I recently had a customer who had just built his own PC, an AMD Ryzen, but could not get it to boot. So, he brought it to me to figure out what was going wrong. After examining things, checking out things like the power supply, RAM, etc., I decided to pull out the CPU, and discovered what you see in the image above.Fixing bent CPU pins is one of the most delicate things you can do to repair a PC, aside from microsoldering. Careful doesn't begin to describe the mindset here. You need to approach this like you're prepping for surgery. Be patient, and always know where your hands are, and what they're trying to do. One false move, and a pin could snap, and that's the end of that CPU, since bent or snapped pins are not covered in the warranty.As with microsoldering, one piece of equipment makes this repair possible: a digital microscope. The image above was taken using macro mode of my smartphone. But with the microscope I can see every pin.To be sure, I'm not using a top-quality stereo microscope that costs hundreds of dollars. Instead, I'm using an inexpensive, generic USB microscope from Amazon, one that was about $35. I can't recommend any one in particular, since all of them are very similar, so your mileage may vary. But the stand that comes with any of these microscopes is just atrocious. Ditch it, and get a universal $20 stand instead. With that, I can precisely control the height of the lens via a knob. Combined with the focus knob of the microscope, I can really get a terrific and stable picture that's great for this kind of work.I display this picture on a 22-inch monitor right in my sightline, and work by looking at the monitor, not my hands. Using some soldering assist tools, or "pokey things" as I tend to call them, along with the tip of a 0.5mm mechanical pencil (a great tool for this job), I carefully bent the pins back to a vertical-ish alignment. You never want to apply any force other than a slight sideways motion.Then I reinserted the CPU back in its socket, where it locked in correctly, and booted up. This was maybe the 15th or 20th case of bent pins I've seen over the years. Just remember, an AMD CPU should sit flush in the socket. If you see it not sitting flush, that means a pin is bent. Don't force it.And if you're a novice builder, I would not recommend doing this repair yourself. That's what we're here for.

Fixing bent CPU pins means prepping for surgery

A customer's new Ryzen build would not boot, so we pulled the CPU and found bent pins. Here is how a cheap USB microscope and a steady hand saved it.

We have some new refurbished PCs for sale. Our newest systems include:<ul><li>Dell Inspiron 660s (Pentium) for $70. Pentium G630 processor (2nd-gen Intel) with 8 GB of memory, and a 500 GB hard drive.</li><li>HP Compaq Elite Mini Tower for $180. Core i7-3770 processor with 16 GB of memory and a 250 GB solid-state drive.</li><li>Dell Inspiron 5520 laptop for $200. 15.6 inch display, Core i5-3210M, 6 GB of memory, and a 120 GB solid-state drive.</li></ul>Refurbished systems are a great way to get a great computer for a great price. Make no mistake, these computers will not run the latest high-end games, or be useful for video editing or other tasks meant for a workstation. But for web browsing, Word, Excel, Outlook, Quicken, and other day-to-day tasks, all of these systems still work great, whether for use in the home or office.All of our refurb systems come with a full 60-day warranty. To purchase one of these systems, give us a call at 704-591-6420.

New Refurb PCs for Sale

Three newly refurbished machines are in stock: a $70 Dell Pentium desktop, a $180 Core i7 mini tower and a $200 Dell laptop, all with a 60-day warranty.

At MCS, we love building custom PCs. And we love to see what others build also. Somehow, someway, a system built by IG user @80ishplus, a system builder in Australia, made its way to a user here in Charlotte, and then to me for repairs.I love the unique design. The system is a mini-ITX board holding a Ryzen 9 3900X, 32 GB of RAM, and two 2 TB NVMe SSDs. The frame is made of solid brass and quite heavy. 80ishplus also drilled special mounting holes, and custom-painted everything cream-colored so that it all matched. I'm very impressed.

A very unique system

A brass-framed, cream-painted mini-ITX build by an Australian maker found its way to our bench in Charlotte, and the craftsmanship left us impressed.

One of the more common issues we see is users, especially laptop users, not rebooting their computers at all. They come to us with a computer running slow, but can't understand why. When I check, it turns out the computer hasn't been updated or rebooted in months or years. Apparently, these users open the lid, do their work, and close the lid. If this sounds like you, read on.Often, Windows updates are pending, but never get a chance to install because the computer never gets rebooted properly. So, get in a habit of every two weeks or so, go to Start, then Power, then Restart. This gives the pending updates a chance to install. Plus, because of things like memory leaks, Windows will slow down over time until it's rebooted.So remember to reboot. Your computer will thank you for it by running a whole lot faster, safer, and better.

