As an experienced field tech at A+ Mobile PC Doctors, I have a lot of experience surrounding the topic of virus removal (now more frequently referred to as malware: malicious software), especially in our Boston computer repair shop, in the field in eastern MA especially in the greater Boston area since that is where we have been headquartered since 2002 and doing remote desktop support to remove malware from both home and business level computer users.

Virus Removal

We get calls daily at our Boston computer repair shop regarding computer viruses from troubled individuals that want to know what they can do to remove the virus(es) and spyware, or better put, malware (malicious software) from their computer. Our initial reaction is always to ensure their immediate security, so we ask them questions like:

“Is your machine powered on and are you connected to the internet?”

–>We ask this to ensure that the virus is not transmitting their personal data back to its host (the hacker that wrote the malware application). If so, we ask them to at least disable their internet connection by unplugging their Ethernet cable from either their PC or the Router, and if, god forbid, they are still using dial-up, then disconnect the phone line from their PC. This precautionary action will terminate their connection to the internet and cease any possible communication between the virus/malware and their host.

“What are you running for security software? If yes, is it a free version or paid version, and is your license current?” (e.g. anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, etc. software such as AVG, Norton, Avast, Panda, McAfee, CA, etc.)

–> This helps us determine how badly their machine is infected. Let’s face it, none of these security software are infallible, but we try to put our best foot forward when protecting our networks, data and PC’s. If they tell us that they are not running any security software or it has expired, we know, right off the bat, that the machine is swimming with many viruses.

“Are you able to get online?”

–> This helps us determine whether or not a remote session would even be possible, or do we need to physically possess the computer to conduct a proper virus removal. It also helps us determine how badly the viruses have infiltrated the computer.

Computer Virus Removal

A PROPER virus removal….hmm…that brings me to the theme of this blog post. Every kid out there with a screw driver and a computer that thinks they know even a little about computer repair, is on the web advertising his or her services (mostly on Craigslist.com and Google/Yahoo & Bing Maps since it is free to advertise there) claiming that they are some kind of expert.

• They undercut the market since they do not have any company overhead such as insurance payments and in many cases personal and/or commercial rent/utilities, etc.
• They don’t have any technical certifications and/or very little field experience beyond their own PC’s
• Most of which are still in high school or just barely graduated (if they graduated at all), and even more have zero college or formal education, and definitely no technical training.
• They don’t carry any sort of insurance, so when they botch the job and lose all your data you as a consumer have zero recourse.
• Most importantly: They don’t truly understand Virus Removal and how to do it correctly!

Buyer's Beware

We as a company are constantly interviewing technicians and looking for the best of the best technicians. As such, we have a pretty steady flow of resumes coming in through our recruitment email. I personally review each and every one of these resumes - most of which get tossed out. Occasionally we do receive resumes that look promising and merit at least an initial investigatory phone call - which I myself place. When conducting these initial interview calls, we begin to drill down on the technical aspects of computer repair and networking as a start to begin to judge what the candidates’ true technical knowledge and experience are, and one of the first topics we discuss is virus removal.

10 times out of 10, the candidate will state that they really understand virus removal and it is no problem for them. Then, as the conversation continues, and we ask them to walk us through a typical virus removal process and we discover about 9.5 times out of 10 that the candidate really doesn’t get how to do a simple, or a complex (or thorough) virus removal. It is not as simple as most people think. Typically unless someone has been trained by a technician who really knows what they are doing, they themselves really don’t know the proper tools to use, or how to use them correctly (e.g. the anti-virus software that really work, how to effectively use a hard drive adapter kit so you don’t boot into windows but can read the drive and run virus scans, how to use Safe Mode and Safe Mode with Networking effectively to ensure success, etc.)

Even more importantly, most don’t get that we first and foremost have to be concerned with any sensitive data on the customer’s hard drive as a priority to recover, and then worry about the virus removal process. For most customers the data on their hard drive is a priority. As such, we always prioritize the data recovery and include questions surrounding this topic in our list of questions when we are “getting our arms around” the problem initially.

