How to find reputable tech or tech service?

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Please advise on how to identify a good, reputable, reasonable-fee tech or tech service to fix my computer.

Thanks.

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The best way is to talk to people that you know who have had problems successfully repaired. Would the person need physical access to your computer?

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Would the person need physical access to your computer?

Yes, he or she would. Thanks.

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What’s the problem with your computer? There are many experts on this forum who might be able to help you fix it. At the moment you’re limited to someone in Chicago knowing a good service rather than the wide level of expertise in this group.

Eliminate spare time: start programming PowerShell

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What’s the problem with your computer? There are many experts on this forum who might be able to help you fix it. At the moment you’re limited to someone in Chicago knowing a good service rather than the wide level of expertise in this group.

Where to start?

–For quite some time, I’ve had trouble entering type in Word, email, or in online forums. The entry point suddenly changes and I look up to find my type is being entered two lines earlier.

–My Firefox browser hangs and hangs.

–Yahoo email is slow, with a “can’t load, try again” screen for nearly every email.

–The worst is I let what a site get remote access to my computer. Yes, I am completely stupid. It was a few weeks ago. I thought I was going to a Yahoo support site, but it was a 6-month-old business in Las Vegas called something like “PC Solutions” with a phone center in, I think, India. They quickly diagnosed a Trojan and said I would get lifetime protection for all my devices if I paid $250 on the spot, or $350 if I signed up a day later. I hung up. Shortly afterward, I found on my desktop a new folder with all my files in it. When I looked in Add/Remove to check for any new programs, I found that ALL my programs now had a start date of that day. (I kept sighing and pausing as I wrote this paragraph.)

–Since the India/Las Vegas remote thing, Yahoo email seems slower. Today, the Yahoo email screen shows a very light blue background and white headings. When that same thing happened about a week ago, I closed all my documents and windows, and shut off my computer; that seemed to “fix” the situation.

Well, there’s my very long answer! For obvious reasons, I don’t quite trust myself to intuit who is a good, honest techie and who isn’t.

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Where to start?

That my friend, is easily answered. Two things:

[*]Install and run Malwarebytes
[*]Learn the basics

You can find instructions on running Malwarebytes here and in many more locations.

And learning the basics? Well, we accept that to drive a car you need to go through driver’s ed and get your license. Computers and the Internet are WAY more complex than a car and traffic.

So please accept that you will have to learn – or lean on a good shadetree tech who is good at and willing to answer your questions.

And accept the fact that you will have to pay this person, at least for their time. And the consequence of this is you’ll pay more the more questions you ask.

Other than that I feel your pain and I know you can be helped. Good luck!

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Where to start?

–The worst is I let what a site get remote access to my computer. Yes, I am completely stupid. It was a few weeks ago. I thought I was going to a Yahoo support site, but it was a 6-month-old business in Las Vegas called something like “PC Solutions” with a phone center in, I think, India. They quickly diagnosed a Trojan and said I would get lifetime protection for all my devices if I paid $250 on the spot, or $350 if I signed up a day later. I hung up. Shortly afterward, I found on my desktop a new folder with all my files in it. When I looked in Add/Remove to check for any new programs, I found that ALL my programs now had a start date of that day. (I kept sighing and pausing as I wrote this paragraph.)

You shouldn’t feel too bad about the business with India. I fell into the same trap, a responsible-sounding name on a respectable site like Yahoo support. I actually PAID the $250. They fixed the immediate problem — although it took them hours — and were impossible to reach after that. Look at it this way. We who are gullible are at least spared the discomfort of paranoia.

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I think I’d sooner be paranoid and still have the $250 :D:

@ philomel – If you read through the thread you will see that WD1 has been given advice on disinfection in Post #16 and in my Post #9 where I’ve advised going to http://www.sysnative.com/forums/security-arena/ where he will receive expert help.

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😀

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Where to start?

