Who hasn’t heard of an Apple computer these days, especially the popular iPhone, iPods and iPads. Sadly, the tech industry just lost a prominent entrepreneur and inventor today to pancreatic cancer at the young age of 56.
For more information, visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
Have you ever had an infected computer you just got repaired, only to get it reinfected again soon after you got it back, and with the same infection? It doesn’t happen often with our customers, but it does happen nevertheless. Before you start wondering if the PC Technician who worked on your computer completely removed the infection or not, there are a couple things you need to consider first. Read More Here…
When I hear this question, I view it as another way for the customer to ask if they can remove the infection themselves … to save money of course. I don’t know how far into my head you want to get into this one, because the answer isn’t always a straight yes or no because it depends on many variables, such as:
Once in a while, a Windows PC can suddenly experience a Blue Screen of Death or BSOD as we call it. In fact, it just happened to a computer I was working on yesterday. It was an older Sony Laptop, a miniature laptop very similar to the ones we call Netbooks now, except this one had a built-in DVD Drive. I had completely reloaded Windows using the Recovery CDs and all was going very smoothly until I installed a major Windows Update known as Service Pack 3 or SP3 for short. I got a BSOD upon the first restart after the update was finished.
The scenario with my old Sony Laptop is not the cause of all Blue Screens, but is an example of a “real” situation to illustrate how Windows Updates can cause a Blue Screen. By default, these Updates are installed Automatically, so these types of problems can appear suddenly without any warning or cause on your part. Read More Here…
Posted in Blue Screens 
Laptops vary in shapes and size, and even color and should never be dropped. We share our lives with them and would be devastated if we ever lost it. As with anything, they should be kept clean and cool, and well-fed, so to speak. Another aspect of Laptop is that it has joints that need to be exercised. They should never be allowed to get too hot and should be rested everyday. And when your day with Laptop is over, you should put it in a soft and safe place so that it will still be there the next day. Read More Here…
Posted in Miscellaneous 
I have been a happy Firefox user for quite a few years now. I pretty much use Firefox exclusively, except for when I am interacting with a website that requires ActiveX. When a website requires ActiveX, such as for some online games, online scanners, online college course and more, then you need Internet Explorer. But there are malicious websites out there that might deceive you into downloading an ActiveX control that might actually contain malware, so do your homework before you install any unknown ActiveX controls. Read More Here…
(Free Members Only) While some hard drives fail prematurely for no apparent reason, others fail because of environmental reasons such as heat or physical shock, or maybe even an occasional power surge. While these are understandable causes for sudden electronic failures, I want to focus on a more subtle reason for most of the hard drive failures I see on a regular basis. Reasons that result in unwanted computer down time, data loss, and a quest for a data recovery company that can recover your lost files without costing an arm and a leg. Read More Here…
As the SpywarePreventionGuy, I wanted to help Microsoft put the word out about the $250,000 Reward they are offering for information that leads to the identification, arrest, and criminal conviction of those responsible for controlling the Rustock botnet that was taken down in March. Anyway, the Senior Attorney for the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, Richard Boscovich, announced the $250,000 reward this week.
The Rustock botnet was a major contributor to the spam problem we all experience in our email inboxes. The Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit is continuing their search for any and all of the cybercriminals involved. Read More Here…
Posted in Noteworthy News 
(Free Members Only) Have you ever had a problem with your computer when you turned it on, that the monitor stayed dark just as if it were still off, or if it displayed anything at all, it said “No Signal Input” or “Monitor Going to Sleep”? Or in some cases, along with a dark screen, did your computer immediately start making any beeping sounds?
The “No Signal” or “Monitor Going to Sleep” display on your monitor is actually generated internally within the monitor, and aside from a connection problem, the monitor is probably okay. This typically occurs when the computer has failed in a way that there is no video output signal to the monitor. As for any beeping, it is sort of a morse code indication about a Power-On Self Test (P.O.S.T.) that failed. While this article was written with desktop computers in mind, most of it still applies to laptops as well, just know that laptop parts are layed-out differently, and may not be user-accessible.
You probably noticed that when your computer is working, that you hear a single beep when your computer begins to boot-up. This is a good POST beep and means that your system passed POST. If your computer didn’t pass POST and it beeps with continuous combinations of long and short beeps, there are 5 main hardware items that can cause this problem: Read More Here…
Some time ago, I wrote about how virus and spyware infections can eventually lead to premature hard drive failures. In short, I was promoting good spyware prevention techniques and top tier virus and spyware protection programs as the best way to prevent one of the most common indirect causes of premature hard drive failure. The scenario goes like this: Your computer gets infected, and you put off repairs until the computer gets so slow, that eventually it won’t respond to any mouse or keyboard input. You might say that Windows stopped responding or the computer froze. What can you do but to perform a bad-shutdown by powering-off the computer? But if the hard drive was spinning at normal operational speed when the power was suddenly turned-off, it is possible that the hard drive’s heads may come into contact with the platter before the drive had a chance to spin-down and park the heads in a safe landing zone. This could result in damage to the heads, the platter, and even your data if the head/platter contact happened over an area of the platter that contains data. Read More Here…
I’ve exposed CyberDefender and their aliases before, you know: DoubleMySpeed.com, MaxMySpeed.com and MyCleanPC.com. Well, they have a new radio commercial with an appealing sounding woman touting the DoubleMySpeed.com website out here in Hawaii. But as usual, I’m sure they are mixing it up around the country with their snake oil tactics for all their aliases. I won’t rehash my previous beefs about CyberDefender today other than to say that I would steer clear of even trying their products. Below is my latest video review of DoubleMySpeed.com. Read More Here…
Posted in Reviews 
With high-speed internet at home and 4G on the go, literally untold millions of people are watching streaming video on their smart phones, ipods and tablets on a regular basis. For the internet savvy folks, we have already learned how to safely download, convert and import these audios and videos into our mobile devices long ago (in computer years that is). But if you are new to this game or are finally stepping outside the safety of iTunes to get all that great free stuff that is just waiting to be downloaded, then you need to finish reading this article first or you just might get infected on your first night out. I’m not talking so much about what kind of virus and spyware “protection” to use to keep safe on the internet, I’m talking about virus and spyware “prevention” by choosing safe programs or “methods” to do this downloading. But where do you start? Read More Here…
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