Geek Tested:

Daily News Brief: Can You Trust Local PC Repair Shops?

Posted 04/29/08 at 07:24:01 PM by Paul Lilly

Who Can You Trust to Fix Your PC?

Maximum PC readers have no problem opening up PCs and performing self-diagnostics and repairs, but for everyone else, a trip to the local repair shop may be in order when something goes awry. But can they be trusted? Denver's local ABC news affiliate sent their Call7 Investigators team on an undercover mission to answer that question. Armed with a laptop with intentionally dislodged RAM, the undercover team pinged 7 local repair shops, four of which misdiagnosed the ailment and blamed the motherboard, power supply, or power drive. Read the full story here.

New Version of AVG Free Available

Penny pinchers can now download the newest version of Grisoft's widely popular AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, updated to version 8.0. The latest release introduces a cosmetic makeover while adding anti-spyware protection and Safe Search technology, which scans and rates Google, Yahoo, and MSN search results in real-time.

PC Makers Give XP Life Support

By June 30, PC manufacturers are supposed to stop selling computers with Windows XP, but rather than kick the OS to the curb, Dell and HP will still offer XP. How? By taking advantage of "downgrade rights" offered as part of Vista's license agreement. Technically Vista Business and Ultimate machines, the PCs will have been factory downgraded to XP at the customer's request, providing them with a no-charge Vista upgrade path to boot. Much more here.

Dealing with Defcon

Anti-virus vendors are taking exception to a new contest being introduced at the Defcon hacker conference this August. Called Race-to-Zero, participants are challenged to circumvent anti-virus software, with awards to be given for "Most elegant obfuscation," "Dirtiest hack of an obfuscation," "Comedy value," and "Most deserving of beer." Security vendors fear the contest will only help malware writers learn new tricks, but contest organizers contend it will help highlight that anti-virus protection alone doesn't provide a complete defense.

Getting Your X-Fi Soundcard to Run on Linux

If you're even the slightest bit curious about Linux, consider giving the newly released Ubuntu 8.04 LTS a spin. And if you own a Creative X-Fi soundcard, keep your eyes peeled for an updated beta driver from Creative (the current one supports Ubuntu 7.10, openSUSE 10.3, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1). In the meantime reference this thread for status updates and workarounds.

Duke Nukem Forever Update

Should the game ever ship, one of the longest running jokes in PC gaming will finally come to an end. And according to ShackNews, that's a very good possibility. ShackNews claims to have "witnessed several different DNF gameplay scenarios, mechanics, and environments being demonstrated," concluding that "Duke Nukem Forever is looking great, and will easily stand apart from the crowd in both visual and gameplay styles." More here.

COMMENTS:10

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COMMENTS

AVG 8 for Gaming
Submitted by SysAnalyst on Thu, 05/01/2008 - 9:44am

These AVG comments are funny (or maybe it's Grisoft). Considering the AVG ad on page 13 of the June 2008 issue of MPC states "70 million people switched to AVG 8.0 because it protects from online threats *without* slowing PC's or networks to a crawl." (emphasis added)

Sounds like it's time for MPC (the Dog maybe?) to investigate.

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X-fi on Linux
Submitted by ubuwalker31 on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 8:36am

I have squeezed 2.0 mono sound out of my 5.1 surround sound system by installing OSS drivers after uninstalling ALSA on Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon. Supposedly, the Creative's beta drivers work on Gutsy as well, but it is totally irrelevant, since most people have upgraded to Hardy Heron, and can't get either OSS or the beta drivers to work. It is very frustrating.

Since Maximum PC is encouraging its readers to try out Linux, it would behoove the magazine to indicate whether a product works under linux in its hardware reviews. A simple penguin icon could signify linux compatibility. A product shouldn't receive a "kick-ass" rating if it doesn't work under Linux. I'm happy that the magazine has recognized the lack of drivers as a problem though, but annoyed that the problem wasn't really discussed until the middle of '07.

