Your PC Knowledge

Fellow coders,

I'm somewhat interested in becoming a part time PC repairer to help local people who are experiencing problems with their PC. Mainly in the following fields:

* Hardware problems
* Windows O/S quirks, errors, and general issues
* Virus, Malware, Keylogger, and Spyware removal
* Data recovery
* General advise

However, before I dive in, can you coders tell me of your experiences? ...

1) Have you done such a thing before?
2) Do you assist others in fixing their PC's?
2a) In which case, do you only stick to family and friends?
3) Whats the worst problem you have fixed?
4) Do you charge anything?

I'm not sure if its worthwhile trying to fix peoples PC's for a living? What I'm concerned about is I might completely stuff up their system and end up losing their data for them.
Plus, the sheer amount of knowledge required for diagnosing problems.

Is there a super-duper version of Microsoft Help for aiding in diagnostics of a PC problem?
Is it a case of attending night schools to learn how to fix and repair the PC?

Any advice, info, and pointers appreciated.

1) Often.
2) No, I shove them firmly out of the way and do the job alone.*
2a) Anyone who asks.
3) There is no worst problem. The hardest one was diagnosing a faulty PSU in an otherwise healthy PC. Any such intermittent fault is a nightmare to resolve.
4) Usually, it's friends that get me to fix their PC. My payment is that they cook me dinner. I'm so good at fixing stuff that I'm now getting fat.

It is not worth fixing PC's for a living. It is largely unrewarding and people are never all that grateful that you've have their PC for a week only to tell them that they need a new motherboard, RAM, CPU and hard drive because their PSU was faulty.

You will not make more than £5 per hour on most jobs and you will make almost nothing on replacement parts (if you remain ethical in your business practise).

The only piece of software that will directly help you diagnose a problem is memtest86. Everything else will give you only indirect hints.

You will need:

Screwdriver set with replaceable bits.
A screw retreival tool (a pen-sized device with a plunger activated 3-prong 'grabber').
A small torch.
A battery operated mini-vac.
A smaller battery operated mini-vac.
A can of compressed air.
Screen wipes.
Surgical gloves (especially if using someone elses keyboard).**
Anti-static wrist strap.***
Ability to suck air between teeth.
Patience.
Stamina.
Common sense.
Patience. (yes, I know I put this twice).


* People who think they know a bit about computers are the arch nemesis of those of us who do. Especially where they are in a position to ask questions whilst we work. Always encourage customers to, quite politely, fork off whilst diagnoses and repair is effected. If customer refuses to leave, take their PC to your workshop.

** Keyboard and the innards of PC's are extremely dirty. Toilet bowls are cleaner than PC's. You will come across 10 years of accumulated dust, dirt, dead insects and long lost pizza when fixing a PC. Most PC technicians have a year-long cold. The act of putting on and removing surgical gloves in front of a customer will gain you an unqeustionably large amount of respect, whilst cutting down your exposure to nasty bugs.

*** This does almost nothing, but looks professional. However, if you are working alongside a professional and they are not wearing a wrist-strap, do not put one on. They will think you are an idiot.

(edit) If you do make it your business to repair PC's in a professional way, you need good paperwork. I had to diagnose a dead laptop for a miserly client and I was very glad that I kept a to the minute diary of events whilst going through the process of locating an unrepairable fault. Nobody likes being charged for something that you didn't fix.

(second edit) Repairing PC's isn't my business, but if someone asks me to, I will. I just don't advertise it because I don't enjoy doing it.

re: wrist straps. If used correctly they WILL reduce number of faulty components, esp. if you are a "static" person or you wear static jumpers, scuff your feet on nylon carpets and the air is dry.

anyway, I first started doing repairs when I was 19. I charged £10 an hour then. Now I'm 30 I charge £30 + VAT to businesses and £25+VAT for home users. I call myself an IT consultant not a "repairman" or something. Businesses won't bat an eyelid at this cost and home users with money will see it the same as using a plumber or electrician, whatever. Anyone that gasps at the cost is not worth having as a customer. Sometimes I boost hardware prices as well if I get them trade price, same as any other tradesman.

anyway

1) yes for 11 years alongside my regular job. I do it a lot more now for businesses and do stuff like setup networks, supply whole PCs, get rid of viruses/spyware, install the Internet and patch up PCs etc.

