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The "Family PC expert" rant!

DAPUNISHER

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
Super Moderator
Do you ever have to go work on someone's system because they trusted the family PC Guru to upgrade their OS or install hardware and fvcked it up but good? Lately it's been trying to upgrade 98 to XP pro and discovering the audio, video, modem, ect, are no longer working correctly or at all. Of course it's a simple matter of hunting down the drivers they need or slapping in a cheap PCI card or something else as trivial to solve the problem but the "expert" didn't understand what went wrong since he upgraded his system without incident :roll:

Some of you are nodding by now, and it always gets worse dosen't it? They usually do this upgrade on a system that barely meets the minimum specs, has an old, slow, badly fragmented HDD, and 128mb of SDRAM so that after the upgrade the swap file on that old dog is getting used constantly and doing anything can be timed with a sun dial.

It's always the upgrade version of XP of course, because they aren't bright enough to find a full OEM copy online for less than they paid for the upgrade@the local Computer superstore. Then when you get to working on it you always find the expert didn't even open the case and clean it out of the 1/2kg of dust clogging everything.

OK, I feel a little better now.
 
i am my family's PC expert. the last user complaint came from my mom, who said she couldnt turn the computer on. i simply told her to press the power button on the case, not on the monitor. problem fixed.

as i said, i am a PC expert!
 
At one point, that would've been me. 😉 I used to seriously mess my computer (meaning my parents' computer) up and then bring it back from the dead, sometimes over the span of a week or two. The key difference being that I never got it to the point where we had to have someone come in and fix it. There's no way that I'd know anything about computers had I not broken that one all to hell and back -- I can directly owe my career to that.

But then I wasn't dumb enough to not have drivers on hand. 😛
 
dont even get me started with this stuff. i get calls from family members, friends, ect saying how their co-workers kid came over to fix it, blah blah blah.

these kids make my life a living hell 🙁
 
Originally posted by: Strangone
At one point, that would've been me. 😉 I used to seriously mess my computer (meaning my parents' computer) up and then bring it back from the dead, sometimes over the span of a week or two. The key difference being that I never got it to the point where we had to have someone come in and fix it. There's no way that I'd know anything about computers had I not broken that one all to hell and back -- I can directly owe my career to that.

But then I wasn't dumb enough to not have drivers on hand. 😛
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A week or two? Now-a-days users freak if they can't get on the net for 2hrs 😉 Times have changed and taking weeks to correct problems is unacceptable to many people. Some of my clients do everything from their finances and stock/401k managment to distance learning, and the usual e-mail, surfing, pRon thing. Can you imagine? a week with no intarweb pRon?!? 😛
 
Originally posted by: stev0
dont even get me started with this stuff. i get calls from family members, friends, ect saying how their co-workers kid came over to fix it, blah blah blah.

these kids make my life a living hell 🙁
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A kindred spirit :beer: We can go on a finger breaking spree together! :evil:
 
My dad asked me what he would do if there wasn't somebody like me to fix his.

I told him he would have to pay someone to screw it up even worse rather than have somebody fix it right the first time for free.

I don't charge enough...
 
Originally posted by: Dead3ye
My dad asked me what he would do if there wasn't somebody like me to fix his.

I told him he would have to pay someone to screw it up even worse rather than have somebody fix it right the first time for free.

I don't charge enough...
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You will find the only difference between you and many many techs is that they charge enough 😉
 
I am lucky, I have my family trained enough so that unless I bring it in, install it, or send via email, they do not install anything.

But I do get calls from everyone else in the Acworth Area, so many that my wife has been able to stay home with our son the first 2 years of his life.
 
Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Originally posted by: stev0
dont even get me started with this stuff. i get calls from family members, friends, ect saying how their co-workers kid came over to fix it, blah blah blah.

these kids make my life a living hell 🙁
Click to expand...
A kindred spirit :beer: We can go on a finger breaking spree together! :evil:
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I was thinking something along the lines of knees... but fingers will work too I guess 🙁

I don't do any work for the family...to much of a pain in the ass.