–For quite some time, I’ve had trouble entering type in Word, email, or in online forums. The entry point suddenly changes and I look up to find my type is being entered two lines earlier.

One suggestion regarding that single problem is this: I have the same thing all the time, and in my case it is because I like to use a mouse, but I am using it with a computer that also has a touchpad. I can turn the touchpad off, I may even be able to change its sensitivity, but it is a nuisance I usually forego only to find that the insertion point keeps changing on me, at which time I finally cave in and do the right thing.

If that is your problem then google the exact model of the computer and find out how to turn the touchpad off – it’s usually just a function key. If you are using the touchpad and it’s too sensitive, that would almost certainly explain the skipping insertion point, and again search for a ‘sensitivity’ adjustment. The place to check first, depending on your software, is ‘Mouse’ in ‘Hardware’ in the Control Panel.

You’re on your own plus all the help the Lounge can give when it comes to everything else, but that is one possibility I spotted right away, because it happens to me all the time.

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Check with the IT folks at your job. They could probably recommend someone. Or one of them might be willing to help you.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Check with the IT folks at your job.

I’m retired, and must admit I’ve lost track. I am asking around with people I know. Thanks.

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I’ve been lurking this board for a while and this topic really caught my interest… For what it’s worth, finding a reputable and efficient tech service is fairly easy, if you have the money to burn. Services such as the Geek Squad or most well-reputed repair shops will nearly always give you a satisfactory result, but usually at great cost. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford to do this, and if you don’t have the good fortune to have a neighbor or family member “computer guy”, you may be entertaining the notion of looking around on Craigslist for one of those $20 “no job too big or small” kind of deals. Obviously, this can be a mixed bag, as sites like craigslist are quite populated with people who are either afflicted with the Dunning-Kruger effect (overstating their competence and falling horribly short of a job well done), or people with some malicious intent (copying the naked pics of your girlfriend off your laptop, installing keyloggers and hijacking your identity, spying on your daughter’s webcam, etc), BUT, you’re also bound to run into someone who really knows their stuff and genuinely wants to help you out, and make a quick 20 bucks for beer. I fall into the latter description there, but things being as they are, I never feel comfortable doing a job for someone I’m not familiar with unless I’m doing it on-site, under their supervision. Even if the customer has a hard time understanding, I try to explain what I’m doing, and why, to better familiarize them with their PC and to earn their trust as well (and I have gained quite a few regular customers by doing this, they don’t go to anyone else unless I’m unavailable, lol). Finding techs with expensive college degrees and myriad MS certs (and high price tags) is pretty easy, but if you dig a little deeper you can get ‘er done cheaper. Just always be on the lookout for “shadetree techs” that try to leverage your lace of computer knowledge or play on your security fears, find someone who isn’t afraid to answer a thousand questions and perform repairs while you watch and ask questions, and don’t let anyone out of your sight with your computer until you get to know them, a trustworthy shadetree tech wouldn’t touch your computer out of your sight. I also think that hands-on experience (and possibly a natural talent too, lol) serves any IT tech or developer better than any amount of college credits or MS certifications, as far as raw ability goes (though the same cannot be said for making a career in IT).. No respectable IT company would ever hire me, of course, since I never went to college and had some substance related legal issues in my younger years, but the fact is that most guys like me would probably run circles around more than a few formally-educated IT guys. Oh well..

Anyway, your tale of woe really upsets me. These rogue tech companies have many vectors for infecting PC’s (getting their foot in the door, so to speak). They’re getting pretty sophisticated with their attacks, a lot of ad networks are serving infected advertisements (and are unaware they’re doing so), among other things. As soon as they infect you, then you get a phone call from “Microsoft” (usually someone from an Indian call center), offering to get you fixed up for some usually outrageous price. Even if you pay, they usually leave your system infected anyway, to try to ensure you’ll be a “repeat customer”. What’s worse, if you refuse them (and cannot get the problem taken care of otherwise), they can easily turn up the heat by infecting you with god knows what else. Either way, never give in to this, you’d be better off with a shady back alley craigslist technician! Any repair guy worth his beer money will at least have a sit down with you when the job is done and give you a few pointers to avoid future problems.