Reboot your PC every two weeks

Laptop users who only open and close the lid never let Windows updates install. Restarting every couple of weeks keeps your computer faster and safer.

We are open for business, ready to help you. But we are taking precautions.First, when doing in-home repairs, we will be wearing a mask, and trying to maintain a social distance. We want to minimize exposure of ourselves, as well as your exposure to us.Second, we have a new procedure for drop-offs. If you want to arrange a drop-off of your device, first call 704-591-6420 to make sure someone is here to receive the device. When you arrive, call or text us and let us know you're here, and we will meet you outside.And remember, many problems can also be solved remotely. We can connect to your computer in under 5 minutes and diagnose or even fix many problems from here.Thanks for your understanding, and we hope you and your loved ones stay safe.

COVID-19 Updated Procedures

We are open and taking precautions: masks and distancing on in-home calls, a call-ahead drop-off procedure, and remote sessions that fix many problems.

Lately, and especially since the coronavirus outbreak, I've seen and heard a lot about 5G in a negative context. In the UK, people have been lighting 5G towers on fire. Even in our area, in Taylorsville, NC, a woman opened fire on cell tower workers hundreds of feet in the air. I've even had friends and family members ask me "What's the deal with 5G?"5G will be a fast method of telecommunications, providing speeds of up to 1Gbps to phones. It will be revolutionary in terms of mobile bandwidth. Combined with the latest Wi-Fi standards, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, it means that you will be able to connect at gigabit speeds wherever you are, and paving the way for advanced technologies.That's all there is to 5G. Literally, that's it. High-speed data.Now, if you've read or seen that 5G gives you cancer, or 5G gives you coronavirus, or 5G will cook your brain, or 5G will harm your immune system, or anything else that 5G supposedly does to your body, then I would advise spending less time on Facebook. If you're not sure, let me personally reassure you. 5G will not harm you.This is not up for debate. We don't need to wait for all the facts to come in on this. We don't need to commission studies about it. We know that 5G can't harm you. And we know this because of physics. Allow me to explain.<h2>Light, energy and the spectrum</h2>What we call "light" is actually electromagnetic radiation. Don't be alarmed by that word; it just means it radiates outward from the source. Our eyes can only see a small sliver of the EM spectrum around us, and that spectrum is based on wavelength. The shorter the wavelength, the higher the frequency. But in physics, higher frequency is actually a way of saying "more energy". Because light only has one speed and zero mass, it can't store more energy by going faster or having momentum like you would think of a baseball or a bullet. So when you hear talk about frequency or wavelength, just understand that means energy. In visible wavelengths, our brain interprets that as color.But what is brightness, then? Brightness is nothing more than a measure of how many packets of light, called photons, are reaching your eyes at any one time. One way to measure brightness is in watts, or joules per second. In terms of the EM wave, think of it as the height of the wave, or the amplitude.To be sure, there is a point where light has enough energy to harm you, or even kill you. Ultraviolet light can give you a sunburn or skin cancer. X-rays go right through you, which can be good if you need a photo of your insides, but bad if you're exposed to it frequently. But why?Above a certain wavelength, around the middle of the UV part of the spectrum, the photons carry so much energy that they can actually collide with electrons, and knock them away like pool balls. When atoms lose electrons, that turns the atom into a particle with electric charge, called an ion. So radiation that causes this condition is called ionizing radiation, and it's probably what you think of when you hear the word radiation.Where this is bad for humans and other living things is because of DNA. DNA is a highly complex, self-replicating molecule, and if ionizing radiation hits DNA, it can damage it in unforeseen ways. Normally, DNA damage will kill a cell by inhibiting replication. But after enough hits, one particular cell's DNA might be hit in just the right way as to cause its cell to replicate over and over, without being able to turn replication off. And that's what cancer is. Fortunately, our atmosphere blocks almost all harmful, high energy radiation from the sun and space. All that gets through is a little bit of UV, and as long as you wear sunscreen or clothing, you'll be fine.<h2>So where does a phone sit?</h2>Let me ask you a question. Do you see a light bulb near you? Overhead, perhaps? Or nearby on a desk lamp? Or maybe light from the screen you're reading this on, right now? Then understand that the light that you see has far more energy and at a far higher wattage than a 5G cell phone.In terms of frequency, cell phones, including 5G, operate in the microwave band of the spectrum. This is less energy than visible light. So, does visible light harm you? Well, I guess if you look at a bright light, it could blind you temporarily. But visible light can't damage your DNA. So microwaves won't damage you either."But microwaves cook food. Won't 5G cook my brain like a burrito?" No, for a couple of reasons.First, microwaves don't ionize. The light that they emit doesn't have enough energy. Instead, they cook food by causing the water molecules to vibrate, releasing energy in the form of heat. As the heat spreads throughout the food, your burrito is cooked.Second, let's talk about wattage. Microwave ovens emit light at 1000W or more. If you could see in the microwave spectrum, when you cooked a burrito you'd see an intensely bright light coming from the oven. Meanwhile, cell phones emit light around 100 milliwatts, ten thousand times less. If you could see cell phone emissions in the same way, you'd be hard pressed to even see them.Because of the low energy and low wattage, cell phone emissions can't even penetrate your skin. Not that they'd do anything if they did. They won't irradiate you. They won't cook you. They don't interact with anything in your body, like your immune system.So please leave the cell phone workers alone, and let them do their jobs. They're trying to help you, by giving you faster internet.

