Portland has a rich and thriving community, but over the past few years, it’s been a hard economy for consumers and small businesses. Even as the economy, while still low, has stabilized, small business owners are slashing prices and searching for gimmicks to attract customers. Competition is fierce, and the less-than reputable businesses are gouging every chance they get. Here at Oregon PC, we decided to take a different approach to the Portland computer repair market.

First, Oregon PC has, even from the start, had a strong presence as a repair and service store. The wild economy has whipped us into shape and we are now constantly are evaluating the market and seeing where consumers are hurting, and lower our prices accordingly. While it may hurt us in the short term, a business without customers is simply not a business.

Oregon PC uses flat rates, something that other computer repair stores and freelance individuals absolutely refuse to do, our competitors will charge by the hour, something that can dig deep into customer’s wallets and leave customers angry and flustered. Our service policy is strict - “no-hidden charges”! Customers like the flat rate because it’s simple to understand and simple to estimate the total charge, and we like it too because it’s less paperwork!

For now, we are thankful that the economy hasn’t gotten worse, but it wouldn’t hurt to get better :)

Thanks for reading - drop by your local Portland computer repair store anytime you want to chat computers.

As a major computer repair shop in the Portland area, we see all sorts of machines. A common issue with some is that they are just down-right filthy. Systems that are covered hard drive to motherboard in a layer of dust or tobacco crud. These systems often have fans that have stopped working, which lead to overheating and electronic component failure. Here's an example of a system that was brought in for a number of issues, and had to use our System cleaning service:

So What Can I do About it?

If your computer hasn't been cleaned in a long while, it's best to unplug the whole system, and take it outdoors. Remove the case enclosure (usually the left-side comes off with two screws in the back), and, using a can of compressed air, or a full blown air-compressor, blow out all of the dust. Make sure to get in-between devices and fan blades, you'll be amazed how much dust can accumulate.

Before powering up, make sure all the cables are still attached properly and that nothing was jostled loose during your cleaning. Close up the case and power it on! Your computer will thank you by not failing early and continuing to run for years and years.

We just recently had an close business customer experience an attack on their web server that they run here in Portland, OR. They apparently got hit with the botnet/rootkit called “Gootkit auto-rooter”. Luckily, there was no serious damage, but it remains to be seen how perilous it can be to have your computers, whether a home system, or a commercial server, connected directly to the internet (firewall or not!).

Gootkit (auto-rooter) is a nasty little bot that scans for various vulnerabilities on your webserver, and if it finds one, will use exploits to load itself onto your system, then hijacking it to spread itself further, all while reporting your confidential information back to the home system. The attacks appear mostly around servers running PHP, as well as MySQL and other ‘control panel’ applications.

If you are a webmaster we recommend you simply block the user-agent of Gootkit: “Gootkit auto-rooter scanner”.If you are running a Linux or Unix server, use IPTables or Apache to block the user agent.

Read more how to block Gootkit on Linux or Unix.

If you are running a Windows Server with IIS7, you can simply update your machine.config or web.config file to include rewrite rules.

Read more how to block Gootkit on Windows Server with IIS7.

Be safe out there! Viruses, spyware, botnets, trojans, and root-kits are wide spread, so be sure to keep your operating system and anti-virus software up to date! Hope this helps, if not just drop by your local Portland computer repair store for help!

In order to allow our employees to celebrate July 4th with their families we will be operating on shorter hours during this holiday. On July 4th, 2011 our store hours will be 12pm-4pm. We hope everyone enjoys their 4th of July.

Thank You

Oregon PC

Your Local Portland Computer Repair Store

KPTV.COM has a great informational video on the new virus scare taking hold of many computers. You can view it here Computer Virus Nearly Knocks Out Local Business . We are seeing more and more of these fake rogue virus programs. If you have this problem make sure to do as suggested by the video, take it into an expert. For the month of May we are lowering our AntiMalware Service from $129 to $99; this includes installation of an AntiVirus program.

Thank You,

Oregon PC

Your Local Portland Computer Repair Store

There is a new virus hitting the computer world that is making it seem that all your files are deleted, however they are only hidden. If you noticed that your files seem to be missing, you should immediately have your system cleaned of the infection. We have a post on our facebook page with more information here is our Facebook Link. Remember Oregon PC Service can help you with your computer virus issues, and we offer the best price in the neighborhood for Virus/Malware removal.

Thank You,

Oregon PC

Your Local Portland Computer Repair Store.

Hello Portland Computer Users,

There was a line of HP Pavilion notebooks which had a known overheating issue most notably the dv2000/dv6000/dv9000 notebooks, although not limited to just these models. One of the first symptoms was loss of wireless capabilities, then the system would either boot intermittently or not at all. There is mention of it on wikipedia, unfortunately many users did not know of this issue and probably bought new systems to replace what was thought to be a completely dead notebook. If you have this issue fortunately there is a solution we can provide to bring your notebook back to life. Please contact us if you are experiencing this problem, and we can help.

Thank You,

Oregon PC

Your Local Portland Computer Repair

Hello,

We are working on a redesign of the website, so there are a few mishaps in certain places. We hope to have the redesign finished by end of the month; with it will be more opportunities to serve not only our Portland neighbors, but many other neighborhoods as well.

Some of the features will include enhanced search functions, better product description and specifications, and an e-commerce solution.

Thank You,

Oregon PC Service

your local Portland Computer Repair shop.

We here at Oregon PC Service would like to tell all of you in the world, have a Happy Thanksgiving. We will be back on Friday with normal hours to meet anyones computer repair needs. Make sure to come by and say hi to your local Portland Computer Repair shop.

Thank You,

Oregon PC Service

your local Portland Computer Repair shop.

Hello from your local Portland Computer Repair shop. There is a place hidden deep inside everyones hard drive where important information resides, and unfortunately lately there has been some nasty computer viruses that are infecting and living inside this hidden area. Actually this practice is not new and back in the 90's many viruses would live here. The issue now is that many virus and malware scanners do not or unable to check this area of the drive and since it is protected by windows they cannot fix the infection. However there is an easy way to check if you are possibly infected.

1. Download to your desktop a program called MBRCheck.exe which checks your master boot record to see if it is possibly infected. You can download it from here: MBRCheck, you should download it to your desktop.

2. Run the file, it will tell you if you have a Windows MBR, or if it says infected or unknown then you have a problem.

Fixing the Master Boot Record is not an easy task. If you find that you may be infected you should definitely take it into a professional. Please give us a call at 503-719-6317 if you find you are infected so we can help your computer get better.

Thank You,

Oregon PC Service

Your Local Portland Computer Repair