Archive for the ‘Computer Repair’ Category

Computer power cycles in continuous loop

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If your computer is power cycling where it is turning on and then turning off, and then turning back on again, and does this in a continuous loop, this is probably indicative of an issue.

There are a few possible reasons for this behavior and tracking down which is to blame can be a little tricky.

Power Supply

The first thing to check is the power supply. Is it plugged in to the wall correclty? Make sure that all connections to the motherboard are securely fastened. Ensure that the voltage coming out of the power supply is correct. You may also be able to run a “paper clip” test on a desktop power supply in order to test if the behavior happens when the power supply is disconnected from the motherboard. If the power supply is kicking on and off then this is likely the issue causing the power cycling.

CPU

If the power supply is working correctly next is to test the CPU. Usually if the computer seems to start to boot, but never gets to the bios screen then the CPU may be the reason. Sometimes the heat sink on the CPU becomes loose or the CPU paste eventually wears out. It is a good idea to check that the CPU heat-sink is securely fastened to the motherboard. Remove the heat-sink and apply new thermal paste.

Motherboard Capacitor

If you have tested the power supply and the CPU and neither seems to be the reason for the power cycling behaivor, then a capacitor on the actual motherboard could be to blame for the behavior. The capacitors can sometimes begin to bulge and burst or bust. When this happens they no longer function correctly and sometime cause erratic behavior such as startup and shutdown loops. Unfortunately this is also indicative that more of the capacitors on the motherboard may begin to fail and probably the entire motherboard would need to be replaced if this is the case.

It may be a good idea to take your computer to a computer repair store near you to have these tests performed. The expert computer repair technicians at South City Computer will perform these tests and give you a report for how to fix this issue. Contact South City Computer today to get started.

Chromebook Screen Repair

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Chromebook computer screens break. Most people don’t even know how it happens. Most Google Chromebook laptop screen breaks are accidental however some are intentional. Broken laptop screens occur for various reasons such as a dropped laptop, stepped on laptop screen, laid, rolled on, or sat on laptop screen, and even punched laptop screens causing them to break or crack. Also, laptop screens break for reasons unknown to how it may have happened.

If you are lucky the laptop screen may still be usable when broken, however most breaks will worsen over time. The screen may be totally unusable too, showing only random colors and vertical lines, or appearing mostly to all white or black. There may even be a noticeable crack evident where the vertical lines seem to protrude from.

South City Computer can replace most broken laptop screens on all types of computers. South City Computer services all brands makes and models of laptop computers including Asus, Acer, Chromebook, Compaq, Dell, Lenovo, Gateway, HP, Toshiba, IBM, and Apple laptop computers with laptop screen damage.

Contact South City Computer for expert and professional laptop screen repair services.

Laptop Repair in St. Louis

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South City Computer offers laptop repair services to Saint Louis City and the St. Louis metro region. We repair and service all makes and models of laptop computers. We service on all brands including Acer, Asus, Apple, Alienware, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, Gateway, Compaq, MSI, and gaming laptops.

South City Computer can repair all laptop issues. The most common laptop repair services are broken dc jack, broken laptop power jack, failed AC power supply, replacement, broken screen replacement, broken screen repair, broken touchscreen repair, dim screen repair, flickering screen repair, keyboard repair, laptop liquid spill repair, laptop liquid damage, virus removal, malware repair, corrupt operating system, laptop fan repair, laptop fan replacement, hardware repair, RAM upgrade, motherboard repair, hard drive replacement, data recovery, CPU repair, laptop cooling system repair, and laptop overheat repair.

Bring your laptop to South City Computer for professional laptop repair services. 314-400-7918

Apple Repair in St. Louis

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South City Computer offers Apple repair to the St. Louis metro area. South City Computer can repair all Apple computer related issues. South City Computer can repair all models of Macbook, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, iMac, iPad, and iPhone. South City Computer also can help with Apple software such as Apple iTunes. South City Computer can also offers broken apple screen repair services. South City Computer offers Apple OS recovery services. South City Computer offers Apple data recovery services. South City Computer can also help with Apple iCloud.