5G will not make you sick

A physics-based answer to the 5G health panic: phones emit non-ionizing microwaves at a tiny fraction of a light bulb's energy, so they cannot harm you.

We just wanted to let everyone know that we are still open for business, ready to help you in this time of need. Despite Mecklenburg County shutting down non-essential businesses, ours is considered essential, since we provide tech help and computer repairs.But we are taking precautions, and we are asking our customers to do so as well. First, we will not be doing in-home or on-site repairs unless it is absolutely necessary. And if we do so, we will be wearing protective gloves, as well as practicing social distancing and trying to keep 6 feet from you at all times. We want to minimize exposure of ourselves, as well as your exposure to us.Second, we are changing the procedure for walk-ins. If you want to arrange a drop-off of your device like normal, we can do so in one of two ways. Once you've notified us that you're outside, either place the device in your trunk or back seat and we will come out and get the device from your car, or you can set it on our front porch, back away, and we will retrieve the device.If you're new to us, know that many problems you're having can also be solved remotely. We can connect to your computer in under 5 minutes and diagnose or even fix problems from here.Thanks for your understanding, and we hope you and your loved ones stay safe.

Our COVID-19 Response

As an essential business we are still open, limiting on-site visits, offering contact-free car or porch drop-offs, and solving many problems remotely.

We're pleased to announce that we now have refurbished desktops and laptops for sale. These machines are in great working order, have been thoroughly tested, and come with a freshly installed operating system. This is a great way to get a good PC for a great price.We'll be adding new systems to the list as we get them. For now, you can find two items:<ul><li>Dell Inspiron 660S for $100. Core i5-3330S, 8GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive.</li><li>Dell Optiplex 990 for $225. Core i7-2600, 16GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, Radeon R5 340X.</li></ul>As we get more systems, we'll add them to the refurb page, and notify you about them here.

We now have refurbished PCs for sale

Tested, ready-to-run refurbished desktops and laptops are now for sale, starting with a $100 Dell Inspiron and a $225 Dell Optiplex, with more coming.

