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You know what pisses me off!!!

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Originally posted by: Trygve
So you put the drive into another computer and back it up that way. It's not tough, as long as the customer's willing to pay for it.
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where can i get a step by step process about doing this?
 
Originally posted by: PanzerIV

But wait, you aren't doing it for free. You are getting paid your wage to be there and do work.
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It's not company related and therefore I shouldn't be required to do it. By that logic, Crucial, if you repaired washers and I was your boss I could bring my washer in for you to work on for free. Maybe not the best example but you should see my point. I do computer work on the side too and they are basically taking profits from me.
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I guess I assumed your boss was the owner. If it's just a manager or other coporate dweeb then I can see your point.
 
Originally posted by: igowerf
What's wrong with WinXP Home Edition? To most home users, it's identical to Pro.
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But to those of us who would like to use our filedumps as part of maintaining the machine, it's a PITA. I have to crack out the fscking field service kits for XP Home boxen because it's apparently impossible to access a network share.
 
Originally posted by: Ausm
When a customer of mine takes an old P.O.S. computer which I did NOT build and proceeds to load Win XP home edition(I HATE FVCKING HOME EDITION) and loads it over the top of WinME!?!?!!?! Without even asking me what I thought about it.

then he calls me up and says one of his computers is running a little wierd. SO he brings that P.O.s over and I asked him if he loaded WinXP over WinME and he said naaaah.

ANY FUVCKING MORON COULD HAVE FIGURED THAT OUT. The Goddamn P.O.S. what giving me the B.S.O.D every time I tried to start and app or restart his machine.

He wants me to backup all his data on it...Yeah right . The motha fvcka crashes every 30 seconds. I told him the only way i was going to fix this hunk of sh!t was to reformat it....then he got pissed at me?!?!!?

I told him that was the best I could do since he royally fvcked up the machine.

Some people should NOT us a PC!

Ausm
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Gimme a break. It's easy money. Now, if he's wanting you to fix it gratis, that's another story but as long as he's willing to pay be happy.

It's not every day a customer breaks something so bad that you have to fix it. I'd liken this situation to taking your engine apart then pushing your car to the mechanic, so he can put it back together again.
 
0/10 rant. allow me to paraphrase it:

"OH NOOOEEESSSS!!!! I FIX COMPUTERS FOR MONEY AND SOMEONE NEEDS THEIR COMPUTER FIXED!!!!!!!111! WHAT AN ASSHOLE, CAN'T HE SEE I'M TOO BUSY LOOKING AT GOATSE??!?!!!?!1?"

honestly, i will never understand people who work on computers complaining when their customer doesn't know about computers. that's why they hire you, you idiot. if they knew about computers you'd be out of a job. that's a like a mechanic complaining because some guy tried to change his own oil and messed up his engine. you should be saying "JACKPOT!"
 
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
0/10 rant. allow me to paraphrase it:

"OH NOOOEEESSSS!!!! I FIX COMPUTERS FOR MONEY AND SOMEONE NEEDS THEIR COMPUTER FIXED!!!!!!!111! WHAT AN ASSHOLE, CAN'T HE SEE I'M TOO BUSY LOOKING AT GOATSE??!?!!!?!1?"

honestly, i will never understand people who work on computers complaining when their customer doesn't know about computers. that's why they hire you, you idiot. if they knew about computers you'd be out of a job. that's a like a mechanic complaining because some guy tried to change his own oil and messed up his engine. you should be saying "JACKPOT!"
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Exactly.

If you choose to engage in the PC repair field you will run across some idiots.

I only charge $30 an hour BUT I am very selective on what work I will take.

I had someone ask if I would look at there system and I told them I would give them a free estimate and then it was $30 an hour plus parts. Her friend suggested that sahe knew someone who would fix it for free. I told her I would not look at her PC after someone who had done the work for free.

I take great pride in providing top nottch service and to be honest I have no issue telling a customer that yeah this is hosed and you should not have done this. I have told people that some times when someone offers to help you should decline duie to there added costs I will charge them.