2) this question is ambiguous. I fix other peoples PCs on myown, it is not a team effort.

2a)I don't work for family and friends unless they pay. Everyone who knows me knows "computers" is my job and that I don't find it "fun" to fix peoples PC in the evenings or weekends for free. I explain, "hey you're a plumber, how would you like to come round and look at my toilet for free" and they get it.

3) sooo many. Intermittant stinks. Recently a hardrive went down an my accountants and they hadn't been backing up. I managed to recover the data and offered to replace the HD or get a barebones new PC and transfer some components across to save them money (which they went for). The main time consumer was actually installing all the correct drivers and accounting applications on the PC and setting up the network again etc. Basically jobs are rarely quick. Completely cleaning off a PC of virusus/spyware if it's infested can take a couple of hours min, esp. if the PC is old and slow to reboot. When you get a feel for things you can tell the customers "I charge X per hour and this will take y hours min, when we get to y hours we can reevaulate and decide what to do then". If the problem is deep and they decide not to carry on, the bill is still due. If I supply a PC I say "I'm not a shop, so if you get any problems I won't fix them for free, you can hire me to look into them". If they don't agree, no PC, pretty simple really. This means that everytime they call you for "freebies" you keep a log of the time and bill at a future date. This billing all the time might seem harsh, but if it's your job, you have to log the time and bill for it like a solicitor. If they hire you and you are clear about stuff up front, then there won't be any problems.

4) I stated my charges above.

phew, hope this waffle helps.

>1) Have you done such a thing before?

I built, repaired and serviced PC's for a number of years. Both from a shop, and on call.

>2) Do you assist others in fixing their PC's?
>2a) In which case, do you only stick to family and friends?

No, I never help family or friends.

>3) Whats the worst problem you have fixed?

Faulty PSU's can be very dificult, as are some memory problems. In general memory fails on que, but some times, they don't, and will only fail under certain conditions.

In general, it's a process of elimination, working from intuition.

>4) Do you charge anything?

Yes. 50£ + parts+ VAT per incident.

>I'm not sure if its worthwhile trying to fix peoples PC's
>for a living? What I'm concerned about is I might
>completely stuff up their system and end up losing their
>data for them. Plus, the sheer amount of knowledge
>required for diagnosing problems.

You won't learn unless you do it, but the risk of losing data is very real. People generally don't back-up.

>Is there a super-duper version of Microsoft Help for
>aiding in diagnostics of a PC problem?

No, the best tools are knowledge, experience and intuition.

>Is it a case of attending night schools to learn how to
>fix and repair the PC?

Most times you'll simply be swapping components, installing applications and drivers, but some times you'll get to use that above-mentioned knowledge, experience and intuition.


Andy

1) Yes.
2) Fixing a PC is not something done in commitee.
2a) I do now.
3) Compaq.
4) No, although I accept it if offered.

Exactly.

As Andy says intuition is one of the best ways to solve problems when you get enough experience. Ever thought right at the start "nah it cant be that" tested eveything else, then got back to square 1 only to find out that's what it was all along?

I like Luis Villazon's version of technical support:
http://www.pcformat.co.uk/tips/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=38337&subsectionid=682&subsubsectionid=461

1) A million times
2) Like better to do it myself, but yes
2a) No
3) I was single for quite some time :P
4) Usually, but not from close friends and family

JKP: that's pretty funny. I know plenty of tools, like the guy who couldn't access his BIOS with his keyboard, because it was a USB wireless one.

1) Have you done such a thing before?

Yes. Lots. Im the one they all ask.

2) Do you assist others in fixing their PC's?

I only want them to explain the problem and answer my questions, then go and drink tea whilst I get on with doing my own diagnosis

2a) In which case, do you only stick to family and friends?

No, but that's where the calls come from 90% of the time

3) Whats the worst problem you have fixed?

