Students, staff or faculty who are having issues with their personal computers can get assistance from Computer Information Systems (CIS) students at Sinclair Community College.
For their capstone, eight CIS students and one Business Information Systems (BIS) student are simulating the experience of running a business. It’s called SCOPE (Students Correcting Open-door PC Emergencies) and their office is Building 5 Room 114. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday they are open 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday.
Eric Reyes, one of the students working there, said the service is free. There are some restrictions as to what they can work on, though. They are prohibited from working with pirated software, they cannot work on hardware or software under warranty and they cannot work on Sinclair computers.
Jamie Mullet, a student and the team leader for SCOPE, said they can still fix things for people that would cost them a lot of money at other places. SCOPE can remove spyware, malware and viruses from a computer.
Geek Squad offers the same service, and according to their website it costs $199 for it to be done in-store.
“Just cleaning up PCs costs hundreds,” Mullet said.
SCOPE can work on some Linux operating systems because of the open-source nature (meaning, it’s free). They do not work on Macintosh computers. They can keep a computer over night, too.