After cleaning up your computer from I-junk, corruption or viruses, we have made every effort to insure your computer operates normally, however, it is cost prohibitive to have us thoroughly test all of your applications. Depending on the problem we repaired, especially recovery from viruses, you may have to reinstall any applications that are not working correctly.  This may include your printer drivers.

Performance issues? 

Please note; antivirus applications demand more resources and the amount of memory that once ran the computer just fine is now insufficient!  We recommend a minimum of 256 Mb.  Memory is inexpensive and easy to install in most computer.

Performance degradation is normal for all computers. 

This occurs over time as applications are added and removed but perhaps more directly, this is due to add-ons, downloads and updates. Repairing performance issues is sometimes impossible due to the number of files that could be affected. If this is a problem on your computer, the only sure way to repair the problem is by reformatting the drive and reloading everything from scratch. 

Performance issues can also be caused by failing hard drives.  If the system is restore as discussed above and still runs slow, there is a good possibility the problem is a mechanical failure in the drive itself.

Format/Restore

If we formatted and restored your computer you may have to import Outlook/Outlook Express data.  Here is more information on that process.

While Servicing Your Computer

During our repair service, we may have made modifications to improve the system performance and to aid us with certain tasks such as defragmentation. These modifications may include any number of the following: 

• Shut off System Restore (see below)
• Shut off your screen saver, monitor and drive power savings feature. To re-enable right click a blank area of the Desktop, select Properties then the Screen Saver tab.  If you want to (re)enable the power savings mode, click the Power/Settings button near the bottom of the Screen Saver tab window.
• Remarked out unneeded lines in the boot files: Autoexec.bat and Config.sys.  
  Note: Except under certain circumstances, these two boot files are not even required for Windows 98 or later machines.  Each active line in these files effectively reduces the amount of memory available to the operating system.  If you find older programs no longer operate correctly, you may have to re-enable the remarked lines.  See Re-Configuring your system below. 
• Via the Maintenance Wizard, emptied the recycle bin, deleted temporary Internet and cleaned up other temporary files folder.  If you were having Internet problems we may have deleted your cookies, cleared forms and cleared passwords.
• Shut off your background images to free up more memory and resources for our operations. 
• Changed your screen resolution and or color settings. To revert our changes: Right click a blank area of the desktop, select Properties then click on the settings tab.
• Removed unnecessary or redundant items from Startup via the MSConfig utility.
  See Re-Configuring your system below. 
• If found, the following were likely removed due to their problematic nature: BonziBuddy, Precession Time/Date, CME, tool bars, search bars and other Internet add-ins. 
  To re-enable these it will be necessary to download again them from the Internet but note, these may have been the root cause of your problems!
• Disable unnecessary startup items from the System Tray to free up more memory and resources for our operations. Examples: RealPlayer and QuickTime.  To re-enable these open the application from the Start menu Programs folder, locate the startup option and turn on the Start with Windows (or similar) options.
• Changed your TCP/IP settings for our network.  Although we usually reset these, if you are having Internet/connection problems, call us while sitting in front of the computer.
• We may have downloaded and installed available Windows Security updates and if so, one change you may notice is Outlook Express will not allow you to open attachments.  This is a simple setting you can change, here's how:  Open Outlook Express (on or off line) then from Tools > Options menu select the Security tab.  The second option down has a check mark.  Clear that check mark to allow access to attachments. 

Re-Configuring your system

Your computer should operate fine without re-enabling any items however, if you want to: Start menu > Run, type msconfig then click OK.  Move to the Startup tab and place a check mark next to the desired item(s).  If you have any questions re-enabling applications, call us.

Boot files

Does not apply to Windows XP or 2000 machines.
In the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys files we typically REMark out unnecessary lines using the REM command followed by BCS, a space, a date and another space.  The REM effectively removes that command line from being executed at boot time.

From the Start menu, select Run.  In the command line field type "sysedit" (without the quotes) then hit the enter key.  From the Sysedit application, open the Windows menu and select the Autoexec.bat and Config.sys window. 

We highly recommend printing each window before making changes!

Look for any lines that start with REM BCS or REM BCS DATE, e.g.,
REM BCS Device=c:\himem.sys  or
REM BCS 7-17 Device=c:\himem.sys

Remove the REM BCS date and the space after the date so to allow the above example to run at startup it would need to look like this: Device=c:\himem.sys

Startup Folder/Items

Windows 95

These were moved to a new folder on your Desktop. 
To re-enable these: 

1. Open the new folder.
2. Right click the Start button and select Explore. 
3. Click the plus sign next to "Start Menu" then the plus next to Program Files then click one time on the Startup folder's icon (shown here). 
4. Switch back to the now opened new folder (ALT TAB).  Select all icons in that window, right click and select cut from the popup menu.
5. Alt Tab back to the Startup folder's explorer window and in the right pane (should be empty or nearly empty), right click and paste.
6. Close all windows.
7. Delete the new folder.

Windows 98, ME, XP

1. From the Start menu select Run and for the command line, type "MSConfig" (without the quotes) then hit the enter key.
2. Click to the Startup tab and place a check mark next to the item(s) of interest.  We suggest you do these just a couple at a time as one of them may have been the root cause of your problems.

Windows System Restore

Additionally, system restore may have been turned off:

Windows ME: Right click My Computer, select Properties, select the Performance tab, click the File System tab, click the Troubleshooting tab and clear the check mark from Disable System Restore

Windows XP:  Right click My Computer, select Properties (or the System icon from the Control Panel)  Select the System Restore tab and remove the check mark from the Turn Off option.  Reboot.