Orphan Computers - Places Page

01/23/2020

Microsoft has Sunsetted Windows 7, and as of January 14, it is no longer supported. If you are still using a Windows 7 machine, you will have likely seen this notification pop up covering your desktop.

If you would like to explore your options to move forward: Give us a call at Orphan Computers, 763-913-5448 for a quick consultation.

We can assess if your Computer has appropriate assets to run Windows 10 reliably, and if so, possibly assist you to get upgraded. Or maybe your usage of a computer would quality for using a none-Windows based Operating System such as Linux. Just a simple phone call and we can talk about it.

04/25/2017

03/22/2017

THESE JUST IN:
5x Hewlett-Packard HP Compaq Pro 6305 SFF Workstations

CPU: AMD A6-5400B APU with Radeon(tm) HD Graphics @ 3.60 GHz
RAM: 4GB PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7540D
HDD: 320GB
USB3 4x
Digital Display Port
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Pro 64bit

$158

Orphan Computers - Bringing Technology and Users Together

03/19/2017

ORPHAN COMPUTERS REACHES SEVEN YEAR MILESTONE.
OUR REPORTER KERMIT THE FROG WAS THERE AT THE SCENE.

“Kermit the Frog here, on the scene at Orphan Computers, 3758 W. Broadway Ave. in Robbinsdale, MN, where on the 15th of March, 2017, Orphie celebrated 7 years of continuous operations at this location.”

“In that time, over 1850 clients have been serviced at the Orphan Computers’ Robbinsdale Shelter Facility, and Orphie was just telling me how much he appreciates their continuing loyalty in returning to have their computers serviced and maintained, and he wants to thank them all for sending in their friends.”

“In my long reporting career, I have seldom seen anyone who so thoroughly enjoys delivering such an outstanding level of service to his customers. An ‘old school’ guy, Orphie likes to think of his customers as family.”

“Hmmm… I will be interviewing Orphie in just a short time, but he is at this moment inside taking care of a customer as I speak. In the meantime, I will interview a gentleman who is approaching the store.”

“You sir, can you tell me why you are coming to Orphan Computers today?”

“You’re a frog!”

“Umm… yes sir, indeed, I am in fact, a frog. Kermit the Frog, reporting live today from Orphan Computers; where you seem to be going. Perhaps you have some computer issues that you need dealt with, would you care to elaborate on that and tell us why you are coming to Orphan Computers today?”

“But… you’re a Frog!!”

“Umm… yes sir, I believe we established that earlier. In point of fact, Amphibia Salientia Anura. Now, would you be so kind as to respond to my question please?”

“You’re a Frog wearing a trench coat and a hat and holding a microphone!”

“You’re not going to answer my question, are you?

“And you are wearing a Tie! How did you manage to tie that knot? You’re a Frog!”

“OK!! OK!! I’M A FROG! I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT I AM A FROG! WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE THAT I AM A FROG? I’M JUST TRYING TO DO A JOB HERE!!!

Orphan Computers - Bringing Technology and Users Together

03/11/2017

Quite often, new friends and clients come to Orphan Computers because they have a very specific need for both legacy hardware and Operating Systems. Meet Michelle. Michelle is running a CNC milling machine with Mach3 software, producing custom leather stamping tools. She needed a desktop computer that met specific criteria that will not be found on any of the new consumer or commercial desktops of today's market.

It needed to have a legacy DB9 Parallel port in order to interface with the CNC, a 32bit OS to run the software, a reasonably powerful CPU and amount of RAM in order to handle the CAD portion of the program and an expansion video card with a minimum of 512MB of its own RAM in order to be able to efficiently handle larger G-Coded 3D image files.

Orphie's answer: an HP dx2400 with an Intel Dual Core E2220 CPU @ 2.4GHZ, 4GB DDR2-800, 80GB HDD, the requisite Parallel port and running Windows XP 32bit. Orphie added to this an ATI Radeon HD5670 video card with its own 1GB of memory to handle the 3D image file requirement, and an addition 320GB secondary HDD so the Michelle would have some reasonable image archive space.

Michelle was happy to give the dx2400 a new home and a great lease on life as it will serve her purposes for quite some time.

Orphie was happy to see this legacy machine go on to continue a useful purpose for an appreciative new owner.

Orphan Computers - Bringing Technology and Users together.

03/06/2017

ALERT: TECH SUPPORT SCAM

Orphie has recently had far too many of his friends and clients falling victim to this very common Tech Support Scam.