So, anyway, good luck to you, and back to lurking with me!

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@Edric:

I feel with you. I am too old to have a “shady” past; instead I have only 51 years of computer experience and am “with” PCs since early 1982.

I am your “shadetree” tech (BTW I like this expression). And I claim I do a better job than Geek Squad ever can. GS is corporate, they have to work by a cookbook of sorts. I have the experience and the know how to do an individual job, optimal for the actual problem at hand.

Thanks Edric for your words.

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I asked my doctor who repairs his computers. He referred me to his rech who in turn referred me to a shadetree expert who knew just what to do for my laptop.

Regarding Firefox, I used this for several years, but recently it started causing problems for my laptop. This was a pain because I first checked all the updates I’ve downloaded for the past few months. Only then did I consider FireFox might be the culprit.

For about 3 weeks I’ve used PaleMoon, and this last batch of problems has disappeared.

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@Edric:

I feel with you. I am too old to have a “shady” past; instead I have only 51 years of computer experience and am “with” PCs since early 1982.

I am your “shadetree” tech (BTW I like this expression). And I claim I do a better job than Geek Squad ever can. GS is corporate, they have to work by a cookbook of sorts. I have the experience and the know how to do an individual job, optimal for the actual problem at hand.

Thanks Edric for your words.

Yeah Geek Squad has had a bad rep. The Microcenter employees seem IMHO to be more Geeky than the GS. But a local guy w/ recommendations is going to give, again IMHO, more value. They want a good rep and recommendations are their life blood.

:cheers:

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Hi WD, If your username is the way you feel, you need to assess what direction to take. Is there any info on your comp that you want to retain/keep? How old is your comp? Are you using W10 or is the comp capable?
Computer Techies don’t come cheap. Usually their hourly rate plus travel fee is the starting charge for diagnosis. If they are accepted and carry out repairs – the diagnosis fee is waived. The simple way to fix (if you have the computer knowhow and ability) is to follow Malware and Security clean up instructions from a competent Bulletin Board Service specialist.
The next choice is to renew the HDD and install your OS from your original Windows disc and start afresh. Last choice is buy a new computer after considering all costs.

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You can get free expert assistance to disinfect your computer by registering and opening a thread in the security section of http://www.sysnative.com/forums/security-arena/ but read the Malware Removal Posting Instructions first and that way they have the info to start the clean out.

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The problem w/ working on site is the time! Travel and diagnosis and repair. If you do the work at your ‘shop’ you can take hours with the repair (mostly letting software do its work) and not have to charge and arm and a leg.

:cheers:

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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The advantage of using specialist forums is that you still have your arms and legs afterwards 😀

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Again it is a time thing many don’t want to put the effort and time in.

🍻

Just because you don't know where you are going doesn't mean any road will get you there.

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Again it is a time thing many don’t want to put the effort and time in.

I don’t think that’s the case with the OP – otherwise he/she wouldn’t have responded with the experienced problems – lets wait for the OP’s return – but security experts will walk you through any problems you may have in following their instructions.

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Residential service is problematic as it’s on site and therefore expensive. It can also be time consuming, and therefore expensive. While organizations are typically willing to pay higher rates, most individuals aren’t.

If you can get to one, Microcenter typically has good, reputable technicians in their stores. Locations in Chicago and Westmont. I suggest avoiding Geek Squad.

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Please advise on how to identify a good, reputable, reasonable-fee tech or tech service to fix my computer.
Thanks.

