ByteWise PC 911

Frank provides personal, friendly assistance for your computer problems.

Frank assesses why your Windows PC doesn't work the way you want it to. He can work with you either:

• over the phone
• by bringing your computer to him
• by travelling to you to take a look at your computer.

Frank has been repairing computers in Minneapolis and St. Paul for 25 years.

Frank has two college degrees from University of Minnesota, Duluth. He has a degree in Computer Science and a degree in Mathematics.

The basic service rate is $125 per hour, billed to the minute with a 10-minute minimum ($20). Specific tasks can be billed at a fixed rate.

House calls are $125 minimum, with no charge for travel time.

Frank guarantees all work for 30 days.

Costs compared to corporate PC repair services

Frank is consistently less expensive than other better-known corporate services. He is readily available, and you will always get Frank, not somebody new. And Frank has a ready access to parts.

Frank fell in love with computers in 1980. Since then he would take them apart and put them back together again. He helped people repair their own computers. He loved the feeling of helping people who had problems with their computer and had no idea how to repair them. He still loves to help people with their computers. He enjoys seeing customers leave his shop happy that their computers are working again.

Frank works with home repair and small business repair.

Richard thought his computer was running slow because of a problem with his Internet connection. E-mail ran more and more slowly, and nothing he did seemed to make a difference. He also speculated it might be a failing hard drive.

PC Repair: Software

Frank first checked for viruses. He performed a scan and found no fewer than 126 trojans, adware, and worms (many duplicates) embedded in different areas of his hard drive, and removed them.

But the computer still ran slowly! Frank backed up all data on an external hard drive, and reformatted the hard disk. He performed a hard drive check to see if the drive was failing or if there were any bad data sectors. (This is a more common phenomenon because 10 - 15 years ago, hard drives were manufactured with a 3-5 year warranty. Nowadays, manufacturers only provide 1-3 year warranties, and so drives are failing more often.) The hard drive checked out okay.

Frank then suspected that another virus was embedded into the hard drive's boot partition. He removed all the partitions, did a low-level format that zeroed out all the data, and then repartitioned the drive. Next, Windows and all applications were reinstalled. Anti-virus and anti-malware programs were added. Finally Frank restored Richard's data. Richard verified that the computer now ran at its regular speed when picking up E-mail—true happiness!

Frank left it to Richard to reinstall other programs he had downloaded separately such as: Google Earth, Blu-ray Player and iTunes.

The pro should have a long history repairing computers professionaly. He or she should have good reviews from customers. The pro should be knowlegable with the system that is being worked on.