May 28, 2007

Lenovo Experts Live - When You Need Help Beyond Warranty

Have you ever had something on your computer not work quite right and didn't know where to turn. You call your PC vendor and they tell you the standard, "sorry we can't help you, call your software vendor". If you don't have a dedicated IT person on staff, there's a hodge podge of places you can turn to for support, but wouldn't it be great to get your help from one source. The same place your PC is from.

Today, Lenovo and IBM have teamed up to launch Lenovo Experts Live. This is a 24 hour a day service and offers enhanced help desk services in areas traditionally beyond the scope of warranty, such as operating system and software application support, system tune-up, Internet and system security and networking assistance.

Of course IBM's offering is not the only offering around. There's several online and phone based support companies. Yahoo has a full list here, some of the ones that have been around a long time include Ask Dr. Tech, Geek Squad, and Plum Choice.

Nothing beats having a relationship with a local small business technology consultant and I highly encourage you to do so. If they're a small shop, you might not get 24 hour support (they need time off too). But if they're smart they'll set you up with one of the services mentioned above or look for them to start selling Lenovo's new support offering.

You can find a nice list of local consultants at Microsof's web site.

There's a few other places you can find help - if you have patience. Google (or other search engines) are great places to find answers to questions. Often the problem you have, someone else has the same problem and you can find an answer by taking some time to query a search engine.

You'll also find that Microsoft's support site is a treasure trove of information.

Keep in mind, often times a simple rebooting of the computer solves many computer problems. Remember to save your work, before rebooting though.

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