In some cases, depending on the age and condition of your computer & how much faster you want it to be, computers can be upgraded. This is done by adding more RAM and/or bigger hard drive, or a new video card to display those graphics faster. However in some cases a computer can be just too old to perform up to the new speeds needed for the modern applications and internet. In any case, we are always glad to assess your current computer and speak with you about potential upgrades and our custom built computers.

Most computers have multiple components that have audible moving parts, such as fans, CD/DVD drives and hard drives. More often than not a grinding sound is just a ball-bearing in a fan that has accumulated a good bit of dust and dirt. Most fans are inexpensive and easily replaceable. Sometimes older hard drives make a grinding/grating sound that is fairly high pitched. Drives have bearings in them as well as fans and these can be early warning signs that a drive failure is on the horizon and backing up data is highly recommended. Clicking sounds are often the hard drive and in these cases the computer should be shut down and brought to us immediately to avoid data loss. Lastly, CD/DVD drives often vibrate loudly when a disc is in the drive – even at times you are not actively using the disc another program might prompt the drive to check for media and cause the drive to spin the disc and makes a noise.

Well, first try to establish where the interrupt is happening. In many cases we find that users mistake not connecting to a particular website such as www.msn.com for having an interrupt in overall Internet service. We recommend first trying to navigate to another website, such as www.google.com. If you can connect to other websites and their content functions normally then most likely the problem is not your connection or your computer. If you still can’t connect we recommend finding your modem and router (if applicable) and unplug the power cable for several seconds and then plug it back in. This will refresh any signal to your devices and hopefully resolve your loss of Internet. If the problem persists we recommend contacting your Internet provider to see if the problem is on their end of the spectrum. Another possible cause of no connection is a virus infection. We have encountered many infections in recent months that can change your computers network settings and thus create an Internet blockage. If you find this to be the case we recommend bringing the computer to us for a diagnostic and possibly a virus cleanup.