Computers

Systems and Failures

by bigcajunman on April 24, 2013

Over the past day or so I have spent a fair amount of time piecing back together my home computer system (at least one of them, I have a veritable cornucopia of systems). This system is very important in that it is the center of my computing universe, in that it holds a great deal of important data, so after resurrecting the system I will dole out a little bit of home spun home computing advice.

This is ENIAC the Computer My Dad Programmed. Backups? On this?

First and foremost, ensure you have backups of your data and your system. This is crucial to any and all of your systems, if you don’t have backups (and hopefully they can restore as well) you will have to rebuild a dead system from scratch (and lose your personal settings).

Back up your system image onto another disk, on your system (preferably external, but not on the same disk as your operating system is on). Make sure your backups are working as well (check your logs).
If you have important data, back this information up or make it safe in some fashion. Copy the data onto another disk, another system, onto a network server or have a home Network Access Storage box (NAS). Make sure your back ups are secure, but again, make sure this back up is running as well.

Create an operating system rescue disk (depending on what OS you are running) or keep the original Operating System disks you used to install the system (or the ones that came when you bought the system). These are essential in repairing your system as well. If you threw these out, you will need to find them or recreate them (or simply buy a new system).

Have all the Serial Numbers for your: Operating System, Anti Virus System, and all Software that you bought. These are essential as well if you have to recover after a partial system failure (yes this happens as well).

Ensure your system is running System Optimization is running to defragment your disks and check for errors as well.

Finally, maybe what you need is a Guy (or Gal) who really loves futzing around with technology that can come over and help you set all of this up. I used to be “the Guy” for a few people in terms of helping them with technology, but I think now I am mostly just “the Guy” for my family’s computers, but that is fine as well.

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OK One Thing You Can Buy on Boxing Day

by bigcajunman on December 27, 2012

So a while ago I spoke about how Anti-Virus software is needed but the pricing trickery is ridiculous.

Yesterday on Boxing Day here in Ottawa that point was driven home like a nail from a pneumatic nail gun.

Anti-Virus which is Cheaper when Bought New

Last week, my mail program came up with a note saying, “About to renew your Norton 360 Subscription”, and it was going to use the credit card that it had on file, and it was going to cost $79.00 for my machine. After I stopped yelling obscenities, I logged onto the Norton site, to see that in fact the “renewal” had not gone through, it was Norton attempting to influence me to go to the site and simply hit the “ReNew” button (which I did not). I managed to figure out how to stop this automatic renewal from happening. I sort of suspected that this might happen given Michael James’ post on McAfee’s Persistent Trickery, but I was quite happy to have caught it before it happened.

I have noticed that the Boxing Day sales regularly have Anti-Virus software on sale so I decided I was going to wait and see what might happen with the sales.

Sure enough our Amigos at Future Shop delivered and had Norton 360 on Sale for $29.99, for 3 machines and for a 15 month subscription (remember to renew for 1 machine for 12 months was going to cost $79.99), so my patience seems to have paid off. I checked the Norton site and they had a Boxing Day sale for the same product (3 licenses Norton 360) for $69.99 (wow).

I guess we can add Anti-Virus software that you can purchase at the Boxing Day madhouse.

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Anti-Virus Software: Needed but…

by bigcajunman on June 18, 2012

… the pricing on this stuff is nuttier than a Brazil Nut grove! Yes I have talked about Anti-Virus software being a Scam before, but hey, I get to rant sometimes about the same things (I’m old, respect your elders).

For now I am speaking of the mainstream Anti-virus folks (not the AVG and Malwarebytes who offer free stuff which works fine (heck even Microsoft’s free security essentials is pretty good these days)), no I speak of Norton and McAfee and their insane pricing methodologies which force me to go to a store and buy NEW copies of their software instead of making a renewal as cheap (if not cheaper) than it is to buy something new.

Before you think I am saying you don’t need this software, that is definitely NOT what I am saying, you need this software, so get some, or you are asking for trouble.

OK, just so I don’t have someone claiming I told them not to get anti-virus software (oh and all you Mac snobs, don’t be thinking you are somehow exempt from Viruses, they are already here for you too), but I grow weary of the game that is played for Anti-virus software on the PCs.