During a normal internet browsing session, at some point randomly clicking on a link that they have been encouraged in one way or another to click on, this ominous tab identifying itself as "Microsoft" opens up in their browser and claims:
===================================================
"YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN BLOCKED."

"Please call us immediately at: (Some toll free number)
Do not ignore this critical alert.
If you close this page, your computer access will be disabled to prevent further damage to our network.
Your computer has alerted us that it has been infected with a virus and spyware. The following information is being stolen...

>Facebook Login
>Credit Card Details
>Email Account Login
>Photos stored on this computer

You must contact us immediately so that our engineers can walk you through the removal process over the phone. Please call us within the next 5 minutes to prevent your computer from being disabled.
===================================================

All of this of course is utter NONSENSE. Your computer has NOT been blocked, nor is this a sign that it has even been compromised. This is a fraudulent phishing page, socially engineered to cause panic and stimulate a response. They are often times accompanied with audio cues as well, such as a loud alarm sound or an urgent and authoritative voice reading the displayed text and demanding that you call the number.

These pages are launched by rogue links that can make their way onto even the most legitimate web sites. When they launch, they lock up your browser so that you cannot close the page (from the browser) and very often they also automatically resize to cover your entire desktop so that you have no way to control your computer with your mouse.

This particular page displayed in the image was spawned from one of the Click Bait Ads that have been appearing with ever increasing frequency on Facebook's Newsfeeds. It only took Orphie about a 45 minute hunt to encounter it.

What NOT to do: Do NOT panic and under NO CIRCUMSTANCES CALL THESE NUMBERS!
This is a FRAUD!
You will NOT be talking to a Tech.
You WILL be talking to a professional con artist who will attempt to convince you to allow them remote access to your computer to "remove the infection" and then seek to obtain your banking information or a credit card to charge you for this "service."
The charges they generally assess are anything from $280 to $400. And that may not be the end of it. They now have your credit card or banking info. If you allow this to happen, minimally you will be faced with the prospect of having to close accounts, open new ones and go through the inconvenience of establishing all new payment options for any other accounts you had set up as auto-pays.

What TO do: Close the page!

But the page won't close. Right?
Well no it will not. Not by clicking on the browser page itself because it will remain unresponsive.
Perform the following key combination: CTRL-ALT-DEL. Press these three keys simultaneously. This will open a special menu page that automatically comes to the front of all other windows. From this list you will choose "Start Task Manager." In Task Manager you will choose the "Applications Tab" (usually this tab will be pre chosen by default). This tab shows you a list of running "Tasks." One of those will be your browser (IE11, Chrome, Firefox). Click on the browser line to highlight it. Once it is highlighted, click on the "End Task" control button. Your browser and the offending Fraud Page should now close. Have more than one browser Task listed in the Task List? Highlight and end them all until the offending Fraud Page closes.

Orphie says: Please be aware and do NOT become a victim.

If you have encountered such a page and have any concerns or questions about it, give Orphie a call at: 763-913-5448

Orphan Computers - Bringing Technology and Users Together

01/18/2017

Data Is Priceless. Don't Suffer Its Loss.

01/08/2017

03/27/2016

This is Orphie's new friend and client, Heidi. Heidi came into the Orphan Computers Shelter Facility in the second week of March with her Desktop computer that had failed to update to Win 10 properly. Orphie was able to get it set to rights again for her, but it required a fresh clean install of its original Windows 7 OS.

While in the shop dealing with that problem, Heidi expressed the desire to also find a laptop that would assist her when she peruses an internship at some point in the future to prepare for a career shift to the U.S. Forestry Department. Orphie was delighted to show her the last remaining Dell Latitude E6420 that he had in stock from a group of 3 orphans that arrived just at the end of last year. She liked it, but Orphie suggested that she might shop around a bit to be sure there was nothing on the current market that might suite her better.

After looking at various laptop offers at the Big Box stores, Heidi returned to Orphan Computers knowing that the E6420 was a VERY good value, but just wanting to make sure it would be everything she would need in a laptop for her purposes. After test driving it for a little while, Heidi was convinced that the E6420 was just what she needed. (Besides, when a little laptop is being all cute and frisky it's kind of hard not to fall in love with it.)

So... here Heidi is, taking her new loyal companion home with her.

Orphan Computers - Bringing Technology and Users Together