Hardware, when referring to a computer, is basically any physical component of it. The case, the CPU (Processor), RAM, hard drive(s), optical drives (CD/DVD), monitor(s), peripherals, and everything in between.
Installation/Upgrades
We are equipped to install any new hardware you want or upgrade existing hardware. You can buy hardware yourself, or consult with us first, or even have us order the necessary components for you. We can give advice on what kind of upgrades you might need, or whether or not you really need to upgrade at the time. Sometimes you may be tempted to upgrade, or buy new hardware, but are not aware of what may be coming out in the next few months, which may be something you would rather have or would drive the price of the current item down.
We have experience with a wide varity of hardware and configurations. We can set up complex RAID arrays for high performance and/or fault tolerance across several hard drives. If you've ever had a hard drive fail, you probably realize the importance of fault tolerance, which will save your data in the event of a hard drive crash. We can help with printers, digital cameras, portable MP3 players, web cams, and other peripheral hardware, as well as any kind of internal hardware like video cards, sound cards, USB/FireWire/i.Link/IEEE 1394 cards and devices, RAM installation, power supplies (see below), optical drives, fans; really anything you could want.
Power Supplies
I have included this section on power supplies because they are one of the least thought about components in a system, yet they are a component we see fail very often and are possibly one of the most dangerous components that could fail. Most people do not put much thought into a computer's power supply unit (PSU). They got their system as a complete unit, or the PSU came with their case, and it seems fine. And most will be. But they fail more often than you would think. Sometimes the fan stops working, or siezes up because of dust accumulation or other wear and tear, and can no longer cool the power supply or the rest of the system. Many computers, especially those sold from major brand name manufacturers rely on the power supply fan to cool the entire system. Sometimes the power supply will just stop working. Without you even knowing it, a power supply could be being used beyond or very close to its maximum load.
A failing power supply can be very dangerous. At best they can cause system instability; intermittent reboots/freezes, etc. At worst, they are a fire hazard. I personally have seen more power supplies with charred, melted insides than I ever cared to. Interestingly enough though in all of those cases I've never seen a blown fuse inside a power supply. That is quite scary.
It is important to have a good power supply that can handle the load of your system. We can determine what the needs of your system are, and recommend, purchase, and install a PSU for you. Unfortunately some systems by large manufacturers cannot use normal power supplies. While internally the PSUs are almost exactly the same, they often use slightly different sizes or one or two extra useless connectors, so that you have to buy their overpriced weak power supplies. There is more about this practice in the Custom Computers section. However, we can determine if this is the case, and we can clean out these power supplies to prevent dust build-up, or perform other maintenance.
Troubleshooting Hardware
Hardware problems come in countless different varieties. Sometimes it's easy to tell what has happened. If you hear your hard drive make grinding noises, you know your hard drive has just failed. If your power supply catches fire, you know the PSU has failed. But many other problems are very difficult to diagnose. Most lead to the dreaded Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) in Windows. But that screen is not always helpful in determining what went wrong. Bad memory could cause a variety of errors in a driver (the software that controls your hardware) for any piece of hardware, resulting in blue screens for just about anything. A failing hard drive that has not completely crashed yet could give errors that point the finger at memory problems. Shoddy CD burning can be caused by the way your optical and hard drives are conencted, or other hardware in the system.
We are able to do a wide variety of tests to determine what is causing your hardware problems. We can give you an explanation of what is happening and a recommended fix.