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That is sadly true..
or “brother” re: my dad…
users can’t live with them, no work without them
I’m really good with computers. Infact, I built mine.
Screw you guys.
Good boy! Have a cookie!
Building a computer is actually extremely simple if you can follow directions. It is MUCH MUCH different from repairing one, especially if the problem is anything more than remove and replace. There is a reason a good technician pulls a good wage…you get what you pay for is the general rule that comes to mind. HOWEVER, as pointed out elsewhere there are a lot of ‘computer shops’ and ‘technicians’ who would lead you to believe they know what they are doing though in reality they are about the same level of expertise as you are…’I can build one’. There have actually been times that I refused to work on a system because some ‘technician’ that charged less had already attempted to ‘fix it’ and failed. Normally, when that happens they have simply made a bad problem worse!
I find this funny. To imply that you have to work at a computer repair shop to fix a computer is absurd.
What the hell are they goina do that the average college kid can’t.
Run Spybot Search and Destroy… Check.
Run Lavasoft Adaware… check.
Disable the out of date virus program on the machine and install free AVG… check.
Run Msconfig and remove all the unneeded BS from the startup… check.
Still broke.
Google the problem like the high school idiot and best buy would.
Or you can just build a BartPe disk and do all that at once.
That would cost my buddy $20 or a 6 packs.
That is going to cost 100$ at the PC shop and they will try to up sell you a bunch on needless crap.
Fail really.
Repair shop = Hardware problem = NOT something your avarage college kid can do.
All the hardware shop is going to do is replace things in mass. Still easy fix. Not rocket science… not busting out the soldering iron. Just running memtest and buying a new stick of ram. Newegg cost 26$.
As$hole blow hard self righteous prick below price 150$.
I worked desktop support… not bestbuy… for 4 years. Infrastructure for 3. I know my way around a computer and I can tell you most shops are frauds.
Its doesnt come on at all… power supply…
Doesnt pass memtest… ram…
Doesnt pass prime95 processor… (should rule out ram first)
All else fails its the Motherboard.. and unless your an electrical engineer your going to be upgrading.
“It doesn’t come on at all… power supply…” (I fixed your spelling free of charge)
I was working on a computer one time, it wouldn’t turn on, the power supply was fine, and it was the logic in the motherboard that was messed up.
“The logic in the motherboard … was mess up?”
Are you serious?
Did you check the contacts on the starter solenoid?
Actually stupid, there are MANY, MANY things that can go wrong that technically be repaired by your average college kid…if you have enough money to simply start removing and replacing components until you find the right one. Try this one on for size…a company had decided to move a desk with meant simply moving a computer. They did exactly that and then the system would not boot. What would your genius solution be?
Well after you tried everything but replacing the motherboard you just might, possibly, maybe have found the problem was a bent pin on the keyboard plug. Been there, done that!
I can not count the number of times I have been called on systems the experts at the cheap computer shop or slick high shool/college kid screwed up even further. My response every time someone complained about my fee as compared to the local whiz kid was to next time call him instead of me. Never had one yet that didn’t come back relatively quickly.
No worries from me though, I have COMPLETELY retired from the business. I am just saying….
Ok, so you can do all that, orr…….
.
Clearly “Geek Squad” here has no idea the length and depth to which a “buddy who is really good with computers” can destroy a machine. All the things you mention there, Mr. Geek Sqad, are either the last things on the list, or not even on the list, when a client’s data is at stake. My guess is you are less “Geek Squad”, and more “Buddy who is really good with computers”. Thank you for keeping my business in business.
Bear in mind there are two kinds of computer repair shops… those that are quality, professional, sound businesses, and those that make the ‘Buddy’ look like a computer-related genius. I’ve had situations where, as the buddy, I’ve had to repair work done by the ‘professional’ establishment (including recovering data loss, getting hardware working again by the complex, arcane process known as ‘finding the right drivers’, and getting the ‘broken memory slot’ working by actually finding working memory chips to put into it.)
An awful lot of these places really do seem to be staffed by nitwits who’s total portfolio has been neatly outlined by ‘Geek Squad’ above.