Well, I AM ONE! So if you’re planning a trip to Florida, bring the computer with you and I’ll fix it for you. It’s what I’ve done for a living for the past 35 years.
Even though I’m now retired, I’m still doing computer repairs.
I’ve had PC’s shipped to me from all over the US, for repairs, upgrades, etc. Not suggesting that here though. 🙂

Your problem will probably be fixed by YOU installing and running the correct AV and AS software. Malware Bytes (free) is a good one and “Super Anti-Spyware, free” is another one. I would run both on your PC and then go from there, to clean up your PC and bring it all up to date.
Forget about the Geek Squad…. they are the laughing stock of the PC Repair industry. 🙂

Good Luck!
The Doctor 😎

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@ Walking Disaster may I recommend the following options

Bring the computer to a local reputable computer shop that you trust
(I know: that’s what you’d like to know: but look around)
— Have them back up your data
—— Make sure you have the applications needed for your Office program
— Restore the computer back to factory condition
— Have them get the Windows Updates up-to-date, office program running ok and anything else you want to know including FF also
— Have them show you before you take the computer out of their facility that they show you that the computer does in fact run ok
— Have a system image back up created onto an external hard drive in it’s pristine condition

You could call your computer manufacturer: One of my friends did that a couple of years ago: he let HP take control of his computer and within about 1 1/2 hours his computer was completely restored and his data was still intact all for only about $90.00 and the computer still runs as good as new.

OK all of that will certainly cost a few dollars so get a quote up front and decide whether or not to do those items yourself
— We can certainly help you on all of that but you will need the time to accomplish whatever needs to get done

One more consideration: In my area we have a community college that will repair/refurbish computers for free as far as labor is concerned but there is a waiting list involved. So this is another option to consider if possible.

Last but not least keep in touch with us so we can help you keep the comport well maintained and secure.

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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It seems that everyone is trying to help but are not telling you what to do right now. I believe you have spyware on your system.
Download a virus killer like Malwarebytes antimalware, Superantispyware, and or spybot search and destroy.
I would load all three. Run the updates for all three, you need internet access to do this.
Shut off the internet. Some of them will try to protect themselves by getting outside help. Internet off, no help!
Run all three of them, one at a time, this may take several hours.
Follow the directions.
When done, dont do a restart, shutdown totally, startup. I even unplug the machine for 5 minutes to do a cold start.
I do a scan every week with each. No spyware system will find all of them but these three will find 99.9%, if you update each one before running a scan. I run a scan when I am going to eat or going for my evening 2 mi walk.
Whenever you get funny operation like you described run a scan. Superantispyware has a quick scan which will kill the easy ones quickly. It loves to eat cookies, they are not all spyware so don’t worry when it finds 975 of them.
I hope this helps. there are many free spyware killers out there, don’t buy one. Others may have different sets of them and even a different opinion but free opinions are worth every penny.

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Many years ago not having any knowledge of how computers work, my desktop wouldn’t start. I took it to a shop nearby for repairs. I believe it was a family owned business. There were 4 people behind the counter. A young man came over and asked what he could do for me. I set the PC on the counter. Told him it wouldn’t start up. ‘How much to fix it” I asked. He then replied “how much money do you want to invest in getting it repaired? Could be a hundred, two hundred, maybe three hundred dollars”. I grabbed the PC and left the store. Why don’t I just give you a blank check and you can fill in whatever amount you feel is necessary I thought at the time.
That is when I made a conscious effort to figure out how computers work and do a search for answers to it.
Like appliance or auto repair shops you don’t know if you are about to be fleeced unless you have some knowledge of what it takes to get your item repaired. You trust that a “professional” shop is exactly that. With morals. As in any business there are a few who are not reputable much less honest.
I am really ticked at the “Geek Squad”. A few years ago my daughter’s mother-in-law had a fairly new desktop computer. Less than a year old. Couldn’t do anything on it. Everything locked up. Took it to the Squad for repairs. She had paid about a $1000 for it. They said it was infected with viruses and couldn’t be fixed. WHAT? They suggested buying a new one from them. They would give her $300 trade-in off the new one. Being naive she did. $1200 this time. About a month later I read on-line that Geek Squad had just opened a website and were selling refurbished computers. Guess where hers landed?
I called their corporate office and explained what had happened. I asked why didn’t they suggest reinstalling the computer with a fresh copy of the operating system as a solution. At a cost of course. At that time I believe the going rate was $75 or $100. She couldn’t talk to me she said because I wasn’t the owner of the computer in question. I knew the middle-aged female owner of the computer was very timid and probably wouldn’t call them. Plus I didn’t want to embarrass her by using her name without her consent.
I asked my daughter if she could get the computer in question from her at the time I had heard about it. Too late. She had traded it in. I was willing to pay her for it.