That's like asking a general knowledge question. It's all relative. You either know what it is and how to fix it, or you dont. The skill comes in from knowing where to go from there- where to look and knowing what's "safe" or "worthwhile" trying and what isnt. If you're worried about losing clients' data, get a decent data recovery software license and something like partition Magic. Ive learnt EVERYTHING from just working through it myself, and a bit of help from PCAnswers forums. It's like owning a car- guaranteed something will go wrong and you pick-up knowledge on the way. This time last year, motherboards and jumpers scared me - now, I can build a whole PC from scratch.

4) Do you charge anything?

Not family / Good, close Friends. But this isn't my "Job".

Oh yeah, use Google. We all know Google is God for solving technical problems because (almost) all the time someone has had the exact same problem before you.

Once I was having a bad idling problem on my Subaru. I didn't want to take it to the local garage (nearest Subaru dealer is 80 miles away) because I knew they'd have no idea and spend ages looking for problems and replacing parts etc. So I google some forums and read enough that I was about 80% certain it was a single part costing £80 that commonly goes on my make and year. So I ordered the part, got the local garage to fit it and it was PERFECT, thanks to google.

1) Have you done such a thing before?
Yep

2) Do you assist others in fixing their PC's?
Yes, I'm probably classed as the local Help and Support!

2a) In which case, do you only stick to family and friends?
Majority of the time I do, but sometimes a friend of a friend needs a hand!

3) Whats the worst problem you have fixed?
Not really a problem, but a friend bought a new AMD 64 CPU, and it wouldnt run on his motherboard, though, a bios update sorted it! But really, problems could be anything from dusty fans (CPU overheating) to clunky systems (spyware, malware... not uninstalling/deleting ANYTHING)

4) Do you charge anything?
No, but people might give me £5 for a drink, or a few cans!

Though, to be honest, if there is anything wrong, it only usually takes a google or a search at microsoft.com to find the answers (Or even a post here!)

Dabz

Here's one I made earler!

1) Have you done such a thing before?
Yes, lots.

2) Do you assist others in fixing their PC's?
Sometimes if a friend is fixing a PC and they need a hand.

2a) In which case, do you only stick to family and friends?
Yes, I keep away from being a free support line for none friends and family.

3) Whats the worst problem you have fixed?
Difficult to say. Probably a PC that was riddled with spyware and virii and would not boot into windows, the customer had no backups of his data or software (yeah, I know) and his years of data was very important.

Also intermittant crashes can be a pain sometimes. Or where a customer has a virus and tried to install Norton AV 50 times in a row and attempted to fix things themselves causing even more problems.

It's not really the PC problems that's the worst. It's some of the people you have to deal with.

Like a snot nosed 12 year old kids and their proud fathers. The kid will hover over your shoulder and insist on demonstrating his knowledge asking you questions to try and prove he knows more than you. Often suggesting silly things to fix the PC. His father will make smug references to his kid being a genius and all you can do is smile and play along.

Or someone who tries to haggle on the price at the end.

Watch out for people who say "If you do a good job on this I'll get you to build my next PC for me". You can pretty much guarantee they expect a huge discount to keep them sweet and will hint at such things.

4) Do you charge anything?
£25 per hour.

If you want to teach your self how to fix PC's its easy. Forget local college courses, forget books. Think like the average guy on the street.

Buy a second hand PC - blank the drive and load windows and drivers. Don't bother with anti virus or firewalls. Go on the net and browse porn sites and warez sites until the PC grinds to a holt. Teach yourself how to fix that. When the PC is fixed secure it with anti virus, firewalls latest patches, etc, then go back to the porn and warez sites and see if you've done a good job.

After that, unplug everything and drop the pc down the stairs. Now you can teach yourself how to fix hardware problems.

When you're happy with those two problems then you're covered for 90% of the problems you'll encounter when doing on-site engineering :)

1) Have you done such a thing before?
Yes, for part-time job

2) Do you assist others in fixing their PC's?
Yes, most classmates in my college life.

2a) In which case, do you only stick to family and friends?
Yes, I'm busy studying(at that time), what I can reacjh most are who I know of.

3) Whats the worst problem you have fixed?
Malware actually, they're hard to remove without re-installation.