If you’re part of a more professional business then I, as a long-suffering buddy, salute you
Yes, you make an excellent point. I all too often speak in generalities, and did not mean to insult. There are definitely buddies out there that know what they are doing, and repair shops that do not. My problem with “Geek Squad’s” statement is he makes it seem as though every computer problem is a simple one, and there is never any call for a real professional. Just like auto repair, there is stuff the client can do, and stuff that should be left to a trusted professional, should the client deem himself “in over his head”. Though there is always someone who thinks they know more than they actually do, and I think that person is the buddy in this graph.
So tell me this mr. professional…
How am I going to destroy data if im running off a PE disk?
The operating system is not even active? I could have a killer virus virus on the c:\ drive but if im running on a ROM disk and a Ram drive how am destroying the hard drive.
In fact… with your expert recovery techniques I sure hope your booting off a PE disk to copy the “crucial data” onto a backup drive.
If its a bad memory controller I haven’t destroyed anything if i never booted from the disk.
Anyway peace out… I got 50$ that says your a hack that could not cut it in a corporate environment. I ghost a machine before I even touch it anyway.
Geek Squad.
Nice. Actually, the corporate environment couldn’t cut it for me, so I quit, started my own business, own my own store, and now make much more. Keep your $50, though. I don’t need it.
Anyways, PE is not bad (though legally a gray area), but the point I was making is that everything you mentioned BEFORE PE is dangerous. And once the file system is borked, PE isn’t going to cut it either.
Also, Ghost for the most part is a waste of time as a backup. You can usually say goodbye to the restore partition, which unfortunately is all that most clients have for recovery. No one thinks to make their recovery discs until it’s too late.
My strategy usually starts in Knoppix and goes from there. It’s so legal, it leaves even the Microsoft reps with nothing to say.
I am only speculating, but my guess it that you haven’t seen a very wide variety of situations. It’s one thing to just mechanically start in with a certain set path. It’s another to be able to look at what is happening, understand it on a fundamental level, and move from there. (Memory controller. Honestly? The drive should always be removed from the client’s machine and operated upon in a safer trusted environment.)
On second thought, I’ll take the $50. In the smallest of ways, it can help finance our second location next Fall.
P.S. Geek or Gekk? I’m confused.
I regularly use UBCD for diagnosing almost all problems I encounter, most being virus/spyware related. Most hardware issues I encounter for some reason are usually the power supply (there all Dells…go figure)….but, PE’s can be invaluable for a technician, mostly because you don’t need to remove the drive at all, and all crucial client data can be transferred to an online backup server or external HD.
Thats my 2c
Hey stupid…just because you are operating of a ROM disk does not mean in any way that the data on the target drive is safe. Just keep on believing that kind of nonsense and someday it will come back to bite you. Good luck when you are dealing with corporate, irreplaceable data! Been there, seen that. I got the job recovering the raw data. Stupidity never ceases to amaze me.
Trusting free antivirus can be the start of your problems. As a former repairer, the number of times I’ve heard people say their “buddy” put a free AV program on there and it found nothing, only to be surprised by the actual amount of malware the freebies missed…. number #1 frustration.
If you can’t afford good security software, you can’t afford the computer. It’s like insurance for your car.
Also: Having been a college student (Australian equivalent, anyway), I can tell you that half the people that “know their computers” still refer to IE as “the Internet” and RAM as “the GBs”. Trust them at your own risk.
Don’t even get me started on “mates” laptop repairs.
in reality, you are normally better off with lesser know brands of software because they aren’t the target of nearly as many attacks. I have been in the situation of having the latest and greatest commercial software on the market, completely up to date, and still getting zero day virii. Hackers had simply figured out how to simply turn off Norton. It would scan all day and never find anything. After one such scan, I then ran a free version of a program and found the 21 viral infections Norton missed. After I removed Norton from the systems (we had just purchased 15 copies of the latest as greatest Norton) I stopped getting the infections.
As for as free AV programs for home users, it is actually a fantastic ploy for the sellers. When you give someone the program at home and they find that it works great, when the time comes for them to make input on which antivirus to purchase at work, guess which one they are going to recommend.
