What is one of the most important things in life aside from computers and technology? That’s right, your health! We would like to share some of the free resources regarding your health that we think are priceless. The information provided might serve to answer some of the questions you may have about your health and your service providers.

It can be difficult trying to find a good doctor.  You deserve a doctor that watches over your health as carefully as E-Geniuses watches over the stability and security of your computer system.

Plaques and certificates can provide clues about your doctor’s competency, but here are some more ways you can use the power of the Internet to help you find out more about your doctors:

Visit websites like: www.vitals.com (free) or www.healthgrades.com (free, but requires payment for more information) to find out:

•    The schools the doctor attended
•    The number of years they’ve been practicing
•    Which hospitals they’ve worked at
•    How highly their schools and hospitals are rated
•    The type of doctor that specializes in treating your conditions
•    The languages they speak
•    What their patients have to say about them
•    And even what they look like…

After you’ve found the right doctor and have been given a diagnosis, you can use the Internet to further understand the effects of prescribed medications as well as more in-depth information about different conditions.  We recommend www.webmd.com as a starting point.

Even though E-Geniuses is a technical service company, we value our clients and wish you all good health.

We hope you have a Happy, and Healthy, Holiday Season!

This article is the first of our E-Geniuses Health Series. We will post more articles in the upcoming weeks.

No one likes having to get their car repaired. It’s difficult to determine what the problem is, how much the parts should cost, and what the labor should cost and whether the shop is reputable. Our E-Geniuses Technician Harold found a wonderful site called RepairPal.com. RepairPal allows you to search for your car, find known problems for your make and model, receive an estimate for parts and labor, then find a local repair shop that can get the job done.

The great thing is that RepairPal is independent. They are unbiased and the feedback about the repair shops is from customers. When you get a free instant estimate on their site, you can easily print it and bring it to a shop to avoid getting overcharged. You can shop around for a reputable shop without even leaving your home (anyway you shouldn’t be driving your car around in this condition right?) RepairPal can also keep a record of past repairs on your vehicle for future reference.

Overall, RepairPal is an excellent free service. We would recommend it to anyone.

There are many ways to watch your favorite TV shows online now. Our new favorite way is to use a free service from Hulu.com. Hulu provides high quality streaming movies and TV shows. These are the movies you would expect to see on HBO or Cinemax. The great thing is that they play instantly, are on-demand and free. You might have to sign up for an account for movies that have an R rating.

If Hulu can’t quite satisfy your movie watching needs, we suggest subscribing to a Netflix account. Plans start at $4.99 plus tax and you can get 3 DVD/Blu-Ray movies at a time. You can also stream many of their movies online so you can watch them instantly. Unlimited hour plans are $16.99 per month plus tax. Still a lot less than most cable TV bills.

Don’t forget about YouTube.com, the most popular video-sharing site on the web. This site is good for quick clips usually under 10 minutes. YouTube can be used for entertainment, information and communication.

After all that, you can still opt to keep your TV for live sports and the latest news coverage, but at least you can cut down on the amount you spend each month by changing your cable package.  Eventually, the Internet might completely replace the TV as people’s main source of entertainment and information since it can do all of the things the TV can do but it offers something that the TV doesn’t, interaction.

YouTube is now offering a “high quality” version of its videos that are significantly better than “normal quality”. I’ve found that if you add &fmt=22 to the end of the address, it will show you the video in max quality which is about 720p. This hack does does cause the video to take a while to stream in some cases but it looks great.

*Keep in mind that the video has to be uploaded at 720p for it to show in 720p! It cannot make a video look better than the original.

Here’s an example of a video that I made in 720p on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BackVa-YU7M&fmt=22

Compare it to the one I put on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/1066526

I had such a hard time finding, downloading and installing the drivers for a Sony Vaio VGN-CR Series laptop that comes preinstalled with Windows Vista. I wanted to run Windows XP Professional instead but the drivers are not available on Sony’s website since they don’t offer an XP downgrade and are encourageing the use of Vista. It is a pain to download the drivers from the manufacturers and some don’t even have them available. So if you’re looking for the drivers for your Vaio, you can try and download the ones I found on Sony’s Asia website. Don’t worry everything is in English. Hope it helps. Download the XP Drivers for Sony Vaio VGN CR Series

http://www.sony-asia.com/support/download/240810/sectionfirst?subpage=detail

When my computer crashed, not only did I realize how new to Los Angeles I was, but how crippled I am without a computer.  As a graduate student at USC, my computer is more or less another part of my body, which is why I was so thankful for the help that I received from E-Geniuses.  Being new to the city, I looked on the Internet for computer support that was close to campus and E-Geniuses popped up.  Through their user-friendly website, I was able to contact and be responded to within hours.  The next day, I took my broken computer in to E-Geniuses, which was within biking distance from USC.  I was pleasantly surprised to see that the stereotype of computer support guys (i.e. Geek Squad) was not true.  The two people I spoke with were personable, patient, and highly professional.  The atmosphere and customer care were such that I felt comfortable and welcomed while my computer was being attended to.  I will definitely be going back to E-Geniuses with any computer problems in the future.

~Jeff

A previous client in Pacific Palisades called for computer repair. The computer service call was about a PC that was having issues running Internet Explorer 7. I had worked on his 2 other computers previously, but not on this particular machine. When I scanned the computer, I found that it had many high threat viruses such as trojans, malware and specifically Vundo. Due to the nature of the viruses, there was potential risk in removing the viruses because in doing so, it could damage some system files. That is exactly what happened. Apparently, I was getting an error message regarding 2 files in the system32 folder; icm3232.dll and gdi3232.dll not being valid Windows images.

The first step was to try to repair the XP Home installation using a Windows CD. The repair was rather slow since the computer was an older model Sony Vaio PCV-RX670. During the installation, numerous error messages came up regarding the icm3232.dll and gdi3232.dll files. Another error message was titled grpconv.exe - Bad Image and mmc.exe - Bad Image, regsvr32.exe, logagent.exe, unregmp2.exe, cmd.exe - bad image, unloadm.exe, migrate.exe, wmpenc.exe, drmupgds.exe.

After the repair, the computer was still running a bit funny. It would freeze up and not boot properly intermittently. After consulting with the client, we decided a data migration and reinstallation of the operating system would be the best solution. The client said to go ahead and take the computer back to our office and bring it back when it was finished.

I copied about 40 GB of data from three user accounts making sure to save everything including their documents, pictures, movies, music and favorites. It took a long time to copy so it was good that it didn’t have to be done on-site. I then scanned all of the files I was going to migrate to ensure I wasn’t also migrating the virus.

I reinstalled Windows XP, installed all of the drivers necessary, installed the security applications for them, installed the software they requested; (Microsoft Office, iTunes, Rhapsody, Mozilla Firefox, Picasa and some other extras). Then I migrated the data from their old system to the newly installed system and proceeded to migrate their iTunes library and other data into programs. We want the computing experience to be as seamless as possible for the client.

After talking to the client, we decided that it would be a good idea to also upgrade the RAM and install a backup drive. I installed the memory and the internal hard drive. I also used a backup program to automatically image their entire system in case of a hard drive crash. I also setup an online backup for their important data. The online backup was setup to backup nightly in case something happened to the entire computer; the client could just re-download their files.

The computer was ready to go after only 1 day at the shop. The client said that they would be busy and that they would rather me bring it in the next day. I returned the computer and the client seemed very happy with the results. I had to reinstall their printer and re-setup their Internet, but I was only there for another 20 minutes max. It was a fun experience for me. I was glad that the client was satisfied. They ended up also signing up for a Maintenance Plan with us to ensure that problems like this would be prevented in the future. Smart move on their part.

What hardware and software does the computer savvy elite have that the ordinary person does not and why? Many computer geniuses know what is important when it comes to computer setups. We can’t always afford everything we want, but there are some things that are close to necessary if you want to get the most out of technology. Here’s an overview of some hardware, software and services that will get you started in finding your inner genius with the help of technology, without having to be a technical geek or guru.

You need a computer that can keep up with you. If your computer is too slow and it discourages you from using it, then you need to either upgrade or optimize your system. In many cases, removing unnecessary start-up programs, upgrading ram, and removing viruses can make a big difference without having to swap out your entire computer.

Security is extremely important if you’re doing anything even remotely private such as online banking, writing your next best selling book, or even email. Anytime you type in your password, you should feel confident that no one else will be able to retrieve it. This requires an updated security suite. So many new viruses are made each day, that we would recommend having a computer service company that can change your security software based on current threats. E-Geniuses offers Monthly Maintenance Plans specifically for that reason. We can service clients anywhere in the world as long as they have a high-speed internet connection.

Most people are aware of advantages of a high-speed internet connection. With the prices of DSL nowadays, no one should be paying for a dial-up connection.

Backup, backup and backup! The two types of backups that we always recommend are backups of your software, operating system and priceless data (pictures, movies, music, documents). This requires an extra hard drive or an online backup storage solution. These backups should be automatic. A flash drive is not sufficient for this purpose since it has a limited life span.

The second type of backup is a battery backup also called a UPS. The purpose of a battery backup is to protect your computer from electrical issues caused by fluctuations. This is one of the most common causes of computer hardware failure and can easily be prevented with a UPS.

Of course the proper peripheral devices are important for functionality. Devices that fit into this category are scanners, printers, wireless routers, comfort keyboards and mice, and web cams.

Software is crucial to being able to do what you want to do. Every computer user has specific uses for their computer and it differs from user to user. Computer software programs need to be installed to facilitate those needs. Let your computer service technician know what you want to be able to do, and they should be able to find the right software to get the job done. Many times, the software is available for free.

Every computer user needs to feel comfortable with the software on their computer. They should feel familiar enough so that the computer doesn’t get in the way of what they really intend to do. The computer experience should almost be transparent. Tutoring is recommended for anyone who wants to get the most out of their computer. One-on-one tutoring is going to be more effective than computer classes because you can learn the software specific to what you want to do. E-Geniuses offers One-on-One Tutoring Services for existing clients. Feel free to contact us and see how we can get you on the right track.

