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Besides Microsoft, who charges $390 a pop for tech support are there any reliable, honest, computer online tech groups that are good and somewhat reasonable?

[smoothy]

You get what you pay for or you take serious risks the information is valid and accurate.

[ScottGem]

Where did you get the idea that Microsoft charges $390 a pop?

There are a number of sites, including this one and Microsoft's answers.microsoft.com that offer free advice in forums. If you ask your question we can try to answer or advise where to go.

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I found on Microsoft's website somewhere the cost was $390 and $780 after hours.
That $ amount isn't really the issue as much as problem resolution and prevention.

Question I have is multi-faceted.
1) I have been getting repeated calls from a group that calls themselves Microsoft support telling me that my computer is going to crash and needs attention. I questioned as to how they were privileged to this information and they said my email was sending errors bombarding their servers with Microsoft generated errors. They said they were from Washington DC and they were called Microsoft technical services. The guys and the gals that call can barely speak English, so I doubt they are on American soil. I didn't bite, but none the less I have had issues.

2)This last episode, a number of my services had stopped(wouldn't start) and I was having issues with the computer. I contacted one group and they said that my drivers hadn't been updated since I purchased the computer(they did a remote into my computer to look for the problem). I mentioned that I had automatic updates enabled on my computer- so why would they be out of date. Technician said that I should have received a driver disk with computer at purchase, which I didn't. He mentioned that it was a Microsoft driver disk and that after owning the computer for more than 3 years it needed to be updated or services would start to crash, eventually causing the computer to crash. He said I needed to find a place where I could order one for this computer from Microsoft and it would cost me. Service packs etc. are a free download, so it must have been something else. My service packs were the most recent and I didn't have any critical updates pending from Microsoft- I checked. I should probably have the disk, but I question as to the validity of his statement. Is the guy on the up and up or is he blowing smoke? Do I run the service pack again or is that not the issue?

I have the restore disks for my computer, but if I do that it will erase all programs and though I have done a restore before, it is a pain in the butt.
How is the best way to keep the computer running at optimal operation? I have Norton 360 installed and have since I bought the computer, which has tune up tools, but I still get issues. I have tried several tune up programs over the years, which sometimes correct the issues at hand, but eventually I still end up with more serious problems that they won't correct. I would like to find a way to keep things running right and my registry correct. This particular computer seems to have more issues than my other computers for some reason. I am just looking for a solution I can maintain my computer with. I distrust the foreign groups that are always trying to sell me on their services. I have a reasonable understanding of computers, and have been exposed to regedit, but I don't like to go there unless I know of a specific change that has to be made, and I haven't done that on the computer at issue.

The computer is about 4 years old, but it is an I7 processor 8 gig of ram, so I hate to chuck it. At $390 a couple of times a year for support I could start to make a pretty good down payment on a new computer. I just need to find a way to maintain it better, and the tools that I have purchased don't seem to be sufficient to do that.

[ScottGem]

1) Yes that is a scam. Either you have malware on your system or they got your name from somewhere. But that isn't a tech support question.

2) Window updates are not necessarily driver updates. Microsoft supplies many of the hardware drivers, but the hardware manufacturers also supply their own. So its possible that some of your hardware drivers are not up to date. Who is your computer manufacturer? You should be able to log into their site, get a list of the hardware and the most up to date drivers.

Assuming you have Win 7 on your system, the best maintenance is to use something CCleaner to clear the registry every year.

I'm curious as to what services you were told were stopped.

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I have CC cleaner and I do use it. There were a number of services that were stopped, some of which I didn't think were that important, but I hadn't stopped them either. I know they can crash on their own, so I rebooted and it appeared that the same ones were stopped. I didn't write them down, which I should have. I do know that my internet was locking on me as soon as I got to the main screen. I use Internet Explorer V.11 and MSN. I tried Google Chrome just to see if it was okay, and it had a difficult time booting. I tried Fire Fox and it did allow me to get online, but it is not my default browser and I hate all the garbage it throws at me.

I have used driver update programs in the past, so I questioned that my drivers were all outdated. The tech I talked with said that they weren't Sony drivers(Sony VAIO), but window drivers, which didn't make sense to me. I have gone to Dell's web site and downloaded drivers for my Dell machines before, but the tech made it sound like a Microsoft issue, not a Sony issue. I am leaning more towards corrupt files than anything, but I run my disk scans and tune up tools periodically, in fact Norton does an idle scan often when I am not using the computer. I did run CC Cleaner utilities scan and repair, but it didn't repair the problem. The technician ran malware bytes and I had a number of issues there, but my other programs should have detected them. Do I have to subscribe to CC Cleaner, Malware Bytes, Norton tune up and add ware software to maintain my computer or is there a simpler way? I know as I install software etc. that the registry changes, but that is normal.

You have been somewhat helpful, but I still have questions. I will give you a deserved "helpful", but I would like to understand it better so I can know how to prevent and cure without the BS that I get from some sources. Thank you!

[ScottGem]

If there was a single way to protect your PC and keep it clean everyone would do it and no more hassles. Unfortunately there is not. Some malware still slips by anti-virus programs.

The only real way to clean up everything is to start from scratch and restore your PC to factory defaults. Then reinstall all your other software. Once you have the PC configured the way you want, make an image of the hard drive or an external device. Update this image whenever you install new software or update your software versions. Then, you can clean up your machine, by restoring the image.

Do you have a Staples near you? I believe they still offer a free checkup and will do clean ups for a reasonable cost.

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Thanks Scott! I am 50 miles from nearest Staples or support. The problems I have with imaging is that I could image the problem or the beginning of the problem onto the image and overwrite the clean image. I guess I need to save each image I create. At least it is a starting point. I will check with Staples the next time I am in town and see what they charge. Thanks again.

[ScottGem]

That's why you create your first image while you keep the computer offline. If you do a factory restore, then install all your programs from downloaded install files, your machine should be clean.

[cmeeks]

Some thoughts.
Never run an Windows computer as administrator. Never ever no way.
Nuke and build is the gold standard and should be done yearly on a Windows box.
A call from "Microsoft Support" is a scam. You call Microsoft when needed they never call you.
If it isn't Gmail, Google docs, Microsoft Security Essentials, Dropbox, Lastpass, a Linux Distro or Microsoft OneDrive and outlook mail be very paranoid of "Free" stuff on the internet.
Even when exercizing extreame caution and best practices things can and do happen, free is not nessarly a bad thing however you need to be extremely careful when downloading Free stuff and make sure you are downloading from the original site.

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Hey, Thanks guys. I don't run my computer under administrator and I do have a user that I log on with that has admin. privileges. I am not into a lot of non tech sites, so I try to limit my internet exposure on this machine. I know a fresh install is best, but it just causes so many headaches. What do you guys know about Acronis software for disk back ups?