Surprise Hardware Failures

It is difficult over the phone to determine precisely the root cause of PC problem. Our goal is to determine when a PC failure can be fixed cheaply with an on-site visit or whether it is more effective to bring it into the shop to repair. Most people prefer an on-site repair, but in many cases it costs more to repair a PC on site than if to drop off the PC and pick it up after it was fixed. There are two reasons for this. First it takes a long time to run Virus scanning and other PC diagnostic programs. While we sit and wait for the programs to finish, the bill mounts up. Second, tools and PCs that save your data are at the shop. Consequently PC drop-off and pickup service is fixed price regardless of the amount time it takes to repair the PC and we can do a better job saving your data. This makes drop off and pick up service the cheapest repair alternative.

Sometimes very unusual problems are encountered. One old customer called complaining that he must've had viruses because he was getting pop-up ads and Windows panels continuously popping up on his screen. Over the phone this sounded like a simple spyware and virus removal 24-hour repair. So the old customer dropped off his PC and I began the spyware and virus removal process. The PC did have some spyware and viruses on it that looked like they would continue to reinstall themselves unless they were removed. So the viruses and spyware were removed and the PC was returned.

The next day the customer still had the same problem. So the PC was returned to look at it again. This time more tools were used to identify and remove the viruses and spyware. Some more bad software was indeed found. The PC was returned to the customer. The very next day the customer called and said he found the true source of the problem. Apparently his mouse had gone bad. When he used the mouse it caused Windows panels to pop up on the computer uncontrollably. This similar problem was encountered once before, but without using his mouse it was impossible to pin point the source of the problem.

A new customer brought in a Windows system that would not boot. The CHKDSK diagnostic was used to determine if the disk drive was failing causing the problem. There was some corruption on the disk, but there were no physical errors revealed. The computer was also scanned for viruses and spyware and some was found. To make the PC faster a memory upgrade was recommended. The customer bought memory and we installed it when she picked up the PC.

After running the PC for a couple of days at home, she called because the same problem was back. The PC was returned and I ran more tests on it to see if there was any bad software causing the problem. More bad software was indeed found and removed from the computer. When the customer returned to pick up the computer, she had additional memory modules to compete the memory upgrade. In the process of installing them for her, we discovered that one original memory module was bad. This was the true source of her problems.

PCs follow lists of instructions called programs. These lists are loaded off the disk drive into memory. The smallest memory error alters the list of instructions so that a PC following those instructions is told by the list to jump out the window and the PC crashes. That is precisely what happened here. A memory error in the failing memory module caused the PC to crash. The true root of the problem was the bad memory. Once it was replaced, the PC operated normally. What sometimes seems like an obvious PC problem is not so obvious. Such is the life of a nerd.