A day in the life of a computer repair tech

After an update Seamonkey would not load secure ( https ) sites properly. Per instructions from the Mozilla folks, deleted the cert.db file. No love. Restored system to an earlier time.

Removed the anti-virus (temporarily).

Ran windows update.

Re-installed norton.

Updated seamonkey, to the current release.

Now everything works as advertised!

During the re-update of seamonkey, a message popped up indicating the initial download of seamonkey had a problem. So likely the initial update of SM was corrupt.

Once again, simplifying, and re-applying updates from the top down …. Saves the day!!!

🙂

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Posted in Computer Repair, computer virus

Tagged firefox, Seamonkey, silver spring, ssl

File Cleaner Alert gog.exe Virus – Leisure World, MD – 20906

Posted on May 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

Jim K. on Interlachen Dr. — sorry that your curiousity got the better of you. You just had to open that piece of spam. You won’t do that again too soon.

Regardless I am glad I was able to help.

Jim’s problem was that when he would turn on the computer, and try to log in, his desktop would bring up only a splash screen, generated by the gog.exe virus.

Ugh a virus

Luckily, although annoying, I was able to get past it and banish it without too much trouble. Jim – sorry your McAfee did not get it, before you were infected, but at least cleaning it up was not terribly difficult. But as we discussed, your computer is close to being obsolete. Next time there is a problem, lets really work on getting you a new computer, and moving your data from the old to the new. A single core P4 with 512 MB of RAM, just does not cut it any longer.

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Posted in computer virus

No Sound – Leisure World MD – 20906 – Silver Spring

Posted on May 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

Mark L. of Beaverbrook Ct, your problem had me stumped for just a a few seconds. Seemed as if the switch on your speakers was busted … but luckily I always try to have my own laptop handy, and could rule that out.

Lucky for you, your computer had two sound cards. An on-board Realtek, and an add-on C-Media card. Seems like the add-on card was dead, so it was good to be able to move to the on-board. Of course we could have replaced the c-media card, with another, but since you simply want to hear the normal computer sounds, the on-board Realtek sound card, should be just fine.

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Posted in Computer Repair

NO Internet Access – Leisure World, MD – 20906 – Silver Spring

Posted on May 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

Sometimes NO INTERNET ACCESS is not a virus, not a hardware, problem, or a software problem. Sometimes the Internet Service Provider, is simply not providing the signal. And sometimes that is because the service is not turned on.

I try to look to the simplest, and most obvious solutions first. So when your DSL light kept flashing …

turned off router/modem … waited … turned on … waited for boot process to complete
still the DSL light was flashing
try again
still the DSL light was flashing

In each case there was not even any evidence of it “training”. So what to do? Call Verizon. Bernard K, I am not sure where there was a misunderstanding between you and Verizon, but I am glad we resolved it. Sorry that you have to wait until next Tuesday to get your DSL back on, but at least in our discussion with Verizon we were able to lower your rates.

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Posted in network problem

Laptop Repair Leisure World – 20906 – Silver Spring

Posted on May 7, 2011 | Leave a comment

Today started off by on a positive note. Returned George B’s laptop to him, and his wife on S. Leisure World Blvd. It was a hardware problem, we were able to get him a new motherboard for $50. It was an older laptop, and one that had been quite popular, so parts were readily available.

The laptop seemed dead. There was no power to the laptop at all. We could have repaired the power chips, but a replacement motherboard was cheaper ( in this case ), so that is the way we went on this.

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Posted in Computer Repair

ROOTKIT virus removal Gaithersburg, Maryland – 20878

Posted on May 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

B.K. of Gaithersburg, I am glad I was able to help you get rid of that nasty rookit virus. It was a nasty one where even running our normal set of tools did not quite do it. I had to re-write the master boot sector to finally get it clean.

Keep in mind, if this happens again, we can send you our Watza Emergency Repair and Recover disk. Boot from our emergency disk, and we can then scan for even the most persistent viruses remotely, even fix the boot sector !!

Regardless, I am glad I was able to help, and you seemed to be off and running virus free, when I left.

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Posted in Computer Repair, computer virus

Computer Help – Montgomery Village, MD – 20877

Posted on May 5, 2011 | Leave a comment

C.M. of Montgomery Village, sorry that Verizon changed their smtp mail server port without letting you know. Probably they ran on ports 25, and 587 in parallel for a long time, and it was just last week that they decided to cut off 25.

Back when they made port 587 available they probably sent you an e-mail telling you to make the change. That probably went unnoticed, and time went by. Finally last week, the mail admins cut off 25, and you could no longer send email.

Anyhow, a simple fix, you should be all set.

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Posted in Computer Repair, network problem

Secure Wireless Network – Bethesda, MD – 20816

Posted on May 4, 2011 | Leave a comment

This was the first time I was asked to secure a customer’s wireless network because the neighbors were complaining!

PB’s network was open to the world, and as she had only one computer, and it was reasonably secured using Norton Endpoint Protection, she was not too concerned.

Of course it is still important to secure your wireless … but she, reagardless, it was not on her radar … UNTIL

Her next door neighbor has two children, who were spending too much time on the internet. So the neighbor was trying to limit her own kids time online. They made the proper adjustments to their own router, to limit internet access … but right next door PB’s wireless was wide open.

So the kids just connected to that, and they had unfettered internet.

No longer! PB’s is secure to WPA2, with a hard to guess key.

Sorry kids, you are going to have to go back to doing your homework, and reading books :).

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Posted in network problem

Mouse Problem Gaithersburg – MD – 20878

Posted on April 28, 2011 | Leave a comment

Sometimes a mouse problem, is just a mouse problem ….

J.A. of Gaithersburg. I don’t know what to say, except sometimes a mouse problem is just a mouse problem.

Not quite sure of what you expected, I try to look at the most obvious first. You had done many good and correct things before I got there. Scanning with multiple AV’s, and anti-spyware tools, you picked good ones to try, but you did not try a new mouse.

Also, you seemed very concerned about how much this was all going to cost, but had not tried the most simple, and inexpensive solution yourself.

I am not sure why your business IT department was convinced it was something more malicious then a bad piece of hardware, but even so, why not try the most obvious thing first?

Keep in mind, the folks in your company’s IT org are smart, but they never even looked at the log files, or anything specific to their computer. They had to go on only the information you gave them, and you did not have the solution. That is not a criticisim, or you, or them. Well, really if they had said, we have no idea unless we look at it, and that is not our job, then you would have been better off. So, shoot me, but I criticize them just a tiny bit, for trying to help, when they really did not have enough information to be helpful.

I know you felt a little silly about the result, but be glad it did not seem to be a bad motherboard, or failing hard drive, or rootkit virus. Pretty sure it was just the mouse ……….

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Posted in Computer Repair, computer virus

A day in the life of a computer repair tech

Ask Bob a Question

setup Apple Time Capsule Silver Spring Maryland

Seamonkey SSL problem Silver Spring MD

File Cleaner Alert gog.exe Virus – Leisure World, MD – 20906

No Sound – Leisure World MD – 20906 – Silver Spring

NO Internet Access – Leisure World, MD – 20906 – Silver Spring

Laptop Repair Leisure World – 20906 – Silver Spring

ROOTKIT virus removal Gaithersburg, Maryland – 20878

Computer Help – Montgomery Village, MD – 20877

Secure Wireless Network – Bethesda, MD – 20816

Mouse Problem Gaithersburg – MD – 20878

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