I think my computer is infected with a very potent virus because it is not turning on at all. I want to format the computer but I can’t do that either because the computer just refuses to turn on. What can I do to get my laptop working again?

—Namish Poudel

Dear Namish,

You haven’t provided a lot of details in your question that I can work with. How can you be so sure that it’s affected with a virus because unless a virus is a really complex virus, they don’t affect hardware as much. There are viruses that infect the boot sector of your hard drive or even affect your MBR partitioning tables but these viruses are really rare. Most common viruses won’t behave like this and even if did affect your Windows, the BIOS should boot. You’ll know the BIOS has booted when your laptop’s manufacturer’s logo will pop-up. But if you’re computer is not turning on at all, then a virus is most likely not the issue because software will very rarely affect hardware. I think your laptop is suffering from a hardware issue that is not letting it boot up at all, if hardware is to be blamed, you might have to take your computer in for repair and figure out which part of your hardware has been compromised. If your computer is not booting up at all then there is nothing you can do anyway, so might as well take it for repair.

I currently own a Galaxy S6 but with the release of the new Galaxy S7, I am thinking of upgrading to the newer model. What would you recommend? Do you think the S7 offers greater value that warrants an upgrade?

—Prajesh Pradhan

Dear Prajesh,

If you already own last year’s Samsung flagship, an update might not be necessary in terms of performance but if you want to upgrade because you want to stay on top of the game and own the latest and the greatest, you can upgrade. Upgrading would not offer you great value, however, because the S6 is already a powerful phone on its own and it’s just a year old. The S7 is definitely faster than the S6 but your current phone can easily hold its own against anything that the Play Store has to offer. There are some really cool features on the Galaxy S7, however, like the always on display and better support for their edge display but you’ll be paying premium money for a device that is slightly better than you current one. So, I would suggest holding on to your Galaxy S6 and upgrading to the S7 when the prices have dropped or once your S6 starts behaving sluggish. Be happy with what you have, sometimes our judgments are clouded by the gimmicky features and advertising that these big companies are known for.

I have a Windows 8.1 PC and am pretty happy with the performance of the operating system but I get annoyed when it starts updating when I need to work. I will be nearing my deadline or will be getting ready for a presentation and all of a sudden, my Windows will go into update mode and I’ll have to wait for the update to finish before even being able to work on my computer. This is embarrassing when I am ready with a presentation and I just have to make everyone wait until my Windows system updates before even being able to start my presentation. This has gotten so annoying that I simply want to disable all Windows updates. I don’t want updates, I just want my computer to work, how do I do this?

—Sunil Sherchan

Dear Sunil,

I can understand your frustration and I have been in similar situations. This has been a constant problem on all Windows systems and it’s baffling that Microsoft has not done anything to rectify the issue. Turning off Windows Updates is simple actually and all you need to do is navigate to your control panel and open up the System & Security option. Here, turn off Automatic Updating and within the Important Updates menu, select the Never Check For Updates and you should be done. I do not recommend not updating since your system will have a lot of security holes that will be patched over by these updates but I can also understand your frustration; so disable updates when you have work but when you have time, or even at night, just leave your computer to update. This should avoid any hindrances in your work-flow and still keep your data safe.  

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