I am so getting out of the computer repair scene

[AArdvark]

Everyone calls me the guru. That's only because I read up on how these things work and am able to diagnose problems. Everyone else comes to me and says thing like: "The box won't let me get pr0n no more, man!" And I'm a nice guy so I go and fix it.

Anyway, here's the latest debacle, the last one, if I have any say about it.

the machine is six years old, craps out. I get the call, the machine gets dropped off ( I am done making house calls)

Yep, it's crapped out all right, won't even post. I say ' buy another machine, I'll grab all your stuff off the hard drive and back it up for you.'

Well we're thinking of getting an Apple

None of these programs will work on an Apple machine

Really? why not, aren't they all computers?

We are not having this conversation. You want these apps and documents and stuff, you will need to either buy all new software* or convert them somehow.

How much to fix the machine?

Hmmm, six years old, you should just get a new mobo and processor. A nice combo deal from Newegg, about a hundred bucks.

So I install the new stuff and it works great for about a day (long enough for me to back up his docs and photos) then it craps out.

I send it back and get a replacement. Today I install the new new stuff but swap out the power supply first, so as to eliminate more deep fried components.
Plug it in and... nothing.

what ze fuck!

Turns out the memory sticks are the problem, has to be. everything else has been changed. I pop in a couple old sticks I had laying around and it works. This means his original mobo and processor are fine. That means the replacement stuff was good too. That means I have suffered stress headaches on and off for the past week for nothing.

This is the last straw. Not doing this kind of thing anymore, except for myself.


THE
JUST NOT DOING IT
AARDVARK

[Garth]

I feel ya man. I used to be in the PC Repair biz many years back and went through the same bullshit till i couldn't take it anymore. On top of what you described, the only PC Repair jobs I could find paid you in "billable time." Meaning you could work on a problem all day but only get paid for an hour of it depending on what the solution turned out to be.

In most cases, the problems were not hardware related at all but still required time consuming solutions such as a thorough system cleanup [on systems much much slower than what we're used to today], defragging, spy/adware removal, virus scan/removal, possibly even backing everything up to do a reformat/clean system reinstall if bad enough. Since it wasnt hardware related most folks refused to pay for something they could have done themselves. SO WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T THEY THEN?! WHY'D THEY BRING THEIR PROBLEM TO ME WASTING MY VALUABLE TIME FFS?!

Whats worse though is that I had wasted school loans on a worthless education. What I wouldn't give to turn back the clock and do it over. I'd have pursued programming and software development instead of that shitty tech school that convinced me hardware and PC Repair was the future. Of course that was before PC Repair evolved into IT Tech with the rapid growth of information technology thanks to the web which was only in it's infancy at the time. Before everything went wireless and broadband and hardware became practically disposable.

[AArdvark]

Thank you for understanding. After I posted that last I was afraid I was coming across as unreasonable or something.

I forgot to mention about all the system cleanups. Those are usually pretty easy, though. Just time consuming. Glad I never went into the business. Doing this for a living would kill me dead.

(edit)
It's the fact that I keep proving the quote that 'never before have so many known so little about so much' is what's really killing me. This (system repair and clean up) stuff is all publicly available, with no big words. And videos to walk you through everything. Sadly, none of the people that call me up actually know or understand this.


THE
HE WAS SUCH A NICE
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

You're completely reasonable. Man, I hated that shit. I hate working on other people's computers. I haven't been asked to do so in a very long time. But I still feel for you.

The component swapping - Christ. At one point, I had enough parts around to have "duplicates" of everything, Intel AND AMD, so I really could test shit like that. Now, Christ, it's all too expensive and the chip styles change so quickly I've had to do the thing you did, basically, which was order new parts in order to troubleshoot and then sell/return them if that's not what caused the issue. What a goddamn hassle.

What a GOD DAMN hassle.

[Tdarcos]

So you're getting out of the computer reapair business?

You're getting out of the computerized air conditioning business, so you'll no longer reap air?

Or maybe you destroy computers the way the Grim Reaper destroys lives?

Or maybe you're getting out of the computer repair business, where you don't fix them any more?

---
"Swell news! I'm gonna teach English Grammar. Why are you looking at me like that? Ain't that okay?"
- Bud Anderson, Father Knows Best

[Tdarcos]

Well we're thinking of getting an Apple

None of these programs will work on an Apple machine

Really? why not, aren't they all computers?

