Just the Facts, Ma’am, on Computer Support

MINNEAPOLIS —  A movie star couldn’t send e-mail, a pit crew couldn’t service its race car and a band couldn’t access its synthesized sounds. Who did they call? The Geek Squad.

While on location filming a movie, Daryl Hannah keeps in touch with friends by sending e-mail from her laptop computer. During a visit to Minneapolis to film “Grumpier Old Men,” her computer crashed.

“So we went to her hotel room and fixed it,” said Robert Stephens, owner and chief inspector of the Geek Squad, adding, “We’re discreet.”

In an 11th-hour rescue, the Australian band Frente was preparing for a performance at a local nightclub when it discovered the laptop that controlled its digital sound sequences wasn’t working.

The Geek Squad was called and fixed the glitch just before the band was due on stage. The musicians were so grateful, they donned Geek Squad T-shirts in honor of the computer nerds who saved the show.

And when they’re not in the spotlight, the Geek Squad can occasionally be found in the pits.

The Skip Barber Dodge racing team called on the Geek Squad when the screen on the laptop that feeds information to their Grand Prix racing car failed. The pit crew changes settings on the car’s on-board computer via the laptop with every stop.

“We wired their laptop to an external screen and they were able to make the computer adjustments they needed,” Stephens said.

And some Geek Squad clients are like the average Joe, slightly computer-phobic.

“There are a few clients, who will remain nameless, who lose their temper three or four times a year,” Stephens said. “One customer brought us a computer he threw out of a car window at 50 mph.

“We fixed it.”