Success! One of our most challenging virus removal jobs

This week we had an HP laptop come in with a blue screen error.  It absolutely refused to start Windows, no matter what you pushed.  Every attempt would end up in a “blue screen” error.

To summarize it in a nutshell, the computer was in a disasterous state.  It was one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced to date…and I just love challenges.  I took the job on myself.  This laptop had so many viruses it wouldn’t even run.  Everything from the Rustok rootkit to trojan droppers, fake antivirus programs, the Conficker worm and everything in between.

It’s rather ironic when you think about it.  It had Norton Antivirus, Spybot, Ad-aware and Spyware Doctor on it.  If nothing else, a dramatic testament to how absolutely ineffective those programs can be.

The situation was dire.  Years of work were on this computer.  There was a program on it to manipulate their data that could not be replaced as it was several years old and very specialized.  It was not something you could go to Future Shop and buy.  Certainly this would prove to be one of my biggest challenges.  No backup and reload here, this was all or nothing.

After pulling the drive out and removing several hundred infections, putting the drive back in, repairing all the damaged system files, cleaning up the registry and a fair bit more work, I finally got the computer to load Windows.

To understate the situation, it was not a pretty sight.  Windows would barely run.  Clicking on My Computer took 5 minutes before anything would open.  It was clear I wasn’t finished yet.  There was a failed install of the Sympatico Security Suite.  Microsoft Installer Service kept running, seemingly for no reason.  The Service Host was intermittently running at full steam.

Out comes the hard drive again.  A manual removal of the Sympatico Suite and related tools.  Expunging the registry of any reference to the program.  Back in the laptop.

Finally, the computer started running normally again.  It responded quickly, it got on the internet.  The virus nightmare had been conquered.  All was well once again in Windows Land.  A final check reveals that the virus removal efforts had been a success.

The “thrill of the kill” was more than ample reward.  There’s nothing I enjoy more than beating these losers at their own game.  It disgusts me how they feel they have the right to invade other people’s computers and literally destroy them or defraud them out of money.   It disturbs me that people push products that people will trust to do the job and protect them, only to have this happen.

…And it makes me smile when I can reverse the damage and hand the client a fully functional computer without them having lost their information in the process.

This, to me, is what computer repair and virus removal is all about.  When you need computer repair, including virus removal, trust us to get the job done.  We fix all the computer problems, not just the easy ones.

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What is “A+ Certified” and does it matter?

As consumers, we are results oriented.  We know that it doesn’t matter what a person, or company, claims, it’s what they can do for us that matters.  The A+ certification is often touted as a “certification” to add credibility and “proof” of a technician’s competence.

What is A+ Certification anyways?

In a nutshell, A+ certification tells you what each part in the computer is and how to plug it in.  For example, this is a direct quote out of an A+ study guide:

The motherboard also known as the main board or system board or planar board. It contains most of the important components, including the chipset, which controls essential functions inside a Computer. The key components of a motherboard are CPU socket / slot, BIOS – ROM chip, Chipset (North / South Bridge or memory and I/O Controller hubs), Expansion slots, and Memory area - SIMMS or DIMMS. The motherboard directly interacts with other components of the Computer, and is responsible for the stability, feature support, expandability and upgrading ability of any system to a maximum extent.

Irrespective of the upgrade you consider, the motherboard must be taken into consideration first. It must be checked whether the motherboard supports additional memory and whether it supports latest processor and hard drives, does it have the spare slot for the upgrade?

Let us address these issues in detail now.

The whole book is like this.

How do you achieve A+ Certification?

To achieve certification, you study the book and write a test.  At the end, you will presumably know what a motherboard or hard drive is and how to add parts.  There is no troubleshooting or diagnostic component to it.  It is strictly a glorified ”Building a PC for Dummies“.

Is A+ Certification a guarantee that they can repair my computer?

Unfortunately, the only thing A+ Certification guarantees is that the individual taking it knows how to memorize text and give the right answers on a test.  It is your guarantee that they can “talk the talk” and switch parts.  Regrettably it has absolutely no bearing on a person’s (or company’s) ability to diagnose your computer problems and repair them, especially difficult or software problems.

It is easy to see from the examples that even if a technician or company advertises “A+ certified” it is no assurance that they have any troubleshooting / diagnostic ability.  It is however, an assurance that they will presumably know how to sell you new parts and install them.

Two examples of many that we’ve seen:

A familiar big box store advertises that all their technicians are A+ certified.  Their solution to a computer brought into us was spending hundreds of dollars on Windows and a fresh reinstall as seen in this post.  The actual fix was a much simpler and cheaper repair.

