EggXpert.com

cman:

For a decent free boot CD, go to ultimatebootcd.com and download the UBCD. you will need a computer that can burn a CD. You can then use this CD to boot your system to a user interface that has some helpful programs. Definitely run the Antivirus when you do this.

Another good free utility boot disk to have in your repair box is Hiren's BootCD:

 http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd

I can say I've seen almost everything here.

Heavy smokers who can't figure out why it turns off 5 minutes after being powered up.  Opening the case and finding nicotine stalagtites on the HSF.  

Windows machines "a friend setup for them" and getting the validation message.

We also see a lot of Smitfraud.  Which is spyware that seems to be invited in by clicking on a popup or getting a "you don't have the correct codec" message from a website.  Nevermind that it doesn't tell you which codec you need or which one you're installing.

That usually takes a system restore.  Backup their data (for a charge) and then restore the system and do full updates (again for a charge).  

I usually use Hiren's Boot CD.  Great for password cracking if the customer forgets it, and the memory tests.

Spybot S&D and the customers learn to live with TeaTimer.

CCleaner (blows out temp files and other junk).

Spywareblaster by JavaCool

SIW (System Info for Windows by Gabriel Topala) Tells you everything, even spits out a few passwords (sometimes Outlook) or Keys, in the event the COA label is DESTROYED.

I don't usually go through the process of Hijack this, especially if it's something Spybot can't knock out.

They're going to get a better running machine if they get a system re-build.  And directed AWAY from Norton or McAfee.  We usually go with CA (Computer Associates) (small footprint, just gets viruses and spyware), or if they're cheap they get Avast! and Spybot.

No matter how much you try to educate some people, we get their machines back, running like c**p in three months with the same problems and Limewire or Torrents that have keygens that are virus laden.  

Out here in the middle of nowhere, we had a guy running his whole farm business on a 286 Hyundai Computer using 5.25 floppies and DOS 3.3.  He said something about his boot disk going down and needed me to fix it.  I told him I couldn't help him because A) I don't have a replacement drive B) My education started on DOS 5.5 ) Even if I could fix it, it needs to be replaced.  It's not like his 1941 Farm All that needs oil and tires.  Computers only have a useable service life of 4 to 8 years before they need to be replaced.  

It's the cheap people who get me.  Or the ones who come in expecting to find a slot type processor, or a P3 processor or expect us to have PC133 memory laying around waiting to be given away.  Then the same people try to tell us it's for their kids for homework.  They'd have better luck with a stone chisel and "flintstoning" their homework than working on that POS.  

I also HATE Wal-Mart PC's.  Like the e-machines.  Once upon a time I had a part in setting up the orders for HP that went to Wal-Mart.  All those models have a W on the end of the model number and they have the CHEAPEST COMPONENTS AVAILABLE.  The only part to be trusted is the Processor.  Cheaper boards from Foxconn, Cheap Power Supplies, Ultra Cheap Bulk Memory.  Just complete c**p.  But Joe Bob can get it for $399 with a 19in LCD.

Now for those of you in a shop, concerning restores with a COA and no CD, most of the 2004 HP restore CD's for XP Home SP1/2 and XP Pro SP1/2 will work for all major systems for a base install.  Match the factory restore base CD to the type of XP to be put onto the machine and you're golden 99% of the time.  This does NOT mean grab your buddy's restore CD because your BIOS won't match.  But if you have the big white BINDERS with the HP Pavillion/Presario Restore Sets then you're good to go.  We actually made "service" copies of the CD's because we use them so often.  Upside is a legal factory restore using the COA on the machine and it's a base level Windows Install.  Sure you have to do the updates and do some driver fishing, but you get "just Windows" and not all of the shovelware/crapware included on a factory restore. 

That's probably the most valuable tech trick I have for systems with no discs or lost discs.  And if they don't have their Office or Works CD's then they have to buy a new copy of office.  And that's not bad for business either.

