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Welcome to our shiny new Blog with loads of cunning features like twitter integration, for up to the minute news and information from Southern Cross, one-click printing and social network tools!

This is all part of an exciting re-branding of the socross.co.uk, website with all of our new exciting services including communications, web-design & hosting and digital media.

Check back soon and see everything we have to offer! Or why not follow us on Twitter!

“Change of battery charge

When you find the battery is badness (for example: the time of power supply are being shorten), you should change it on time.  Please contact with the dealer, and assure whether being needed to change the battery charge.  The process of changing must be operated by eligible people.  Pay attention to the following matter: the battery charge may bring to the electrical shock and short-circuitry, so when you operate, you should pick off the watch, ring, or others mental goods.  You should use the tool with insulated handle.  Not to throw the wasted-battery charge into the fire for the battery may be easy to explosion.  You don’t open or destroy it, because the liquid in the battery is rodent, and it is harm to your skin and eyes.”

Sorry we haven’t posted anything for a while but we have been very busy preparing a range of new exciting new services.

These new services include:

On-line file storage – access your files from anywhere & share them on-line!

Data Recovery – accidentally deleted a file? we have the power to get it back!

Telephone Systems – economical & extremely versatile VoIP and ISDN systems!

VHS to DVD Transfer – new hardware and software provides excellent quality!

More details on all of these services will be coming soon!

Computers Die In Hot Rooms!

This summer as temperatures rise into the thirties low twenties if we’re lucky, spare a thought for your computers.

Computers generate a lot of heat, much like a car engine,  if left to its own devices a computer will generate so much heat that it will break down.

To stop this from happening all computers use a cooling system, usually comprising of fans and heat-sinks, designed to keep a cool breeze blowing through the machine.

In the long term overheating can cause permanent damage, in the short term the symptoms are extremely annoying.

Symptoms May Include:

1. System Crashes
2. Lockups
3. Random Reboots
4. Extremely Slow Performance

Steps you can take to prevent overheating:

1. Ensure all vents on your PC/ laptop are uncovered and not clogged up with dust
2. Leave at least 2 inches around your PC/Laptop for good air flow
3. Avoid leaving your computers running in rooms with no ventilation

If you still have any of these symptoms after performing the steps above then chances are that  your cooling system needs maintenance. These are much easier to fix than a burnt-out processor or motherboard so if you have these symptoms contact us ASAP!

That’s right. Southern Cross Computing is offering a free computer health check and spring clean (up to 1 hour) worth up to £75 to one lucky customer.

To be in with a chance of winning simply leave a reply to this post by the 31st of May (2009).

Just like an MOT or service for your car, it is important to make sure that your computer is operating correctly, safely and efficiently.

A spring clean is exactly what it sounds like; we remove any unwanted junk and clutter that has built up in your machine over time, slowing down performance and taking up valuable space. As part of our health check we will ensure that your computer is operating correctly, safely and efficiently, fix any minor problems and identify any potential future problems.  Even if you do not win we recommend a spring clean/health check to all of our customers. Contact Us for more details.

N.B. To enter the draw you must live within 30 miles of  SO51 0GL. “Health Check/Spring Clean” inlcudes up to 1 hour of labour only.

At Southern Cross we have had to fix a number of  ”broken” registries. And while we are getting very good at it, prevention is always better than cure so please read on.

At the heart of every Windows PC is a database which contains information and settings for hardware, software, and user settings. This database is called the registry. When you change your desktop background picture it is logged in the registry….when you install a new piece of software it gets logged in the registry. Basically the registry contains all the information that your computer needs to operate.

Think of the Registry as the heart of Windows, just like a real heart it has to be kept healthy and there is plenty of software to do this. Ccleaner, SpeedUpMyPC 2009, RegistryBooster 2009, are all examples. Also if a virus or mal-ware gets into the registry it can cripple your PC. Software like Hijack This & Adaware are designed to protect against this by “locking” the registry.

There is however a side effect to all of this software! The more that the registry is changed/altered the greater the chance that it is corrupted! Please do not use any of this software to edit, lock or clean the registry unless you know exactly what you are doing and have made a complete backup of your computer first!

The Registry can also be broken whenever any software is installed or un-installed. While this is a very rare occurrence it is much more likely when installing/un-installing antivirus and firewall software so it is recommended that you perform a backup before you do this.

If you have a broken registry (see symptoms below) please do not attempt to fix it yourself as you are likely to cause more damage & lose data. Please contact us and we will perform a “registry transplant” or recover your data.

Symptoms of a broken registry:

• Your Computer starts to boot windows, you see the logo and the green loading bar but then the machine reboots or stops.
• At start-up your Computer Says “Windows XP could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\[file]” or “Windows failed to load because the system registry file is missing, or corrupt.”
• You cannot install/un-install software
• You regularly get a Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD) when booting up your computer
• Your computer always runs “CHKDSK” when booting up

Jason and I have been testing the “live” version and have, of course, discovered a few gremlins along the way ! We have hopefully sorted out most of them now, but please let us know if you find any more, including any dodgy grammar and spelling !

We are now looking forward to seeing our Web Design and Multi-Media sites on line – more bandanna-scratching work for Jason, but they will be well worth the effort I’m sure.

If there’s anybody out there reading this, then please let us know what you would like to read about in this blog, because it will get very boring if it’s just the ramblings of the three of us !

Do you see what they did there?