Digital plumbers enter the home

Jane Wakefield finds that it is more than just virtual pests that haunt PCs

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Alan Kearton and Sami Darkazalli help charity worker Tracy Hicks set up and speed up her laptops.

Alan Kearton has been fixing computers for a long time.

He has clocked up eleven years at PC World, eight of which have been out on the road.

His day begins, as it often does, with a search for a parking spot. Engineers can spend hundreds of pounds each week on parking, he said.

Tracy Hicks is happy to pay for some tech help

The first stop of the day is a flat in Kensington where Tracy Hicks, an Australian who has been in London for three months, is waiting with some new equipment for Alan to set up.

She bought the laptop, printer and wireless hub from PC World. When she was sold the equipment she was also offered an installation service. For her the £89.99 price tag was worth it.

"Rather than waste my nights hoping I got it right it seemed far easier to get someone in to do it," she said.

As it turns out the first attempt to install the printer fails, due probably to the quality of the paper, said Alan.

Health check

TECH GUYS - THE FACTS Set up in 2006 as an offshoot of PC World Group Made up of 3,000 technicians Boasts of a spare parts vault of more than two million components. Operate in 162 PC World stores as well as providing 'on-the-road' engineers Claims to fix 80% of callers' tech problems over the phone.

Generally though it is a simple job. Alan is concerned that that the wireless hub will not recognise the broadband connection but it does in seconds.

Such set-ups are not the bread and butter of the Tech Guys.

Despite the obvious synergy between selling and installing equipment, the ratio of installation to repair is only about one in seven according to Alan.

As part of Ms Hick's set-up, Alan provides a run-down on how each piece of equipment works, including a tutorial on the basic functions of the laptop.

The client gets a quick talk through basic laptop functions

Ms Hicks also has a laptop that is running slow and this kind of problem is more commonly dealt with at a Tech Guys centre inside PC World branches.

Our next stop is the Staples Corner branch of PC World so we take the laptop along with us.

Tech Guys offer a range of services instore, including PC health checks, tips on how to keep children safe online and data recovery services.

Data recovery is a popular service although if the hard-drive is too badly damaged - for instance is a drink is spilt on it - then it has to be sent to a specialised lab which comes with an eye-watering £699 price tag.

The health check is cheaper at £49.99 although it is free if people invest in a monthly insurance scheme.

Interestingly, despite headlines screaming about the dangers of viruses and spyware, most of the PCs that come in are still riddled with them, according to the Tech Guys on duty the day we visit.

The health check report from a machine just cleaned up reveals it had six viruses and eleven pieces of spyware.

"That is quite low," said Alan. The most the Tech Guys in the lab have seen is 3,000 viruses on one machine.

Regular updates

It doesn't end with virtual pests though. They have also had PCs that have been riddled with cockroaches and even, on one occasion, a dead rat.

Even before the health check on Ms Hick's laptop is complete Alan can pretty much guarantee that he will find spyware.

"She has Limewire [a filesharing service] installed so there will be problems as a result of that," he said.

This is despite the fact that the client actually has two anti-virus programmes installed on her laptop.

"Some anti-virus software doesn't include anti-spyware as it isn't considered as dangerous. Even if the package includes anti-spyware then it could be out of date if it isn't updated every couple of months," said Alan.