PC Magazine: Performance Tests: How We Tested

To test the paid-support services, we created two reproducible, fairly common computer problems and contacted each service for help. Our two scenarios were, first, a problem installing a USB printer on an older Windows 98 computer and, second, an effort to clear spyware, adware, and other unwanted programs from a system running Windows XP. Both problems were solvable and, in fact, could be solved in a relatively small amount of time.

To ensure that our test systems were identical when we called each support service, we used Symantec's Norton Ghost to create an initial image of both of our "problem" systems. To reflect the real world, we incorporated a mix of newer and older hardware and software on both systems.

Problem 1: My Printer Doesn't Work

It's a familiar situation: Someone inherits an old computer that has seen better days, and now it needs some TLC. For the USB printer problem, we used an old no-name PC with a Pentium 233 MMX, 32MB of RAM, and a 3GB hard drive.

We were attaching an HP DeskJet 932C color printer, using a USB port. We downloaded the latest printer drivers from Hewlett-Packard's site and installed them, but the printer still did not work. The real problem, which is common under Windows 98, was a corrupt USB driver.

The trick with this scenario was that the Windows Device Manager said the device was working properly. In fact, when we plugged an unpowered digital camera into the USB port, its lights lit up and the hardware appeared to be working—but the camera wasn't recognized by any applications.

The fix, once you have diagnosed the problem, is simple: Delete the USB drivers from the Device Manager, reboot the machine, and reinstall the printer drivers. Windows will then load clean USB drivers and detect the printer.

Problem 2: Remove That Spyware

In this situation, the problem was man-made. We started with a Dell Dimension 4100 (a 1-GHz machine), 512MB of RAM, and Window XP Professional (with all patches applied). The system had been to all the seediest corners of the Web and was loaded with some of the worst code you can pick up there: dialers, spyware, search bars, file-sharing apps, browser hijackers, and free programs. The result: We could not so much as boot the system before purple monkeys and gambling offers started popping up all over our desktop.

We told the techs at each support service that overzealous kids were the cause of the condition. The fix was to use Lavasoft's Ad-aware or another spyware cleaner, as well as uninstalling some programs through the Windows utility Add or Remove Programs. But again we threw in a curve ball. If you downloaded the latest version of Ad-aware without updating it, it would hang when you tried to delete a lot of objects. The app worked fine, though, once you did an update. This was mainly to see whether the techs were thorough enough to have us update the utility—and whether they could go a step further and get us past the "hanging" problem.

The results were surprisingly varied, both in how quickly we were able to solve the problems and in how much we were charged. Bear in mind that though our experience with each service is a decent indicator of what to expect, you're likely to experience different times, costs, and solutions depending on your specific problem.