When you turn on your computer, you hear that grinding hard drive sound. Your PC never seems to idle. When you click on a browser, it takes forever to open the Web page. You’re plagued with pop-ups.

Let’s face it, you’ve got a sick computer. It’s time to call Jack Scheidegger, the PC MD.

Scheidegger opened his house-call tech business, Sno-Valley PC MD, two years ago. His mission: making tired or cluttered home and business computer systems run better than the day they were first switched on.

“The number one thing I hear from people is, ‘my computer is really slow. I can’t do anything anymore,’” Scheidegger said. “The fact is, it’s not slow. It’s really fast at doing a lot of things that you don’t need.”

The take-away message? It’s not your fault, and it going to be better than OK.

Gummed up

Retail PCs often come with extra programs that run below the radar and suck up processing power and efficiency — and consequently, your time and energy. Day-to-day use can add even more malware or spyware — software designed to infiltrate a computer system without your consent.

“You’re handicapped when you buy a computer,” Scheidegger said. “It comes preloaded with all this garbage on it that you don’t need and is working against you.”

Cleaning a gummed-up system can save more than time. Some nasty programs can pave the way for a theft of your identity.

“I’ve seen ID theft, I’ve seen terrible things,” Scheidegger said. “One you’re down that road, it takes forever to get out of it. Once you see a symptom, it’s too late.”

Scheidegger takes the clogged-up computer and rebuilds it from the ground up, wiping the hard drive and reinstalling the operating system. Once he’s done, it’s clean.

“We’ve all looked at the ad-remover applets,” he said. “There is a huge difference between cherry picking that stuff out and not having it there to begin with.”

“It’s like that game ‘Jenga,’” Scheidegger added. Pulling out the unwanted programs and cookies can leave your system unstable, like a Jenga puzzle with half the blocks gone. But if Scheidegger rebuilds it from the ground up, it’s stable — like a brick, in his words.

Scheidegger also compares the corrupted computer performance to a hard-driven engine.

An overworked computer “is like gunning the motor all the time,” he said. “Simple logic says that something running that hard isn’t going to last very long.

“If I rebuild it, wipe it clean, rebuild it from scratch, it runs twice as fast for you and lasts twice as long,” Scheidegger said. “Your total cost of ownership goes way down. You’re amortizing the cost of that PC over several years instead of settling for two or three.”

Scheidegger’s total rebuild offers dramatic results.

“It’s astonishing,” he said. “That machine no longer has an issue. It’s the most cost-effective thing they can do.”

Scheidegger can also clean up new computers so that their owners can start from a clean slate.

“Don’t even take it out of the box — give it to me,” he said. “Think of it as the difference between building a fence around the chickens and the wolves and then trying to get the wolves out of the door—or just not letting the wolves at the chickens in the first place.”

Peace of mind

Besides the clean sweep and rebuild, Scheidegger offers a variety of services, from data recovery and protection to moving crammed hard drives onto bigger ones to building high-end custom systems.

Barring the effects of gravity—say, a PC accidentally dropped from a great height—“there is very little that I can’t fix,” he said.

“I can help anybody improve their performance,” Scheidegger said. “But it goes far beyond that. For your security, in this day and age, you need to work from a position of strength.”

“When you see something that makes you nervous, call me,” he said. “When you start getting warnings saying you’ve got a trojan, a virus, and they’re coupled with blue screens of death, you’ve got issues.”

If you’re nervous that you’re about to lose your computer, Scheidegger is emphatic: “Shut it off and call me.”

One of the most heartbreaking things Scheidegger sees in his business is when families lose treasured photos of family members when a computer malfunctions. Too often, those photos exist in only one place—on the hard drive of the computer.

“That’s your link to the past,” he said. “There’s no backup strategy in place, and that machine dies, and they lose all that. Music—who cares—files, you can rebuild, but financial data, and photos, it can be really tragic for people.”

Backing up files and photos isn’t hard. Scheidegger can set up backup processes to help people preserve their important files quickly and easily.

“If I make it automatic, you can handle it,” he said. “You don’t have to experience a tragedy to be prepared for disaster.”

House calls

Offering computer repair and networking services, Sno-Valley PC MD brings services directly to clients. If a job is too involved or time-intensive, Scheidegger will charge a flat rate and work on the problem at his home office.

“I’m 100 percent mobile — I come to you,” he said. “The problem is at your home or your business—not at mine. Why would you box up all your stuff and come to me?”

Scheidegger has been in the computer repair business since 2004, originally as Seattle-based Terabyte Technologies. He re-branded his business as Sno-Valley PC MD after moving his family to the Valley.

For Scheidegger, the favorite clients are the people whose whole outlook changes as a result of his efforts. That means people who are tech-savvy enough to understand the time and effort that goes into a well-maintained machine. It also means computer owners who’ve tried and failed to get problems solved at big retailers’ help desks. He gives them a better experience, and is particularly proud when he can solve an issue that the big chains can’t.

Scheidegger is available to help clients with their repair and networking needs, Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“My availability is based on your need,” he said. “If you have a dire emergency, I’m not going to leave you hanging. A lot of the time, people just can’t be home during normal business hours—flexibility is important.”

Scheidegger loves what he does for a living.

“I’m a puzzle-solving guy. I like challenges,” he said. “There’s nothing else I can do that gives me the challenge, and the satisfaction that I’m helping somebody.”

Arriving at people’s homes, talking to someone new and working to understand their problem is part of his job.

Scheidegger always sees the same results.

“Once they see it, it’s a universal reaction: Wow.”

• Sno-Valley PC MD can be reached at (425) 647-9650. Or, go online at www.svpcmd.com. E-mail Scheidegger at jack@svpcmd.com.