Sysadmin
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I try not to, but sometimes you just can't avoid it. Family members can be tricky! I remember one time I was over for a dinner with my parents at my aunts house. The next thing you know shes talking about a computer problem and is like "well since your already here!"

... bast4rds :|
 
I still have a few "family and friends" PC jobs floating around from the past. But I will not take on any new residential jobs family, friend, or other!
 
I always get relatives saying "Oh you should do this and this to help us out, stop by sometime!" and I nod and say how great that would be. Then I just never call them...
 
Originally posted by: skace
I always get relatives saying "Oh you should do this and this to help us out, stop by sometime!" and I nod and say how great that would be. Then I just never call them...
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Hahaha nice! I need a 1000 excuses why I couldn't fix your PC T-shirt 😀
 
Originally posted by: stev0
dont even get me started with this stuff. i get calls from family members, friends, ect saying how their co-workers kid came over to fix it, blah blah blah.

these kids make my life a living hell 🙁
Click to expand...

Same deal here...My friends call my cell phone 24/7 thinking I'm there god damn tech support!!! I hate it. I know alot about computers but I'm not bragging or anything but I hate helping people nowadays cuz it happens so much...Most of the time in my case its something I can tell them over the phone, but theres been manytimes that i had to make house calls and stufff....it gets irritating after you keep going abck to the one person and find that its the same problem everytime in my case that happens to my cousins and i explain to her to not download kazaa and sh!t but they don't listen......blahhhh'





Blahhh
Palak
 
Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
Originally posted by: Dead3ye
My dad asked me what he would do if there wasn't somebody like me to fix his.

I told him he would have to pay someone to screw it up even worse rather than have somebody fix it right the first time for free.

I don't charge enough...
Click to expand...
You will find the only difference between you and many many techs is that they charge enough 😉
Click to expand...


Yeah, I didn't mean it as a dig against all techs, but most of the local ones around here haven't got a clue, or they count on the person who owns the computer to be utterly PC unaware that they can do and charge whatever they want. I've seen some wild stuff done to machines that just needed something simple done to them.
 
yeah i hate that!

I have been my in-laws tech guy for years!

About a year ago maybe two. one of my sister-in-laws was dating a guy who claimed to have a degree in CS. Well my in-laws were having trouble with the computer running really slow. I was over looking at it (needed a defrag and some stuff removed). Well this guy comes up and takes a look at what I'm doing.
He goes "oh thats the problem they have all those programs open!" and points to the icons on the desktop :Q ! I told him nope that was not it.
he said he knew what he was talking about since he has a degree.
I told him a degree from a cracker jack box does not count and he might want to ask for his money back.
I also asked him if he has a CS degree why is he working in construction making $12 an hour?

he just stormed off and left the house heh
My sister-in-law got mad at me.
But thats OK nobody liked the moron anyway!
 
Originally posted by: waggy
yeah i hate that!

I have been my in-laws tech guy for years!

About a year ago maybe two. one of my sister-in-laws was dating a guy who claimed to have a degree in CS. Well my in-laws were having trouble with the computer running really slow. I was over looking at it (needed a defrag and some stuff removed). Well this guy comes up and takes a look at what I'm doing.
He goes "oh thats the problem they have all those programs open!" and points to the icons on the desktop :Q ! I told him nope that was not it.
he said he knew what he was talking about since he has a degree.
I told him a degree from a cracker jack box does not count and he might want to ask for his money back.
I also asked him if he has a CS degree why is he working in construction making $12 an hour?

he just stormed off and left the house heh
My sister-in-law got mad at me.
But thats OK nobody liked the moron anyway!
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:laugh: That's a great story! Short and very funny :beer:


Yeah, I didn't mean it as a dig against all techs, but most of the local ones around here haven't got a clue, or they count on the person who owns the computer to be utterly PC unaware that they can do and charge whatever they want. I've seen some wild stuff done to machines that just needed something simple done to them.
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You will get no argument there, while I respect most the techs around here who do on-site service I wouldn't let the goobers in the mom&pop shops here install a stick of ram for me.
 
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