mechanical process to move the head to the correct place on the disk and also wait for the disk to spin round to find the data. The newer solid state drives (known as SSD) are a lot quicker as they contain only memory chips so most computers will be ready to use approximately a minute after turning them on, as opposed to the old hard drives which take between five and fifteen minutes. The other advantages are that solid state drives are silent in operation, use less power and are also immune to knocks and bumps.

Tips To Keep You Safe On The Internet

July 14, 2018 by Kevin Price

1 – If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is, especially if it’s from an individual user or minor seller. Be very suspicious of any sale that you can’t believe is real. Maybe you’ve found the best deal of the year, but it’s more likely that you’ve come across a scam set up to defraud you and steal your money or personal information.

2 – Do some research about any online seller you’re considering buying from. Most sellers believe quality customer service goes hand in hand with making a profit. Others, seem to be focussed only on turning a profit. With credit card sales being the main form of online shopping, it’s vital that everyone knows the policies of the cards they use and what recourse they have should those policies be abused.

3 – People would also be wise to investigate other forms of payment, such as PayPal. Other methods may not offer the convenience of credit cards, they can sometimes provide additional security against scams and the criminals who know how to abuse the system.

4 – Be very cautious. The Internet can be a dangerous place. During high shopping seasons, the dangers usually increase exponentially.

Be wary when you shop online!

New Computer Setup in Bottisham

July 14, 2018 by Kevin Price

Went to see a lady in Bottisham who had just bought herself a brand new laptop. She wanted me to transfer all of her data, and set up her email. I did this successfully and also installed some anti-virus software on the laptop.

Email Issues in Cambridge

July 14, 2018 by Kevin Price

Went to see an elderly couple in Cambridge today, they were experiencing constant request for the password for their email account from within Microsoft Outlook. It turned out that the email address was using a me.com domain which belongs to an Apple email address. Apple are a bit funny about passwords for email accounts, and I had to generate a password just for using within Outlook. Also, while I was there another message popped up about Windows not being able to find wkufind.exe, which turns out to be a leftover from an ancient version of Office called Microsoft Works. This package was no longer being used, or installed at all, so I disabled it from running at start up.

Internet issues in the centre of Cambridge

July 14, 2018 by Kevin Price

Went to see a nice man in King’s Street, Cambridge who was having problems with his Internet connection. He had been in contact with his Internet Service Provider but unfortunately they weren’t being very helpful. After a few minutes of checking, it appeared that the Ethernet port on his All-In-One computer had failed. Fortunately, his router was right next to the PC and the computer had a working wireless connection. A few minutes later the wireless connection was successfully configured and tested, and all was well once more. The man’s computer was starting to show it’s age, so I quoted him for a new PC from a local supplier in Milton, which he then ordered. I’ll be going back to Cambridge to see him again next week to set up his new computer, and transfer his data and install any software that he needs as well as installing his printer.

Laptop Repair in Milton Cambridge

October 6, 2017 by Kevin Price

Was called out to a customer in Milton, Cambridge. They had issues with printing from their Windows 10 laptop. It appeared that the issue was caused by the HP software that was installed. So the software was dutifully removed and cleaned up from their laptop. After a reboot, the latest HP printer software was downloaded and installed. And voila, the printer then happily printing and scanning!

HP software is notoriously bloated, and I have had quite a few issues with it over the years. Most issues can simply be solved by removing the offending software, cleaning up and reinstalling. Always make sure you’ve installed the latest Windows Updates from Microsoft. As well as ensuring that all your software is up to date.

Also, a lot of people used a direct connection between their laptop or computer and their printer. I have found the best way is to print via the broadband router.

Installation of a wireless printer is relatively simple, most wireless printers allow you to connect to your wireless network via a front-panel interface which will scan to find the wireless network and then all you have to do is enter your wireless password, and it will then connect and remember it. If you change your broadband router, you will need to reconfigure your printer with the new wireless network name and wireless password. You may need to configure your printer software to connect to the printer with it’s new settings.

The easiest way to connect is, of course, to use a USB cable, which is assuming your printer is reasonably close to your computer.

If you’re having any issues with printers, please feel free to contact me. I’ve fixed many printer related issues over the last twenty five years and can help with pretty much any computer and laptop related issues that you may have.