A question I get asked frequently is "which anti-virus should I use?"There are so many anti-virus suites to choose from, and each is more expensive than the other. Plus, you see ads for them all the time, each one claiming they protect you more than the other one. So people naturally assume that there must be a major difference between them, and that investing in a better one will keep you more protected. Hence the question.But that's a type of logical fallacy called an appeal to status. There's a natural assumption that if I pay more for something, then it's better than cheaper alternatives.The truth is, anti-virus software is largely all the same. And there's a free one built into Windows called Windows Defender. I've recommended it for years, and there are several reasons why.First and foremost, it's free.Second, it's built into Windows, so it's already installed. By necessity, anti-virus software must dig its heels deep into the lowest levels of your operating system. If a virus can install itself at a level lower than the anti-virus can see, then it can't combat it. So having the anti-virus made by the company that makes the operating system means the two can work together at the very lowest levels.The only problem with this is that sometimes manufacturers like Dell or HP enable a free trial of something else. They do this because those anti-virus makers pay them to pre-install it. It forces you to remove that trial junk. Fortunately that's not too difficult.Next, Defender uses less memory than other anti-virus software, because the others want to constantly let you know how good they are. "We found this." "We stopped an intrusion." "Look at everything we're doing for you." The reason? So that you'll renew the subscription. That's it.And finally, it's as good as the paid stuff. Against viruses never seen by researchers before, any anti-virus is only about 50% effective.<blockquote>The single most effective way to avoid infections is by user behavior.</blockquote>Surfing unsafe sites, downloading sketchy software, using out-of-date browsers. These are the things that can get you infected. It's just like going to the sketchy part of town and doing sketchy things. You're never 100% safe in the good part of town, but being in the bad part increases the odds that something bad might happen.So feel free to use whatever anti-virus you want. Do you prefer a paid app because that makes you feel safer? Fine, keep using it. Just remember, anti-virus can only assist you, trying to help when you make a mistake. So try not to make a mistake.

The best anti-virus is the one you already have

Paying more does not buy better protection. Windows Defender is free, built in and light, and your own browsing habits remain the real defense.

A lot has been written in the last couple of weeks about Apple's new $6000 Mac Pro, its $5000 monitor, and its $1000 stand. There were even a few salty takes. Now, a lot of blogs laugh at how out of touch Apple is with consumers. And about most of Apple, I might agree. But the entire Mac Pro ecosystem, stand, monitor, and computer, is not for consumers. Breathless articles about how "it costs as much as an iPhone" do nothing to equate what a huge apples-to-oranges comparison this is.And that comparison has nothing to do with extravagance or luxury, because both are indulgent luxuries, as all Apple products are. iPhones have been massively overpriced for years, and for even longer, people have been complaining about the Apple Tax.Everything about the new Mac Pro, from its cheese grater design, to the incredibly overengineered airflow system, to the massive amount of graphics, processor, and memory they can hold, all of it screams that it's not for normal people.I know this because Apple, during its presentation, only barely mentioned price: they mentioned the entry-level Mac Pro costs $6000, the monitor costs $5000, and the stand $1000. So for the price of a used car, you too can have the fastest cheese grater ever built.Except, that little hyphenated word: entry-level. You see, that $6000 version only has an 8-core processor with 32GB of RAM, a Radeon 580X, and a paltry 256GB SSD. An equivalent Windows PC, which I whipped up at PC Part Picker, would cost you around $1200, but that's beside the point.Anything more than the $6000 PC, and Apple doesn't mention price. Because just like some fine steakhouse, if you have to ask about the price, you can't afford it.But no one sells a product without a market, and Apple knows its market doesn't include you. Its market is Hollywood. Pixar and other special effects houses are looking at these cheese graters the way dogs look at steak. And to reinforce that idea, Apple even designed rackmount versions, as if Apple doesn't already know that 90% of their sales will be rackmounts.So consumers should just relax, and look at these like you'd look at a Lear Jet. You'll never see one up close, so admire from afar. And if you really needed one, you'd need 20.

What Apple's $1000 monitor stand is really about

The outrage over a $1000 stand misses the point. The Mac Pro was never built for consumers, it was built for the effects houses buying them by the rack.

We're working on a redesign of the site. If you see anything broken, please ignore the mess. We'll be done very soon. Thanks.

Website Redesign

A short heads-up that the site is being redesigned, so please excuse any temporarily broken pages while the work is finished.