 Oh, and I also try to direct them away from using outlook mail.  I tell em to use webmail.  Most of the time GMAIL, HOTMAIL, YAHOO, ETC will filter out spam and Virus mail before it gets to you.

sreilly:

No one is going to mention the $300 special computer. How about the customer actually finding out something about what they are buying before complaining that it doesn't work anymore. Nothing burns me more than a customer that brings one of these machines and when told that the cheapest power supply you carry is $45 plus bench fee. The "That's a third of what I paid for the entire computer" reply always cracks me up. They buy the cheapest and expect a Mercedes. Today a lady told me how upset she was that her 8 year old ME computer can't run her new programs and is very slow. She feels that she didn't get a good value when she bought it now that MS no longer supports the OS.

Or better yet, the emergency repair. Told of an approximate repair time according to the amount of work ahead of them and then calls every few hours to see if it's ready even though told to expect 1-2 days. The when you call the customer, the wife says they will be there in a couple of days, maybe. Some people will let you keep their kids for days but not the ole solitare puter, gotta have it now.

The "It came with virus software" is as bad as the "Filter, I didn't know it had a filter" from my HVAC Tech days. Usually this means that there is an icon on the desktop or system tray that say something about AV but never was set up because they didn't know how or just forgot. Updated? You mean......you gotta update it?

 Trying to run Windows anything on 128MB of RAM. Not checking system requirements for software or hardware upgrades. Deleting programs instead of un-installing. Have 78 startup items in the system tray with 128MB of RAM. Did I mention memory?  Never taking responsibility for learning how to actual care for the computer with simple maintainace. And they own cars, Heat Pumps and such.

What makes competing for the system builds difficult is any understanding other than how much the system costs. Not understanding the limitations of what they are getting or any upgrade path. How many people really need the laptops they buy but think there are cute? And then try to do extensive graphics work on the $500 laptop, with 128MB of RAM?

The "I have some questions about hard drives. I'm going to build me a computer but don't know if I should use SATA, ATA100 or what ever. Can you tell me the difference?" Boy is this one coming into the shop after the parts are kinda installed. Of course I had to stop being productive in actually repairing something, loose my train of thought and find that I'm begining to strangle the phone. Did I mention memory. Now I forgot where I was on that elusive problem I was working on and almost had solved. I did mention memory didn't I.

Yes folks, our future is secure. These poor people will need use for a very long time. If we can maintain some composure and remain friendly, they may actually keep us busy for a while. Did I mention that "I can get it at WalMart for $300 on sale". Some people should stick to books but then I guess I'd be on a book forum then, huh?

 

Ya, I totally understand the turn around time issue. I always hated calling customers and telling them that its going to be at least another day. They respond with "Well its says you are only charging me for a 1 hour service why is going to take another day?" Well... sorry I had to do other things, answer phones, setup dial-up customers, dsl customers, upfront customers, deal with domain issues, etc.. things take time especially if you bring a windows ME machine that takes 2 min. to open up spybot.. maybe you should not waste my time and yours and invest in a new computer every 2 years so that you don't encounter this issue. I would always also tell the customers would you go this long without changing the oil in your car? or checking the tire pressure, same thing with your PC. Make sure its updated fully and windows updates and a/v updates as well as making sure its just clean. People don't understand that without updates things are going to break. "But updates take so long and things work worse/slower when I update.." ya well maybe you should get off of dial-up Mr. Customer and get more than 128MB of RAM.. 

Feels good to vent a little, I am so glad that I don't do those repairs anymore and I have moved up to enterprise support. 

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This is all so true. It would be funny if it were not true. I teach Seniors computer use. Some of them catch on quick and actually follow tha maint. routene I recommend. Some of them should be required to get a computer license in order to buy one or else be denied the privilege. I will have to come back here and post some of the things I see. :-).