Experience often mean more than these highschool or colllege kids think. Having worked on systems for 20+ years, you are much more apt to pick up on clues these kids miss. Many times, these little clues can save you untold hours of searching for the culprit. I couldn’t count the number of times I have been able to accurately diagnose the problem over the phone simply because of experience. That being said, Geek Squad is NOT one of the people I personally would recommend calling. I have cleaned up their mess more than once. For the most part, their ‘geeks’ are those college whiz kids. The only real advantage they have is a consolidated diagnostics program which rolls several different capabilities onto one CD. However, like I said before, experience is a lot more valuable than software.
What are you talking about? This graph is so true, I nodded my head the entire time spent reading this graph
That’s a lot of head wigglin’ there, Lou.
Yeah, actually I’m a very slow reader! I have dsal – dsylx – dysle – nevermind..
I bet this applies to ALL repair shops actually.
My buddy works at a computer repair shop, win win.
SO TRUE!
Just happened to me some days ago… T.T
Now I sent it in and I’m waiting for it to come back…
I’ve been fixing PCs since 1983. Repair is mostly simple logic that even a putz like me can do. It’s mostly a matter of narrowing down the problem.
Not sure why everyone is gettign on geeksquad up there. His suggestions can save you a lot of time and hassle. Speaking of that, the best way to stave of a disaster is taking the time tio back up your own critical data. If you’ve passed the 5th grade and can muster up even a slice of will power to take some preventative measures, you may never need to pay the $40+ to some place just to look at the box.
Geek Squad’s suggestions are not bad for preventative measures, but if you start installing and running stuff on a corrupt machine, you put the data at risk. If the client backed up their stuff, then no problem. Knock yourself out. But often times, once a machine is messed up, data backup becomes more than just plugging in your thumb drive and retrieving your quickbooks. I guess I deal with about 50:50 consumer to business client ratio, so I run into more people with critical data hidden away than most, but I still get a lot of clients who’s buddy has already tried the things mentioned by Geek Squad, and now their machine blue screens even in safe mode (or other similar crippling issue), and they need their checkbook ledgers by Monday.
After working a few years in tech support, my opinion is that around 90% of issues are caused by malware. Easiest thing is to format, and most computers now have the recovery partition built right in so wiping a computer is easier than installing most programs, and generally doesn’t take very long.
So yeah, not that hard.
Even if it is hardware, its almost always a matter of removing a couple screws or clips and popping the new hardware back in, unless it’s a notebook.
Yes, exactly, apart from one thing…
The ‘easiest’ thing to do isn’t always the ‘best’ thing to do.
Running a decent AV and replacing any system files that have been damaged is FAR faster than reinstalling Windows.
Do you know how long the system recovery takes on a new Toshiba Equium?
Nearly four hours…
Oh yeah, I do agree that it isn’t always quick and simple, but most often it is less than 2 hours and mostly automated anyways. Running 2 complete virus scans (one to identify, one to verify removal) can and usually does take longer. Plus, some stupid stubborn bugs are unreasonably frustrating and tough to get rid of. After long and frustrating experiences with a couple of those I’m inclined to take the format route unless there is a ton of software on the PC or the removal looks to be extremely simple.
At the risk of coming across as a bleeding-heart… what exactly is WRONG with having the computer fixed instead of replacing it? Do you have any idea what a global environmental and human-rights catastrophe our high-tech waste creates? Pick up a National Geographic sometime.
It usually works out cheaper if the PC is newish too…
For example, if you take a laptop to PC World with a broken DC socket they’ll charge you upwards of £300 to replace the motherboard.
We fit new DC sockets for £45.
I’ve even had customers in who’ve been there and been told that the motherboard needs replacing when in fact it’s a faulty mains adapter. Even if they DO get it right, they charge anywhere from £60 to £120 for a new adapter.
Our price?
£35.
The people who think it’s cheaper to replace instead of repair usually have that opinion because of the big chain stores who are only interested in one-off sales instead of repeat business
*tries to find where anyone suggested replacing over repairing prior to this post*
If you’re looking for an argument, maybe you should go whine about the environment and human rights at PK.
I believe anaceofkidneys was referring to the green wedge of the graph. At least that’s how I took it.
Well, I have been fixing my friends’ computers for years. Usually it’s a simple matter of backup, reinstall windows, restore data. I have also built almost all of my current computers (the exceptions are my laptopn (which I have modified a bit) and a server that I bought for a price that I would have paid for an empty 4U rackmount case). I also built a few computers for my friends and for the company I work for.