If you're like me, you're a digital hoarder. For some, your hoarding may come from your music collection. For others, your shutterbug streak has caused you to have pictures and video out the wazoo. Like a gas that expands to fill all available space, often people's digital lives expand to fill their hard drives. The problem is compounded when you have multiple people per household. Parents, kids. Now you're generating three to five times the data as a single person.If you try to follow one of the most basic tenets of safe computing, backing up, you'll find that copying all that stuff to an external hard drive is tedious and cumbersome. And if you have multiple PCs per house, that can also become expensive to buy individual backup drives.Another common problem besides backup is media. If you record a lot of TV shows or movies, you'll quickly find that serving them through your desktop PC, or worse, your laptop, will require that they be on and running to do the job.The solution to all of these problems is network-attached storage, or NAS. A NAS is a hard drive, or an array of drives, connected to a very simple computer that does nothing but serve those files throughout the network. Its simplicity is its power.First and foremost, a NAS is a great way to back up all the PCs on your network. Just point each of your Windows PC's Backup settings, or your Mac's Time Machine, to separate folders on the NAS. Then each PC will handle their own backup. By using the backup mechanisms built into the operating system, you get things like file history, and the ability to restore files in an instant. And note, this also works on laptops with Wi-Fi. I've seen a lot of people be mistaken that laptops can't be backed up, just because they're wireless.And because they are essentially a mini computer, a NAS also has its own backup capabilities. In this case, cloud backups. Once you do a backup of everyone's PCs, those files can be backed up to the cloud, in case the NAS itself is destroyed in a fire, flood, or storm.Secondarily, it can function as a family-wide storage locale. Common files the entire family needs, like videos, family photos, music, recipes, and more can have a centralized storage location.When you purchase a NAS, it will generally come without a hard drive. That's so you can purchase one however large you need. Based on experience, I'd recommend Synology. Their software and setup process are pretty simple. You can get a one-drive NAS if you're in the home, or just looking to get going cheaply. But if you're in a business environment, where redundancy is critical, a two or four drive system is highly recommended.For hard drives, purchase either WD Red drives, or Seagate IronWolf. Both are specifically designed for the 24/7 operation that a NAS requires.

Why you need a NAS

Network-attached storage centralizes a household's growing photo, music and media libraries, backs up every PC and Mac automatically, then pushes it all to the cloud.

For those who build computers, we often use the term "bottleneck". Bottlenecks occur when one component of a system is woefully slower than the others. Think of a computer like a chain, it's only as strong as its weakest link.Bottlenecks can occur in a variety of ways. A common one among gamers is that they often purchase a cheaper processor, and get an oversized graphics card, thinking that the graphics are the most important thing for their super-awesome gaming rig. But they're just another link in the chain. If the processor is unable to keep up, you'll find that that expensive graphics card can't be fully utilized, and therefore is wasted money. What's required is keeping every component in balance, so that each part is fully utilized.For the last 10 years or so, a bottleneck has existed within the storage system of modern PCs. You see, hard drives are just slow. Incredibly slow. How slow? One comparison put the latency of system memory and a hard drive into terms we understand better: miles per hour. If RAM latency was judged to be the same speed as an F-18 Hornet, a hard drive latency was calculated to be the speed of a banana slug.Hard drives are a relic of the last century that just need to go away. But they don't. Why? First and most importantly, they're cheap. Second, they're fairly reliable. But finally, nothing better had come along to take their place. Until recently.Now on the scene are solid-state drives. SSDs use flash memory, much like what you see in common USB thumb drives. However, SSDs are much faster than thumb drives, and hold a much larger capacity. The real breakthrough came a few years ago, when both reliable and relatively cheap SSDs came on the market. In everyday operations, SSDs are somewhere around 100 times faster than hard drives. They also have no moving parts, so there is less to break, and they run completely silently. They produce far less heat than a hard drive. In general use, once a computer has an SSD, it will just feel faster. Boot times take just a few seconds. You'll never have to click a program and wait seconds or minutes for something to happen; now it will launch instantly. You'll never hear the hard drive chugging away at random times, slowing everything to a crawl for no reason. In short, no more bottlenecks.<blockquote>No modern PC should be without an SSD.</blockquote>At this point, the only downside to SSDs is a lack of storage space when compared to hard drives. But that can be overcome by using both.Speaking from experience, I can say that no modern PC should be without an SSD. This includes laptops and desktops. The best strategy to employ on a desktop is to use an SSD to store Windows and all your programs, and a large hard drive to store your documents. On a laptop with only one drive bay, just get an SSD, and get one large enough to hold everything: Windows, programs, and documents. The investment is well worth it.

Why should you buy a solid-state drive? Bottlenecks

The hard drive is the slowest link in a modern PC. A solid-state drive is around a hundred times faster and removes the biggest bottleneck in everyday use.

