General question about getting help

My computer crashed about two weeks ago. I have been slowly putting it back together after Dell had to wipe out everything but there are still many problems. I had saved most of my files on an external hard disk but reinstalling the various programs and getting Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Moziila Firefox to work correctly has been a problem. It took Dell 8 hours to get my printer to work.

My patience is wearing thin because I have spent around 25 hours on the phone with Dell, Verizon, and Microsoft Tech Support so far. Almost all that time I have had to do all the mouse moving and clicking because they can usually view my screen but are not able to move the mouse. This morning I spent at least two hours unsuccessfully trying to fix a relatively small problem with Windows Mail and was disconnected with Microsoft tech support four times!!

I live in New York City and am considering hiring someone to try and fix the problems with my computer but I don't how to go about this or what they'd typically charge. So what is a good way to try and find a person to solve my problems and how much do they typically charge?

Thanks.

 

lebowl...very confident you can get the solution to all your problems right here. Part of that could be buying an installation disk of your OS if it comes to that, but that's alot less expensive than paying a PC repair tech and would be down the road of option for now. If you have one great, and you may not need it anyway.

Costs for a tech could easily get up over $200, and I think this board will be more reliable. You'll be able to get follow up help, where a tech will just leave and that's the end for him. Good chance you won't need a tech if you give it a try yourself with help here.

If you'd like to give it a try...

For starters some questions:
1. What Operating System do you use? (Home or Pro if Windows and Service Packs you have installed from MS)
2. System specs (as much as you know)
-Processor
-Hard drive size (free space)
-How much RAM
3. What was the nature of the initial problem? Was it a blue screen error problem? Was it a virus/malware attack?
4. What kinds of problems happened in association with the problem? Unexplainable restarts? Icons missing? Machine wouldn't boot?
5. Other than the mail problem, are there any other current problems with your machine (anything else that is broken)?

 

Two threads should probably be merged into one. No point in having information split among two different topics.
http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=272005