Computers are an integral part of life today. We think nothing of buzzing around the internet, downloading music and video, creating and sending greeting cards, playing games, and searching for information. The things that most people use their computer for, are the things that can create issues to safety and security. Think about those chain emails. We all get them. The ones that promise good things, if you forward to 10 friends in 8 minutes. My Momma used to say, "Don't put that in your mouth, you don't know where it's been". Can you relate the term 'virus'? Email is the most vulnerable point of entry on your computer. By employing the concept of best practices, you can protect your computer and your data files.

Our recommendation is a solid Antivirus program. The fancy Suites of security products, adware, spy blockers, popup blockers, etc. are mostly overkill. Employ the KISS principle! Keep It Simple Sweetie. A Windows operating system with the Security Center and the latest browser is your protection. (Sorry, MAC's are not a specialty.) We can show you how to configure these along with antivirus to do the job.

Our computer services are informational. When we repair your computer, we endeavor to find the cause and help you understand how to avoid the recurrence in the future. Keeping your user files organized using folders, avoid saving files on the desktop, maintain a clean backup are some of the best practices to employ. If your hard drive crashes, recovering files from an organized location (My Documents) has a far greater recovery rate. Try to keep your computer clean - from both dust and excessive temporary files.

The internet has created a global communication environment. Email can come from all over the world, bringing virus problems. Unless you use dialup service, you have an always on or on demand internet connection. Our local area in South Carolina: Walhalla, Seneca, Anderson, Clemson, and Westminster; is just as vulnerable as LA, New York, Atlanta, etc. If you have an internet connection, you are on a network. The DSL Modem and the Cable Modem are computers. They have an address, your computer or computers share that address. We can help you keep that address safe.

Here is what you can expect to find on this page.

Cleaning and Repair - Proper maintenance is key to a healthy computer. A clean computer is a happy computer. When your computer isn't happy, it runs slow and sometimes won't run at all. We can repair those issues and we make house calls.

Upgrades - Hardware and Software are the components that make up a computer. They work together or maybe they don't. Older computers may need to upgrade hardware to run new software. We can install and configure hardware and software to update your computer, or tell you the hardware has become obsolete.

Data Recovery - Your hard drive is where all your files are. They don't last forever. They can be corrupted by virus and malware. Hard drive failure doesn't mean your files are gone, we can probably recover files for you.

Most of us take our computers for granted. We don't really think about all the tasks that the computer performs, flawlessly on command. We have come to expect that level of performance. It can really be hard to notice the symptoms of an ailing computer. The computer will slow down over time. It will be bogged down running processes that it's user added by installing certain programs. We don't see the problem until the computer freezes up, gives an error message, or won't start.

How is this different from your own health? Think of it this way, you can have regular checkups at your physician to make sure you are running okay. You can go to the doctor when you are feeling sick. You can go to the emergency room when you have immediate and serious problem. Perhaps you see the correlation here?

There are simple steps to computer health, whether you have a single family computer, a home network of computers, or a business computer system. Regular cleaning of hardware and software is highly overlooked.

The enemy of computers is heat. The faster processors generate heat. Our studio, with 4 computers running, will be 10 degrees or more warmer than the office. The fans and air flow openings in the case of a desktop computer are designed to maintain the temperature inside the case. What happens, though, is that dust is drawn into the case with the air. Dust, pet hair, cobwebs, dust bunnies; what ever you call them get in and coat the components inside the case. This reduces the cooling capability of the fans. The computer, just as you, will work slower in a hot environment.

Note: The after photo, refers to simple blowing off the processor fans and heat sink, this is sufficient between complete cleaning and thermal replacement service, which in this case was performed 3 months ago.

These two photos, startling to me, are of another system just 4 months after a complete cleaning. This is not the kind of 'spider' we want 'crawling' through the computer.

Cleaning software? When you access the internet, there are lots of files that are stored on your computer in an effort to make it faster to open the page again. They also take up space on your hard drive and your ability to store more of these files. Then there are cookies, adware, spyware, toolbars, messaging programs, weather alerts, etc. These programs like to set themselves to start with your computer, which in turn takes your computer longer to start.

If you like to save files to the desktop instead of to a hard drive folder, you are also slowing the computer down and reducing memory space for computing. These files will also be harder to recover if your hard drive fails. Make shortcuts on the desktop all day long they are expendable. Your files should be organized in the "My Documents" folder.

If you need assistance learning how to operate your computer effeciently, check out our instructional classes on a wide variety of topics from basic computing to specific applications.

We can help your computer maintain and restore peak performance. From our Walhalla location, we provide housecall service throughout Oconee County, including Seneca, Salem, & Westminster. We also serve Anderson, Clemson, and all surrounding communities. You can contact us  to set up an appointment for a house call or to bring your computer to our facility. Service contracts for monthly and biannual system checks are also available.

Keeping your computer healthy is important. Making sure your computer has the necessary hardware and software to perform the functions you require is another piece to the puzzle. Just because the computer doesn't have the newest processor, does not make it obsolete. You may just need to add more memory to properly run a new program or perhaps you need a larger hard drive or a new graphics card. Many of our clients aren't needing to play the new games, requiring huge amounts of memory and large cache graphics card. They just want to keep current with the new versions of programs for productivity.