At some point, you're going to get the call. I know I have. A person will be on the phone claiming to be from "Windows". They will claim that they have detected a virus on your system. They say that they can get rid of it, if you give them control of your computer. For a nominal fee, of course.If you ever receive this call, my advice is simple: hang up. This is a pure scam. Please, I beg of you, do not fall for this. In this scam, the person will guide you to an obscure part of Windows called Windows Error Reporting and show you all sorts of vaguely unsettling red X's to insist that your computer is infected. These are not viruses. These errors are, in fact, a normal part of Windows and are nothing to be alarmed about.After convincing you of your infection, they'll guide you through the steps of remote assistance. Once they have control of your computer, they're pretty much home free. Some scammers will install malware on your system. Some will suck up any credit cards and passwords they find. Some may do nothing in particular, and then ask for payment for services rendered, on the order of several hundred dollars.Here are some red flags to watch out for. Notice how many rules this scam violates:<ul><li>Someone you don't know can't call you up and know anything about the inner workings of your particular computer. This is simply impossible. If a stranger called you up and said "you left the hall light on all night, and by the way, you need to eat more fiber" you'd probably find this both highly implausible and pretty creepy. If they can't see inside your house, why would you think they can see inside your computer?</li><li>Never give anyone remote access that you don't trust. Giving remote access is like giving someone the key to your house. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, as long as they're trustworthy. A random stranger calling you up is probably not. Would you let a guy going door-to-door have full, unfettered access to everything you own?</li><li>Never give your credit card number out to anyone that calls you. This is actually quite universal, and applies to many aspects of life. Please understand that they could be lying. And know that caller ID can be spoofed or disabled quite easily, so never rely on that as an identifier.</li></ul>Computers should be treated no differently from cars or houses. They're your property. Use common sense and only let reliable people work on them.

This is Windows calling. You have a virus.

The cold call claiming your PC has a virus is a scam. Hang up, never grant remote access to a stranger, and never give card details to a caller.

Someone recently asked for recommendations for a new PC. For his needs, I said "for a laptop, a Core i5, at a bare minimum. For a desktop, a Core i3 would be plenty." But why the difference? Shouldn't a Core i5 desktop have about the same amount of computing power as a Core i5 laptop?You'd think they would, but the answer is no, and they're not even close. Your average computer user doesn't know, nor should you, that these processors are like apples to oranges. Much of this confusion comes from Intel's marketing department for calling them by the same name. But part of this confusion also comes from basic physics that often is not understood by average users.So let's talk briefly about thermodynamics. Processors give off tremendous amounts of heat. You might have noticed this when you've had your laptop on your lap for too long. The surfaces of a CPU and graphics processor give off more heat per square inch than a steam iron. Massive heat sinks, fans, heat pipes, water cooling and radiators are necessary to dissipate this heat as quickly as possible.There are two ways to keep excessive heat from building up. The first is to slow down the processor. Processors produce heat in proportion to their processing power, so the slower the processor, the less heat it produces. The second way is to dissipate the heat over a larger volume. Well, laptops don't have a large volume, so the only way to manage the heat in a laptop is to slow the processors down. Therefore, until someone invents a processor that doesn't produce heat, laptops are always going to be slower than desktops.Now, as to why Intel decided to name a really fast chip a Core i5, and another much slower chip a Core i5, I have no idea. In independent testing, a Core i7 laptop performs about as well as a Core i3 desktop. By the time you compare an i7 laptop to an i5 desktop, it's no contest.Intel makes five levels of processors. In order from least to most powerful, they are Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7. My general rule of thumb is to say that a desktop CPU is about 1.5 levels up from a laptop CPU. By this I mean a high-end i7 laptop is equal to about a low-end i5 desktop, and a low-end i7 laptop equal to a high-end i3 desktop, and so on.Now, I'm not telling you not to buy a laptop. Most PCs sold today are laptops. But just understand that the laptop is slower. When buying a laptop, I would only purchase an i3 if you do web browsing and the like. Purchase an i5 if you do Word and Excel. Purchase an i7 if you want to play games or use Photoshop.

Differences in speed between desktops and laptops

Thermodynamics, not marketing, is why a Core i5 laptop is far slower than a Core i5 desktop. Expect roughly a level and a half gap between the two.

