Tame That Computer in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales | Shopping & retail

Tame That Computer

Locality: Kurri Kurri, New South Wales

Phone: +61 2 4937 5161

Address: Shop 17, Kingsway Plaza, 178 Lang Street 2327 Kurri Kurri, NSW, Australia

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Likes: 1619

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• Shopping & retail
• Electronics shop
• Computer repair service
• Computer company
• Computer shop

25.01.2022 Hey everybody. Not had time to post anything for the last quite-a-few weeks, due to the heavy workload. Almost caught up now, thanks to the extra hours put in by Shane, Greg and Mitch. So, a good time to bring up laptops and desktops overdue for service if you've been waiting.... By the way, Andrew from Gold N Tint did us a nice up to date Window sticker to replace the old one he put up in 2007 (guaranteed to last 3 years). Certainly get value for money out of this guy! So, if you've got a business in the area, check out his page. https://www.facebook.com/GoldNTint/

23.01.2022 Broken PC/Laptop: The real first question. I was reminded several times in the last couple of weeks about this while talking to people struggling with money, or contemplating replacing a broken computer with a new one. When something breaks, the first question to ask is, "Do I even need this thing?". If not sure, put it away for a while and don't waste money fixing it. If you still don't want it later, donate it (don't just bin it).... If you decide you DO want it, get a quote to fix it rather than just jumping to the new unit idea. Preferably a free quote. I was reminded today that sometimes it doesn't even need to be "fixed" - a broken touchscreen/digitizer on a lovely Touchpanel computer made it unusable (because it kept thinking the screen was being touched when it wasn't), but just turning off the touchscreen function had it working again without spending anything at all. We get that situation often with little laptops, too. "Make do and mend" is still a relevant concept.

20.01.2022 Goal reached. Observations: Just realised that Tame That Computer turned eighteen the other day and I didn't even buy it a drink. It was too busy working to take any notice of me anyway. Second realisation: I started my full-time career with the sadly long-gone Digital Equipment Corporation in November 1984 and stayed with Compaq when it bought DEC in 1988. I started this company in August 2002 when I left Compaq, so I've just passed the point of having been in business for s...lightly longer than in Corporate. With quite a few people asking me about getting jobs, or starting their own businesses, I thought I might reflect for a moment on the pros and cons of each path and give some general thoughts. The benefits of working for someone else such as regular pay, holiday and sick time, insurance cover and superannuation are fantastic and the training the organisation provides is very useful. As an employee, especially in the first few years, there are always people around you to help when you're not able to do something, or can't understand a problem. Later on, when responsibilities increase there is a requirement to become more of a self-driving leader, but you always have staff to assign tasks to and you can employ people who have skills you need in the team. In business you can find yourself completely alone, often without the funds to hire people you need, or support needed from time to time. Things like cash flow take on a dreadful significance and you need to be skilled enough in multiple areas - no more quick calls to HR, Marketing, Sales or Legal for advice, no clever boss to provide guidance. You are all those things, or you fail. On the upside, you get to choose your own hours, work half days for a while until you get busy (caveat: a day equals 24 hours). And there is the freedom to do as you want, with the only penalty being business failure if you were wrong. There's a lot of value in getting to try out your own ideas, then improve on them. So, if you're young and inexperienced and don't have an exceptional idea that other people haven't yet made into a business, I'd stick to getting a job rather than starting something up alone. If you've been working a while in a job and you're starting to feel too much control is exerted over your freedom to express your own ideas, then have a serious think about starting something of your own. Take time, talk to your local BEC - https://becaustralia.org.au/ and work out your finances and plan. Start easy, in your spare time while working hard in your job. Good luck. Ask for advice if you need it.

20.01.2022 Windows Live Mail 2012: The old workhorse email program that so many of you use and I love has finally started throwing some serious problems (I've seen a few computers losing the whole contents of the Inbox in the last week) and its time to wave it goodbye and move on to something else. There are several free programs that work very well - I'm liking Thunderbird more as it grows up - and for those of you who have Microsoft Office subscriptions, you can't beat Microsoft Outlo...ok. Webmail interfaces are such a slow and boring pain in the neck to use, with the possible exception of Outlook.com and if you're with Telstra or Optus, I'm getting a lot of calls from people who are having response problems. So a real email program (whether free or not) is the easiest way to get around rubbish service through a browser. As a matter of course, I've added migration to our process for any computer we service from this point on. If your computer is overdue for service, I'll try and talk to you over the next few weeks as (hopefully) things quieten down and we'll work out a suitable date to get everything else up to date as well. If you've had the computer serviced by us within the last year, any and all labour is covered for no charge, so just go ahead and call if you are concerned and I'll make the change for you through Teamviewer right away. In the meantime, if you are using Windows Live Mail 2012 and you have things you really can't afford to lose, please make a backup of them.