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WD in my post #19, I focused on the subject you requested about. In the meantime others have posted many approaches you can consider yourself and I personally favor those ideas.
— I also see you want to learn the basics

So I’d like to recommend the following 2 goals
— Clean up your computer
— Learn the basics by performing what your computer needs because hands on training is very valuable

So if you are willing to, let’s get started
Please note I might be repeating some information and recommendations already posted but I’d like to consider that teamwork is involved: you have a “team” with a lot of experience

Please post the make/model of your computer and what Operating System you are using

Do you have an external hard drive on which you can save your data?
— If you do not know how to do that, we can help you

Now the focus should be to get your computer into a well-maintained and secure position.
— Running Malwarebytes Free is a good start
— Go to http://www.malwarebytes.org/
— Click For Home +
— You will see Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Free: Click on Download
— You will see something like
“Do you want to run or save mbam-setup-2.1.8.1057.exe (23.2 MB) from data-cdn.mbamupdates.com?
— Click on Run and follow the prompts
— When it’s completed, let us know how many items have been found
— You will be able to quarantine what was found
— I usually also follow up by deleting them
— A log will be generated: whether or not it would be good for us to see it, I do not know yet

That’s it for now.
If you are willing to follow through please let us know
If you feel overwhelmed and still prefer a reputable technician, that’s ok
We’re here to help you through whatever your decision is
I also recommend to get an 8 ½ x 11 notebook so you can write down your notes in the way you understand them while keeping tack of what’s going on

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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Thanks to everyone for the excellent suggestions.

I might add that Senior Mature Persons’Centers often offer excellent computer courses geared to mature persons. At ours, several of the coaches and teachers worked for more than 30 years with computers. One disadvantage is a few of the members are beginning to lose it and they worry about things like a member getting too much use out of the center. Another thing they worry about is whether or not doctors can afford telephones.

An excellent site for malware removal is the following: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread/?t=35407 This was revised most recently in August for Windows 10. If it seems too complicated for right now, I suggest familiarizing yourself with it after your PC is working. It’s saved my bacon several times.

Good luck!

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You, like the rest of us (at whatever remove it may be), are a consumer, and I suggest you blanket the ‘consumer’ territory for ideas. Check the BBB or whatever consumer groups or ratings or publications (such as Consumer Reports) you have access to, and see if any cover the territory in question, and if not you might even be so bold as to nudge them for coverage. I admit that I was reminded of this today by an email with the title How to Find an Auto Mechanic You Can Trust, which pretty well says it all. We are all consumers of a multitude of things, and some people make a business of protecting us in those areas. It is possible that that the last place you should look for advice is within the computer community itself. (I doubt that, but unless you can find the right source, it may be true.)

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In addition to Dogberry’s solutions, the cursor skipping problem could be caused by simple dirt. Clean your mouse pad or table surface where you move the mouse, and clean the underside of the mouse–mainly the light or ball there.

Lugh.
~
Alienware Aurora R6; Win10 Home x64 1803; Office 365 x32
i7-7700; GeForce GTX 1060; 16GB DDR4 2400; 1TB SSD, 256GB SSD, 4TB HD

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