4) Do you charge anything?
Sometimes for a few dollar or lunch, but not much.

You know you are expert when (and this does happen, but rarely) someone describes a problem with their PC, you go and visit them, have good access to the PC (it isn't tucked away or under a load of junk) and you fix the problem in 2 seconds by lifting it one or two inches (maximum) off the ground before dropping it.

The user's look of horror swiftly dissipates when the PC boots, having been very crashy crashy for the weeks leading up to your visit.

This is not to be attempted with tower PC's that have heavy CPU coolers installed. Works like a charm with desktop PC's.

I follow this up by taking their PC away, giving a thorough clean and re-seating every component.

One tip I will give you (may not apply to newer PC's), weird crashy boot problems can sometimes be fixed by pressing on the BIOS chip (thereby re-seating it). Older socketed chips can sometimes lever themselves out of place due to repetative thermal expansion and contraction (PC gets switched on and off a lot). Happens with memory modules too.

Rare these days, stuff is desgined not to unseat itself.

I saw it with a 486 VESA video card once too and a Hard Drive IDE cable.

1) Have you done such a thing before?
Back when I started my business, now I employ others to do the technical stuff so I can concentrate on 3D design and graphics which I enjoy a lot more

2) Do you assist others in fixing their PC's?
2a) In which case, do you only stick to family and friends?
Only close friends and immediate family

3) Whats the worst problem you have fixed?
Don't get me started, its a day to day thing tbh, but google will make your life easier

4) Do you charge anything?
Very similar rates to Gery Alien, who incidentally knows what he is talking about, so take note. You also may want to think about service contract rates as these can be rather lucrative for medium to small businesses with no in house IT support.

"You fix the problem in 2 seconds by lifting it one or two inches (maximum) off the ground before dropping it"

LMAO! Yeah, I loved that one, not for the faint hearted though. I will add my own tip ->

Especially useful for boot problems, intermittent problems or any general wierdness. Remove graphics card and memory modules, then clean the metal contacts with a common pencil rubber. They also get tarnished from humidity as well as needing re-seating. I could not count the amount of times this has worked on flakey PCs. It will more than pay for the pencil rubber believe me.

Oh, and we always force people into a re-install if they have windows millenium :P

That PC Format 'Ask Luis' was just pathetic......

Not because the guy didn't know fully what he was doing, but the way Luis responded.


Luis, is what we like to call a "pre-madonna" in the industry. You can tell just by his people classification


Sorry, in my experience there are a few categories:
A. Experts
B. Pre-Madonnas
C. Rising Stars
D. Ho-Hums
E. Idiots

Experts - Those guys that sit there in the corner quietly pumping through pc's as though they were water in a cup. The guys that can uses every resource available, and have made up a few of their own as well (perhaps made their own boot disc with every sort of diognostic known to man, which they update regularly).

Pre-Modannas - Usually those who think they are more than they are. 90% of all screw ups that happen when you take your computer in for service work happen due to a pre-modanna getting their hands on your pc. They wont ask for help, they assume that because they saw something once, its going to be the same every time. They usually spend more time telling others how great they are than actually showing them. They like to sit and 'reminice' about how far back they go when it comes to technology (usually to be out done by some older chap in the office, which usually results in the pre-modonna walking away claiming he has more important things to do).

Rising Stars - These are the guys that are very annoying. Not really in a bad way, but they consistantly ask questions. They are the quasi computer techs trying to learn. They are asking about every problem they encounter hoping someone has seen it before. They aren't bad, they just dont realize that it isnt all experience that makes a tech, and more of being resourcefull. In most cases, they fall to the pre-modonna evolution rather than make that epiphiony that pushes them to expert.

Ho-Humms - These are the guys that dont know alot, dont really care to know alot. Unless of course it happens to them. All of a sudden their motherboard wont boot, and now the world must stop for them. They rise throught he ranks fast, starting at 'Rising Star' and usually ending up at 'Pre-Modonna'. They learn only what they have to about their particular situation just to get through it and continue on whatever it was they were doing before the situation occured (usually playing a game of sorts). These types of people will attempt to load hacks to a game, sometimes involving complex app loading (like MSVC, or VB, or some other app they have no clue about), then load the scripts, attempt to get it working, screw up other things in the process, ask you how to make it work (the hack, or script, or source code), then end up reformatting in the end. Ho-Humms are notoriously known as 'temp folders'.