Today I received a call from a client who needed computer service in Fontana. The problem is that we do not currently provide on-site service to the city of Fontana because it is outside of our coverage area. It is too far to drive.

Even though we couldn’t provide on-site service, I listened to the client while she described the problem so that I could at least point her in the right direction and maybe find a local repair shop that could help her solve the problem. After listening, I found that I could possibly fix the computer remotely without having to go there. It all depended on whether she could get online or not.

I walked her through restarting the computer in Safe Mode, going online and downloading the E-Geniuses Help Desk Utility. After she downloaded the application she was able to connect her office computer to my desktop.

I noticed that the startup was setup to go to a corrupt installation of Windows XP. I changed the startup to go to the proper version, scanned the hard drive for errors, and scanned for viruses, spyware and malware.

After I finished, the computer booted up properly. She was very happy that she was only charged $119 instead of the $300 that Geek Squad quoted her to fix the problem. I was glad to be able to solve the problem and save them money!

Here’s her testimonial:

“I would like to thank E-Geniuses for their help over the phone.  They were fast and knew exactly what they were doing.  Fantastic service!!” - Shannon, California Customs and Classics.

The Higher Cost for Laptop Repairs

FAQ: “So how much does it cost to fix my laptop?”

The cost to repair a laptop computer depends on many factors. Laptops are usually more expensive to repair than a desktop computer because parts for desktops are readily available at your local electronics shop. Desktops are also designed to be easily opened so that all of the components can be upgraded, replaced or repaired. Laptops on the other hand are not designed to be easily opened. Sure, most of the major laptop brands such as HP/Compaq, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Sony, Gateway and Dell, to name a few, allow easy access to the memory and the hard drive (the hard drives on certain Apple laptops are extremely difficult to access.) Other than the ram and the disk drive, most of the other components require taking the laptop apart in order to access them.

Opening a laptop can be very risky. The layout and design of laptops vary by manufacturer. A knowledgeable technician should always be careful since many of the wires have very little slack and are difficult to put back on once they come off. If possible, it’s best to have a step-by-step guide specific to the model of laptop that’s being repaired. The small screws used are also easy to lose and hard to keep track of.

Another reason laptops are more costly to fix is because not all laptop parts are readily available. LCD displays for laptops are probably the easiest thing to replace since certain manufacturers actually use the same LCD screens. Other common parts such as keyboards and power jacks can usually be found on eBay. Keep in mind that most things purchased on eBay will take at least 1 week to arrive.

We have a policy that we need either a down-payment for the cost of the part or some sort of collateral, most likely the laptop. No computer repair & service shop will want to take the risk of ordering a part that the customer no longer wants. My advice is to find out what the part needs to be replaced, and if it warrants the cost of repair, order it and bring the part and the laptop to the shop. Of course this assumes that you’ve diagnosed properly and purchased a good working replacement. The advantage of having the computer service company diagnose the problem and order the part is that they are responsible for returning the part if the diagnosis is incorrect or if the replacement part doesn’t work.

Some clients do not like the idea of being without their laptop for more than a few days. I’ve had shoppers call me asking if I have a specific part for their laptop. When I tell them that the part needs to be ordered and that it will take about a week, I’ve heard people say, “Ok, I’m going to try to find a place that has the part in stock because I need it today.” Good luck. They might get lucky if a shop has the part from another laptop they have lying around, but most shops don’t keep an inventory of parts for every make and model laptop. There are just too many different parts to make it a good investment for the repair shop.

So now you understand that the higher cost of repair is due to difficulty level of the repair and scarcity of computer parts.

Here are some tips to prevent the higher cost of laptop repairs:

• Get yourself a good laptop case with plenty of padding.
• Be careful when traveling with the laptop. If you don’t have a Toughbook, it probably isn’t that rugged.
• Don’t force shutdown during the “Shutting Down” process. It might prevent your computer from booting next time.
• Be gentle when pulling the power cord from the back of the laptop. The pins can break easily.
• Try not to put the laptop wire anywhere where someone can trip and pull your laptop down with them.
• Put your laptop on a level surface when possible.
• Place your laptop where it is cool and make sure that the vents where the air flows are not blocked. Do not store it in a hot place like a sun baked car.
• Keep food and liquid away from the laptop. If you spill liquid, the first thing you’ll want to do is see if it’s still working. DON’T DO IT!!! Unplug the power and battery immediately. Try to get all of the liquid out by turning the laptop upside down. Try not to shake the hard drive too much. It may damage it. Let it dry for as long as you can wait. Days. Maybe a week if you’re patient. A blow drier will help. Don’t put it on the hottest setting though. Take it to your trusted computer repair company when you can so they can take the residue the liquid may have left behind. Keep your fingers crossed.
• Pets and laptops don’t mix.
• Small children and laptops don’t mix.
• Angry people and laptops don’t mix.
• Drinking parties and laptops don’t mix.

If you have to get your laptop repaired, make sure to follow my advice: