Onsite Computer Repair in Reno. Call 775-313-1951
8.4 billion passwords online leaked — your security may be at risk. A new password leak called “RockYou2021” has exposed 8.4 billion private login passwords.
If your still using the same passwords for all your accounts. It’s time to change them now. Need help? Call RenoGeek to help you setup passwords that won’t compromise all your online accounts.
As people start to become more aware of the old Microsoft tech support and virus scams, crooks have had to up their game and find a new way to scam uninformed computer users.
The new scam involves another cold calling technique to trick people into giving up their hard earned money. This new scam starts with somebody from “Tech support” or “Microsoft” calling, who says that you are soon going to loose your “IP address” unless you pay them to renew it.
And like the MS and virus support scams of the past this new scam plays yet again into the lack of knowledge most computer users have about their own systems and how the basics of the Internet work.
Your “IP” address is nothing more than a string of numbers that your ISP assigns to your router or computer to talk with it’s network and the Internet at large. This address is assigned automatically each time your router or computer reboots. And is included in the cost of your Internet bill. So there is no recurring bill you have to pay to keep this IP address. Your ISP gives you a new one each time you reconnect to them. Today, unlike in the past this is all handled automatically and you don’t have to do anything to get or keep your IP address.
So yet again my advice is the same as it has been for years. If somebody calls and says that ANYTHING is wrong with your computer or the Internet, hang up. Don’t talk with them at all. No legit company is ever going to call you about your computer unless you have bought a service contract ahead of time.
As an onsite computer technician who makes around ten home and office visits a day, I see lots of computer systems hooked up to 5 and even 10 year old power strips. You know what I am talking about. Power strips tangled into knots, faded brownish yellow with a flickering power switch. Look under your desk right now. Own one? I bet you do.
These units were never made to last for the better part of a decade and while most think that powerstrips have built in surge protection, most in-fact do not have any such protection. And even the few powerstrips that do have surge protection can’t last forever and over time become less and less effective as they succumb to the thousands of minor (and major) surges they have blocked over their lifetimes. RenoGeek recommends you replace your old powerstrips with battery backup / surge protectors every 3 years.
Replacing your powerstrips with a real battery backup / surge protector can extend the life of your computer by years. Saving you more money than most cost and avoiding sudden computer failures that can result in days of downtime and data loss.
Call RenoGeek if you should have any questions about protecting your computers. 775-313-1951
It seems that the newest version of Avast (ver 18.6.2349) has been having issues with Malwarebytes. And the WebShield component of Avast maybe blocking all websites or at least causing connectivity issues that seem (to the end user) that their connections are down when trying to access websites.
The malwarebytes/avast issue has been reported to cause malwarebytes to crash when malwarebytes is running in “Real Time” protection mode.
At first Avast tried to blame the problem on Malwarebytes, but reversed their statements after the Malwarebytes team issued this statement…
“Upon first discovering the conflict between Malwarebytes and Avast, Malwarebytes reached out to a product manager at Avast, who put us in contact with one of their Real Site feature developers. This developer initially indicated that there was a problem with Malwarebytes Web Protection driver implementation. After cooperation and receiving detailed analysis from our lead driver developer, Avast determined there was a flaw in their driver implementation. They have indicated they have a fix and plan to release an update, but they did not provide any timing. In the meantime any Malwarebytes users experiencing these issues are advised to disable Avast’s Real Site feature.”
And with my own customer base… I have a system in the shop that crashed one customers laptop after he ran the update and his issue was resolved after removal of Avast.
I found the recommend fix to turn off the Avast webshield component or Malwarebytes real time protection, to be a useless workaround because in essence they are telling their customers to turn off their antivirus products. So what’s the point of having an antivirus program?
While some long time fans of Avast may wish to wait it out and see if they can fix the problem. RenoGeek recommends that Avast be removed from systems having these issues and be replaced with a stable antivirus product.
This past week the FTC has started putting manufacturers on notice that they must honor their warranties and stop interfering with their customers right to repair equipment themself or have an outside company perform repairs for them. Therefore enforcing the Magnusson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975.
What this means to regular consumers is that they no longer void their warranty when they decide to try and repair an item such as a computer or they hire a outside company such as RenoGeek to do computer repairs for them.
They even took note of the Warranty Void stickers we see on most electronic devices, stating that such stickers are both misleading and illegal.
What this means for the average computer user is that they no longer need fear losing their warranty if they repair their equipment or hire somebody to do it for them.
It’s also evidence that the government will take action against the growing trend by some companies like Apple, who try and make their computers almost “repair proof”. In other words, they try and design a product that is very hard to almost impossible to repair to insure customers buy new equipment or send their equipment back to the manufacturers for repairs that in general are much more expensive than the going rates at most repair shops.
So score one for consumers this week. 🙂
Every computer repair technician knows full well about the many things that can cause the disk usage on a Windows 10 system to hit (and stay at) 100%. Causing very slow response times on systems running Microsoft’s newest O/S. Which at times can make a computer almost useless while waiting minutes for programs to respond to the simplest commands. In addition activities like web browsing seem much slower, leading people to think something is wrong with their Internet connection.
Before going full bore into the wifi issue, I would like to go over all the Standard ways the disk usage problems are addressed. As in many cases one of these other fixes can help before having to address the wifi issue it seems Windows 10 now has…
1. “Balanced” power plans slow down Windows 10 and can cause the 100% disk usage problem. Going into control panel and changing the power plan from “Balanced” to “High Performance” can fix the error in many cases.
2. Disable “Superfetch”. This service is supposed to make your computer faster by “fetching” files you may need. But for many it also causes the 100% disk usage problem. Go to “Control panel” and then to “Administrator tools” then to “Services” and disable “Superfetch”.
3. If you do not use Windows search you can also disable this service as it also can cause the 100% disk usage problem. Go to “Control panel” and then to “Administrator tools” than to “Services” and disable “Windows search”.
I have found that one of the 3 fixes listed above will take care of the 100% disk usage problem about 95% of the time.
But I have noticed in a small percentage of computers that I have taken in to repair this issue, that it seems to be cause by Windows Update running over a Wifi connection. Now the first “answer” that comes to mind is just to shut down the Windows 10 update service. But it has a nasty habit of turning itself back on which means this “fix” only last a few minutes.
While Microsoft may at some point get around to addressing this problem, for now I have been using a workaround that in less than a minute seems to resolve the issue. Leaving the computer working like normal again. This workaround tells Windows 10 your on a metered connection and have limited bandwidth. It seem once you “tell” Windows 10 that, it goes easy on the hard drive access.
Before trying this I would recommend giving the first 3 fixes a go. As they overwhelmingly seem to be the “standard” cause of this issue. But if they do not work for you, and your ok working with the command line follow along…
First the normal disclaimers. Do this at your own risk and backup your data.
Also please note that this fix does not work over wired (ethernet) connections. Just Wifi.
Here we go…
Open up an elevated command prompt. aka “run as administrator.”
The first command to run is this…
netsh wlan show profiles
After typing this command you should see the name of your wifi network. In my case here at the shop it’s “The Matrix”. You want to make note of your network name to apply the fix.
The next command in the cmd box is…
netsh wlan set profileparameter name=”YOURNETWORKNAME″ cost=Fixed
All on one line and hit enter. Then close the CMD box and reboot your system. This change tells Windows 10 your on a metered wifi connection and have limited bandwidth. Which seems to fix the issue.
As always your mileage may vary and make sure your comfortable around the command line and fixing your computer yourself before attempting.
Good luck!