If you want to do repairs jsut do it. I have an easy to open system just for this reason you are giving. Pull the data wipe the drive and be done with it. Should not take you long at all. I had a system on my bench about two weeks ago that had been fux by someone else. I pulled the dat aand reinstalled XP HOME (they had home) and after about 4 hours I was installing there quicken and works. BTW XP HOme is great for HOME USERS which is why it is called HOME.

Tell me one thing that a HOME user needs in pro that is not in home.
 
Originally posted by: tm37
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
0/10 rant. allow me to paraphrase it:

"OH NOOOEEESSSS!!!! I FIX COMPUTERS FOR MONEY AND SOMEONE NEEDS THEIR COMPUTER FIXED!!!!!!!111! WHAT AN ASSHOLE, CAN'T HE SEE I'M TOO BUSY LOOKING AT GOATSE??!?!!!?!1?"

honestly, i will never understand people who work on computers complaining when their customer doesn't know about computers. that's why they hire you, you idiot. if they knew about computers you'd be out of a job. that's a like a mechanic complaining because some guy tried to change his own oil and messed up his engine. you should be saying "JACKPOT!"
Click to expand...

Exactly.

If you choose to engage in the PC repair field you will run across some idiots.

I only charge $30 an hour BUT I am very selective on what work I will take.

I had someone ask if I would look at there system and I told them I would give them a free estimate and then it was $30 an hour plus parts. Her friend suggested that sahe knew someone who would fix it for free. I told her I would not look at her PC after someone who had done the work for free.

I take great pride in providing top nottch service and to be honest I have no issue telling a customer that yeah this is hosed and you should not have done this. I have told people that some times when someone offers to help you should decline duie to there added costs I will charge them.

If you want to do repairs jsut do it. I have an easy to open system just for this reason you are giving. Pull the data wipe the drive and be done with it. Should not take you long at all. I had a system on my bench about two weeks ago that had been fux by someone else. I pulled the dat aand reinstalled XP HOME (they had home) and after about 4 hours I was installing there quicken and works. BTW XP HOme is great for HOME USERS which is why it is called HOME.

Tell me one thing that a HOME user needs in pro that is not in home.
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The ability for PROFESSIONALS to service it without additional headaches.

And quite frankly, I agree with the OP. If you work in this business and don't pick and choose customers, you NEED to attack them like this, or it'll drive you fvcking nuts.

My new machines sell with either MCE or Pro by default. Home is by request ONLY and the warranty is different (I guarantee a turnaround time for Pro and MCE, but not Home because it's such a pain to use removable media)
 
Wow I have never had problems working with or repairing xphome machines. I don't get the seething hatred towards them.

Do you build MCE boxes or just resell them?
 
Am I the only one here who doesn't understand why XP Home is more difficult to work on than Pro? I mean, I know what Home is missing WRT Pro, I just don't understand what difference it makes when it comes to repairs. SMP support, Remote Desktop Connection, software RAID, VPN, IIS, am I missing something?
 
Originally posted by: TerryMathews
Am I the only one here who doesn't understand why XP Home is more difficult to work on than Pro? I mean, I know what Home is missing WRT Pro, I just don't understand what difference it makes when it comes to repairs. SMP support, Remote Desktop Connection, software RAID, VPN, IIS, am I missing something?
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Apparently It handles removable meadia differently.
 
Originally posted by: thomsbrain

The ability for PROFESSIONALS to service it without additional headaches.

And quite frankly, I agree with the OP. If you work in this business and don't pick and choose customers, you NEED to attack them like this, or it'll drive you fvcking nuts.

My new machines sell with either MCE or Pro by default. Home is by request ONLY and the warranty is different (I guarantee a turnaround time for Pro and MCE, but not Home because it's such a pain to use removable media)
Click to expand...


You get paid to do it.

You don't want the headaches turn down the work, or else you go nuts. really there are enough people out there that will gladly take the work hell they might even be nice about it 😉

There are a few reason that I choose not to do comp repairs full time.

1. in general the public does not have a clue to fixng minor issues.
2. easy problems are usually fixed by a friend while difficult problems are usually caused by a friend fixing a minor problem

I repair medical equiptment and I assure you technical knowledge is something the country is lacking but hey it pays the bills. I tend to laugh at stupidity and realize that the stupidity of other keeps me employed. I am surprised no one has wrote a folk song about that 😉
 
partition software of choice.. boot and make new *data* partition

Then ntfsdos and back up software....