Example: you buy a new computer, and it comes with a 30-day trial of either Norton or McAfee (depending on who you buy the system from). OK, that is good, your new PC is protected for the first 30 days you own it, however, pretty much every day your PC now flashes up a “You Should Renew Your Anti-Virus Software” advertisement. You decide that yes it would be a good idea to do that, so you click and see that to “renew” your software will cost $59 (for one machine). This seems a little expensive, so you go to Staples, or better still to the Dell On Line store and you see you can buy a 3-Computer license (so software for 3 of your home computers), for $69 (or less), you scratch your head and wonder why these companies price this way?

Why? My guess is they catch many folks, who simply don’t want to be bothered to look around and check the prices of software, so they simply “renew” their anti-virus that way. This has been going on for more than 10 years, so it must be working, or the Anti-virus biggies would have changed their ways, but no, I saw this again Sunday morning, so nothing much is changing.

Shop around for software prices. I found a McAfee 3 computer license on sale at the Dell Store (on “Boxing Day”) for $12.99, so yes this stuff does get steeply discounted as well. Shop around and don’t get your pocket picked by the big software companies.

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Dell does Finally Deliver

by bigcajunman on December 13, 2011

My saga with Dell seems to have come to an end, with the delivery of the system (a month after I ordered it, and a different configuration) and now Dell have actually agreed and refunded me $160. I do seem to have a computer (although I haven’t booted it up yet) but throughout this I have been hounded by the relentless Dell sales support hot line (which I guess is somewhere in India or nearby).

In the past month I have received countless e-mails from the Sales Support Folks about the initial system I ordered, and why it wasn’t going to be delivered (no reason was really given, even though my guess of no hard disks available is still valid in my estimation). I have also been in an e-mail discussion about how if I ordered on Cyber Monday the same system was $160 cheaper, and a final e-mail discussion about how my order was being changed because my initial order wasn’t going to be delivered on time (or even late from what I was being told).

Am I happy? Due to the relentless calling, and e-mails I don’t think I’d say happy would describe me, satisfied with the conclusion is a better description of how I feel, but I now must deal with the voice mails (at two separate phones (work and home) and all the e-mails about the refund).

As Mrs. C8j points out there is a thin line between good customer service and harassment, I suspect that I may have ruffled a few feathers with my complaints, so maybe I deserve the “full court press” from the Dell Support Center, but I hope these will abate soon. My guess is they will also start hounding me to fill in a customer satisfaction survey, and if that happens, I suspect my Christmas may be spent in further discussion with these folks.

All of this for a $400 lap top? Guess I should have just walked down to the Future Shop?

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Be Relentless

by bigcajunman on November 30, 2011

As I have said previously the answer is always No unless you ask, and it continues to be true when you are dealing with customer service or sales people.

At the start of the week I ranted about Cyber Monday? Better watch out, better not cry where I outlined how I have purchased a system from Dell, that is being held up in production (I think it is due to hard disk shortages, but no one has confirmed that for me).

Monday afternoon a friend sent me a link to the Dell Cyber-Monday page where I found the exact system I had ordered for $160 less! Needless to say I was livid seeing that not only was I being abused by not having a system (that I had not paid for yet) it was now on sale for 25% less, and was going to be delivered a week before the date I was given for my system.

Taking my own advice I sent yet another e-mail to the Dell Service Center complaining about the fact that my system’s delivery date is still showing up as November 18th on their system and I then added in my complete disgust with the fact that if I had waited to order on Cyber Monday I would have saved $160 and the delivery date for the system would have been earlier than the computer I ordered. To be accurate in my rant I included the link to the system on sale which matched the system I ordered, and I finally added, I could simply cancel my order and re-order and save myself time and money.

Yesterday yet another response appeared in my INBOX and sure enough Dell had read my e-mail, and started off by apologizing for the delay in delivery, but then they astounded me by lowering the price of my ordered system by $160 however they then wrote the delivery date is still mid-December. I was delighted and surprised by this response, but it does seem to reinforce that no matter how unlikely you think a request is to be honored, you still need to ask and let the Service Agent or Salesperson say no, you can set your mind at ease knowing at least you asked.

I am still in the same position I was previously in that I don’t have a system or a delivery date, but now it is 25% cheaper, so I guess I am a little happier with the Dell response.

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