Customer’s We Have Serviced

BLACKMAGICCOMPUTERS.COM: Technology Tip Of The Day:

by admin on Jan.07, 2010, under Articles, Customer's We Have Serviced

Technology Tip Of The Day:

Having a computer designated for storing all your important information i.e. Pictures, Music & Video’s is a great idea for anyone not wanting to bog down their personal computer with all the clutter. File Servers can be a great benefit to most businesses but also home users. Did you know that you can access most music, pictures from your server while sitting in your living room on your laptop! Imagine being able to have all your favorite music, pictures & video all on one computer but able to access them from any computer in your home! At Blackmagic Computers we have set up such Home and Business Networks. For more information please feel free to contact us!

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BLACKMAGICCOMPUTERS.COM: Gateway Laptop M-1617 Repair

by admin on Nov.12, 2009, under Customer's We Have Serviced

Cusotmer called and stated their Gateway Laptop M-1617 was loading into windows and needed some help in figuring out what was wrong with it.

We received the laptop from the customer and after turning it on we saw that windows appeared to be trying to repair some corrupt files. After a few minutes computer would just reboot and go through the whole process over again.

We ran a diagnostic on the computer and found that the hard drive was failing. We performed a data recovery for the customer backing up her pictures, music and documents.

We replaced the defective 250GB Western Digital Hard Drive and restored the computer back to its original state. Now this was a bit tricky because the customer didn’t have the Gateway Restore Disc and never had the Drivers & Applications Disc made. So a note to all you computer owners out there. Make sure when you buy a computer you find out weather the computer comes with recovery discs or not. If they don’t remember to make them immediately or have your computer repair shop make them for you.

Without these discs you may be putting your self in a position to not be able to use your computer until you obtain the recovery discs. Most manufactures are going to charge you for the discs if you have to order new ones. So save your self some time and money and make those discs if possible!

We were able to put all the data back on the computer and called the customer to let her know that the computer was finished. All in all it took about a day and a half to complete the work. Again we have experienced much longer wait times when talking to other customers. Some have said that they have taken their computers to other repair shops and had to wait well over a week or more before their computers were fixed!

So its nice to be able to fix these issues quickly and I know that the customer really appreciate having their computers back in a timely fashion.

If you are in need of computer repair please visit our website.

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BLACKMAGIC COMPUTERS: Installing Memory & Restoring Computer For Elite Dry Cleaners

by admin on Sep.22, 2009, under Customer's We Have Serviced

We will be installing memory & restoring a Dell Desktop computer to factory settings for Elite Dry Cleaners. They are expanding their business. They will be opening their 2nd store which is located downtown Traverse City on front street in the old Modern Cleaners Building. http://www.elitedrycleaners.com/

If you are in need of computer repair please visit our website.

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BLACKMAGIC COMPUTERS: Compaq Laptop With Broken LCD Screen

by admin on Sep.18, 2009, under Customer's We Have Serviced

Here is a laptop with a broken screen that we are repairing. Notice the extent of the cracked screen. Most places would charge you anywhere between $350-$700 to repair a Laptop LCD Screen. But here at Blackmagic Computers we do it for cheap! Not to worry when we are done with this it will be up and running great!

Here is the finished laptop. The LCD Screen was replaced and as you can see from the pictures the screen looks to be working great! I Received the laptop on July 16, 2009. The LCD Screen was ordered on the same day. It arrived on July, 20, 2009. Total time 5 days! 1 day to repair the laptop!

If you are in need of computer repair please visit our website.

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BLACKMAGIC COMPUTERS: How dust can damage your computers hardware.

by admin on Sep.16, 2009, under Customer's We Have Serviced

One of our technician’s went to a customer’s home to fix a computer and when opening the case noticed that the computer was filled with dust and dirt. It was apparent that the computer had not been cleaned in a long time. When starting up the computer it would boot to a black screen. If you restarted it enough times it would eventually boot to the Windows XP Desktop. After diagnosing the issue the technician found that the motherboard was failing.

One of the major causes of hardware failure is from having dust and dirt inside your computer case. Dust and dirt can actually cause components inside the computer to overheat which can lead to hardware failure.

It is very important to clean out your computer case at least 3 or 4 times a year. If you computer tower is on the floor or in an area that regularly collects dust you may want to clean it out more frequently. Remember that cleaning your computer is one of the most important things you can do to extend the life of your computers hardware.

If you are in need of computer repair please visit our website.

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BLACKMAGIC COMPUTERS: Helping a customer with a wireless network setup

by admin on Sep.16, 2009, under Customer's We Have Serviced

Blackmagic Computers received a call from a customer that said he wanted to make his house wireless. The customer stated that he lives in Traverse City and owns a large chunk of property that extends out into his back yard. In his back yard he wanted to be able to have wireless signal about a quarter mile out from the back of his house.

We arrived at his house and spoke to the customer we noticed that in deed he did have a large backyard. We knew that we were going to have to hook up a omni antenna to be able to extend the wireless signal.

The customer said that he would like the signal to be secured so that his neighbors

cant connect to it. We installed a 12dbi omni antenna on a pole 26 feet in the air. Installed a weatherproof box with a router and 1 watt amplifier.

We also installed a light on the pole with a control box that would turn his light on when it was dark. We ran the lines into his house where they plugged into his Charter Communications Cable Box and 24 port switch.

We hooked up the 5 computers in the house 4 desktops, 1 being connected with a wireless card. 1 Laptop that was also set up wireless. While in the house we noticed that the customer had a Xbox 360 & Sony PS3 Gaming Console in his basement connected to a 24inch computer monitor.

He has stated that he had a Pioneer 54inch HDTV upstairs in his living room. I asked why he didn’t have the 2 gaming consoles connected to his HDTV? He said that he didn’t want to run wire from the basement where his cable modem box was to the upstairs living room. I advised him that we could connect the Xbox 360 and PS3 wireless so that he wouldn’t have to run any network cables. He said that would be great and loved the idea of being able to play his games on a 54inch HDTV.

So we connected the Xbox 360 & PS3 wireless. I asked the customer if he had a media center computer to play media to his HDTV? He said no but he would love to have something like that set up. We made one of his computers a media server so that he could watch video’s wireless to the HDTV in his living room. Not only that he also was able to play music through the media center to his home theater system he had connected to his HDTV.

After getting the networking set up and connecting his computers and gaming consoles wirelessly we went out to his backyard and tested the wireless connection. We were able to take his laptop approximately 1/4 mile out to the wood line in his back yard and not lose connectivity with the wireless router. We were able to access his network shared files on his media center and play a movie on the laptop from 1/4 mile away.

After finishing everything up the customer stated that he would like us to come out on a later date and look at his daughters computer which he believes has viruses & or spy-ware on it.