Do they know cars? Ask him what happens if you put Type F (Ford) transmission fluid in a GM transmission (which expects Dexron). Or the reverse. At a minimum you'll get smoking, if I remember correctly. Or just burn out the tranny, and I don't mean anything about someone's sexual orientation!

Or you put leaded gasoline in a car today: you basically dissolve the catalytic converter, destroy the emission system and if you have to have emissions testing to renew your tags (DC, Maryland and Northern Virginia all require this every two years) you'll need to either replace your catalytic converter or spend over $500 before you can get a waiver.

15 years ago I had to spend $480 when the muffler fell off my Geo Prism the exhaust contaminated the converter too. At which point with a new muffler and CC the Nitrous Oxide level the car generated went from 1600 to 35 (failing the emission test was 103 or higher).

I kid you not; my car blew a 1600 on the NoX test. Reminded me of the guy who blew a 3.5 on the Breathalyzer in Pennsylvania. No, not .35, 3.5. Cop said it was the highest ever recorded and he's surprised the guy was still alive, not even counting the danger of drunk driving.

I don't even know car repair but I understand that techological equipment has special requirements.

We are not having this conversation. You want these apps and documents and stuff, you will need to either buy all new software* or convert them somehow.

How much to fix the machine?

Hmmm, six years old, you should just get a new mobo and processor. A nice combo deal from Newegg, about a hundred bucks.

Or you go to a computer store and buy a refurbished off-lease machine which is probably better now in size and capacity than theirs was new for $150 to $200.

So I install the new stuff and it works great for about a day (long enough for me to back up his docs and photos) then it craps out.

I send it back and get a replacement. Today I install the new new stuff but swap out the power supply first, so as to eliminate more deep fried components.
Plug it in and... nothing.

what ze fuck!

Turns out the memory sticks are the problem, has to be. everything else has been changed. I pop in a couple old sticks I had laying around and it works. This means his original mobo and processor are fine. That means the replacement stuff was good too. That means I have suffered stress headaches on and off for the past week for nothing.

This is the last straw. Not doing this kind of thing anymore, except for myself.

THE
JUST NOT DOING IT
AARDVARK

Only high-end hardware is worth fixing anymore, except for customized equipment a remanufactured or refurbished machine is usually as good or better than what they have and often cheaper than repair. Especially after a few years when the prices of components drop; Moore's Law is killing the resale value of equipment which is great for buying still-viable machines that are only slightly used.

You got an Alienware gaming machine with high-end video and a neon light case, that's one thing. You got a stock Dell, HP, eMachines, another one that's a take-back off lease and reset with Windows XP is probably better than what they are using and half the price of a repair. And it'll have a 90-day DOA warranty.

[Flack]

Aardvark, if you find an amicable way to stop working on the computers of friends and family members, let me know.

I actually don't mind working on machines belonging to friends and family; it's when friends and family offer my services to THEIR friends and family that it can get old.

I've spent the past 10 years at work getting away from supporting clients. I pretty much only deal with servers, networking, and security at this point. I was at a severe disadvantage for a few years when people running Vista wanted help and I was still running XP.

I try to help people out and keep a good attitude about it, but sometimes it's a bummer like when you go on vacation and everybody is like "Hi, how are you, here's a list of technical issues we've been having over the past year."

[AArdvark]

It's the simple stuff that gets me the most..

How do I sync stuff to my ipod?

Where is/are all my music/pictures/documents?

What do you mean, backup everything?


THE
RTFM
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

There is some website my brother/dad and I use so that I can see their computers exactly. Microsoft's Remote Desktop thing has never, ever worked for me, in any scenario, not even once. Through two jobs and through everyone I've tried to use it with personally.

The website that acted as a bridge was nice. I was able to get into my brother's computer to try to help him set up a Shoutcast station. We did not successfully set up a Shoutcast station.

I just don't care any more, when it comes to learning about hardware and "keeping current." A bunch of stuff had to leave my brain when I learned about arcade games, and I guess modern-day shit was it. I just can't care about it any more. Also:

- I worked for Cyrix who got their lunch eaten by Intel. So I used to hate Intel.
- I worked for AMD, and the 18 months I spent with my last boss there was the most miserable time of my life, so fuck AMD. They can't go bankrupt and die off quickly enough for my taste.

But that meant I had to go back to Intel because there's only two options.

Does anyone remember that one issue of COMPUTE! that talked about MSX computers from Japan and how they were gonna "take over"? They can take over NOW any time and that'd be fine, kthx.

