IT Services:

Operating System (OS) Support:

  • Windows: 3.1, 95/98/ME, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, Windows 10, Windows 11;
  • Classic Mac OS: System 1 – System 9.2.2, plus modern MacOS / Mac OSX
  • Linux – many different distributions including Linux Mint, Mageia, Ubuntu, Redhat and SUSE
  • DOS, FreeDOS
  • Raspberry Pi OS

Wi-Fi / Broadband / Networking:

  • Fixing internet problems, negotiation on issues with BT/Virgin/Community Fibre and other Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
  • Improving the Wi-Fi signal in your home or office: installation of new mesh Wi-Fi access points (using powerline and hard-wired backhauls: installations in partnership with Morchard Refurbishment Ltd). We specialise in Ubiquiti Unifi installs, which we believe deliver the very best Wi-Fi experience.

Hardware fixes / upgrades:

  • RAM and Disk drive upgrades: HDDs and SSDs
  • Swapping out very old drives with modern equivalents (e.g. converting a floppy disk drive to use USB sticks or SD cards. or converting a 3.5" HDD into an SSD drive)
  • Replacing batteries on laptops, finding replacement power adapters
  • Replacing old CMOS / BIOS / RTC batteries, including coin batteries and soldered batteries.  Resolving issues with RTC / and BIOS errors, including boot failures after replacement. Resetting of NVRAM, PRAM and SMC on Macs
  • Fan replacement: case fans and graphics card fans wear out over time and get noisy or stop working. Early computer fans were not particularly quiet or efficient either: replacing them is generally a straightforward job, with suppliers such as Noctua Europe providing great replacements
  • Electronics repairs: unfortunately, I'm not able to diagnose or repair electrical / electronic faults with motherboards, peripheral cards or other devices: very sadly, that's beyond my skillset now (although I can do basic soldering). (I am however, currently reading Forrest Mims' "Getting started in Electronics" as a bit of a refresher...).  If you need help with electronics repairs to motherboards, please try places like a local makerspace for help: organisations such as the Cardiff Remaker Space have amazing facilities and people

iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive:

  • Setting up and troubleshooting cloud data services, including iCloud Family Sharing

Moving to new hardware:

  • Migrating data and applications to new hardware. Virtualisation using QEMU and Virtualbox can be a useful alternative

Security:

  • Virus-checking, malware removal