Members may bring in the PCs, laptops, or other smart devices to a BVCC Help Clinic at the John Ruele Training Center in the Highlands Crossing Center. The Help Clinics are on the first Saturday and third Wednesday of the month from 9 am to noon. For desktops, it is not necessary to bring the display or a USB keyboard or USB mouse. For laptops, be sure to bring the AC Power adapter. If there are any external devices relevant to the problem, bring those (exception: WiFi-connected devices), and bring any passwords. external backup drives, etc that may be relevant to solving the problem.
WiFi-connected devices (like printers) must generally be worked on in the home, because they must be customized for your home WiFi network. If tested at the Help Clinic, they would have to be reconfigured to work with the BVCC WiFi, which would break any configuration for the intended home network.
While much of our support tends to center around PCs and MS Windows, we also have members with experience with other platforms and Operating Systems. It would probably be good to call or email in advance for issues with other devices or Operating System, or with some unusual purchased application, to see if we have anyone able to handle that.
Some problems can be handled remotely via the Internet and tools like AnyDesk, provided of course your machine will successfully boot and you have a functional Internet. In special cases some of our Help Clinic personnel have even been willing to do occasional house calls in cases where the problem can only be resolved on site.
See Member Benefits ► Remote Help for the procedure for a BVCC member to request Remote Help.
While you do have to be a member to attend a Help Clinic or receive remote help, it is possible for new members to fill out a membership form with payment at a Help Clinic. Past members who have let their membership lapse long past the 30-day grace period until they find they need BVCC's services might have to wait 30 days after rejoining to get help at a Help Clinic, although those running the Help Clinics can exercise wide discretion if there are extenuating circumstances. The purpose of this policy change is to encourage members to renew using the normal renewal process, both to maintain our revenue base and to minimize Help Clinic personnel having to also perform work that is normally done by the Membership Chair.