[Flack]

The website's not LogMeIn, is it? I love that place. It's free for two machines and I think if you have more than that it just nags you. The best thing about it is once you get the agent installed on a machine, it reports their IP up to the website so you don't have to drag someone's IP address out of them. For many people that's not an issue but trying to walk my 84-year-old grandmother through obtaining it from the command prompt over her horrible speaker phone is ... yeah.

Sadly, I'm with you on the state of current hardware. I don't play a lot of modern PC games, so my boxes tend to be older and, up until very recently, all basically used interchangeable parts. The new machine I got, I don't even know what the hey it uses! It's got a different video card slot, different RAM, has SATA drives (that's how old my other machines are; they're all IDE) and it runs on an AllSpark cube. The new machine is awesome, and I love finally having more working USB ports than I have USB devices sitting around, but if something like a stick of RAM went bad in it, I could replace it, but I have no idea what it's called or what would be compatible. I'd just have to get the number off it, go to TigerDirect, and hope for the best.

[Tdarcos]

What do you mean, backup everything?

Go to the main index in Adventurer's Guild for my article "I am stupid, and it has cost me"

[AArdvark]

You understand the importance and have the know-how to back stuff up. Most of the people I have done computer related favors for do not understand how or why to do this reasonably easy task. Then after the drive has been totally reformatted (it's the best, and sometimes only way to get all the crap out ) they ask dude, where's all my music?


THE
FUNDAMENTALLY
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I think the program I was using WAS "LogMeIn." Program/website. Website/pr- yes, I think it was that.

[AArdvark]

See! SEEE! I went over to my computer illiterate friend's house last night night and within ten minutes I was led towards his computer and asked to get the 'live anti virus' scam out of his machine. The one that needs rkill in safe mode. Ten minutes. Just long enough to get my shoes off and my beer on. I would like everyone of my friends to rush right out and buy Apple machines. Thank you.


THE
STILL DOING IT
AARDVARK

[RetroRomper]

I'm still trying to decide if I should put my IT experience and/or my computer certificates on a resume: after one or two fairly annoying experiences when co-workers somehow came into the knowledge that I'm certified for computer (and network) repair, there has literally been mental ques where three or four people came to me to help them fix their boxes.

And there isn't a polite way to turn them down as its basically telling the last straggly, dying kitten from a litter one found on the street that your out of milk: I've seen people take it personally and to such an extent that it impacts simple things such as "could you hand me file blah blah?" "Ya sure..." And then they walk off into the night.

But it proves computer literacy which has raised my beginning salary before... "sigh"

[AArdvark]

Went to my brother's for a birthday party and ended up fighting with adware and spam for four hours. This is it. The last instance. Done.

Anyone wants me to fix their machine I will gladly REFORMAT THE HARD DRIVE AND REINSTALL THE OS. I will not just 'get the junk out' anymore. If they (family and friends) do not wish to back up stuff on a regular basis or simply just let the nephews click on anything then they are going to pay the penalty of lost emails and lost documents.


THE
MY WAY OR THE
DIGITAL HIWAY
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Went to my brother's for a birthday party and ended up fighting with adware and spam for four hours. This is it. The last instance. Done.

I would dread family get-togethers in your position. Goddamn. That sucks, man. There's really no excuse for these people, either. There's advances to stop that stuff from crudding up a computer. They just (whether they admit it or not) think throwing you at the computer is easier and aren't accounting for your time. Sucks ass! Even reformatting the hard drive is extremely generous of you.

[AArdvark]

It worked! Was at my brother's again today and my sister in law asked me to 'Get the PDF reader working'. What she meant was fix the screwy internal error that was keeping any of their programs from starting. I said that best I could do was take everything home and wipe the C drive. No other choice. I assume you have backups of all your emails, pix and docs, right? Right!...... Fine, I'll burn them for you first, because I'm nice.

So, instead of sitting in a darkened room for hours getting frustrated, I was able to dump the tower and monitor in my car trunk and go have fun.


THE
NEGATIVE
ALTERNATIVE
AARDVARK

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Good for you, man. Now piss on the hard drive and dump the ashes. (I am assuming you piss fire.)

[AArdvark]

Wiped. Partition deleted and re-created, formatted and spanking new OS installed. Put in all the usual programs. Whole thing took maybe two hours, much of that was spent elsewhere besides in front of the machine. So much better than the other way.



Wonder if I should dual boot his machine with Ubuntu....Nah, enough brain farts over there as it is.


THE
KEEP IT SIMPLE
AARDVARK