Martin Stranges makes a living solving the kinds of problems that drive the rest of us mad.

Such as the network connections that constantly drop, the Word document that just will not open, even the dreaded Microsoft Blue Screen of Death (the nickname for the error message that has sent countless computer users into fits).

As the owner of Pittsburgh Computer Solutions on Washington Road (formerly In Home PC), a full-service computer shop offering everything from individual house calls to custom software installations for businesses, Stranges has seen it all when it comes to computer frustrations.

He took a few minutes recently to talk to Peters Township Magazine about the business of relieving other people’s electronics-induced stress.

What aspect of your job do you most enjoy?

I like it all, but from a learning aspect I especially enjoy the home users. With the business clients, it’s cut and dry. You repeatedly see the same thing. With the home users, you see something different each time and you’re always learning something new.

What are the most common home user issues?

This time of year, we see a lot of bad power supplies because of the lightning storms and what not. But year-round we do a lot of memory upgrades. People buy bigger and better applications and need more memory. We see lots of software problems too – an anti-virus program failing to do its job, or Word documents not saving properly, that sort of thing.

How have the types of problems you deal with changed in the 15 years you’ve been doing this?

Increasingly, we’re getting calls from parents asking us to find out what their kids are doing on the internet, or maybe the baby sitter was using the computer and parents want to know what sites were visited. Basically, it’s parents worried about their children. On the weirder side, we’ve gotten the husband-and-wife thing as well. One wants to know what the other is doing on the computer. Surprisingly, we see a good bit of that.

How do you explain to a parent exactly what their kids have been doing online?

I’ll ask them what they want to know. It’s a really sticky situation. You don’t know what to say because you’ll run into some pretty crazy stuff that the teenagers are doing and downloading. So I say to the parent, “What do you want to know? Or do you just want me to clean this up and be done with it?” We can sit with them both and show them how to be safer on the internet and we often block sites at parental request for the children’s protection. We’ve never run into anything really bad that would necessitate calling the police. I’m really happy about that.

Any strange or unusual calls you’ve received?

We’ve been called to people’s houses to simply turn things on for them. For example, we have one client in Pittsburgh we do it for all the time. And this is a younger guy, in his 40s, who just doesn’t want to do it. We drive down, push the button to turn it on, and leave. Like he’ll call and say he can’t print anything. We offer over-the-phone advice to our established clients, so we’ll say, “Turn your printer on.” He’ll say, “I don’t know how to turn my printer on,” and ask us to come and do it for him.

With computers becoming an increasingly necessary part of daily life, are people getting more savvy about using them?

Absolutely. What I especially like now is that the older generation is really getting into computers. Some senior citizens are just amazing with their computers. Five years ago you really didn’t see much of that. But now seniors aren’t just using e-mail, they’ll have their own MySpace profile, they’ll chat, and a lot of grandparents are getting pictures of friends and relatives through voice chat and video chat. It’s really incredible.

Are viruses still a major problem?

Not like they used to be. Remember when you used to see them in the news every couple months? You don’t hear about them as much these days. I think that’s because law enforcement has been cracking down and prosecuting people responsible for creating viruses,and now it’s just not as prevalent. We’re not seeing anything too new, but we are seeing older viruses infecting computers that aren’t well-maintained.

What advice do you give people looking to protect their computers?

Replace your surge protector every year. Get one that’s a minimum of 1,800 joules – it will be marked on the box. Also, get a good all-in-one anti-virus software program. The free programs available online are okay if you’re diligent about keeping them updated and scanning. But if you want to just set it and forget it, you need something like Norton 360, Panda, or McAfee.

You said that doing this for a living, you still learn new things about computers?

You know what, I learn every day. Even after 15 years, sometimes I feel like a child. There’s just so much to know. That’s why I surround myself with really good technicians. That way, between us, we can figure out anything. By no means do I know everything, but in this shop we have seen and dealt with so many problems that I know we can work through anything.