We had an A+ certified technician come into us for a job interview.  When told the kind of work we do, he admitted that it was beyond his scope and that he didn’t realize anyone in Barrie still did that kind of work.

This does not mean that they don’t know how to diagnose and repair your computer.  They may very well.  However, it should have little, or no, bearing when assessing who you will have perform the computer repair.

When you are considering where to take your computer for repair, consider the company’s reputation for computer repair as opposed to what type of certification they tout to build credibility.  Ask for references, speak to your friends and family, get referrals from others that have used a particular company and are satisfied with the results.

When it comes to computer repair, results are paramount…A+ “certifications” are a start, but ultimately irrelevant.

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Our we fix it or it’s free guarantee in the spotlight.

Today we had a lovely lady named Saudra come in.  She had just come in from one of the box store tech departments that quoted her hundreds of dollars to repair her computer.  They told her how her Windows files were corrupted, how she’d have to buy Windows for several hundred dollars, have the computer wiped out and reformatted, etc.

She came to us looking for a second opinion.  Her concern was understandable.  The computer was a few years old and she had a whole bunch of information stored on it that wasn’t backed up.  She wasn’t thrilled at the idea of spending hundreds of dollars and losing all her data on top of it.  I took a look at it personally while she was there and realized that I could fix it a lot cheaper.  I told her the time I needed and that it would be back to running precisely as before the problems started. 

Saudra asked what would happen if we weren’t able to fix it as quoted.  My response to her was our affirmation that if we weren’t able to repair her computer as promised, we wouldn’t charge her a thing.

The computer kept restarting when trying to load Windows.  It was also overheating.  We cleaned out the inside of the computer with compressed air and repaired the damage that made Windows fail to boot.  The damage actually wasn’t the system files at all.  The hard drive needed a repair.  We got it fixed and back up and running exactly the way it was before all the problems started…and running a lot cooler.

For a fraction of the repair cost quoted at the tech centre, she not only got her computer back up and running, she also didn’t lose a single file.  That experience epitomizes what Northern Protocol Inc. is all about.

A gentleman brought his computer in today as well, a rather nice Dell.  His laptop had a dim screen, resulting in not being able to see what was running unless you looked under the light at the right angle.  He diagnosed it himself and bought an inverter off of Ebay thinking that would resolve the issue, only to find out that it still didn’t work.

Frustrated, he brought it into us and requested a diagnostic to find out if he had received a bad inverter so he could send it back.  As it turns out, the inverter was fine, it was the LCD screen itself that needed to be replaced.  We quoted the cost of a replacement LCD screen after testing the diagnosis, both new and a very cost effective used panel.

After he found out what was wrong with the laptop, he demanded that we give him the computer back for free because we didn’t repair it.  Obviously it doesn’t work that way.  He was invoiced for the diagnostic he requested.

Not long ago I posted our definition of “we fix it or it’s free!” here on my blog.  The point of our guarantee isn’t so that we can do people’s legwork for them and work for free.  If we did that all the time we’d be out of business.  The point of our guarantee is to assure you that you will get great quality products and computer repairs, honest advice and guaranteed work.  Our guarantee is for people that are serious about having their computer repair done properly, swiftly and cost effectively.  We also offer diagnostics on request, which are billed at our diagnostic rates.

Obviously we don’t want to work for free, so we will work diligently to provide you with a fast, honest and cost-effective computer repair.  Thank you very much for your business.  We appreciate it and the trust you’ve placed in us.

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Disable that annoying BEEP! in Windows

Some programs make gratuitous use of a service in Windows called “beep”.  Quite simply put it makes your computer’s internal speaker beep.  There probably isn’t a more annoying sound on a computer than that “beep” sound.

Here is how you disable it, once and for all:

In Windows XP:

• Click Start
• Click Run
• Type in CMD
• Click “Ok”
• A black Console box will appear.
• Type in “net stop beep” without the quotes.
• Press “Enter”
• Type in “sc config beep start= disabled” without the quotes.
• Press “Enter”
• A confirmation will pop up
• Close the Console window (the black window)

If you have Vista, to get to the console do the following:

• In the Search box above the Start button (Windows logo) type in CMD
• Right click on “cmd.exe” in the search results above it
• Click “Run as Administrator”
• Click “Continue” in the dialogue box that pops up if you have User Access Control enabled.
• A black Console window will appear
• Follow the remaining steps above

After you’ve successfully followed these steps you’ll have no more annoying beep noises in Windows.

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