A computer repair tail
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/A computer repair tail
In the last couple of weeks I have had to repair two of my friends windows based PC's.
Friend One.
Says computer is running slow and web browser re-directs to porn sites (no Internet Security installed and I told her to get some installed).
Fixed it and told her (jokingly) that I wanted a £1 for every virus I removed (some 8853 of the bug*ers). Now she has finally listened and has IS installed.
Funny thing is her husband asked me if I could leave the porn sites links on ;).
Friend Two
Says computer runs slow and locks up when he tries to burn a disk and browse the net (or any other activity) at the same time and could I reformat and re-install Windows Vista (it couldn't have been 6 months go when this was last done).
I went round, turned on his machine and a jet fighter sounded quieter on take off than this thing, opened the side and saw quarter of an inch of dust.
Cleaned it out re-started now its quiet. Did disk checks and a clean out. Still locked up when browsing net (or other activities) and burning disk.
Told him it was more like his writer that was on its way, but no insisted on a re-install.
Oooh calls me today and says I was right his writer needs replacing as its just died (probably choked on all that dust) .
And the moral of this tail is "Always have friends that listen, know how to solve computer problems them selves and stop wasting my time when they didn't listen in the first place"
Ill drink 2 that.
lol@ friend 1 :D
one thing that I learned, a friend in need is not as bad as a friend with a do it yourself computer manual.
And the moral of this tail is "Always have friends that listen, know how to solve computer problems them selves and stop wasting my time when they didn't listen in the first place"
More of a 'tale' than a 'tail'.... but anyway.
Surely the moral is, don't get roped into mending computers for people who should not be allowed near anything sharp.
I don't do it for free any more.
I try simply nothing more to repair, because it
time waste pure, often it takes quite a long time
software to fix the (outlook for example) to return to the important data to come only then 2 weeks later determine that they are still no assurance that have.
I initially took no money and so it was every day at the door bell ring.
one day I was annoyed and said they should finally learn,
since I have my rest.
I think now they go to another.
take money for your time because its not free .....
Since almost everyone I know uses Linux by now, I don't need to do tech support anymore. Now I only take the really challenging cases.
90% of all electronics repair is blowing the dust out and jiggling the wires.
I'm currently doing IT Consultancy for a charity based facility. As it is, they're really low on cash so while I *will* charge, I will charge what is favourable to them and to myself too- £20 an hour is incredibly cheap but is just what I need to get out of the rut we've been stuck in.
Day job: probably £48 a day. Consultancy- £20 an hour.
Yesterday, I booked monday off as a holiday and am doing consultancy for the whole day between 9-3:30. £130 for me, woop! :-)
Some of the things i've had to do:
Repair a professionals mistakes- only to find out the "pro" was a 6 year old kid.
remove dialers and porn based hijackers, then get called back 2 days later to do the same. I installed parental controls and left it at that- sinec the security software, zonealarm, was not enough to keep this guy from getting his compuiter screwed.
I worked with this guy in the past- he thought my currency conversion site, XE.com, was a porn site!
The same guy also thought that any of his computers could be hacked into over the internet, even if they were not connected.
Floppy's in CD drives, Peanuts in USB sockets, Jam on the board- the story behind this one was that the guys kid had seen Spaceballs and decided to "Jam" his computer to get more time with his dad for a bit. That one had me pissing myself.
I forgot about friend 2 installed more memory into his friends computer. Every thing ok apart that he couldn't get internet access afterwards.
So he messed with the settings, the firewall the LAN leads and still no joy. After 2 days of trying he calls me, and I went round. Within ten minutes I had it sorted: it turns out he had removed the LAN card and didn't re-install it correctly.
To this little escapade I held out my hand as if I was holding a can and said "GOD NEEDS COLD BEER. PUT CAN IN HAND"
I remember one friend complained that his new first generation Pentium PC was running slow.
I asked him if he had gone into the Bios and he said no, after an hour of scandisking and disk defragmenting, closing down non essential services etc. he admitted that he 'might' have gone into the Bios! ^^
A quick check in there and I saw he had disabled the processors cache -.-.
"Always have friends that listen, know how to solve computer problems them selves and stop wasting my time when they didn't listen in the first place"
Hahah! win.
I just tell them 'That's £50 an hour + VAT + transportation... Would you like to make an appointment?'... Most say no, but those who don't are indeed worth the hassle.
I just tell them 'That's £50 an hour + VAT + transportation... Would you like to make an appointment?'... Most say no, but those who don't are indeed worth the hassle.
Thats my "base" fee- £50 an hour. After a while you get a base of customers.
I cherge those a LOT less- to line my pockets a little but to keep their custom. There's alot of competition round these areas.
I have a day job in the IT field that pays well. I have a small base of customers that I charge $70 per hour on the side. Setting up home theater is also getting to be big. To those doing all the free work: realize how valuable your time and knowledge is and don't be afraid to charge for it. People are willing to pay for it. It took me years to learn this.
Usual i always recomend my Bodys to forgett about the problem and re format and reinstall. This proccess also cleans out any unknown viruses too :)