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I said AVG 8. If you would
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 10:44am

I said AVG 8. If you would read my full statement you would see I mentioned AVG 8 Free. I also mentioned that 7 is easy but you do have to right click then click on something then in the Window that opens up you have to disable AVG Virus Scan from there.
Avira Antivira is easy because all you have to do is right click the Avira task bar icon and click on Antivir Guard to disable it. Simple. Why would I want on access scanning and popups when I'm trying to play Crysis. Really bugged the crap out of me.

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Hmmm that's odd. I have AVG
Submitted by Phosphorous on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 8:04am

Hmmm that's odd. I have AVG 7 and have absolutely no trouble right clicking on the icon in the taskbar and shutting it down for gaming.

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PC Shops
Submitted by skippyboy92362 on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 7:16am

Honesty in allot of these Mom and Pop shops is out the window, including Circuit City and Best Buy. I have seen everything from outrageous labor costs ($100 an Hour) to 100% markups on parts. Not all shops are bad but if you every need a part from them in a pinch they will not cut you a break on the cost. I can see a 10% to 20% markup on shop parts, but Best Buy or Circuit City being 100% over the cost of what Neweggs prices are. Give me a break. What really gets my goat is most of these places treat you like your an idiot when you go in to get something. Thank God I have wised up and try to keep at least 1 new hard drive, memory, DVD drive, and a graphics card around for friends and family until a replacement can get here from Newegg.

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not a fair evaluation
Submitted by michaelbart0n on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 5:32am

I don't think this is a fair evaluation of local computer repair shops. The main shops evaluated were chain stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. Smaller locally owned stores may have faired better (at least I would like to think that I would have caught the problem). Furthermore, it's not easy to run a local computer repair business and if a tech can't answer the question quickly or thinks it will take more time than the computer is worth, he/she makes a judgment call. The problem isn't as simple as "the tech didn't solve a simple problem."

Michael in Dallas

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Local Repair Shops
Submitted by nduanetesh on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 8:34pm

If the local repair shops are telling people the problem is with their "power drive", somebody is *definitely* getting ripped off. Next it'll be, "Uh, yeah, your flux capacitor is hung up on your xiphoid process, so I'm going to have to scan your computer for medichlorians. That'll be $450."

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Any nerd no matter how new
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 4:36am

Any nerd no matter how new will know what mediclorians are. Perhaps their Hyperdrive Motivator has been damaged and it's impossible to make the jump to hyperspace.

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AVG
Submitted by Keith E. Whisman on Tue, 04/29/2008 - 7:46pm

AVG 8 free really sucks and I'll tell you why. It's very difficult to disable for game play. I want to just right click the icon in my tool bar and left click on disable AV or something like that. I'm using Avira Antivira because it's simple to shut off so I can play games. Really aggravates me when I have to spend alot of time to just shut something off.
I'm talking from experience. You had to do a few things to shut down AVG 7 but at least it was easy. This is convoluted.

If you need your pc worked on then just ask a friend. Everyone knows someone that knows how to fix things. It's not that difficult. I always try to train my friends and family. Companies are in the business to make money. Of course they are going to lie and cheat.

I just discovered that I can uninstall Ubunto Linux in Vista Programs and Features. Vista's version of Add/Remove Programs. Pretty awsome. Now if only Mac would produce an OS this friendly.

Duke Nukem Forever. Can't Wait.
I remember the naked ladies in DN3D and can't wait to see more of the same.
Anybody know if DNForever is going to be a remake of DN3D or a prequel or a sequel to DN3D?

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pc shops
Submitted by sheridr on Fri, 01/02/2009 - 7:31pm

I have had to "fix" a hand ful of my friends computers after they took them to a local coputer shop for service. In the worst case a shop told a buddy that they could not fix his computer and he needed to buy a whole new computer. I took a look and all I did was clean the quarter inch of dust out of it and it worked fine. I literally did not have to do anything else.

If you read this mag you should know what to ask of a repair shop to determine if they know their @$$ from a hole in the ground.

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