5 Tech Upgrades Your Business Can’t Ignore in 2025

official upgrades, Ophtek, Repairs and Upgrades, system upgrades, upgrade hardware, upgrade software, , , , ,
13
May 2025

It’s time to upgrade your business tech to make sure you can remain competitive, improve your productivity and enhance your security in 2025.

Technology can seem complicated, even intimidating. But in 2025 it doesn’t have to be this way. Instead, you can give your business a serious boost by upgrading a few simple tools. Whether you’re managing a small business or running things on your own, Ophtek has five amazing tech upgrades which can maximize your productivity and keep you one step ahead of your competitors:

  1. Upgrade to Solid State Drives: Traditional hard drives are slower and more prone to failure compared to modern solid-state drives (SSD). Therefore, if you’re still making do with old-style hard drives, 2025 is the time to start upgrading your PCs to SSDs. This upgrade will significantly reduce boot-up times and make your programs load in seconds instead of minutes. SSDs are also less power hungry and tend to be more durable, making them a perfect eco-friendly option.
  2. Step Up to a Modern Router: Outdated routers are the quickest productivity killers in small offices. A modern router with Wi-Fi 6 or Wi-Fi 6E delivers faster internet speeds and improved stability, which is critical when multiple employees are connected at once. The increase in performance will also enhance video conferencing and large file uploads, ensuring remote collaboration runs smoothly. As well as all this, a new router opens your PCs up to stronger security options.
  3. Upgrade Your Printers to Cloud Models: Old printers can be slow, clunky, and hard to connect to, so this is one area where you really need to upgrade. Cloud-connected printers allow staff to print from any device, including laptops and even smartphones, whether they’re based in the office or working remotely. These printers also benefit from improved security, simpler troubleshooting, and features like automatic supply reordering to ensure you never run out of toner.
  4. Switch to Cloud-Based Collaborative Tools: Workplace collaboration tools like Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Asana have become essential in modern businesses. They allow your teams to work together on documents and projects in real time, with no need to waste time emailing attachments. Everything you need from calendars, files, and chat transcripts is saved in the cloud, ensuring that your files are always backed up and accessible from anywhere.
  5. Use Password Managers: Trying to remember passwords is difficult at the best of times, and reusing the same one everywhere represents a major security risk. This is why you need to invest in a password manager which securely stores all your login details and can help you generate strong, unique passwords for all your accounts. Password managers to consider include Bitwarden, LastPass, and 1Password.

Final Thoughts

You don’t need to completely overhaul your entire IT infrastructure to make a big difference in 2025. Instead, by implementing a few smart upgrades, you can minimize frustration, improve security, and make your team more productive. Best of all, these changes are affordable and easy to put in place.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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What are the Benefits of Upgrading Your Hardware?

hardware, Repairs and Upgrades, Security, upgrade hardware, , ,
05
Jun 2018

Upgrading hardware can be a costly affair, so it’s often easier to stick with your existing hardware. How many benefits, though, are you missing out on?

New hardware is constantly being released, but there are two main reasons that organizations shy away from investing:

  • The initial costs are deemed too high when the current hardware can meet a certain level of performance
  • The downtime involved in installing new software is a major turnoff due to the break in productivity it can cause

However, aside from these necessary evils, upgrading your hardware can bring a wide range of benefits that your organization cannot ignore. To help you understand why upgrading could make a real difference to your productivity, here’s a list of the benefits:

Enhanced Performance

New hardware will almost always be quicker and more productive than your existing hardware. Technology advances at such a rapid pace that external hard drives hold more storage space than ever, printers print more sheets per minute and servers can operate at much higher speeds. With this increase in productivity, your organization can achieve more and increase the time available to advance your operations even further.

Increased Security

Cyber security is becoming more and more important, so it’s no surprise to find that it’s become a major selling point of new hardware. Not only is new hardware protected from all existing threats, hackers are unfamiliar with these new systems. Therefore, there’s less chance of them becoming vulnerable to security threats for a significant period of time. Additionally, support will be available for new hardware for much longer than your existing technology.

Downtime is Reduced

While it’s true that installing new hardware results in a certain amount of downtime, new hardware will actually reduce your organization’s IT downtime in the long run. Older hardware becomes less reliable over time and this is why crashes on older systems can easily become commonplace. However, with hardware upgraded, you’ll soon discover how your downtime is reduced due to the increased reliability of your new hardware.

Better Communications

Upgrading hardware can seriously boost your organization’s ability to communicate. Video conferencing software, for example, has now expanded into 4K technology and this not only looks fantastic, but also allows your organization to communicate clearly and professionally. And when it comes to communication technology, you want to be using the very best to engage with your staff and your customers.

Better Experience for your Employees

Your employees want to be using the best technology as it makes their jobs easier and more productive. Say, for example, your network is prone to lags in speed, this is going to seriously frustrate your employees who are unable to connect to certain applications. However, with upgraded hardware you’re enhancing your employees’ experience. No longer is there any delay in completing tasks and, as a result, they can achieve more than ever in a timely manner.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

 

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5 Ways to Prevent Total PC Failures

Repairs and Upgrades,
02
May 2017

hard-drive-detects-failure

PCs carry out so many tasks and use a number of different pieces of hardware and software, so the potential for failure is high, but it can be prevented.

Even if there’s just a small failure in one of your PCs tasks, it can create a snowball effect which eventually leads to a total PC failure. And, when this occurs, you’re left with a PC which is unable to contribute to your productivity.

Therefore, it makes sense to pre-empt these major disasters by taking a number of preventative measures, so that’s why I’m going to share 5 ways to prevent and treat total PC failures.