Idiots - These are the non-computer savy people who just want you to fix it, and dont care how you fix it as long as it doesnt cost more than they have pre-calculated it will cost. Their facial expression goes to a gaping mouth with drool falling from one lip as you describe how the problem happened, how it could have been avoided, and what it took to fix it. After the technician gives the cost, the Idiots mouth closes and then the idiot becomes offensive as to how something so simple costed so much, why the technicians hourly rate is so expensive, why they charge extra for after hours or holidays, and so on. An Idiot is someone who chooses to be an idiot with computers, but will not accept the idiot price tag.


I will not claim to be an expert, although I do consider myself resourcefull. I know that every problem will usually have its own unique twist to it, and if I am in doubt, I ask. I will look up a problem on MSDN, Google, and even TechNet before I ask others, but if all fails, I will ask. Not asking is the real crime!


Yup, 9 years of experience and owned 1 company that did such a thing.

What do you mean? Like friends and families? If you mean others that need assistance, but who work for the same company, then yes. Unless they burn me when I help them (take all the credit for the fix without a thank you), then I wont help them again.


Never mix Family and Business. I will help Friends and family freely (unless they want to buy hardware, where I then direct them on where to get it from, and then install it for them). But beware, once you become the family go-to-guy, the calls will not end. You WILL be expected to help, and you will get refferals from that one uncle who doesnt understand your doing it out of the goodness of your heart. He will promise your services to his friends for free, and you will have to correct him.


Recovering data from a damaged HardDrive is the worst problem. Usually you have to send it in, and it ends up costing over $1,200 bucks. Thats a hard bill to give to the customer when it comes to data recovery. Usually I have to warn them 3 or 4 times before "Now, this doesnt mean your data will be recovered, it means they will try their darndest, but it does mean that even if they dont get your data, you still owe that amount". They have a hard time understanding that it isnt a product, but a service....



To friends and family, no. To businesses or other customers, yes. About $125 and hour for onsite work. Usually with a trip charge (cause there are times you go out there, and nothing is wrong, just a simple user error, and travel time gets expensive when you add it up), once you see how far you travel in a week, and how much its costing you in maintenance on your vehicle, time its taking, and gass, you wont feel as guilty charging for trip.



Dont put yourself in that sort of position. Never promise you will be able to fix it completely. Never guarantee anything, just guarantee you will do your best.

If you have to do anything with hardware, always offer to them that you backup their data on another HDD (for a price of course), just in case. Never do anything that might chance data loss without their consent first. Never promise you can transfer programs on a reformat, just data (IE user created files).

Bottom line is your providing a service. They are paying you to do things they cannot do, just dont put them at risk without them saying its ok to do so first. This business can be very profitable as long as you can relate to people and their problems. Being a cold hearted technician who can fix anything, but cant socialize with the customer will not get you repeat business. But at the same hand, being someone who cant fix their problems more than 80% of the time will not promise their return either. You have to find balance.



A. Be resourcefull. Google, MSDN, and Technet are the best resources.
B. Attending night school isnt bad. This field is always changing, software is always changing, try to learn as much as you can, on a constant basis.

Get setups of new systems in so you can play with them. Screw them up and attempt to fix them. A good example is Windows Vista. Get a copy of that and start screwing it up now and learning how to fix it. Learn how to do specialized things in the OS, things that a customer might commonly want to know how to do.

These are things that give you an edge.

Sorry for the novel!

I must thank you all for your incredible responses.
You have given me tons of information to chew over.
I need to spend some time now putting your advice and information together.

Sincerely, thanks to everyone here who has taken time to reply to my questions.

Amen to that. One guy I helped rang me back 2 days later to say, "after you fixed my PC the central heatings stopped working!"
Joking apart though, he's the sort of chap who thinks everything thats going wrong on his PC only happened AFTER I fixed it for him previously.