Lastly, most techs out there will only run one (or perhaps) two anti-virus applications on a computer, find some viruses, remove them, and then think they are all done - when in fact, they have only removed a minority of the malware on the hard drive and most likely still have some remnants of the malware, which are most likely to return in some fashion. These are the techs that will tell you they can do a virus removal in an hour or two. To truly do a thorough cleaning of a hard drive the proper way, you must run at least 4+ applications on your hard drive - which brings me back to the point that to do a proper virus removal takes anywhere from at least 3 hours, to as long as 24 hours depending on the depth of infection, how many files are on the hard drive and how powerful the machine is from a hardware standpoint.

We also recommend running a registry cleaner software such as RegCure to help optimize your PC’s performance and cut down on possible registry errors.

Feel free to call us to answer any questions you have - no obligation for free advice: 1-866-417-3945. It is our goal to help you achieve the peace of mind over your computer system, and the computer repair services company that assists you with your home or business IT infrastructure.

Technology to Relax...

A vital step in Laptop Repair concerning Data Recovery, Migration or Maintenance is having a solution in place before a critical situation arises. At our Boston Computer Repair shop we have all the tools and experience to recover your important data from a failed hard drive or crashed system in most cases. However, for the inevitable times where a hard drive has catastrophically failed and Data Recovery is impossible it is vital to have a secure backup solution in place.

Your Data is Irreplaceable

There are many reliable data backup solutions on the market for Desktop and Laptop PC users, as well as more complex data maintenance systems for enterprise level customers using server racks or computer-farms.

I personally use and recommend an external hard drive of at least 1 Terabyte configured to automatically back up your entire system. It is important to make sure your Laptop Hard Drive is large enough to store all of your files without spilling over onto the external - as the essence of backup is to keep two complete and separate copies of everything in case one of the drives fails.

USB or Firewire External Hard Drive

For most users this one hardware and software solution will be everything you need to secure your data and prepare to migrate to a new system in the event of an upgrade or a crash. However, there are a number of other ways to back up your data in case you need to have it on-the-go or access it over the internet. In another post I will review flash-based storage, cloud-based storage and RAID backup solutions for businesses.

Have you ever tripped on your laptop power cable? Or dropped your laptop and now your laptop will not charge? Or possibly you now need to wiggle the AC Adapter cable where it plugs into the female port (the DC Power Jack) in the back or on the side of your laptop to get at least (or in some instances, at most) intermittent connection allowing electricity to flow to the PC?

Any way you cut it, this can be very frustrating and can cause you a major inconvenience especially if the laptop is dead and you need to access files that are on that computer which can sometimes lead to a more expensive data recovery computer laptop repair service once your battery runs out just to access your files until you can get the DC power jack repaired. The fact that your computer is not getting power  is most likely due to one of two or two of two things:

1. The actual power cable and/or the AC Adapter Cable -that plugs into your laptop is damaged and it needs to be replaced
2. Damage has been occurred to the DC power jack, which is what the male port on the end of the AC adapter cable plugs into. The DC power jack actually resides on the motherboard and allows electrical current to flow to the laptop.

AC Adapter w/ Power Cable

DC Power Jack Repair

Most computer repair shops do offer some laptop repair services, however, many of these computer repair shops do not offer the DC Power Jack Repair services in-house as it is a more complex repair requires a high level of expertise with laptops since the laptop needs to be disassembled to access the motherboard, ability to solder and not your every day run of the mill tech possesses these skills.

Our Boston computer repair shop is one of the few locations that does offer DC Power Jack Repair in eastern MA, and we do all the work in-house, not sent out to another company or location. We offer DC power jack repair services for Toshiba, Dell, HP, Sony Vaio, Lenovo. Thinkpad, Gateway, Acer, Asus, Mac and all Apple laptops in Boston MA. Also, depending on your computer make and model and our available stock we can preform a DC jack repair on the same day or for next day pickup.

