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Computer Repair in Pacific Palisades.

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.

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Computer repair in Fontana. 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.

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Computer Repair in Los Angeles – Service Areas

Our service areas generally cover the cities in the Los Angeles County Area, LA Metro Cities and surrounding areas. If you are unsure, please call (877) My-Genius or (877) 694-3648 to verify that our E-Geniuses technicians can service your area.

Other cities we service:

Cypress, Granada Hills, Toluca Lake, West Covina,

Cities we service remotely (via the web):

Fontana

School/Colleges/Universities

USC, FIDM

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Computer Repair in West Covina.

I arrived at the client’s apartment complex in the city of West Covina, CA. It was hard to find the exact location. It was raining so I was in a hurry to get inside the house. I called the client and they guided me in the right direction.

The problem they were having was with a virus infested computer. They explained that their computer was a few years old, but it was older and slower than I expected. That is a nightmare considering that virus and spyware removal are resource intensive. Scanning requires a lot from the CPU, the RAM and the Hard Disk Drive.

A pre-boot scan found 16 different viruses, mostly trojans. When the computer came on, I scanned it again with a few anti-spyware programs. I found and removed a few more bugs. Two hours had already passed. To finish up, I scanned the registry, startup folder and system32 folder manually. Nothing there.

The computer ran a lot smoother but I still had to recommend that the client look into upgrading to a newer machine in the future. They agreed but said they weren’t in the position to buy a new computer.

They were happy with the service and got the Monthly Maintenance Plan.

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Computer Repair in Cypress.

I arrived at the client’s home in Cypress, CA. It was a nice neighborhood. I would have guessed the homes were in the 1 to 2 million dollar price range. The client had an issue with a Dell Inspiron desktop PC that was running too slowly. Although the Celeron processor is the inferior model compared to it’s Pentium counterpart, it wasn’t the cause of the problem, it wasn’t what we consider the bottleneck. The client only needed to do basic browsing, emailing and light multimedia usage (YouTube, iTunes, Windows Media Player). We could have upgraded the CPU, but it wouldn’t have been the most cost effective way of making the computer faster.

After seeing that the memory usage was way up in Task Manager, we decided that the Memory was the culprit. (Only had 256Mb of Ram). So we looked on Crucial.com and found that the best bang for the buck would be an upgrade to 1Gb. I happened to have one in my Laptop bag. I installed it, turned the computer on with 4 times the Ram it had previously. Wow, what a difference! The client was extremely satisfied. In addition we did an Optimization by removing all of the unnecessary startup items. We also changed their McAfee antivirus to a less resource intensive anti-virus.

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