A local entrepreneur is offering assistance for anyone whose computer has slowed down, stopped working, become infected, or is in danger of turning into a very heavy, and expensive, paperweight.
Razvan Lungu has started Raz Ventures in Ashcroft, which provides a local outlet for anyone who needs help with their computer, or who would like to learn more about a new device. Lungu says that his interest in learning more about how computers worked — and how to fix them — began when he got a desktop computer back in the 1990s.
“It froze up, as they did, and one of my neighbours came by and showed me the ctrl-alt-delete fix [where the user holds down all three keys at once]. He said ‘If it freezes, you can do this and it unfreezes.’ I thought ‘Wow!’ It inspired me to take them apart and then put them back together to see how they ticked.”
He explains that computers have mechanical parts that wear out and cause the computer to slow down, so that information is hard to access. Many people will simply sigh and get a new one, but Lungu says he can often do a minor upgrade that will make the computer good for another few years, depending on that it’s used for, so that people don’t have to buy a new one.
“A 10-year-old computer is too old to do much new stuff, but you can still run YouTube, Word, send and receive emails. To salvage it you often just need a couple of minor upgrades and you’re good to go.”
He does have a word of caution for anyone using an older computer.
“It can be unsafe to browse on them because they don’t have updated programs, so hackers can get in. I tell people straight up that there are security situations with older computers. For example, security support for Windows 8.1 has now gone. You’re putting yourself at risk if you’re doing online banking with passwords on Windows 8.1, because it won’t update to current security protocols. You just need an upgrade to a supported system.”
Lungu also notes that computers with older-style mechanical hard drives can cause a bottleneck nowadays, because of the way data is stored on them.
“The computer has to read from different areas of the hard drive. Things will be faster on an SSD [solid state drive], which has no moving parts; everything is digital data. Changing over will give you a big increase in speed. If your computer takes three minutes to boot up, it will go to less than a minute.”
He says that anyone who has bought a computer recently will have an SSD, but that anyone whose computer has a mechanical drive can have it taken out and replaced with an SSD.
“People are a lot happier with that. I see their eyes light up when their computer boots up in 30 seconds, because they used to go off and have a coffee while it did that. It’s relatively painless, financially, to swap, and it’s what I do for a lot of people, so they get a speed boost and computing improvement.
“Quality of life is something I focus on. It’s all about user happiness when it comes to technology.”
Lungu says that if a computer has been hit by a virus, he can go in and reformat everything by essentially deleting everything that the virus could be infecting. He can also rescue personal files and do a fresh install.
“It’s hard to find viruses, because these people are so crafty. You go to a website and get asked if you want to allow cookies or notifications, and then stuff starts popping up. If you’re not sure about something, don’t install it.”
In addition to repairing desktop computers and laptops, Lungu also offers Tech 101, where he will sit down with someone and point them in the right direction with a computer or other tech device. He adds that he’s working on doing a group event, where people can come in and learn more.
Lungu, who studied business admin with a in SFU focus on entrepreneurship, says he always wanted to start a little business.
“I’ve always been interested in that. After being here for a year or so I realized there wasn’t a lot of tech service and support in the area, so I saw a niche. I’d been doing it for friends and family, so I thought I’d use my knowledge to benefit myself and the community.”
He adds that turnaround is generally pretty fast. “It’s usually one to three days at most, but I can often get it done the same day if people come right in when I open and I don’t have a backlog.”
Raz Ventures is open from 1 to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and is located on Railway Avenue in Ashcroft in the Ashcroft Artisan Gallery beside ServiceBC (in the Fields mall). To contact Lungu, call (250) 457-1757 or email razvan@razventures.ca.
editorial@accjournal.ca
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