There is nothing more frustrating than trying to watch a film on Netflix only to find it keeps buffering. This is often caused by a weak WIFI signal. A wireless mesh system provides a full strong signal throughout the entire house. They offer the flexibility meaning there are systems for every size of home or office.
These systems work much better than boosters which can be unreliable at best.
We can provide and setup a top-rated mesh system for £160 including a site survey to determine the best solution.
With Christmas around the corner we have complied a list of gift ideas
SSD Upgrade If you have a family member who is always complaining that their computer is always running slow then why not consider an SSD upgrade? Compared to machines with a traditional hard drive an SSD can make the computer load five times quicker. Our own testing has confirmed this especially considering hard drives tend to become slower as they age. SSDs are also more reliable and use less energy resulting in longer laptop battery life.
The cost depends on the system and if a full reinstall is required but prices start from £100 including full installation and testing.
Tune up and virus removal If a computer is running slow a full tune up may be required. This service includes installing all the latest windows updates, virus and malware removal, full hard drive test, driver updates and lots of other things. Throughout December we are doing a special offer for this service for a fixed price of £50.00
Windows 10 upgrades With supporting ending for Windows 7 in the new year now is the perfect time to finally upgrade to Windows 10. Please contact us for further details and we are happy to advise on the next steps.
Wireless Mesh systems A Wireless Mesh system is the perfect solution for a family home that is suffering from wireless reliability issues. There are many different options on the market so please contact us for the further details.
Following the latest changes to the lock down guidance we can now collect computers from doorsteps for repair in our workshop. This will enable us to comply with social distancing rules and work safely. However, we regret that we are still unable to enter premises for the safety of both parties. We are still also continuing to work remotely for minor repairs or help.
We hope all
our customers are well and staying safe where possible.
M21 Technology Services is still currently trading and operating on a remote support basis. This means we can connect remotely to machine that has problems and fix it that way providing the machine can connect to the internet.
Please
contact us in the usual way if you wish to make a remote appointment.
Sometimes nothing
but Microsoft Office will do especially if the content creator intends to share
complicated documents for other people to edit. However, for simple (or as complicated
as you like!) spreadsheet tasks and word processing documents Libre Office and
its sister application Open Office is perfect.
Libre Office
is fully featured and offers almost as many features as Microsoft Office but it
as it is open source it doesn’t cost anything. This is very useful when the cost of a genuine
Office licence can easily be 2/3 of the cost of a new computer.
We often recommend
using Libre Office as a replacement for out of date or unlicensed copies of
Microsoft Office and for most people it is all they will ever need.
The downside
is the interface is a bit different so a small learning covering is required
and you will need to remember to save documents in the relevant Microsoft
formats if you want to open the documents using older versions of Microsoft
office at a later date.
Windows 7 is probably regarded as one of the best versions of Windows Microsoft ever created. However it is now ten years old and Microsoft will no longer support it from January 14th 2020. This means no more security updates or bug fixes. Hopefully the questions below will help solve any confusion about what this means if you still use Windows 7.
Will my computer carry on working? Yes your device will carry on working as normal at least in the short term, however it will no longer be secure as there won’t be any security updates from Microsoft. In the longer hardware manufactures will stop supporting so new devices such as printers may not work. New software releases may also not support Windows 7 which means further security risks such as using outdated web browsers.
Is windows 10 not full of bugs? As with any new operating system there were problems when it was launched back in 2015 but it is now over four years old and has matured to be one of the fastest and most stable operating systems to come from Microsoft.
Won’t Windows 10 soon be end of life? No, Windows 10 is constantly updated, so as longs as you install the latest updates it will remain supported for many more years to come.
Is it possible to upgrade to Windows 10? Yes, however the viability depends on the age, specification and condition of the current device(s). We are happy to advise on the best way forward. As a general guideline if the computer is 10 years old more a replacement machine will almost certainly be required.
Do you supply new computers with Windows 10? Yes we supply both brand new custom built machines and refurbished devices. Prices start from £200 for refurbished machines including data transfer.
If you would like further advice on upgrading to Windows 10, please phone us on 0161 660 3993 or 07896 500 456 and we will be happy guide you on the next steps.
At this time of year, the big electrical retailers offer laptops at seemingly very good prices. However, some of the very cheapest ones offer poor value for money.
As an extreme example we found a laptop being advertised for £99 brand new. This seems too good to be true and it is. The problem is the specifications are very poor, it has 32GB of storage which is very little, and the type of storage offered eMMC is very unreliable. It also only has 2GB of RAM which is less than most average smart phones these days. The processor is also extremely slow meaning the overall experience of using this laptop would be extremely frustrating. It might be OK as a word processor but that is about it.
In our experience you can’t buy a decent new laptop for less than £350 as cheaper ones offer far too many compromises which, so they offer poor value for money. At the lower price range refurbished laptops offer far better value for money.
We hope all of our customers have had a fantastic year. We will be closing over the Christmas Holidays for a much needed rest. We will be closing the workshop for a much needed clear out and tidy up. Our opening hours will be:-
Wednesday 20th – Open as normal
Thursday 21st – Open as normal
Friday 22nd – Closed from 4pm
Saturday 23rd – Closed
Christmas Eve – Closed
Christmas Day – Closed
Boxing Day – Closed
Wednesday 27th – Open for emergency appointments (workshop closed)
Thursday 28th – Open for emergency appointments (workshop closed)
Friday 29th – Closed
Saturday 30th – Closed
New Years Eve – Closed
New Years Day – Closed
2nd Janaury – Open for emergency appointments only (workshop closed)
Wednesday 3rd – Open as normal
Finally we wish all our customers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
This is a question we sometimes get asked. The cost of new machines is rising sharply due to inflation and component shortages (memory) what we are finding is that while cheap computers are still being offered by the major retailers but the quality and specification has declined sharply. Most laptops under £400 come with extremely under powered processors and slow hard drives.
Most refurbished machines will be as fast as a new machine costing twice as much if not faster. We mostly only supply grade A refurbished machines which are more less as good as new. These machines come with a fully licensed copy of Windows 10 and are fully tested. They are corporate quality machines and are usually better made than domestic class machines found in the major retailers. The cost of a refurbished desktop can be as little as £180 (for a base unit) including full data transfer and on-site setup. In order to offer the best selection we do not stock any refurbished machines but we order them at a discounted rate for next day delivery. Refurbished machines also have an environmental benefit as manufacturing computers is not particularly kind to the environment.
All our refurbished machines come with the same 1 year warranty we offer with new machines.
Some of the benefits of buying a refurbished machine from us:-
All machines come with a 1 year warranty
Fully tested
Most machines are Grade A meaning they are in nearly new condition unless otherwise stated.
All machines come with Windows 10 unless Windows 7 is especially requested.
A choice of entry level systems to high end I5 based computers, all the less than most new machines.
Quick turn around time
Full onsite setup including data transfer where possible included in the price
Corporate quality machines supplied such as Lenovo Thinkpads and Dell Optiplex machines.
Fully tested by the suppliers, we also do a range of tests to make sure nothing was missed before supplying to the end user.
s and slow hard drives.
