The Computer Guy at the 'Heads

I come from a time, as many who live at the Heads do, when most blokes (and some ladies) did their own car repairs.

Hours spent lying on cold concrete floors battling with unyielding bolts, swearing and covered in grease and dirt. Fixing the Holden or Ford us gave much satisfaction and the money (sometimes) saved helped the family budget. Once chips – silicon ones, not the dead remnants of lunch at the beach – found their way into cars, things changed. Using a strobe light to set the timing and tinkering with carburettors soon became impossible when they were replaced by electronic ignition and fuel injection and we had to rely on workshops with the right gear to do the specialised work for us.

Much has changed with computers too – especially since virus and malware writers became employed by criminals to help them fleece millions from unsuspecting computer users. The techniques used now to construct and hide this stuff are far more sophisticated than just a few years ago and most people don’t have the skill or experience needed to ensure their system is completely rid of the infections after attempts to remove them.

Many customers say to me “oh I don’t use the PC for much, just a few emails and browsing”, but when prompted, they often admit to using them to buy products using their credit cards online, do internet banking and often, storing their only copies of important documents and photos on them. I’m sure many think I’m a ‘worry wart’ but I’ve seen too many people very upset after losing something important or going through the stress of trying to reverse unauthorised credit card payments with their bank.

I see a lot of fake antivirus and antispyware installed on customers computers too which is often evidence of someone in the family seeing a bogus warning that their PC is infected and have fallen for one of the “just click here and we’ll fix it for you” scams. The internet is riddled with this stuff and even if you are savy enough to ignore them you can still fall victim to a ‘drive by’ installer on an infected website. It isn’t unusual even for people with above average computer abilities to get some kind of infection at some time, but dealing with it promptly at the first signs of trouble can mean the difference between an hour in the workshop or 3 for the unfortunate PC and it’s owners.

The bottom line is this. If you believe that spending hours, days or weeks attempting to repair a broken or infected computer with limited skills is worth it – then give it a go. On the other hand a repair done by an experienced, qualified tech like me will often set you back less than $100 and you will know it has been done right.

I haven’t gotten under a car to tinker for over ten years and am unlikely to do so again – not because I’m not prepared to ‘give it a go” but because I know I can take it down to Ian our local mechanic who will be able to do it quicker and better than I could ever hope to !

Happy computing,
Andy