Computer Service in Harston Cambridge

October 6, 2017 by Kevin Price

I got called out to a slow running HP desktop computer in Harston in Cambridge. I gave it a full clean up, checked for malware & viruses, checked the system files and reset the Windows networking. Also, I updated Windows and software and removed any temporary files before giving it a defrag. The computer then ran a lot happier than it was when I first got there!

All versions of Windows slow down over time. But we can clean your computer or laptop and improve it’s performance. We’ll also check that your hard isn’t on it’s way out, this happens most often with laptops, but can also happen with desktop computers as well.

We run a few different virus and malware scanners at Cambridge PC Support when performing a clean up. No single anti-virus solution can detect all viruses. In fact, you still need to be very careful which web sites you visit and which emails you open. The most common vector for viruses and malware to enter your computer are via fake invoices and tax rebates that you may receive in your email inbox. This is why we computer people are always nagging about keeping backups, because even the most careful computer user can fall prey to a virus infection and have their documents and pictures encrypted by so-called ransomware software. This will encrypt your precious data and will only decrypt it once you have paid a few hundred pounds. With a lot of ransomware attacks, even the most competent computer technician will be unable to decrypt your files.

Windows can create an awful lot of temporary files and some badly written software can create huge amounts of large files which will use up all the space on your computer until it gets to a point where the computer can no longer function correctly.

Computer Service in Harston Cambridge

Computer Service in Chesterton Cambridge

October 6, 2017 by Kevin Price

Had a call from a lady in Chesterton who was having problems with a monitor attached to her Asus laptop. The laptop’s screen worked fine but the external monitor wouldn’t work at all. After connecting another machine to the monitor and using a different HDMI cable, the issue was narrowed down to the laptop itself. On further investigation it appeared that the correct display driver was not installed. The laptop was using the default Microsoft graphics driver, which is what Windows tends to use when it can’t automatically detect and download the correct manufacturer’s graphics driver. So off to Asus’ website to download and install the correct drivers, and all was well.

Not that it’s the case above, but I see a lot of computers and laptops that have some kind of driver updating software installed. This is really not necessary and can actually cause more problems than they solve. When it comes to Windows drivers, the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” really does apply. So unless you’re having a particular problem with a piece of hardware, either internal or external, you really don’t need to update the drivers.

A lot of issues with drivers can sometimes be resolved by simply uninstalling the driver in question and then rebooting the computer and then allowing Windows to rediscover the hardware and automatically download and install the correct driver. Sometimes, however, for the more obscure hardware devices, Windows can’t find the driver, so you will need to take a trip to the manufacturer’s website in order to find the device in question and then download and install the correct driver. For older versions of Windows and also older hardware devices this can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. However, there are ways around this, sometimes using a driver for the previous version of Windows will be successful.

Computer Service in Chesterton Cambridge

Computer Repair in Fulbourn Cambridge

October 6, 2017 by Kevin Price

A repair in Fulbourn today, where we are based! The laptop’s hard drive was failing, so I had to bring it back to the workshop to recover the data. A new fast solid state hard drive was fitted and Windows 10 installed. Any necessary software was installed and the customer’s data was migrated back to the new hard drive.

The more old-fashioned types of hard drive are very slow due to having to rely on a physical process which takes time. However the more up-to-date hard drives are built with no moving parts and rely on memory chips like you’d find in USB memory drives. This means that the drive is a lot faster to access. As an example, a laptop that took five minutes to fully boot up from power on with the old type of hard drive, will take about fifteen seconds to boot up if using the new solid state drives (aka SSD).

Converting a laptop or desktop computer to SSD is usually quite a straightforward process. I use special cloning software which will take an exact duplicate image of the current hard drive and then stream it onto the new SSD. This minimizes the disruption caused by having to reinstall all of your software, configure email, migrate data, etc.

The most frequent work I do is recovering data from a failing laptop hard drive, and then installing a new solid state drive. Most times, if the state of the hard drive isn’t too bad, I can successfully clone across to the new drive and all is well.

Computer Repair in Fulbourn Cambridge

Computer & Laptop Repair in Fulbourn, Cambridge

Computer Repair in Trumpington Cambridge

October 6, 2017 by Kevin Price

A customer in Trumpington was having issues with logging on to Windows 10 as it kept rejecting the password. I used a specialist piece of software on a USB memory stick to boot the computer and reset the password. While I was there I also checked for any nasty malware and viruses.

Popular locations for our laptop & computer repair services: