Computer Trash

Computer Care: Take out the trash on your computer

By Arthur Glazer
arthur@glazerthepctech.com

POSTED Dec. 5, 2009 1:30 a.m.

Everyone uses their computers with little regard as to maintenance. I’m not talking about running virus checkers or scanning for malware. That was another column and we’ve already covered it. What I’m referring to is the regular task of taking out the trash.

It involves more than just right-clicking on the recycle bin. There are hosts of other places where garbage accumulates in the computer. Utilities exist to assist in this task that you may or may not have, but it can be done manually as well.

Junks files to consider deleting on a regular basis include temporary Internet files, temporary system files, the history cache from your browsers, old e-mails and their attachments, downloaded programs, music, photos and videos.

Now I’m not calling your music or video collection junk, but once you have them, it’s best to move them off of your hard drive to a safer location. It will keep your drive clean and protect your files should the computer crash.

Copy your collection of files you don’t want to throw out to an external hard drive, flash drive or burn them to CDs or DVDs as size warrants.

The more clutter you have on your system, the slower it can be. It decreases overall performance and slows down boot time.

Personally, I am a sucker for downloading free programs. I like to try new things out and among other sites, subscribe to downloadoftheday.com. It’s a great site, and every once in a while, I find a program that I can use and need to keep. It’s the others I need to be careful with. Programs can accumulate and before you know it, the desktop is full of icons and suddenly it takes five minutes to boot again.

So I’ve learned (the hard way) it’s best to immediately delete what I download and find I won’t be using. I tend to forget about them otherwise. It’s easy to tell yourself you’ll delete them later or that you might use them one day. You won’t.

A good place to look for unused programs and their installers are on the desktop, in the Download folder and in Program Files, under the Windows or Users folder, depending on which version of Windows you have.

Remember to delete both the installer package you’ve downloaded as well as uninstalling the program itself.

Think of programs you may have downloaded like Adobe Reader, Firefox, an Internet Explorer upgrade or a Windows update. Each leaves an installer icon behind after its installation. Even if you keep the program, you don’t need that installer.

If you do want to get rid of the program, use the uninstaller that comes with windows or a third-party application that uninstalls programs. You should also check the program in doubt. Occasionally they uninstall themselves. Look in the Start menu for that option. Deleting the desktop icon only does just that.

A good, free tool is Decrapifier that you can find on the Internet. It will help you delete a plethora of unwanted applications from your system.

After you’ve deleted some, it’s a good idea to run a registry tool to tidy up any remnants left behind from the programs you just got rid of. Those tidbits of data can contribute to affecting the performance of your computer.

E-mails tend accumulate on everyone’s system. It’s not just the letters themselves, but as I mentioned earlier, the attachments that come with them. The video that you downloaded and thought was initially so amusing will most likely never be watched again. Get rid of it.

The photos your mom sent you of the dog are great, but don’t need to reside on the hard drive. Move them to another permanent location.

Your e-mail client (Outlook, Outlook Express, Mail) will archive your old e-mails for you. Even if you use Web mail (AOL, Yahoo, Gmail) there should also be a choice to be able to archive your old incoming.

Your browser has a setting to automatically dump its cache when you close it. It’s a setting worth changing.

I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth saying again: There are almost always programs in your start-up group that don’t need to be there. By getting rid of them, you won’t necessarily cut down on system clutter, but your computer will start faster.

From the start button, click Run, type msconfig and go to the startup tab. All of those items with check boxes start when Windows does. Uncheck what doesn’t need to start each time the computer boots up.

These programs are running in the background all of the time. So it’s not just a slower boot time, but a degraded overall system performance allowing all of those items to run.

After you uncheck the one you don’t want (keep the antivirus and anti-malware ones), click Apply, then OK and reboot. When it reboots you’ll see a message advising you a change was made, Just click OK and continue.

So if you remember to empty the trash at regular intervals and run a few utilities or do a little extra work, your system will thank you for it. It will be healthier and will run faster.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly.

Computing and the Internet

Computer Care: Even with its ails, Internet has changed our lives forever

By Arthur Glazer
arthur@glazerthepctech.com

UPDATED Nov. 21, 2009 12:18 a.m.

Some say the Internet is our downfall. Others insist it is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Although I’m not a huge Facebook fan, haven’t really used eBay in years and don’t download music, I think the Internet has changed the way we communicate and do business. I’m an e-advocate for certain.

Sure, it has its evils. It is a community and just like any town, it has its seedy parts. There are those waiting to steal our data and identities. There are pedophiles stalking its dark streets and the Internet makes it easy for them. But also thanks to the Internet, we can find out which, if any of them live in our neighborhood.

Some computer/Internet users sit in front of their monitors for hours on end, never seeing the light of day. This, of course is the extreme. You’ve got to know when to shut down and walk the dog.

I’ve made a living from the Internet for many years now. Many of you read this online. I fix your computers that allow you to access the Internet. I can also remotely repair your computer via the Internet without leaving my house.

I have traversed the Information Super Highway since it was a dirt road. It’s been good to me. I buy things online, from clothes to prescriptions. I do banking, pay my bills and have video chats online with my daughter who lives two states away. I even met my wife and found my last dog online.

Before I had a GPS, I printed maps from the Web. I’ve planned vacations, made hotel reservations, bought airfare and rented cars from my computer. I’ve visited virtual places that I couldn’t drive or fly to. Some cities have webcams in real time. You can see the Eiffel Tower from your laptop as it is right now.

Some of us will remember when we had to rely on multivolume encyclopedias with annual updates to do any kind of research at all. Now we can find virtually anything online and it is updated daily in most cases.

Classified ads, too, have evolved. Not only are there auction sites like eBay, but we have sites like Criagslist, that make finding things to buy (or free) easier than before. There are job sites like Monster and Career Builder for those in need of employment.

Whether looking for a job, across town or across country; or seeking a part for your ’70 Camaro, what used to take hours or days now takes seconds or minutes.

I often read the news online, look up phone numbers, facts, words, the weather and even do research for this column when needs be. I use the Internet for research, from recipes to finding computer parts or for keeping up with the latest technology.

To aid us with these searches, we have engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. Even a novice can find what they need in minutes with their help.

And there is fun to be had as well. I’ve reconnected with friends I hadn’t seen in 30 years in the little time I’ve spent on Facebook.

Gamers play each other online, often across town or even the country.

We can also watch TV online now thanks to sites like Hulu and Fancast. We can also download music, books, magazines and newspapers to listen or read on our computers or portable devices.

The Internet has manifested itself in mobility products as laptops, netbooks, cell phones and portable computing devices like the Blackberry and Iphone.

E-mail is probably the single most used part of the Internet. When was the last time any of you actually penned a letter to anyone? Why bother; we have e-mail. We can attach photos, videos and music and audio to our correspondences. It’s easy, fun and it is quicker than snail mail.

Thanks to e-mail, I have stayed in contact with friends and relatives I might never have written to otherwise. Call it impersonal if you must, but it keeps us connected.

Yes, I get viruses, adware, spam and letters from the Nigerian Treasury Minister as we all do. But I think the good far outweighs the bad.

Although admittedly, I would rather hold a magazine, book or newspaper in my hands, I still read my fair share online.

The computer and the Internet are a couple of incredible tools that have changed our ways of life, like it or not. They have opened doors that were not visible or even there a mere 20 years ago. They have broadened our horizons, opened our eyes and enriched our lives.

Things will never go back the way they were. The Internet will continue to grow and emerge. I wouldn’t want go back to how it was before we had cell phones and I certainly wouldn’t want to do without my computer and the Internet.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly. Arthur welcomes your computer questions and ideas for future columns.

64-bit Computing v 32-bit

Computer Care: PCs speeding up, bit by bit

By Arthur Glazer
arthur@glazerthepctech.com

POSTED Nov. 6, 2009 10:55 p.m.

Here we are, leaving the era of 32-bit computing and entering that of 64-bit. It is more powerful, uses system resources more efficiently and doesn’t cost much more. One drawback is that hardly anyone knows what it is.

Although 64-bit technology has been around for years, only Linux users or those running servers really use it. Even today, there are not that many applications written to take advantage of all that 64-bit computing has to offer.

Enter Vista and now Windows 7. The operating systems are shipped with two discs, one 32-bit and one 64. Until recently mostly everyone, myself included, used the 32-bit option. That’s what our computers were. We had a 32-bit operating system with 32-bit processors, running 32-bit apps.

Now it’s all about to change. Not only has the core doubled, but the processing power as well. With a true 64-bit system you should be able to process things twice as fast as before.

So which do you have? If you go to the My Computer icon and right-click on it, then go down to Properties, you’ll see somewhere in all that technical jargon where it says which of the two systems you are running.

OK, but what does it all mean? A bit is a binary digit of either 0 or 1, which is the smallest unit of data in a computer. There are eight bits to a byte and in most systems, four bytes, or octets, that form a 32-bit word which is the instructions in a computation. Until now that is, when 64-bit computing enters the picture.

Most computers process data in bunches of 32 bits and could handle only four gigabytes of system memory, or RAM. Not only can they now handle 64 bits of data at a time, but these computers can handle – ready for this – 192 GB under Windows 7, theoretically much more. That’s 48 times what we are currently used to. Remember when we thought 256 megabytes of RAM was considered a lot? It was only a few short years ago.

But there really is no need to jump on this consumer treadmill. If you’ve got something that works, stick with it. The chances of most of us needing that kind of processing is slim, unless you do video editing, work extensively with Photoshop, use Computer Aided Design software, or you absolutely must have the fastest computer on the block. Then in those cases, 64-bit is for you.

To take full advantage of this technology, you will need a 64-bit processor running a 64-bit operating system with matching drivers and 64-bit apps to go with them, the last of which is difficult to come by. You can though, run things backward compatible. A 32-bit application (most of them) can run in a faster environment, but not vice versa. You can’t run a 64-bit program in a 32-bit environment.

There are differences here between Windows and a Mac. The latter 64-bit is actually a hybrid, having both 32 and 64-bit components to it. For that reason, it will run any type of program. Windows 64-bit is only that and is the reason it will occasionally have problems running 32-bit apps.

If you are a home user with a computer that has 4 GB of RAM under a 32-bit architecture, there is really no need to upgrade your hardware.

If you have a 64-bit system, 4 GB of RAM will prove inadequate, as it needs more memory to process. Not only will it take more RAM, it will demand it. The biggest drawback is that there are few 64-bit applications written.

I don’t think the 32-bit system will be taken off the market just yet. The new stuff is there if you want it, but until there are lots of apps to run under it, 32-bit computing probably won’t be going away anytime soon.

Even if you get a new 64-bit computer, you can install the 32-bit version of Windows 7 if you like, with most of your old software. There is a caveat. Your antivirus and drivers will be ineffective and you may not be able to find what you need. Many 64-bit drivers are as hard to come by as the programs. It would be like driving a Ferrari with regular gas and bad spark plugs. It will run, but not well. It defeats the point of upgrading.

One thing I would do though is upgrade your memory. I have seen more systems that don’t even have a gig of RAM installed. It’s cheap, it’s easy and it will make an incredible improvement on how your computer operates.

Get a gigabyte or two if you are running a 32-bit system. With a 64-bit system, get as much as you can afford if you think your programs warrant it.

Until 64-bit computers become mainstream, developers won’t be writing many programs for them. Unless you really need it, I’d be content with a fast 4 gig, 32-bit system.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly.

Reinstalling your Operating System

Computer Care: Best to reinstall your OS when problems mount

By Arthur Glazer
arthur@glazerthepctech.com

POSTED Oct. 25, 2009 12:08 a.m.

On occasion, I find myself attempting a tuneup on a computer that is beyond tuning. If your registry is corrupt, you have unnecessary programs run at start-up and check disk initiates every time you boot up, you have a problem.

If there are too many pop-ups to navigate the desktop — and even when you can, nothing happens when you click an icon — then a tuneup is not the answer. Sure, it could probably be fixed, but it would take longer than another option and you might miss something anyway.

When there are that many problems in a system and it is that unstable, it would take less time to reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows than it would to attempt a repair. It also makes better sense. With the latter, you would not even be certain you fixed everything.

With a reinstall, you would not fix what ails the system, you would be erasing it. It will get rid of any malware and possible viruses, toss the trojans, the temps, clean the cache and give you a fresh version of the registry.

It may seem a bit intimidating to take on such a task, but it is really the more sensible choice. It is even more so now, with the release of Windows 7. It is a good time to upgrade from XP or Vista, a must if you still have the Millennium Edition.

The upgrade from Vista to Win 7 won’t hurt at all. You’ll even get to carry over your settings. With XP though, you’ll need to wipe everything. If you’re just replacing XP with itself, depending upon your choices, your data may also be saved. As much as I liked working with XP, this new operating system is a pleasure and I don’t have the regrets I had with Vista.

You will hear from the naysayers that Windows 7 is nothing but Vista with a fresh coat of paint. I say it is more. They gave it a better engine with more horsepower. It now runs like a race car instead of a jalopy.

Should you decide to go with a reinstallation, you first need to make sure to save what you don’t want to lose. I’ve had clients ask me where their address book was or that their Favorites or Bookmarks were gone after I wiped their hard drive. Sure they were. If you don’t save it, it won’t be there.

All it takes is an external hard drive or a couple of DVDs, depending on how much data you want to back up. You might just copy the entire My Docs folder. Alternatively, look for My Pictures, My Videos or My Music. Give the desktop a once over just in case there is a stray file or two out there.

You could use a wild-card search to be sure. For example, in the search box, type *.*jpg if you want to see all the jpegs in the system. Use *.*doc to find Word documents.

If you have a dedicated backup utility, now is the time to use it. Vista has a program to help you with the task. Pick and choose carefully what you decide to keep.

Tools like Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image will create an image or a snapshot of your hard drive, operating system and all.

But this, too, warrants caution. If you are reformatting because of problems with your system, you will be transferring the problems with an image, defeating the purpose of the reinstallation. You’d be better off just copying what you need manually, unless you created an image back before you had issues.

If you plan to upgrade to Win 7, then the image won’t do you any good. Just back up your files.

If you want a clean fix with the same operating system, it usually works one of two ways. PC manufacturers either ship a system restoration disk with the computer or include a rescue partition on the hard drive. If you didn’t get a disk, look for a D drive under My Computer. It should say either Recovery or Rescue.

Before you initiate a reformat, make sure you have something to put back on the hard drive in the form of an operating system; otherwise, you’re just creating a doorstop.

Start to finish should take two to three hours, again depending on how much you have to save.

It is important to note that you will have to reinstall any programs you had. You can’t copy a program.

Once you get going, Windows does most of the work. You’ll get the occasional question about time zone, computer and network name, but for the most part it is on auto pilot.

You might check out a web site or two to gain some confidence before you begin. Just Google, “Windows reinstallation” and choose.

There is no down side to this. Your system will be cleaner and faster than it has been in a long time. You can live with a corrupt computer, replace it or just reinstall Windows. Have a plan, back up what needs backing, take a deep breath and get to work.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville.
His column appears biweekly. Arthur welcomes your computer questions and ideas for future columns.

Windows 7 is Coming

Computer Care: Windows 7 is a big step up from Vista

By Arthur Glazer
arthur@glazerthepctech.com

POSTED Oct. 9, 2009 9:19 p.m.

Windows 7 will be out in a couple of weeks and unlike its predecessor, it is something to look forward to.

Although its release isn’t officially until Oct. 22, I have a prerelease version installed on my computer and I like it. I took advantage of Microsoft’s offer back in June to try it free for a year. It’s installed on my laptop alongside Vista; I can’t remember the last time I booted into Vista.

It’s not a totally new interface like the difference between Win 98 and XP, but it beats Vista by leaps and bounds.

Win 7 seems to have added what XP left out and repaired what Vista messed up. Some things are new, others polished. Gone are the constant nags of permission to access something on your own computer. They called it security; I called it a nuisance.

Vista initially had issues with many peripherals that XP handled with ease. Win 7 is ready. Vista couldn’t run on the new tiny netbooks where XP could. So could Win 7.

I think Vista must have been a huge a huge disappointment, if not an embarrassment to Microsoft. It ended up being nothing like its older brother, XP. Whether it was released prematurely or what, we’ll never know. It was kind of like Win ME, the Millennium Edition. The turn of the century is here and we’d better have something to sell, ready or not. I used mine as a coaster on my desk.

A nice addition to Win 7 is not so many additions. Instead of cramming a bunch of add-on programs and utilities to the operating system, some that may never be used, Microsoft decided this time around to offer them as optional, free downloads on its Web site. Many add-ons are in Windows Live Essentials. That’s where you’ll find Window’s Mail and Messenger now as well as the new Writer and some others. Go to http://down load.live.com to see what’s there.

I added Photo Gallery to my installation. Aside from being a nice photo viewer and sufficient editor, it has a panoramic feature. If you’re on the beach or mountain top and want to remember the expansive panoramic view, now you can, and Photo Gallery does it effortlessly.

You can also make slideshows or movies in Photo Gallery, and when done, you can upload your finished products directly to You Tube, Flickr or Facebook for publication. A new addition to image-viewing is the slider in each folder that lets you adjust the size of the thumbnails.

The taskbar is perhaps the most noticeable change to the operating system’s interface. The start button is still there; it just doesn’t tell you what it is. Instead of pinning programs to the start menu or the Quicklaunch bar, you can now pin them to the taskbar.

All you do is hover the mouse over a taskbar item and it reveals a readable thumbnail. Then you click on either the item or the thumbnail to open it. The thumbnail offers a list of what each app recently had open. Word for example, will show a list of documents, and Firefox, a list of sites.

If you have multiple windows opened and want to view them in equal sizes, simply right-click on the taskbar. You will have a choice to cascade them, view them side by side or stacked. Personally, I like the side-by option. It’s like having my research book adjacent to the paper I’m writing. I can Google something and keep writing.

If you double-click anywhere on a window’s title bar, it will show in full screen. Alternatively, you can just drag it to the top of the screen and goes to full size automatically, with the new snap feature.

I have deleted the recycle bin more than once instead of emptying it. That option to delete is thankfully no longer there.

Having never been a fan of Internet Explorer, the new version has not changed that. My advice is to go to mozilla.com and download the latest version of Firefox. It is far more versatile and customizable than IE ever was.

What is versatile in the new OS is the redesigned Media Center that handles not just photos and music, but videos and TV. It asks what you want to configure and takes it from there.

Windows 7 installed on my laptop in an hour and booted in less than a minute. I found a huge collection of themes to download from Microsoft as well as add-ons as mentioned. It goes to sleep in seconds and wakes up almost as fast.

I found this OS more helpful than its predecessors. It connects to wireless much easier, finding local connections quickly.

Whenever you run into a problem, a troubleshooter is there in the form of a wizard to assist you. It asks just enough proper questions to help get you going again.

Libraries are something new. They are like what My Pictures was to My Documents in XP — on steroids. They are lists accessible across the OS. Using tags or keywords with libraries, files are easier to index and find from anywhere.

If you bought a new computer recently, chances are it came with a coupon or a link to get a free upgrade to Windows 7. I’d say go for it.