Over the past several years, minimum requirements to run software has put higher demands on the memory, hard drive, and graphics display card. For example, you may have a Pentium III processor at 866mHz. The software indicates this is fine. However; you may also have 128 mb of RAM memory, the software requires 384 mb. You need to upgrade your RAM in order to run the software. The same holds true for graphics cards. Your computer may have a standard card with 32 mb of RAM on the card. The software requires 128 mb of onboard RAM. In this situation, you may be able to run the software, but not get all the display information to make it work right. You have to upgrade your video graphics card and drivers. Unless you understand the alphabet soup of all these technologies, you may spend $ 400 to upgrade your old computer with hardware when $ 800 might buy you a new computer, faster and ready to go. Beware of computers under $700. When you buy these computers, you do NOT get software discs for your computer. They use OEM software, that's why they are less expensive. You aren't the owner of the license for your operating system and therefore will not be able to use a licensed version to reinstall your operating system. You can only use the recovery disks from the manufacturer. The same is true for the components. HP for example, has non commercial motherboards and harddrives which make you dependent on them to fix your problems. Just understand that to keep the price low, you may have larger costs of maintenance. Check out our online store for custom build computers.

We can check your computer for any upgrades to your hardware and software that you may need to keep using your computer the way you want. We can also let you know if your system is obsolete for your intended purposes and help you decide what you do need. For more information, contact us .

Computers crash, if you have them long enough and work them hard enough. It happens. The question becomes one of what crashed. Sometimes it is a section of the hard drive that has gone bad or a memory address that isn't found. These things can be fixed by running disk and memory checks to ensure the data is restored to another location. This usually is an indication of a problem beginning. Call us for a maintenance check.

When the problem gets bigger, it may wipe out the ability of the hard drive to boot up at all. So you end up with a blank screen or a 'boot disk failure' message. This could mean the complete failure of the drive. You might well start wondering about your files, where are they and can they be saved.

The chances of rebuilding a crashed boot hard drive is slim at best. The operating system files and file tables are what is usually destroyed. In other words, your files are on the drive, you just can't access them because the data that indexes them is gone. Data recovery can save your personal files. If you remember one thing about losing the hard drive, don't write anything to the drive. This means don't reformat or scandisk the drive and don't try to reinstall the operating system to the drive. Call us. We have data recovery capabilities to save lost files.

Data recovery is going to involve physically removing your drive to one of our computers. We can find the files and move them to a healthy drive. Then we can try to determine the issue that caused the problem. Generally, you can expect to replace the hard drive. We will need all the operating system and program software to reinstall on the new drive before copying your files back to the system. For HP, Dell, Compaq, and Gateway computers, you will need the backup discs from them unless you made a backup set when you got the computer. This reinstalls to the original software when you bought the computer, including all the trial software. As an alternative, purchasing a new operating system will free you from the "special" HP, Dell, Compaq, and Gateway bundles.

Mind you our services are designed to save what we can of your personal files quickly and economically. Please contact us today for more detailed help and information.

Do you value the integrity of your computer data?
Do you have an investment in your computer and home theatre hardware?
Does your business depend on system uptime?
Do you experience power outages or, worse, power fluctuations?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you need to investigate the power solutions available from American Power Conversions, a leader in power protection systems for home and business.

Today's high tech computer and entertainment systems are very susceptible to damage from power surges. These surges can be caused by lightning strikes during storms. They can also be caused by fluctuations that occur in the power lines. It is important to know that your power solution is more than a plug strip. Use the APC Product Selectors to find the right solution for your needs or contact us for a consultation.

Another important consideration for power issues are phone lines, network cables, satellite cables and CATV cables. Power surges can come through these connections as well as your electrical outlets. Your power supply should provide connections to isolated surges coming from these sources as well. APC power supplies have these connections built in or you can get inline modules to provide the necessary protection.

Why do I need a battery backup power supply? I don't leave my computer or LCD TV on.

Battery backup systems provide an unseen layer of protection. When the power goes out, unprotected devices will shut off. This means your computer will not perform a shutdown. Don't let WinXP, Vista, or Windows 7 fool you. It may not perform the dreaded scandisk check the next time you boot up, but you should! WinXP and Vista will store errors until you run scandisk manually to free them. When the power goes off, your battery backup will give you time to save your work and shutdown properly. Many LCD, Plasma, and DLP TV's will remain ON when the power goes out. When power returns, the surge could cause damage to the unit. Another great reason for the battery backup, power outages can be brief. The battery provides an uninterupted power source to keep you running! Back-UPS units also include voltage regulation, this feature maintains line voltage between 95 and 120 volts. Low voltage is more damaging than surges as the components strain to maintain the ON condition without the required voltage.

To find out more about power solutions, contact us .

These product selectors for home and home office are easy to use and will provide solutions based on your needs. We would be happy answer any questions you may have and assist you in purchasing APC products. APC provides power and cooling solutions for larger enterprises, servers, racks, rooms, and more.

Notebook Product Selector

UPS Product Selector

Upgrade Selector

Surge Strip Selector

Cable Selector

Oconee Media Services is an APC Reliability Partner. We will work with you directly to analyze your specific needs and secure the proper solution. You can also check our online store for APC products.