The NeighborHood Nerd

Personalized Electronics Support – "If It Has An On Button, We Fix It!"

Hallmark eCard Virus Alert

Jun 22

Posted by Alan in Malware Attacks | No Comments

Email users beware! Be very careful with ecard emails. Currently there are a lot of trojans coming through legitimate looking emails that to the user appear to come from “Hallmark” or “Blue Mountain” and a few other services. In actuality they are just from hacked servers. We just had a flood of these come in to a few of our email accounts.

Double check links in the emails before clicking them! Make sure they lead to an actual ecard site and not a randomized shortened link or something that looks like a bunch of garbage!

Tags: ecard email virus, ecard virus, hallmark virus

New Motherboard Repair Services!

Jun 20

Posted by Alan in Computer Services, Console Repair, News | No Comments

For the majority of technicians, when you come up with a hardware problem with a main circuit board or motherboard on a computer (or a TV or gaming console for that matter) theonly thing to do is throw it out and replace it.

Not so for The Neighborhood Nerd! Over the last year, we’ve been experimenting with the idea of doing circuit-level repairs on damaged boards, and have found that, with some practice and education, doing these types of services are well within our perview!

With many successful repairs now under our belts, we are officially adding several services to our catalogue with flat rates for BGA chip reballing, water damage repair, overload and burn repairs, DC Charger Port repair, and Power Regulation Circuit repair.

So if someone else tole you your motherboard was dead, and that you might as well chuck your computer, give it another chance and let us take a look at it for you!

Playstation 3 Single Chip Reball Service
Playstation 3 Full Reball Service (CPU, GPU, CXR714120)
Xbox 360 Single Chip Reball Service
Xbox 360 Full Reball Service (CPU, GPU, SB, HANA)
Wii Single Chip Reball Service
Wii Full Reball Service (CPU, GPU)
Laptop Motherboard Chipset Reball
Laptop Motherboard DC Jack Repair
Laptop Motherboard mosfet / capacitor repair
Laptop Motherboard Damaged Trace Repair
Desktop Motherboard Chipset Reball
Desktop Motherboard mosfet / capacitor repair
Desktop Motherboard Damaged Trace Repair

Power Outtage Fried Hundreds of Computers on 5/4

May 5

Posted by Alan in Computer Services, Console Repair, News | No Comments

Yesterday a major power surge hit the midtown area south of R street. Our own office was without power only for a short time, but one of our main systems was severely damaged by the outtage. We got some reports that one or more of T-Mobile’s cell data towers were effected, causing disruption in communications. We also heard that the main generator of Bel Aire was also knocked out (yes the one all the way up on Arena Blvd). This means the surge was especially strong and could have blown the surge suppression in many people’s power strips if not damage their electronics severely.

If one or more of your computers or electronic devices such as Monitors, HDTV’s, Receiver Amps, Video Game Consoles, or other electronic devices were effected or damaged, please give us a call and let us know! We would be happy to help with any problems you might have!

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 C000009a Error, Fixed!

Apr 3

Posted by Alan in Computer Services, News | No Comments

Many of our users (and our own systems) have been having serious issues while updating their computers to Windows 7′s 1st Service Pack release. With this common error the user will experience a boot failure after their system reboots from finishing the SP1 installation

The user will get an error 0xC000009a fatal error while the system’s registry is being updated. The system will then freeze or reboot and not allow the user to access windows, either in normal or safe modes.

Due to the widespread nature of this problem we are offering to do fixes for this problem for $60 flat rate with our guarantee to get your system functioning again (without needing to re-install Windows). This fee does not cover existing infections, software damage, or other related issues however.

Please give us a call to schedule an appointment!

Install.exe virus is becoming widespread

Jan 24

Posted by Alan in Computer Services, Malware Attacks | No Comments

As with other infections we come across and note, this one seems to have taken a foothold in many computers recently, but to an alarming degree.

We’ve found no less than 14 instances of this virus on computers protected by the most stringent antivirus systems. To further compound the problem, the symptoms of this virus vary wildly.

The only way we have been able to tell these instances are the same virus is manually detecting the viral files:

C:\install.exe
C:\eula.3051 (there are several variations of this file in the same location with different 4 digit numbers)
C:\VC_RED.msi

And a few other similar files. So far the only effective removal technique is to use ComboFix

1st release Playstation 3 slims start committing suicide a week out of warranty

Jan 17

Posted by Alan in Console Repair, News | No Comments

We’ve noticed a trend in the last few weeks here at the neighborhood nerd. We do many repairs on playstations every week, and up til now, they have almost all been the older “fat” versions. In the last 2 weeks we have received no less than 3 calls from customers who bought a first release slimline PS3 with disc read errors. It seems that they also are calling us mainly because their warranties ave literally just expired.

We here at The Neighborhood Nerd have been making the same recommendation to all with this model: even though its out of warranty technically, being that its only been about a week or two out of warranty, Sony will most likely fix it anyway.

If they DO give you the stiff, however, we will be here to help!

The Neighborhood Nerd Turns 1 Year Old!

Nov 1

Posted by Alan in News | No Comments

They say 50% of businesses fail in the first year, and by the Mustache of Mario we made it! Free antvirus suites for everybody! Wait… I guess we already offer that, so we’ll have to do one better:

For the month of November we’re offering 15% discounts on all services, PC Tuneups & Virus removals, Data Retrieval and Backup, iPod and iPhone repair, PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 Repair, Custom PC Builds… The list is endless! Just mention our Anniversary Sale Event for your 15% discount!

Stdrt.exe virus undetected by most antivirus software!

Oct 24

Posted by Alan in Computer Services, Malware Attacks | No Comments

We recently came across a unique virus who’s purpose and function is, as of yet, a mystery. What we do know is that it uses an inordinate ammount of memory (900mb in the instances we found) and seems to be able to evade all antivirus and security programs as of yet. It is, however, relatively easy to remove.

Firstly you will need to kill the virus process under Task Manager:
On the keyboard, press ctrl+shift+esc all at once to bring up the Task Manager.
Next click the processes tab to show active processes.
Lastly right click on stdrt.exe and click “end process” and confirm.

It hides itself in several separated temporary folders so using CCleaner to clean out all your temp files will eliminate the virus for good after you have killed the running process.

Tags: stdrt.exe, stdrt.exe removal, stdrt.exe virus

Playstation 3 Disk Read Error Special

Oct 12

Posted by Alan in Console Repair | No Comments

We’ve got a few PlayStation 3 replacement lasers burning a hole in our parts drawer. Come and get em! 20% off while supplies last!

Tags: playstation 3, playstation 3 disk error, playstation 3 won't read disks, ps3, ps3 disk read error, ps3 fix, ps3 won't read disks

Windows 7 Upgrade Special!

Oct 10

Posted by Alan in Computer Services | No Comments

Recently, we here at The Neighborhood Nerd have been seeing a trend concerning Windows Vista. Many of our customers have been experiencing random errors, corrupted registries, updates that won’t complete, recovery partitions claim to be too small, and numerous other problems inherent to Vista.

We here at The Neighborhood Nerd want to solve your problems in the easiest, least painful, and most permanent way possible, so we’re offering to upgrade Windows Vista users to Windows 7 at 10% off our normal fee! (Which, by the way, we already sell our windows licenses 20%-50% cheaper than retail)

Call today for details!

Tags: recovery partition full, windows, windows 7, windows 7 install, windows 7 upgrade, windows registry corrupted, windows seven upgrade, windows update, windows update fails, windows vista, windows vista issues