Even if you don’t have a coupon, the pricing is affordable. According to Microsoft’s Web site, the upgrade version for the Home Premium edition is $119.99, and $219.99 for the Ultimate Upgrade.

It may be just the operating system you’ve been looking for. Worst case scenario: it’s better than the one you’ve been itching to get away from.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly. Arthur welcomes your computer questions and ideas for future columns.

Pitfalls of Self-Repair

Computer Care: Beware the pitfalls of home PC repair

By Arthur Glazer
arthur@glazerthepctech.com

POSTED Sept. 26, 2009 6:18 p.m.

There are circumstances when a computer can be fixed at home without the aid of a technician. There are also times when self-repair should never be attempted. Consider some of these situations next time something goes wrong with your PC.

Short of replacing the motherboard or processor, you might contemplate fixing your own computer if it seems routine enough. It all depends on how adept you are with your hands, working in tight places and your knowledge of computers and electricity.

No matter what you attempt, the first thing to do is unplug it. Don’t be a tough guy. It’s crowded in there and you never know what you might inadvertently touch.

Then make sure you are grounded. Electrostatic discharge can toast a system in seconds without you even knowing it. The easiest way to ground yourself is to touch a metal part of the box before you unplug it. Don’t work on a carpet or in stocking feet.

Even the simplest of tasks can prove disastrous if you’re not careful. Cleaning accumulated dust from a system shouldn’t prove difficult. It collects around the fans, in the power supply and on the motherboard. Too much dust eventually will force a computer to shut down.

Using a can of compressed air will do the job, but realize it is compressed gas, not air. It is dangerous to breathe, so take it outside. You’ll also make more of a mess than you think, another reason not to do it indoors.

If you hold the can any way other than upright, some propellant will escape. Not only is it cold, it is liquid and could short out the computer if you are not careful.

I caution you against the use of a vacuum to clean dust from your PC. It’s better to blow the dust off than suck it in. You never know — the vacuum may eat a small, loose part that you need.

On laptops, the keys pop off easily. If you vacuum bagel crumbs from a Satellite or Inspiron keyboard, you may lose a letter or two.

Replacing RAM, a hard drive or interface cards should be routine enough. But if you drop a screw, knock a cable or fail to seat a card properly, your system will not boot up. I always count screws as I take them out so I know how many should go back in when I’m done.

And speaking of cables, it’s a good idea to label them as you unplug them from the rear of the box. Both the mouse and keyboard use PS2 connectors, unless they are USB (then it doesn’t matter). The Ethernet cable looks like a phone cord but won’t fit in the wrong port. It’s also easy to confuse the speaker port with the mic port; both use pin plugs.

If you try to reinstall the video cable backward, you will most likely bend some pins, rendering the cable and in some cases, the monitor useless. On CRT monitors, the cable does not unscrew from it. Most LCDs, though, have connectors at both ends.

Be careful cleaning the monitor surface. It’s always better to spray your paper towel or cloth rather than the device itself. If you spray the screen, the liquid may puddle and drip inside, possibly shorting it out. Also, the less harsh the solvent you use, the better. Some may fog the surface of the monitor.

RAM goes in easy enough, but again, if you try to install it backward, you will not only damage the memory module, but its receptacle on the motherboard. Laptop memory has a spring latch holding it in place and usually goes in on an angle. It’s just something else to pay attention to.

While you’re inside your desktop, it’s not a bad idea to replace the battery — yes the battery. It controls your clock, among other things. They should last four to five years, and cost only about $3. So as long as you have the cover off, you might as well change it. They are easy to spot: flat, shiny and about the size of a quarter. Be careful popping it out. I suggest using pencil to release the spring. Pay attention to the polarity. The positive side (with the plus sign) should face up.

As far as printers go, if you need more than a cartridge alignment, I’d toss it. You pay for the ink now, not the unit itself.
Before you close up the box, take a last look around. Is everything connected? Check for any loose screws. Turn it upside down if you have to. All it takes is one to short it out.

Plug in the cables, saving the power cord for last and see if it still works.