15.01.2022 Update: 03 Nov 2020. All gone now. If any of you have old computers you no longer need, feel free to donate. We don't sell them - just do them up and give them away. Laptops, Desktops, whatever. Don't need to be working. Cables, keyboards, miscellaneous electronic junk even (we have a good local recycling place if we can't fix it). Update:... One computer left for donation. Four already gone. **** We've five desktop computers ready for donation to non-profit groups in the local area. Each one is suited for office work, email, etc. All running licensed Windows 10, perfectly clean and up to date (Shane spent the week working on them between other jobs). These ones came from a local business who wish to remain anonymous, as they are those kind of exceptionally good people. So there's no charge at all. We have some keyboards, cables and screens from another kind donation earlier today, so you can have the peripherals if you need them too. We were also given a couple of mono laser printers suitable for office work (mono = black printer only). Very good economy for lots of black and white prints. Not sure how well they work yet, but tell me if you want me to clean one up and test it for you. First come, first served. Comment if you need one, or send a message if you prefer to remain private.

15.01.2022 Update: So many good people out there; we're all volunteered up. Thanks for all the replies and phone calls. No more help needed today. *****... We could use a volunteer with a reasonably sized vehicle (a ute, van or a large station wagon) to collect some donation computers from Jesmond tomorrow (October 15th) at about midday. *****

12.01.2022 Work Experience: We've had over a hundred people come through the workshop over the last twelve years for Work Experience and although there have been a few months when it was safer not to do this during the crisis just now, we're delighted to re-open this opportunity and welcome young Mr Riley from Kurri Kurri High this week who's turned out as expected to be a great young kid with everything going for him. If you're interested in getting some Work Experience, read on.........Continue reading

12.01.2022 Happy New Financial Year. Well, we're just winding up the books for the end of FY20. A very turbulent and complicated year for us, with market conditions very variable and quite a few changes in technology and a bunch of issues caused by lock down and the consequent tribulations for folks suddenly working and educating kids from home.... We've really enjoyed the challenges of working our way through it with you and I'd like to thank our staff as well as you guys who have been great to work with. Thanks for your patience when it was needed - some things just took the longest time to fix, or get parts for and the work load more than doubled for us in April and May so lots of you were really kind about the delays caused by that. To those of you in business, we wish you a prosperous and more stable FY21 and a return to profitability for the battlers. I've talked with many of you this last few months who are coping with levels of business difficulty beyond my capacity to imagine. Much respect to you. Gloves up. Ding Ding. Fight. To those of you sensible enough NOT to be in business, I know it hasn't been easy for a lot of you either and I wish you all the good luck in the world. Anyone struggling to manage to get a budget together for a computer for the kids or yourself to work with from home, don't be shy to ask for a loaner - we've a few left in the donations shelf that you can use til you get back on your feet. Finally, please continue to ask any questions you need the answers to and be cautious of scammers, odd emails, strange requests to log in to your computers or grinning sales people with urgent needs to sell things to you right away today - there are almost always cheaper and often better alternatives. We learn a lot from the questions you ask and appreciate the training that you're giving us by doing so. Keep them coming. All the best. Andy, Jodie, Shane, Mitch and Greg.

10.01.2022 Spruik: Hi folks. I could say this about a lot of businesses that I use and I know a lot of our local outfits have had a hard time with closures due to the recent virus, but I really want to do a quick mention of one of my favourites. The Book Den in Cessnock has always been able to find whatever I want in the way of physical books. I like the way they work, find the service and pricing excellent. They've had a pretty awful time of it being closed for several weeks but they'r...e back in business on reduced hours (09:00 to 14:30) at the moment. Please encourage the local businesses as much as you can. A book makes a wonderful gift.

09.01.2022 Printing problems Windows 10: Good news. Thanks to our very technical customers Steve and Maxine in Kurri Kurri for pointing this one out this morning. I've just logged in to their computer and tested it and it works great - no print before installation and prints fine afterwards. If your USB printer doesn't print, call me and I'll do this for you through Teamviewer or try it yourself. it's a 204MB download and takes a few minutes to install. You'll need to reboot after insta...lling it. Most of you will want to choose the one called "2020-06 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 2004 for x64-based Systems (KB4567523)" as you'll be running Windows 10 Home or Pro on 64-Bit. If you're not sure, don't do it. Just call and I'll help you. https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx