Computer diagnostic?

Question

I talked to a person in at best buy about my computer because it was acting like there was a virus (ex. my desktop background would be deleted when i started my computer so i had to reset it and the blue screen keeps coming up saying that there is something wrong with my hardware and says that i should restart my computer and it does it automatically and keeps going back to the screen and restarting over and over and over). So the person at best buy said that i should do a computer diagnostic and that it would cost about 65 dollars. So i went to circut city and asked how much it would cost and he said bout 50 dollars.. first off do i really need to do a computer diagnostic or is there something else i can do and second which store is more reliable with those things. Circut City or Best Buy?

Answer 1

suggest you to try some Anti-Viruses dude... Try the 30 day trail of KAV.... If it realy a technical sang... then go for a diag.....

Answer 2

$65 just to tell you what the problem is???? Dear lord.Just find a computer guy in the newspaper,he will do the diagnosis and the fix for under $50.Stay away from the geek clowns at best buy and cirquit city,they charge ridiculus money for simple tasks.

Answer 3

I agree with the first answer.Don't go to best buy it's ridiculous the money they charge.You can give it a try to fix it yourself.Put the operating system CD in the drive and start the computer(you may have to change the boot priority in the bios.......hit DEL during boot)

From the CD you have the option to repair the existing installation.You don't have to do anything other that click ok. If you don't have the CD and you have a factory image in the drive restart the computer and pay attencion for a short message like"hit F12 for recovery"

If you recently install a hardware device or a driver you have the option to boot in safe mode( hit F8 on boot) and from there do a system restore.

Answer 4

Put your OS CD in, and restart. There is an option to repair a previous version. Then get some virus software installed. AVG Free is free from download.com

Answer 5

More reliable? None. To put it in perspective my tech relative gets what they mess up or can't fix, and fixes it (ever wonder where the Geek Squad types go when their computers act up??).

You can do the diagnostics yourself if you have the time and inclination. To check for problems, often it's recommended to download and use this program first to check boot running applications...

http://www.download.com/Trend-Micro-Hija...

To find out what process is what, you can look up online what is running in the background to know what to kill; or goto a hardware forums like these...

http://hardforum.com/

http://www.overclockers.net/

And supply your HijackThis log with the symptoms of your problem.

Once that's settled, you can download Spybot and use it to scan for malware and rootkits (but be v-e-r-y careful what you delete, especially .lnk files, as you can wipe out important help files and links to programs it thinks are orphaned).

All else fails, backup and reformat the drive and reinstall.

It's what the techs do (with some more fancier tools sometimes, but the same process).

If you don't have the time, or don't want to hunt and peck, take the computer to a good local PC shop (a mom and pop operation, as you'll often get more than a A+ tech looking at your computer -- major complaint about Geek Squad et al is they are but A+ techs).

Answer 6

hihhihu

Answer 7

Πουτανα is right.  They aren't worth waisting your money on.

Any place that charges $30 to put a stick of ram in a computer, should be boycotted.