In any case, my friends like my help and bring their computers back when they figure out how to catch another virus or if some hardware breaks.
Now, I assume that at a “repair shop” you have a lot of spare parts to try out on that computer and that makes the repair easier, I have a lot of spare parts, but they are old, so when my friend brought me a computer that sometimes didn’t boot, I had fun figuring out that it was the motherboard that was at fault (having no spare socket AM2 MB or CPU and no DDR2 RAM).
I’m reminded of this : http://xkcd.com/349/
Jessica – WTF?
Rebuild/Recovery is the last option. Sure, it’s theoretically quicker, but then you have to put all the apps back. And you did remember to scour the entire disk for vital documents stored in strange places, didn’t you?
Even in a corporate enviroment where you have standardised images, and there shouldn’t be any local data rebuild is the last option, because they will always, always, have strange but vital software that no-one knows anything about because the guy who installed it left five years ago and the company who made it has vanished.
Software problems can be a fix-at-home, but I read this graph as referring to hardware problems. No amount of backing up the hard drive would have helped a relative’s former boss who plugged his system into an overloaded circuit that had power fluctuations every time the space heater “upstream” of the computer cycled on and off.
being a person who does this for a living the biggest part should be. think its a hardware problem and its just a virus from limewire.
You should know the ropes. It is easy to assemble at first but in terms of troubleshooting, I must admit I have to call my technician. :-<
Yea, your buddy will not get rid of a rootkit that is so bad you think you need to reformat the system or, if the Pro is genuine Pro who does the hardware, software, running cat 5, splicing fiber, setting up a domain with 4 sub domains that work in a VPN system or knows how to configure a Cisco switch and firewall. I run my own business as a consultant and it is not easy. I am always fixing Geeksquads issues and the friend that knows enough to be DANGEROUS. In this business, I am always learning something new. I go past what shops do and most shops cannot do what I offer in services.
I agree with Ter, there needs to be another section on here for Geeksquad. As an independent consultant, I would say a good 20 – 30% of my business comes from all the crap Geeksquad does to customers’ PCs. And yea – ask your “buddy” to setup Active Directory, deploy VPN to numerous remote offices with roaming users and still have the corporate CRM system function without fail. Oh, by the way, is it secure to connect my corporate laptop to the Starbucks WiFi?
I used to fix my computers myself and always succeeded. but I dont do it anymore. I dont have lots of spare time, and I hate to spend it on fixing a computer. Id rather pay a good technician. The big issue in this business is to find a good technician. Its hard to find a trustworthy shop that will not try to squeeze every buck out of your pocket. People depend on their computers, when its broken it makes them nervous, they panic and they run to the biggest store who as the brightest neon sign and pay any ammount possible to get it fix. These shops charge big amounts and makes uneccessary repairs, (or they charge for things they did not do). This business should be legislated or run by a public corporation that would ensure that any computer business follows a set of ethics and standards to ensure that the tech behind the counter, is a real computer technician, and not the guy that flipped your burgers at the fast food chain you went last week.
Make it a Venn diiagram, and add ‘People who are going to get v& for CP’
do my self to repair
OMG!!! the red one is just like my dad!!!! we almost never have our computer because is at the shop all the time and my keeps goin to his friends store because the give him a 10% discount!!!! 10%!!!!!!! thats nothin!!!! actually this is the second day we have had our computer back
sadly true yes, but keeps us tech shops in business
hahahaha, yeah true!
This is unless its a Mac. Then it’s 40% power supply, 10% disc permissions, 30% motherboard, 10% “I dropped it”, 10% something actually fun to diagnose.
To everyone who replied and discussed Geek Squad’s comment, this is supposed to be funny.
take it to a pro!!
This is why I don’t bring my computer to any of the guys who claim to repair computers
there should be a slice for dropped it/spilled something on it/got really pissed off and hit it
hehe
for me, i have taken my PC back to the shop i bought it from 5 times, 3 new motherboards, 1 different motherboard, and one because the darn SD card reader wasn’t even plugged in to the motherboard (thankfully i know to check things like that now…)
there are good places, there are horrid places, there are good computer people, there are horrid computer people… either way, we have computers and their businesses keep running, so all is well