OT: Confessions of a computer repairman

[Adrian C]

Oh no, not me :-)

An article published in PC PRO caught my eye last month.

Probably worth a gander if ye or someone else is thinking of sticking a pin in Yellow Pages for a PC service, or following up a dodgy fly poster stuck to a lamp-post showing a mobile number ...

A quick summary of cowboy efforts described in that ...

• Here today, gone tomorrow - they run off with your PC,

• The ?beyond repair? bluff - offer a silly scrappage value,

• The memory game - don't install the memory as promised,

• The hostage situation - a ransom to return the PC,

• The blank screen of opportunity - non required parts,

• Virus cold-callers - remote access extortion,

• Hot-Kit shuffle - pinching internal expensive parts,

• The snoop patrol - pinching customers data,

• Phantom repairs - made up issues resolved at cost,

• The price gouge - extreme overcharging,

• The Windows wiper - reinstalling windows and data gone,

• The Insurance fiddle - falsified claims for replacement kit,

• Business shortcuts - shoddy work,

• The untrained expert - bodgers without skills,

• License-key lifting - user now denied software updates.

In the words of Shaw Taylor, "Keep 'em peeled!"

[dennis]

You missed one.. ask if they play games, if no swipe the expensive graphics card and switch to onboard.

[Ret.]

ISTM that computers are now becoming so ridiculously cheap that it is barely worth bothering with trying to get one repaired...

[Adrian Brentnall]

Ain't that the truth....

I'd been suffering from system 'lock-ups' here on this XOP / Dell box. Had some good suggestions on here (thanks folks!) - and enlisted the help of the local Dell subcontract 'fixit-fella'.

Have changed.... the ram (twice!) the hard disk (cloned) run various checks and tests all the usual updates anti-spyware / malware software

Til ..... eventually..... after all this time and Googling in desperation late at night....

...I discovered an updated driver for the ATI Radeon pro 2400 video card driver - which seems to have solved the lock-up problems (over a fortnight running 24/7 now with no repeat of the lock-ups) - and doing the same things that used to break it.

Based on an hourly rate, I could have bought a couple of new PCs for the price! - but where's the satisfaction in that?

Adrian

[><((]

Yes, but the 2 new PC's that you bought for the price may also have issues like their vga drivers need updating too.

New PC's are usually built by using a hard disc image containing all the necessary operating system files, device drivers and trial applications. From this point onwards the PC will enter the supply chain and it will in all likelihood be several months before that PC gets to the end user.

When the end does get the PC there will be umpteen updates to be installed for Operating System, device drivers, Adobe reader, flash player, Anti-virus etc ...

You'll also need to get your personal files, email account(s) settings, printer / scanner drivers & programs transferred / installed. Installing a new PC and getting it how the user wants it can easily be the best part of a days work, maybe more.

[Adrian Brentnall]

Understood - my comment was a little bit tongue-in-cheek....

Yup - been there!

Yes - that's precisely what I was trying to avoid....

Adrian

[alexander.keys1]

So how do you reload Windows, when it inevitably gets corrupted and stops working, without losing data? I've had to get it done a couple of times for our second-hand PC that came without a Windows CD, and it always wipes the data.

[Jeff Gaines]

Don't keep any data on the OS drive. After a clean install once Windows is activated and BEFORE installing any apps image the drive, re-install is then a ten minute job. After installing apps and getting things the way you want image the drive again, and do it monthly or so. Re-install is then a twenty minute job.

[The Natural Philosopher]

you put the data somewhere else.

[tim....]

why would someone who didn't play games buy the one with the expensive graphics card in the first place?

tim

[John]

Photo/video editing? Also, some people like to buy the best they can afford at the time in order to somehow future-proof themselves.

[Tim Watts]

Set it up right in the first place - meaning a seperate partition for the data and a large enough (plus padding) partition for the OS.

[The Natural Philosopher]

not really. static image editing is done at much lower refresh speeds. Gaming and watching full screen videos are the only things that challenge video subsystems.

[Clive George]

Which in the world of computers is almost inevitably a bad move :-)

(I'd go for "because they got persuaded by a salesman that they needed it")

[dennis]

Windows never wipes the data, the recovery program might wipe the data. You have to go through several hoops before windows will wipe the data.

Its best to put all your data on the D drive. Then you can do what you like to the system C drive, even put linux on (however by default it will delete your data).

[><((]

For the same reason that people buy PC's with TV tuner cards inside when they've no aerial to plug in or intention of getting one.

The PC with a specification as long as your arm is the one they buy, whether the need or will ever use half the features is another issue.

[John Rumm]

Coz they bought it in Dixons and let some spotty youth up sell them the "better" PC.

[Rob]

Or cuz the spotty youth concerned convinced his daddy that he needed the most expensive one in the shop to do his homework.

[John Rumm]

Depends on the CD you restore from to an extent. System "recovery CDs" being the least useful in this respect. Usually when I need to do a repair install, I use an OEM CD, andtell it to install in the same directory as before. That gets windows back into a working state (after a mobo change requiring a different HAL for example), but leave all data untouched, and any apps remain installed etc.

The next best option is a parallel install - not formatting the drive but specifying a new target directory such as c:\win2. That leaves all data intact, but creates a new version of windows that has no visibility of any apps installed. (they of course remain on th disk, but windows no longer recognises them). So work exporting ad reimporting the software hive of the registry can restore app functionality without a reinstall usually.

[tim....]

I was expecting this answer.

Several years ago my sister took me to pissy world to help her choose a computer.

She decided upon a Tosh laptop which I was OK with but the assistant went into the hard sell to spend an extra 100 pounds on a R/W DVD (instead or read DVD write CD).

I said "you will never use it and as the newest technology it will be the most likely to go wrong", but the assistant won and she splashed out the extra 100 quid.

Turned out I was right on both counts

tim