Jordan Pauly

How to Solve All Your Problems….

Ok maybe not all your problems, but the success rating of the information I’m about to share with you is a good 95% or higher.

Everyone that has a computer with internet access has the capability to solve and figure out everyday problems or issues; the problem lies in knowing where to look!

Over the weekend my sister’s computer was infected with malware (also known as malicious software). The malware that she received was called Antivirus 2010. Her computer was leading her to believe that she had a virus (which she really didn’t) and the only way to get rid of it was by buying and installing this particular set of anti-virus software.  During the course of this malware being installed, she couldn’t access a lot of her documents, and she was plagued with pop-ups that threatened to delete all of her documents if she didn’t download this anti-virus software.

Let me pause quickly and say, whenever my sister, family, or friends run into computer problems…I am the go to guy. Now let me share with you my secret. This is the same secret that was passed on from a tech buddy of mine Michael Schultz. There were times when I would constantly pester him in college with certain issues I was having, and finally one day he shared with me his secret.

GOOGLE!!

Yes the answer to all of your problems, questions, and concerns is GOOGLE! Technically it can be other things like BING OR YAHOO, but I have found that my success rating with using GOOGLE is phenomenal.

The reason I am sharing this information is because my sister was seriously thinking about taking her computer to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. They would have charged her $75 just for running a diagnostics test and then I am sure they would have hit her with another couple hundred dollar charge for fixing this issue all together.

We as consumers need to empower ourselves to solve some of our own problems. Yes, I understand that companies have customer service people you can call but if you’re not using an Apple product you will literally get passed around from representative to representative, and the worst thing of all is you probably won’t be able to understand them.

Whether you believe it or not thousands of people have run into a similar problem you have and when they need answers they visit the net. The internet is filled with thousands of resources, blogs, and forums where people share their real life experiences and most importantly they share answers to a lot of DIY (do it yourself) problems.

Here is how it works. Next time you have a problem visit google.com! Once you are on the search engine do the best job you can at describing the issue you are having. For instance with my sisters issue it kept on telling her (“System security tools are not up to date”). I went to google and typed this in… and like magic I received hundreds of thousands of search results for people having the same issue.

The next step may be the hardest and the most time consuming. Now it’s time to search through some information and see whose answer or quick fix applies to your certain situation; the best places to look are forums. A forum for those of you who don’t know is a message board where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. Forums are good because usually people who have success with a particular problem will re-post on the message board to let others know what worked for them!

Like I said, searching through this information may take the most time, but saving yourself a couple hundred bucks from the geeks at Best Buy will surely make you smile.

Once you find the appropriate resources APPLY THEM!

For my sisters case I had to download an anti-malware program which scanned the computer and ended up finding over 1,000 infections (YIKES!!).

You don’t only have to use GOOGLE for technical problems, but you can use it to find recipes, instruction manuals, DIY (do it yourself) problems, etc….

Be sure to try and use this helpful hint before you decide to shell out some of your hard earned cash next time you think you have a particular issue. Or you could even volunteer to help a neighbor or friend out and look like a hero!!