Then format and install XP pro

Charge $250 or so....
 
Originally posted by: tm37
Originally posted by: thomsbrain

The ability for PROFESSIONALS to service it without additional headaches.

And quite frankly, I agree with the OP. If you work in this business and don't pick and choose customers, you NEED to attack them like this, or it'll drive you fvcking nuts.

My new machines sell with either MCE or Pro by default. Home is by request ONLY and the warranty is different (I guarantee a turnaround time for Pro and MCE, but not Home because it's such a pain to use removable media)
Click to expand...


You get paid to do it.

You don't want the headaches turn down the work, or else you go nuts. really there are enough people out there that will gladly take the work hell they might even be nice about it 😉

There are a few reason that I choose not to do comp repairs full time.

1. in general the public does not have a clue to fixng minor issues.
2. easy problems are usually fixed by a friend while difficult problems are usually caused by a friend fixing a minor problem

I repair medical equiptment and I assure you technical knowledge is something the country is lacking but hey it pays the bills. I tend to laugh at stupidity and realize that the stupidity of other keeps me employed. I am surprised no one has wrote a folk song about that 😉
Click to expand...

I agree, when all the techs are around bitching about this call or that in house unit or this customer, i join in with the bitching and then when we're done say "well, if it wasn't for stupid (and by that i mean non-computer savvy people, not stupid in other fields) people we wouldn't have a job" and they look at me funny and don't say much else once they realize
 
fixing royally screwed up computers sucks. its much better to go from scratch. tell them its $85/hour or whatever the rate is.. and see how much he wants his data backed up then...
 
Originally posted by: tm37
Originally posted by: thomsbrain
0/10 rant. allow me to paraphrase it:

"OH NOOOEEESSSS!!!! I FIX COMPUTERS FOR MONEY AND SOMEONE NEEDS THEIR COMPUTER FIXED!!!!!!!111! WHAT AN ASSHOLE, CAN'T HE SEE I'M TOO BUSY LOOKING AT GOATSE??!?!!!?!1?"

honestly, i will never understand people who work on computers complaining when their customer doesn't know about computers. that's why they hire you, you idiot. if they knew about computers you'd be out of a job. that's a like a mechanic complaining because some guy tried to change his own oil and messed up his engine. you should be saying "JACKPOT!"
Click to expand...

Exactly.

If you choose to engage in the PC repair field you will run across some idiots.

I only charge $30 an hour BUT I am very selective on what work I will take.

I had someone ask if I would look at there system and I told them I would give them a free estimate and then it was $30 an hour plus parts. Her friend suggested that sahe knew someone who would fix it for free. I told her I would not look at her PC after someone who had done the work for free.

I take great pride in providing top nottch service and to be honest I have no issue telling a customer that yeah this is hosed and you should not have done this. I have told people that some times when someone offers to help you should decline duie to there added costs I will charge them.

If you want to do repairs jsut do it. I have an easy to open system just for this reason you are giving. Pull the data wipe the drive and be done with it. Should not take you long at all. I had a system on my bench about two weeks ago that had been fux by someone else. I pulled the dat aand reinstalled XP HOME (they had home) and after about 4 hours I was installing there quicken and works. BTW XP HOme is great for HOME USERS which is why it is called HOME.

Tell me one thing that a HOME user needs in pro that is not in home.
Click to expand...



If I only charged 30/hr I would loose my ass.

Ausm
 

I had a computer come back to me that wouldn't boot. Sure 'nuff, power button = nothing. I swap out power supply, CPU, memory. Nothing. Then I try these parts individually on some working hardware and everything worked. Me thinks its the board so I before I pull it, I slap a known working CPU/memory combo in and to start it up, I short the power header on the mobo. She starts right up. Now, I'm thinking it's the power on button on the front of the case, but before I go digging, I reconnected the power switch header to the mobo. Yuppers, she fires right up...

Cliff's notes: The little bastard wanted a new computer so he moved the power switch header, possibly hoping to burn up this computer and told his mom his computer was teh broke. It ran just fine once the spyware/malware/pR0n was removed...Yes, this was a freebie.
 
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