There are lots of user-serviceable parts in a computer. But if you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself replacing more than a RAM module. Before you take on even routine maintenance, give it careful consideration.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly.

Dealing with Returns

Computer Care: The art of returning faulty items

By Arthur Glazer
arthur@glazerthepctech.com

POSTED Sept. 12, 2009 12:57 a.m.

When I was a boy, my dad told me to always ask for the head barber. Tony owned the local clip joint where I grew up. He gave me a decent haircut, shaved my young sideburns with hot lather and tossed a steamy towel on me before slapping a cheap, aromatic after-shave on my face.

He made feel like a man. The secret, I discovered at an early age, was dealing with the one in charge.

It took some time for me to realize though, that my dad’s instructions applied not just for barbers, but for everywhere. His lesson has served me well. Wherever I go, especially when I have a problem, I ask for the head barber.

Recently, I went to a large superstore with a client to return a computer that was shipped to him DOA. We were politely shrugged off by all at the store. "Son," I heard my dad’s voice say. "Ask for the head barber."

So I asked to speak to the store manager. I’ll tell you in a moment what happened, but first here’s some tips to consider when dealing with a situation such as this:

• Whether in person or on the phone, get names of those you encounter. Know who you’re speaking with and take notes.

• Keep your cool. Don’t raise your voice and don’t make threats. Nobody responds well to threats.

• Be familiar with the warranty. Know when the store stops covering the product and the manufacturer takes over.

• Save all boxes, manuals, cables, etc., as they will check for them upon a return.

• Be flexible. The agent may be willing to trade your broken product for a similar, if not identical one. Be willing to consider a compromise. Be ready to accept it.

• Stand your ground, if you are certain you are in the right. Don’t be brushed off by, "Sorry, but there’s nothing I can do to help you." Find someone who can.

• Occasionally the manager will not be available. If you get nowhere with his assistant, go home and call the store, the head office or write them a strong, well thought-out letter. A snail-mail letter, especially registered, will have more effect than an e-mail. But you might start with that.

Understand sometimes you take a chance when you buy certain sale items. In those cases, should something go wrong, you may have to eat it. Open-box items, clearance sales, returns and many refurbished products are sold "as is," meaning you get a deep discount but take a chance on product quality. Most often there is nothing wrong with these items, but you never know. It’s a gamble and occasionally you lose.

But when you spend hundreds of dollars on a new item and something goes wrong, you then have a legitimate gripe. Most stores are reluctant to offer you a refund, but will exchange a broken item for one that works.

Be reasonable in your demands though. Don’t expect a trade because you don’t like the color of a product or because it has a small scratch on it.

Now back to my case. The computer arrived late and unable to boot up. This was after six days when my client paid for "expedited" shipping. I explained this to the sales guy, his supervisor and eventually to the store manager and that I was a PC tech who knew a dead computer when I saw one. What made me dig in even more was when he informed me there was nothing he could do, due to the fact that the computer was purchased on the Web site, not at the store.

I advised him that consumers don’t care about such details. The store, the Web site — it’s all the same to us, and that it should be for them as well.

I told him I was guilty of opening the case to see if there was a hard drive installed. He then matter-of-factly informed me that could void the warranty. I told him I broke no foil seal in the process. He told me the screws had special paint to tell if they had been tampered with. I told him I did in fact tamper with them to open the case. Wow!

So we went back and forth for some time. I think he finally realized I wasn’t going anywhere and that we had a legitimate gripe. He said he had to call someone in authority. I told him I could wait. He eventually gave in and allowed us to swap out the bad unit for a good one.

The bottom line here is that you should not be intimidated by a sales clerk. If you spent a lot of money in a store, you deserve a lot of customer service (not an oxymoron). Don’t accept that there is nothing they can do. Sure there is.

If you have trouble dealing with the person at hand, heed my dad’s words: Ask for the head barber.

Arthur Glazer is a freelance writer and computer technician in Gainesville. His column appears biweekly.