  1. Use a Firewallwhat-is-a-firewall-post

If an unauthorized user gains access to your network then they have the potential to bring your entire network to a halt. And, for modern businesses who rely on IT to operate, this is their nightmare scenario; that’s why it’s essential that you have a trusted firewall to operate as your first line of defense.

  1. Make Sure Your Backups Work

It’s a very rare and lucky business which doesn’t experience a total PC failure at some point, so backups are a crucial procedure to ensure that all your data remains safe. However, not all businesses make sure that their backups actually work and, if necessary, are capable of restoring operations. Therefore, by using a test system to regularly perform backups, you can increase your confidence that a total PC failure can be easily remedied.

  1. Install an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS)

Businesses have very little control over failures with the power supply, so your put in a tricky position when the power suddenly goes. Thankfully, it’s possible to keep your PCs connected to a UPS which will provide emergency power in the case of a power cut. Although it won’t provide enough power for all your IT equipment to perform indefinitely, it will give you time to carry out essentials and save relevant data safely.

  1. Use Backup RotationBackup_hero-970-80

You shouldn’t rely on just one set of backup materials as, if these become damaged, then it’s impossible to retrieve your data. For example, many businesses use a DVD+RW each day for backing up their data and nothing more. What you need to do, though, is create a backup at the end of the week as well which compiles all this data together. And, just to be extra safe, you should compile all these weekly backup into one monthly backup. This provides three generations of data which you can rely on in the case of a total PC failure.

  1. Carry Out Fresh Installs

PCs can build up junk and unnecessary files over time due to the number of installs and uninstalls which take place. Whilst you can use free applications to clear out some of these files, they’ll never conduct a thorough clean of you system and, in the long term, it can begin to slow down due to what’s known as ‘Windows Rot’. This is why it pays to carry out a fresh install of Windows once a year to prevent your PC from failing on you at the most inopportune moment.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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5 Ways to Fix a PC Which Won’t Start Up

Repairs and Upgrades, ,
25
Apr 2017

my_pc_wont_boot_thumb800

There’s nothing more frustrating than a PC which won’t start, and its impact on productivity is immense. Therefore, knowing how to remedy this is crucial.

When a PC fails to start up, however, it can seem as though there’s no hope due to the lack of indicators towards the actual problem. Thankfully, there are a number of steps you can take to investigate the fault and start forming solutions to get your PC back up and running.

And that’s why, today, I’m going to share 5 ways to fix a PC which won’t start up.

  1. Check the PowerIMG_5626b

One of the most common reasons for a PC refusing to start up is that age old favorite of electrical appliances: no power. Luckily, it’s also one of the simplest to fix. Just check your power cable or power adapter to make sure it’s plugged in.

  1. USB Drive Plugged In?

PCs can fail to start up correctly when a USB drive has been left plugged into the system; the reason for this is that a PCs BIOS will often be set up to boot up through any USB devices rather than heading straight to the hard drive. And, seeing as your USB drive is unlikely to have the correct software to load up your operating system, this will be why your PC fails to boot up. Therefore, remove any USB devices and try again.

  1. Listen for the Beeps

If there is a specific issue with your PCs hardware, then there’s a good chance that it will make a series of beeps as it tries to load up. Make sure you count these as it will provide you with the cause of your issues, but bear in mind that these beep codes can vary between PC manufacturers e.g. 5 beeps on a Hewlett Packard could indicate a problem with RAM, but on a Dell it could mean a processor failure.

  1. Check for Loose Hardware

Over time, your hardware can come loose and once it reaches a certain point, this can render your PC unusable. Therefore, if you can’t identify the specific fault, it’s worth opening your PC up and checking that the following components are secure:

  • RAM should be fitted into the motherboard securely
  • Check that all internal data cables such as power cables and motherboard ribbons are secure
  1. Access Safe Modeimage37

If you can get far enough into your PC to access Safe Mode then this can often help resolve any issues. You usually need to hit F5 or F8 as your computer starts up to access Safe Mode, this will give you access to your desktop and its most basic functions e.g. accessing control panel and system restore. Once in here you should be able to investigate faults with your software and, if necessary, perform a system restore.

For more ways to secure and optimize your business technology, contact your local IT professionals.

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HP Power Adapter Overheating Recall

hardware, Office IT, Repairs and Upgrades, , , ,
27
Aug 2014

 HP Laptop Power Adapter Whole

HP has recalled an estimated 5.6 million power adapters for their laptop line.  If you have an HP laptop, here’s how you can check if you are affected.

How to Check Your HP Laptop

The faulty power adapters could possibly overheat, causing damage to the adapter casing or causing a fire.  Here’s how to check if your HP laptop power adapter is affected:

1. Did you purchase your laptop between September 2010 and June 2012?

2. Does the end of the cord going from the wall to your adapter have “LS-15” printed on it as shown here?:

HP Laptop Power Adapter Recall

What to do if You’re Affected

If the answer to bother questions is yes, you should register your adapter to be replaced on HP’s website. The recall will only replace the power cord section of your power adapter as shown here:

HP power adapter cord

HP suggests using a temporary power cord in the meantime until your replacement arrives.  These adapters can be purchased at most electronic stores and are often referred to as “mickey mouse” cables as shown here:

Mickey Mouse Cable

 

Since laptop components are built into such a small space, overheating can become an issue for the laptop itself as well.  We suggest clearing out your laptop air vents at least once a year to reduce overheating.

For more information on how technology can affect your business, contact your local IT professionals.

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