South City Computer can help you with your Apple repair needs.

PC Repair in St. Louis

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South City Computer offers PC repair to St. Louis metro area. Having reliable PC repair is important when computer problems happen. South City Computer offers PC repair services on all makes and models of desktop and laptop computer. South City Computer also offers Apple repair on Macbooks and iMacs.

Here are the most common PC repairs we offer.

Virus Repair
Malware Removal
Laptop Screen Repair
Broken Screen Repair
Touch Screen Repair
Laptop Repair
Desktop Repair
Tablet Screen Repair
Phone Screen Repair
Windows Repair
Power Supply Repair
Motherboard Repair
DC Jack Repair
Laptop Keyboard Repair
Laptop Touchpad Repair
Windows Restore
Remote Support Service
Hardware Repair
Wifi Repair
Wireless Repair
Data Recovery
Hard Drive Repair
Custom Computer Repair
Gaming Computer Repair
Laptop Fan Repair
CPU Fan Repair
CPU Repair
Desktop Fan Repair
Laptop Power Adapter Repair
Computer Tune-Up
RAM Repair
Computer Repair Diagnostic
Internet Repair
Network Card Repair
Video Card Repair
Windows Driver Repair
Windows Update Repair
Windows 10 Upgrade Repair

If you need PC repair services in St. Louis then come to South City Computer.

Microsoft Pushes Windows 10 onto Users

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We often hear that computers are automatically upgrading to Windows 10 without the computer users knowledge or consent.

Here are just a few messages that appeared on Facebook over the weekend with the identities and expletives removed. You can see the frustration of the Windows users.

upgrade-10-message

upgrade-10-message-2

At first we thought maybe people were confused by the recommended Windows 10 upgrade message and maybe accidentally clicked to initiate the upgrade, until we noticed the computers for sale here at South City Computer started showing a message indicating that Windows was going to upgrade to Windows 10 automatically. What Microsoft?!?! We didn’t ask or agree to upgrade to Windows 10!

windows-10-forced-upgrade

As you can see, Windows is set to automatically upgrade to Windows 10 on May 20th for this computer. Even though we have ignored the pop-ups urging us to upgrade to Windows 10 for months now, we are going to be upgraded unless we take action!

So here is how to cancel this force upgrade. Do NOT click OK, instead click on the word “here” where it says “Click here to change upgrade schedule or cancel scheduled upgrade”.

The next screen you should see is as follows:

windows-10-forced-upgrade-cancel

Next click “Cancel scheduled upgrade”.

After this you will see the next message:

windows-10-forced-upgrade-cancel-2

Again, Microsoft wants to be very sure that we want to seriously Cancel the automatic upgrade to Windows 10. Now click the “Cancel Scheduled Upgrade” button.

After you do this, it should cancel the automatic upgrade that was set for May 20th. If you do not go through this process, then you will be forced into Windows 10. If you want to eliminate the Windows 10 upgrade completely forever, bring your computer to South City Computer and we will disable the Windows 10 upgrade for good!

Windows 10 Safe Mode menu at boot

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Remember when Windows failed to start and you could just enter Safe Mode by pressing F8 or Shift+F8 at boot. Long gone are those days with the new Windows 10. The only way to access Safe Mode is by first booting into Windows 10 and then holding the shift key while choosing to restart to get the Windows Boot Option Menu. But what if your computer no longer boots into Windows?
The only way to get Safe Mode during boot up is to create a boot time Safe Mode option before you can no longer boot into Windows. To create a boot up option menu Hit Win+x and select the Command Prompt (Run as Administrator). Now type bcdedit/copy {current} /d “Windows 10 Safe Mode” and hit Enter. Now from the Start menu, type msconfig, run System Configuration in the results, and then select the Boot tab. Choose the Windows 10 Safe Mode option you just created, choose Safe boot and select Minimal under Boot options. You can repeat these steps, substituting suitable names in quotes at the Command Prompt, to create shortcuts for Safe Mode with Networking (choose Network rather than Minimal in System Configuration) and Safe Mode with Command Prompt (Alternate shell). And there you have it, an “old skool – nu skool” Safe Mode boot option menu.
If you are in the predicament where you cannot boot into Windows and cannot access Safe Mode, or you just don’t like doing the techy stuff yourself, then bring your computer to South City Computer, and we can fix your computer for you.

