Computer problems/solutions

[wetibbe]

As a good Samaritan I will relate some of my computer problems for benefit of others.

I have been involved with desk top PCs since the inception. In fact I attended the very first IBM introductory sales promotion in about 1983. That was the 8086 with 5 1/2 inch floppy disks. There wasn't any software. I bought a computer for my company. The IBM salesman was accompanied by a software writing company which I contracted with. All in all the experience was a disaster.

Since then I have either bought or supplied many computers both for personal use and business. Each year I watched new developments, new innovations is hardware and software. Remarkable achievements. But many problems too. The computers proved to be very reliable. Virtually no hardware problems. Few software problems. Most of the problems came from outside third party hackers, worms, Trojans, spy-ware.

Anyone who runs a computer will eventually, over a few years, encounter two problems. #1. The rapid advances in technology and software will obsolete the old computer so that it no longer has the speed, memory, processor to deal with the modernization. #2. The computer will gradually get loaded with extraneous spy-ware, worms, invaders, hackers until it runs slower and slower and gradually many functions will become immobilized.

When upgrading operating systems to the newer version I would buy the upgrade disk. That has proved to be a mistake. A fresh, new disk with full features contains features that can analyze and repair whereas the upgrade does not.

I learned some costly lessons. I ordered some remedial software on line that was supposed to clean up my system. It did not. It made everything worse. Eventually things got so bad that I had to order recovery disks from the manufacturer. They take the computer back to the day it was purchased. Any files, after sale software, word processing, is/are costly. It is necessary to re-purchase new which costs hundreds of dollars. Now I keep a duplicate back up computer. I have also installed two external hard droves where I store duplicates of everything.

Over the past month things went from bad to worse. My Windows security wasn't working, I couldn't complete my taxes with Turbo Tax, couldn't download the State forms, Couldn't make Adobe Reader work, couldn't download updates for Quicken and several others. I spent hours on the phone with various Tech Support. Did not resolve the issues. Finally I phoned Norton, my backup security software. They recommended "Guruaid" a specialty company that resolves issues. I subscribed to the annual maintenance program, $159.99, unlimited support for all software, Norton recommended and Microsoft approved.

On the first session two days ago the Tech resolved all problems but one in minutes. The unresolved issue was windows firewall. Yesterday I went on line in a chat session with Shawn Smith. He took over my computer remotely and resolved the issue in minutes. Absolutely amazing. Now everything is working fine, I boot up twice as fast, the various browsing is faster, no glitches.

The interesting part is that I regularly ran Norton scans, Used Windows Defender and Windows firewall. The scans said there were NO issues, no problems. Guruaid told me that they found many problems embedded and cleaned them out. They also said the Norton software was immobilizing windows firewall and conflicting. Presently Norton and windows firewall are both functional and apparently at peace with eachother.

I won't post the Guruaid web address because this site apparently doesn't want advertising or HTML's but I will suggest Googling them. Based on my experience I will recommend them. These are serious professionals who get results.