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Asus Commando, QX6700@2.93, 4GB Corsair PC28500 Dom, Tt Armor case, BFG 1KW PSU, BFG 8800GTX OC, 2 Raptors in RAID 0 for OS and Apps & 2 Raptors in SATA for music and graphic files and a WD7500AAKS (.75Tb) for large files, video files and back up, X-Fi, 2 Samsung monitors 245t and 244t's @ 1920 X 1200, Plextor opticals, Aerocool, Zalman, Etc. Vista Ultimate SP-1

Computer license? Yeah! And insurance should be mandatory too!  Some folks really abuse their machines.

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Ok this may sound kind not super technical but it can save you so many headaches when dealing with customers.  DATA BACKUP.  Too many times I see people coming in with dead external hard drives.  Unfortunetly many people don't experience tons of hard drives failing on them.  So what they do is copy all their "Priceless data" onto the drive and delete it off their PC to save space.  OK great but when that drive fails onday or they drop it down the steps goodbye to 10 years worth of family photos, say hello to 800$ of attempting to get most of the pictures.  It might not be a problem hearsay but its something customers/friends/family/everyone should know.  You can never have too many copys of your important data.  That is the case in the end. 

Also for us techs looking to sell or make sales or whatever, help a customer setup an automated backup tool or setup RAID for them.  Not only is it great to make some money by services but its great when feel good about not having to worry about backing their data up.  A lot of times people have the tools to backup but don't use them. 

Since im going into a security field, the problem I see 95% of the time when there is a virus on a PC I see Antivirus and Antispyware installed.  But almost every time its either out of date, expired, turned off, or the customer just hits allow or yes to everything!  If you fix that computer for the customer and your want to HELP them, explain to them about the importance of security.  Many people don't even think about it.  Plus you can make some change if you reload their OS and install AV/AS for them.  Most people like it a lot when you can explain to them how to prevent their problem from happening again.  ^.^

Well those are kind of problems, well more of ways to make your customers happy and to help them out.  It also helps the whole process go smoother.  Cheers

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+Owner Of RCS -Raptor Computer Services+

GmsCool:

Good one, I'll chime in.

If your PC is like mine and is plastic, touch the screw in the middle of your wall outlet often to dissipate any charge between you and your PC. (of course it will have to be plugged in, but the switch on the psu turned off, it will still be grounded to the outlet through the 3rd pin of the cable)

 "While you are inside the case make sure all the data and power cables are secure and any expansion cards and RAM are properly seated in the slots. Before touching anything inside the computer make sure to equalize the charge between you and it by touching a metal part of the case or ground yourself with a wrist strap or other device designed to do so...."

Especially after blowing it out, as you might loosen them.

Next would be windows updates, even though it is automatic you might still be missing some. Don't forget to manually do it every 3 months or so (more often if it is problematic) and click "custom updates" to make sure it shows you all of the available updates. (view all available updates, in Vista)

I know there is a "how often do I defrag" thread, but it's lengthy. I just do it every month so I know it's OK. (there are also utilities that will warn you if you are getting to a certain % of fragmentation on your hard drive, so you won't have to remember to go check)

I don't post here often but I couldn't resist this one. Best part bolded by myself. You are one of the few like myself that actually do this. I used to run a high volume shop before and I had to teach others how and why to do this. By constantly touching and rechecking all connections you circumvent so many other potential issues - be it loose connections or electrostatic discharging. I must be one of a handful that can build complicated rigs first time and always leave the side covers on and rarely have an issue., because  --- 1) I know what parts work best together and any small changes that might need to be made in the bios (research), and 2) when building I recheck ALL connections 4-5 times before ever booting up, including rechecking front panel wires.

I'm not an IT technician although I see this like, 8 times in a day on IRC (linux distro channels, I help out with things mostly on suse and arch).