Oh yeah, you probably come across that quite alot.

"Since you did that website for me my PC has been crashing"

"Since fixing my PC my electric bills have been higher - why is that?"

"You fixed my PC a few months ago, I've installed a few games since then and now it says my hard drive is full. You didn't do a very good job, did you!"

Dealing with the general public can be a nightmare. As you correctly say, YOU become RESPONSIBLE for everything that happens to THEIR PC as soon as you step over the door. You could change their mouse and they will ring you six months later to say "Ever since that new mouse my PC has been crashing"

If you get into it, just be polite, firm and patient. If you start doing freebies for anyone out the goodness of your heart 99% of the time they'll expect that all the time. So charge for ever visit, every bit of work.

Get some work sheets printed, so each job you can detail what the problem was and how you fixed it. Get the customer to verify the problem is fixed and make sure they sign the sheet to say you have completed the work they wanted and they are satisfied that the problemm is fixed. It's worth spending the time to make sure the customer is happy.

Later on, say 4 months down the line, they ring and start "Ever since......", you can refer to the paper work to refresh your memory and remind them they agreed that the problem was fixed.

They usually follow up with "Well I've not had the time, but..." - Just ignore that because we all know they'd be on the phone immediately if there really was a problem with your work.

Most importantly, move from the general public to businesses as soon as you can. You'll find businesses a lot better to deal with.

I was a company Tech for a number of years, but I'd never consider doing domestic stuff and I'll tell you why...The people!

A good few years ago, I did a short stint in a TV/video repair shop and you wouldn't believe the moronic, arrogant and darn right rude behaviour of many of the customers.

I remember one particular woman coming in screaming and shouting that her video had never been right since..'you got your @#!*ing useless hands on it and now it wont even take a video" (we'd carried out a deck service a couple of weeks earlier). With gritted teeth she was asked to wait while I took the unit into the workshop. Ten minutes latter, I emerged with a fully working video and a half eaten Mars Bar that had been wedged under the cassette carriage. The, now strangely quiet woman, was charged the usual fee and politely told to @#!* off.

Needless to say, I've avoided any job that involves direct contact with the great british public since.;o)

Good luck, is all I have to say. ;o)

That cracked me up :)

Prima donna.

Yeah I once had and angry person bring back an Epson saying it was broken ,wouldn't print and there was a red light flashing on it. I said "oh the red light next to the ink symbol" ...

Well, a rose by any other name?

Dealing with the public at large definitely brings it own problems, yes... If at all possible, aim at doing projects for companies rather than directly for home users.

You end up spending the same amount of time/effort on a single $5000 project, as you do on hundred $50 projects. The pay is the same, but you'll only have one 'boss' rather than a hundred. It's also a more guaranteed flow of income, and it typically takes less time to rope in one entity to do business with you than a hundred, so you have less general (non-billable) overhead.



And if, for whatever reason, you do end up giving a freebie(*), make sure that you STILL give an invoice, even if you put down $0.00. If nothing else, it will make it clear that this was an exception, but that you *do* bill for your work.
(Plus it allows you to keep track of your time/work better, since you'll have a record of it for your own purposes as well)


(*) 'Always bill for your work' sounds reasonable, but there are cases where it makes business sense to not do so as well; For example, you're already working on big project -x- for a customer, but he also had a very minor problem -y- come along he bounced off of you. Making them feel happy with your services leads to more long-term income than nickling and diming them to death on minor stuff. Of course you'll have to draw a line somewhere, it's a bit of a balancing act.

xlsior, very correct in your last paragraph. It's definately worth learning when a freebie will reap its rewards later on. 4 companies have my number and permission to call 24hrs a day if they need to. These 4 companies bring in the most work for me so I don't mind in the least as often it leads to "oh, while you're on the phone, can you.......".

Plus keeping the right people sweet means you're number one on their list when it comes to work heading your way. It's a balancing act, but one worth learning :)

99.9% of the time though, keep the selective freebies for businesses.

Yeah freebies are only for businesses and they are only occasionaly and you let them know you are doing it, then they properly appreciate it and don't take the p*ss asking for freebies all the time.