How much data can you fit on a punch card?

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punchcardladyDo remember punch cards? Most of us don’t. But they were an important invention back in the day before magnetic medium. Have you ever wondered how many punch cards it would take to store all the records in Google? Assuming that Google has 15 exabytes, or 15,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes of storage capacity. Punch cards can contain roughly 80 characters, each box of cards can hold 2000 cards. 15 exabytes worth of thin cardboard punch cards stacked would reach up 3 miles.

What To Do When Your Laptop Breaks

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The Fragility of Hardware: Or What To Do When Your Laptop Breaks

Gravity. It is the force that binds us to this planet, and is largely responsible for all life as we know it. However, like all creative forces at work in this majestic universe, gravity has a destructive side. It can wreak havoc on your laptop! Laptops have been known to fall from heights great and small. Being portable devices, they seem especially drawn to Earth’s pull. If they are not sliding toward the edge of the surface on which they’ve been gently placed, they’re often releasing themselves from the grasp of caring hands. Even if your laptop manages to avoid a calamitous rendezvous gravity, hardware damage can still occur. Micro tremors, vibrations, being picked up, being set down. All of this gradual ware and tear can lead to hardware issues.

What should you do when misfortune befalls your beloved laptop? Worry not! It doesn’t have to be the end. We can remedy myriad hardware issues right here at South City Computer! Broken screen? We can fix that! Damaged keyboard? We can fix that! Some unseen internal gizmo has made its existence impossible to ignore by suddenly refusing to function? Odds are… We can fix that! What happens when gravity attacks your laptop from above? Say gravity has chosen to conspire with a cat, who has gingerly knocked a glass of water all over your precious PC? Well, after you frantically unplug the device, turn it off, and remove the battery… Bring it to South City Computer! Give us a chance to fix that!

Apple Ransomware

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apple now targeted by ransomewareApple computers are not immune to malware vulnerabilities. A new form of malware called “ransomware” is targeting Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. Ransomeware is a computer virus that encrypts important data such as pictures, videos, music, and documents in order to “hold it for ransom” at an unsuspecting victim’s expense. If the victim pays the ransom then, hopefully, they would receive a key to decrypt their data, known as a decryption key. Unfortunately many times there is no decryption key and the victim loses not only their data but possibly up to $700 USD in ransom payment. The ransom payment transaction occurs using an anonymous payment method in order to conceal the identity of the scammer holding the data ransom so that there is no trace. Ransomware is usually spread via email attachments, peer to peer file sharing, and more recently removable devices such as external hard drives and USB flash drives.

While this is not the first time Apple computers have been vulnerable to malware attacks, such as the FBI virus a few years ago, a recent Reuters report revealed that ransomware was targeting Apple computers for the first time. Ransomware is already rampant on computers running the Windows operating system. Many variants of the trojan horse already exist such as Bitlocker, CryptoWall, Cryptorbit, and CryptoLocker or Crypto-malware. So far the ransomware has infected Apple computers via peer to peer file sharing networks using bit torrent.

There is no easy fix for the data that has been affected by the ransomware. Without the decryption key the data is scrambled to a point that it cannot be deciphered using current technology.

“The best way to protect your data from a ransomware attack is to have an archive backup of the important data on a computer” says South City Computer security expert Nestor Wheelock. “Because the archive is completely disconnected from the live file system the ransomware will not encrypt the data”. While this form of data backup service is complex and daunting to most computer users, South City Computer offers a service package that includes this type of backup service. If you need assistance setting up this type of backup service contact South City Computer or a local computer repair store near you.

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