What's in Your PC?

The same way some people that never own brand new cars become mechanics, I became a computer tech. I have never owned a brand new computer, so I had to learn to fix mine. Then my friends found out and I ended up fixing theirs too. Before long I had my own computer repair business. And, before too much longer, the "Geek Squad" ran me out of business and offered me a job.

Once I had a computer online I would log on to www.pcpitstop.com and let the healing begin. I heard about the site from a friend, but I'm always skeptical of websites; especially "free" websites. It's true that nothing in life is free, but pcpitstop.com is at least courteous enough to make their money the old fashion way, by getting sponsors and offering their products for sale on their site. Signing up is easy, and the only email I've seen from them in my entire tenure is the confirmation email they sent the first day.

When you log on to pcpitstop.com you'll click a link that starts the evaluation process. From there you just click where it says "Check This System" and wait. It will test everthing from your internet speed to your video card. When it's done it'll ask you what kind of internet connection you have. Select your connection type from the list, click "Ok", and you'll see the results listed along with a list of suggestions to speed up your system. All of these suggestions offer detailed instructions on how to employ the changes manually, some of them offer auto-fixes that will fix the problem for you, and some of them offer links to buy software to fix the problem. Though, in my experience, software is rarely if ever the way to fix a computer. The best fixes are in the settings of the software you already have.

If this isn't good enough for you, there's always the link to "Show Details" that will list everything that was tested and the results of that test. You'll see what kind of processor you have and the serial number of that processer, how much and what type of RAM, what brand of moniter you have, it's maximum settings and current settings, etc... In addition to showing you the results it also shows you how that particular piece of your system compared to similar systems that have been tested on their site. The comparison is in percentage form showing you what percent as compared to how many systems. Everything about pcpitstop.com is spelled out for you in a language that anyone can understand, so if you know enough about computers to get yourself to their website then you'll be able to use it once your there.