This is the first in a series on how to keep your PC healthy, happy, and secure. In part 1, I will focus on the most basic piece of the equation, Windows.Ask yourself, what is the most important part of a house? It's not really the walls, we humans lived a long time without walls. The roof? You could argue that shelter is the entire point of a house. But to me, the most important part is the part that makes all others exist: the foundation. Without a solid base to build upon, a wall, a window, a second floor, and a roof can't exist.Your computer also has a foundation, from which everything else is built: your operating system. And for about 95% of you, that's Windows. Throughout this guide, I will discuss things like installing anti-virus products or practicing good behavior, but all of it can be rendered moot if that foundation is left insecure.First and foremost, you should install all Windows updates, and they should be installed within 24 hours of them appearing to you. Let me explain why. When Microsoft publishes an update, they're patching a hole that they've found within Windows. Assuming the bad guys have not already found these holes, releasing an update tells them where each hole is and how to exploit it. Within minutes, they will begin trying to exploit each hole to get malicious software inside as many machines as possible. If you don't apply the patch as soon as possible, you will leave a wide-open hole in your PC that even anti-virus software can't stop.Why can't anti-virus stop it? An anti-virus, like any program, relies on Windows to not lie to it. If it asks for a file, Windows goes and gets it. But if that foundation is infected, malware can serve up a bogus file to the anti-virus. An anti-virus has no way to verify that file isn't accurate, because Windows handles all access to the files. And this is one of a thousand ways that an infected operating system could lie to an anti-virus. An infection could also use a rootkit, which prevents Windows from even being able to see a piece of malware, even though it's still in memory and on the hard drive. So if you don't keep that foundation solid and secure, you're toast. No matter how good an anti-virus suite you purchased, no matter how vigilant you are in your behavior.Another important part of keeping Windows up to date also means using a version that Microsoft still supports. Once support ends for a version of Windows, no more patches are published for it, and an unsupported version leaves you vulnerable to attack. If you're running something that has reached end of life, upgrading is the single most valuable thing you can do for your security.If you're stuck on an old version and absolutely cannot upgrade, I'd highly advise doing the following. First, stop using an out-of-date browser. An old browser is just as vulnerable as the operating system under it. Install a current browser that updates itself instead.Second, switch your primary account to a limited user account. Create a new account, make that account an administrator, and give it a password. Log into that new account, and downgrade your everyday account to a limited user. Keep in mind, this is a double-edged sword. As a limited user, you won't be able to install new software unless you switch to the administrator account. However, as a limited user, malware can't install itself either. This should keep you safe from most attacks. Not all, but most.I hope that you see how important a foundation Windows is. If you don't keep it up to date, you've already lost the war against malware.

Keeping your PC safe and healthy, part 1

Windows is the foundation everything else rests on. Install updates promptly, stay on a supported version, and understand why an infected system can fool any anti-virus.

With my first post, I thought I'd just say hello. And say thanks to all friends and family who allowed us to get this off the ground.We're here to help you. The service industry doesn't get more basic than that. It's the reason we chose to put "Services" in the name. It reminds us that customer service always comes first. We hope to help you for many years to come.As for this blog, it won't just be a waste of space. I plan to use this to keep you up to date not only on technology news related to Charlotte, but also as a space to share news about security threats that could affect you. I will also share some of my favorite tips and tricks as I encounter or think of them.

Hello, Charlotte

Our first post: thanks to the friends and family who helped us get off the ground, and a promise of Charlotte tech news, security warnings and practical tips.

Tips,
warnings
and
shop
notes

Fixing bent CPU pins means prepping for surgery

New Refurb PCs for Sale

A very unique system

Reboot your PC every two weeks

COVID-19 Updated Procedures

5G will not make you sick

Our COVID-19 Response

We now have refurbished PCs for sale

The best anti-virus is the one you already have

What Apple's $1000 monitor stand is really about

Website Redesign

Why you need a NAS

Why should you buy a solid-state drive? Bottlenecks

This is Windows calling. You have a virus.

Differences in speed between desktops and laptops

Keeping your PC safe and healthy, part 1

Hello, Charlotte

Ready to get started?

Tips,warningsandshopnotes

Fixing bent CPU pins means prepping for surgery

New Refurb PCs for Sale

A very unique system

Reboot your PC every two weeks

COVID-19 Updated Procedures

5G will not make you sick

Our COVID-19 Response

We now have refurbished PCs for sale

The best anti-virus is the one you already have

What Apple's $1000 monitor stand is really about

Website Redesign

Why you need a NAS

Why should you buy a solid-state drive? Bottlenecks

This is Windows calling. You have a virus.

Differences in speed between desktops and laptops

Keeping your PC safe and healthy, part 1

Hello, Charlotte

Ready to get started?

Tips,
warnings
and
shop
notes