Everyone that has a PC remembers how it “used” to run back when it was new. Then slowly but surely over time, it seems to get progressively slower, and slower, and then many times it will actually start crashing by freezing up, or going to a blue screen (sometimes referred to the blue screen of death), or it crashes to the point where it either won’t even power up or you get a black screen with system errors and cannot even log into Windows.

An Average Day At The Office

Do not fret there are solutions to this problem that are much more tranquil and cost-effective. First, you should understand why your computer is running slowly.

When you purchase your computer it is generally a pretty stripped down machine, pre-loaded with an operating system (e.g. Windows XP, Windows Vista, or more commonly now, Windows 7), and possibly some other smaller software applications like Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash Player, some sort of media player, possibly some variation of MS Office (e.g. MS Word, Power Point, Outlook, Excel, Access, etc.) in a trial version format and likewise with a security software trial version (e.g. McAfee, Norton, AVG, etc.)

These software applications then expand once you purchase the full version, and then install your printer software, then your iTunes, games, etc. All requiring hard drive disk space, and many of which will actually now start running when your system boots up along with Windows, causing them to run in the background which will chew up more and more of your RAM (random access memory) and processor resources - which are essentially the two primary components within a PC that will speed up or slow down a computer. Let us also not forget that over time, you will be downloading and installing updates to your software - especially your MS Windows updates, which will in turn take up more disk space and require more of your RAM and processor to manage this additional software - in turn hogging more and more of your computer’s resources just to run the PC instead of utilizing those resources to run the applications you are actively using.

So what to do about this??? There are many solutions out there. Some of the easy pointers I would like to share with you to keep your PC running optimally are:

1. Run the Disk Cleanup about every 2 - 3 weeks on your computer, deleting old files and cooking which will help max the space on your hard drive
2. Run the Disk Defragmenter right after running the Disk CeanUp (both these applications can be found in your System Tools folder within the Start menu

   

3. Purchase a registry cleaning software (ever see those ads on TV claiming how they will speed up your computer - well this is what they are selling, but they’ll charge you way more than double to have some guy in India download and install it on your PC for you - don’t waste your money), this software will not only clean out registry errors, but it will correct many other operating system errors and optimize your PC.                                                                                          ——–>>>

   Effective Registry Cleaning & PC Optimization Software

Now - in the case that your PC is infected with malware (malicious software), which encompasses any virus, spyware, malware, trojan horses, worms, etc. This will also slow down you PC and these must be removed to prevent permanent damage to the software layer of your PC (your operating system and software applications), and sometime they can even attack the hardware layer (your RAM chips, hard drive or even your motherboard). In this case, you will need to most likely run other anti-virus, anti-malware softwares on your PC other than the one you already have installed. Let’s face it, none of them are infallible, but we all ry to put our best foot forward when protecting our home and business networking, PC’s and data in general.

So what to do when you already paid for a security software, or have installed a free version of one of what your friend told you was the best, but you still are getting pop-ups, or your home page has changed, or now there is another Anti-Virus software now telling me that my computer is infected with virus - or one of about 1,000 other scenarios. well, first things first - do not login into your online banking until you have this resolved. Or any other financial or investment tool until you have this resolved. My advice is to take it to a professional computer repair shop like our Boston computer repair shop, or contact a computer repair company that has a lot of expertise in virus removal and in many cases this can be done remotely if you are able to still get online. When I say “still” it is because many times virus will begin attacking your computer’s applications and processes, one of which is your ability to get online.

However, if you wish to attempt this yourself, there are some good free tools out there such as ComboFix, MalwareBytes, SuperAntiSpyware and free AVG. My one piece of advice is that if you don’t know what you are doing, then to take it to a professional computer repair services company that has been in business for years, carries insurance, and has a least a A- rating with the Better Business Bureau.

I hope this has been helpful

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