Beginning the week of April 2nd I will be
hitting the road again, but limiting my visits to a couple of hours at a time.
All is going reasonably well with my recovery from surgery, but I still have
trouble sitting for any length of time. Standing and walking are pretty good
though. I have also recruited an assistant to help with any large hardware
projects and limit lifting for the next couple of weeks, but otherwise I am
fairly well and ready for duty.
For some time now I have provided data recovery services
from Desktop Hard Drives. With the purchase of some new Equipment and Software
I can now offer data recovery for Laptops as well. This service can cost
between $200 and $2000 with many Data Recovery companies. I hope to be able to
keep this cost down to a more reasonable level. In many cases, an Operating
System Repair may rejuvenate an ailing hard drive. Beyond that, data extraction
limits the damage from a failing drive, enabling a reformat to see if the drive
is salvageable or not. Recovered data is burned on a CD or DVD disk to transfer
to a new or repaired drive.
We
do offer reduced rates for home computer repairs. I often see people throwing
out computers that are not working when a simple operating system repair will
render them operational. Occasionally, backing up the personal files and
reinstalling the operating system is the best way to make the computer as good
as new again. Home computer repairs range from $20 to $50 plus parts, if
required. To qualify for the reduced rate you must drop off and pick up the
computer and be willing to wait for up to a week for the repair. This is about
the same requirement as companies like The Future Shop but the prices are a lot
better. In cases where the motherboard is damaged and the computer cannot be
easily repaired, we also provide free computer recycling. Some components are
removed and the case is recycled to recover scrap metal parts.
Since
new computer prices have gotten so low, many people do not want to spend a lot
of money repairing older computers, but you can often get a few more years out
of an old computer and postpone throwing it on the scrap heap with a minor
investment. If you want to consider minor upgrades to your computer give us a
call and we can also give you an estimate of the cost. Clients on the monthly
support program can call for minor support issues and advice on their home
computers as well at no extra cost for short calls.
Anyone who has ordered a new computer or laptop
recently may have been surprised to find that it is short a couple of standard
components. Diskette Drives and
Some useful accessory parts and pricing:
PCI Parallel Interface Cards $40.00
USB to Parallel Converters $30.00
10 Foot Parallel Printer Cable $20.00
USED COMPUTER EQUIPMENT
We have a number of new or almost new Dell computers
for sale, the result of a couple of upgrades and a cancelled order by someone
with budgetary problems. I have also taken on a project requiring an enhanced
laser printer making our old one available.
Dell Pentium IV 2.8, 256mb Ram,
Windows XP Professional,
Assorted Software $500.
Dell Celeron 2.66, 512mb Ram,
Windows XP Professional,
Assorted Software $450.
Dell Pentium IV 2.5, 256mb Ram,
Windows XP Professional,
Assorted Software $350.
HP Laserjet
5P Printer $100.
- includes new HP Toner Cartridge
For clients with older model Novell Servers the Dell
Celeron model 1100 is one of the better units that is still Novell 3.x
Compatible and can provide extended service and improved network performance.
We can provide this unit, a compatible network card
and a second printer port, all for about $500. or so.
Installation of a new file server, backup and
restore of current files, assorted user and printer configuration will usually
cost in the $300. to $500. dependant
on the size and complexity of the network installation.