But as he’s currently travelling in Asia, he’ll be hooking up the mobile technology to keep an eye on the Scottish Business Awards results and – of course – will be wearing his virtual dinner suit to mark the occasion!

Nick has been nominated in the Young Entrepreneur of the Year category and the PC Repair and PCR Businesses have been scrutinised over the last few months by a prestigious judging panel chaired by Duncan Bannatyne.

Nick says “We are delighted to be at this stage and among some of the best known Scottish businesses also shortlisted for the various categories.” He adds “It’s disappointing not to be there for the event but I’ll be looking out for tweets and web announcements and I know my technology won’t let me down!”

How many times have you heard a friend say they’ve cracked their screen or – dropped their phone into the bath? It’s a bit of a hassle, at best, and the potential loss of your data at worst. We understand this and – as we aim with all of our services – will do our best to get your device fighting fit and mobile in the shortest possible time.

So now, if you’re not happy with your apps or sad with your iPad, before you drop it into the bin – drop it into us.

Our total donation of £180 was raised by team member contributions which are made annually in ‘exchange’ for attending the company’s Christmas party and the recipient charity was a decision by the whole team.

Nick explains:

“It was a unanimous vote in favour of YCF. It’s a very worthwhile cause and one which is close to all of our hearts.”

Pictured, Nick Cohen with Abigail Stein, Corporate & Events Fundraising Manager for YCF.

For us it’s a particularly exciting start to 2012, as our sister company PCR Computer Services – which provides full IT support for businesses – has become PCR Business.

IT is constantly changing and the company’s new name symbolises how we as a company embrace and continually master these changes, to help businesses work smarter and faster. But it’s not just cosmetic – we’ve been working hard behind the scenes, planning and streamlining new systems to help the PCR Business team to respond quicker, to allocate the best skills and resources and, simply, to keep on making sure that IT is the last thing our clients need to worry about.

We’re confident that customers and clients of both PC Repair and PCR Business will benefit even more from our smart-working range of services. We look forward to helping you, or your business, in 2012.

PC Repair and PCR Computer Services festive operating hours:

Open Friday 23rd December
Closed Saturday 24th December
Closed Sunday 25th December
Closed Monday 26th December
Closed Tuesday 27th December
Re-open Wednesday 28th December

Closed Saturday 31st December
Closed Sunday 1st January
Closed Monday 2nd January
Closed Tuesday 3rd January
Re-open Wednesday 4th January

Each day is our usual service hours (PCR 9am-6pm, PC Repair 10am-6pm)

Lora came into our South Side store earlier today to pick up her brand new Netbook, just in time for Christmas!

We would like to take this opportunity to say thank to all of our customers, suppliers and staff and best wishes for the festive season.

But what happens if your IT suffers the big freeze? When you type away at the keyboard, frantically move your mouse around… but nothing happens.

It is a common assumption that viruses will cause your computer to freeze however this is extremely rare – in fact, almost never the case. Usually the main causes are hard disk failures, RAM (memory) issues, motherboard failure, overheating components and hardware driver issues.

Our Operations Manager Siôn Griffith explains:

“Unless you can diagnose these issues yourself you should get a freezing system in to one of our repair centres as soon as possible. If you continue to use the system it could end up worse – most commonly, data loss. Unfortunately the longer you leave it the worse it could get, as data becomes harder to recover and can cause issues to spread throughout the system.”

In short, get it to us as soon as possible – we don’t send out the huskies but we will be the emergency service for PCs.

Have you spotted our new banners around the South-side of Glasgow? If so, look closely to see if you can identify the magic letter in each of the banners to create the magic word.

For a chance to win, simply work out the hidden word and email the answer along with your name and daytime telephone number to: competition@pcrepairglasgow.com.

All entries will be automatically entered into the prize draw and you could be the lucky one. If you are looking for a festive gift or fed up with sharing your laptop around, this competition is perfect for you!

The competition will run from Friday the 18^th of November until midnight on Thursday the 15^th of December. A winner will be picked at random and will be announced on Friday the 16^th of December on here, our Facebook page and Twitter account.

The lucky winner will be contacted and can collect their prize from the 16^th of December, at their nearest PC Repair Glasgow branch (by arrangement).

Good luck!

This Award, for an individual aged 30 or under, celebrates a successful entrepreneur who can demonstrate their potential to build a successful, scalable business. Our recent move to a second premises and exciting plans afoot for the months ahead, have helped to demonstrate this to the judges. The award is sponsored by Microsoft and the judging chaired by Duncan Bannatyne OBE.

The news means that Nick and co are going to be getting plenty of use of their tuxedos over the coming months, with the winner of the PSYBT Awards – for which PC Repair Glasgow is also a finalist – being revealed in next week!

But we’ll be on tenterhooks a bit longer to find out about The Scottish Business Awards – the ceremony takes place in February 2012.

After a presentation and interview at the PSYBT offices, the judges awarded our owner Nick Cohen the coveted title – and we’ve now been shortlisted to the final six Scottish companies through to the national awards finals.

Nick and the entire PCR team are very excited about the next challenge – which will involve presentations to the judging panel, filming in the offices and then an awards ceremony in November where the winner will be announced.

The award is of special significance to Nick, who is also an ambassador for PSYBT. In addition the organisation has provided some financial support to the company to help us get to our current position.

“’PSYBT is an incredible organisation,” says Nick. “I have always said that young people interested in opening a business should just go for it – PSYBT helps this happen. We are delighted to win the award for our region and honoured to have now been short listed for the national awards.”