So, John Doe learns of this thing called linux "Well this looks cool, I'm gonna install it!" and the next thing you know they've royally screwed up their computer. They freak out and download an IRC client (onto another computer or into the liveCD environment), and when they're in IRC, they expect you to do every single thing for them and magically solve their problem. They're almost always too lazy to read a webpage. "Sir, here is the solution to your ploblem, please read *webpage*" and they're like "Y AREN'T YOU HELPING ME!!?!??! U SUCK!!! :( :( :( :(". And they're totally clueless. "wats sudo???" "wats this comand do??? looks unsafe i dont trust u" "I DONT SEE MY C DRIVE OMG I THINK ITS GONE." They have to be spoonfed. Plus, sometimes they don't even know what's inside their computer ("What's your graphics card?" "I dunno" "run '$ lspci, $ lspci -v, $ lspci -v | less' in terminal" "Where's terminal?")

More times than I could count, some guy has actually completely reformatted their windows drive, or wrecked the filesystem, hadn't made a backup, etc. And I can't forget how many times people come in asking how to burn the CD... come on!

Seriously, please, it's good to try out new things, but you should at least read up on linux basics first, and even before that, know a little about computing! And don't try to jump into something like arch if you're a newbie to it, try a distro more for beginners (i.e. Ubuntu). Finally in the end, try to have a good reason to install a distro on your system. Sorry for the rant, it's just.... sheesh.

I should also mention, what every Windows user should know, if yo1u're downloading a torrent or you really feel that you must pirate, try to make sure the torrent is legit, scan the  files after you download, and just steer clear from limewire. It will save a lot of pain.

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I love this thread. I usually do not post here but I just had to post something we all sometimes see. Yesterday (Fathers Day BBQ at in laws) They all lie in wait for me "My computer is so slow, it takes 15 minutes to boot, "my computer is broken" .

How many of us hear that and then find conflicting anti virus programs, stuff put on by "Free Scans" Yahoo toolbar along with Google toolbar and all kinds of call home applications. Apple stuff running in the background that came with their kids iPod. three instant messengers all starting up on boot , a hundred icons on the desktop and more.

Honestly, my next purchase is a t shirt that says "Hell No I will Not Fix Your Computer" " I am just here for the beer"

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Asus Commando, QX6700@2.93, 4GB Corsair PC28500 Dom, Tt Armor case, BFG 1KW PSU, BFG 8800GTX OC, 2 Raptors in RAID 0 for OS and Apps & 2 Raptors in SATA for music and graphic files and a WD7500AAKS (.75Tb) for large files, video files and back up, X-Fi, 2 Samsung monitors 245t and 244t's @ 1920 X 1200, Plextor opticals, Aerocool, Zalman, Etc. Vista Ultimate SP-1

I solved that one like this: my dear friends and family get a discount, but they DO pay like all my customers. Why? Because when I didn't charge them, I used to spend most of my time either fixing theirs machines for free or listening on the phone to the symptoms. Now when they call I usually say: I can't fix that over the phone, you need to bring it over. They know when they bring it over, I will charge. I do it depending of their income, but I do it, so they know I deserve respect as a professional and I won't allow anybody to abuse my time. So far no complains, well, if anyone does, I don't have a problem with them going to the closest Best Buy.

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ladytekki:

I solved that one like this: my dear friends and family get a discount, but they DO pay like all my customers. Why? Because when I didn't charge them, I used to spend most of my time either fixing theirs machines for free or listening on the phone to the symptoms. Now when they call I usually say: I can't fix that over the phone, you need to bring it over. They know when they bring it over, I will charge. I do it depending of their income, but I do it, so they know I deserve respect as a professional and I won't allow anybody to abuse my time. So far no complains, well, if anyone does, I don't have a problem with them going to the closest Best Buy.

And in the end they'll have no problem paying 10x as much money to Geek Squad.

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In that case I really don't care, it is their money so if they want to spend it that way it is their choice. At least I'm not giving away my time, and effort for free.  As far as I know they are smarter than that. They trust my expertise, anybody who know me, and see first hand how I deal with my customers, would prefer my services,  specially if  it  is  at  a  reduced  price.  I'm  very  clear  with everyone,  I usually tell them how much time and effort will take me to fix it, and I would never recommend an upgrade they wouldn't really need. Besides,  they  know  I  have  bills to  pay.

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