My Diagnostics Procedure: Test Up To 20+ Computers A Day

[PCX]

Originally Posted by ljtechservices

PCX, I finally clicked on the link in your sig to see what is all about. Good job.



I think this may be the point on which the whole conversation hinges.

I wonder how many that are balking over a full diag actually have the space to follow a process as you've outlined.
As you indicated it may only take 15 minutes of actual handling of the unit to do the diags. But to take up that much bench space for a 8 hours when other things are piling up may be where the problem lies for the guys working out of their kitchens or bedrooms.

Personally, in my 12x12 office I only have bench space for 3 PC's if I squeeze them in and use one of the wall mounted big screens for one. Then again I may only do 1 PC repair a week. PC repair is a very small part of my business. Though If I was doing 4-5 a day I'd have the space to do it...

You know, thats actually a great point and I do not believe that anyone has brought it up and honest I really did not consider it. The reason why I never considered it though was because even when I was in a space that was 400sqft (first shop) I still ran a full diagnostics, but it sure took a lot of improvising. I ended up building tons of shelves with several teirs that allowed me to run all the memtests I needed as well as the motherboard tests. This freed up my benches and allowed me to keep working. I also built a machine that would allow me to test up to 8 hard drives at one time so of course that only took up a couple feet of space. So in short, I made it work. That said, I now have over 1400sqft and I find my self in the same position again trying to build more shelving and counters to make room for both repairs and diagnostics.

Anyways, I understand that the space requirements can be difficult to deal with, especially with very limited space, but it can be done in most cases. Thank you for bringing this up, I really had not considered addressing this issue. Maybe I will post a picture of what my first shop looked like and how I handeled the diagnostics.

[cypress]

I would actually love if you did that. Because I myself am starting to implent more of your diagnostic procedures. Especially when it come to testing the motherboard and video cards.

[Easy PC]

A lot of useful information.

Thank you for taking the time to share this with everyone.

[PCX]

This was my first very humble setup . . . I used to have more pictures, but all I have now is a picture of one of the corners of my old shop, but this is pretty much how all the walls looked. Keep in mind, it was like 400sqft of working space

Also included is a picture of one of the first HDD diagnostic boxes that I built. Obviously the ones we have now can do way more.

[waldo194567]

Originally Posted by PCX

Absolutely, every single time. I cannot count the number of times that customers have come in with a computer that had a software related issue and it was caused by failing hardware. I have also had several other customers come in for things like you described above and then I found that their hard drive was also failing. What are the advantages to this?

First and foremost, it covers your butt in the case the customer bring home their computer and then all of the sudden their hard drive dies. Well that obviously had nothing to do with you, but try to explain that to the customer.

What if they lost all their data as a result?

Secondly, you are looking out for the customer. Why should the customer invest so much money into a machine that is about to crap the bed? Most shops around here fix the obvious issues only to leave the customer hanging on the rest . . . which from an unethical (IMHO) stand point is a great business practice, because hopefully they will come back to them for the next repair.

In most cases, I have customers thanking me that I did not take advantage of them and that I told them everything up front, instead of wasting their time and money.

Lastly, diagnostics leads to more work. They can lead to more services and repairs or data transfers if they decided to buy a new computer instead.


Besides, how long does it really take to do this.

1 - 2 minutes pulling the hard drive and staring the test
1 - 2 minutes booting into memtest86+
1 - 2 minutes to start testing the MOBO, CPU and GPU with PC Check and PC Doctor

Sure, all in all it takes about a day to complete, but you spent maybe 5 to 10 minutes max in most cases to start the tests. Can you not afford 5 to 10 minutes of your time to take care of your customer, eliminate hardware failure out of the equation of software issues, and lastly make more money in the end?

excellent quote fully agree with you both though.

[dglick5]

This is an older thread but felt compelled to reply anyway. Although I agree that Memtest is a good diagnostics tool it is not 100%. If it does find a fault it does mean that one of the sticks (at least) has an issue.

However, if it does not find a fault, it does not mean that the sticks are okay. At least one of the sticks could still have an issue. IME, I have found that taking out the stick closest to the CPU will resolve the majority of issues that occur on or near boot-up (if it is memory related, of course) or before the other stick(s) come online. This still is not 100% but it is a very good guideline.

On another note, when taking in a new computer (even for just a tuneup), I always attempt to remember to check the event viewer - many times a failing hard drive will make itself known there (among other things) before any other symptoms occur.

[Spartan PC Services]

What are your opinions on TechUSB?

It does pre-o/s HDD and memory test from a USB drive, and also scans for viruses using (I think I read ) ClamAV. They have also teamed with our own FoolishIT to utilize a fork of D7. Seems pretty handy, just wondering what some of you veteran techs think of it's usefulness.

EDIT: Seems their website is down to prep for full launch on the 30th.
EDIT 2: Updated with more info.

[Abet Computers]

Originally Posted by PCX

Absolutely, every single time. I cannot count the number of times that customers have come in with a computer that had a software related issue and it was caused by failing hardware. I have also had several other customers come in for things like you described above and then I found that their hard drive was also failing. What are the advantages to this?

First and foremost, it covers your butt in the case the customer bring home their computer and then all of the sudden their hard drive dies. Well that obviously had nothing to do with you, but try to explain that to the customer.

What if they lost all their data as a result?

Secondly, you are looking out for the customer. Why should the customer invest so much money into a machine that is about to crap the bed? Most shops around here fix the obvious issues only to leave the customer hanging on the rest . . . which from an unethical (IMHO) stand point is a great business practice, because hopefully they will come back to them for the next repair.

In most cases, I have customers thanking me that I did not take advantage of them and that I told them everything up front, instead of wasting their time and money.

Lastly, diagnostics leads to more work. They can lead to more services and repairs or data transfers if they decided to buy a new computer instead.


Besides, how long does it really take to do this.

1 - 2 minutes pulling the hard drive and staring the test
1 - 2 minutes booting into memtest86+
1 - 2 minutes to start testing the MOBO, CPU and GPU with PC Check and PC Doctor

Sure, all in all it takes about a day to complete, but you spent maybe 5 to 10 minutes max in most cases to start the tests. Can you not afford 5 to 10 minutes of your time to take care of your customer, eliminate hardware failure out of the equation of software issues, and lastly make more money in the end?

My thought exactly!!

[brandonkick]

I've read through the first five pages.

At first I was inclined to side with those who say that a full diagnosis is wayy too much time to throw into every job. After reading and doing some thinking I have changed my opinion.

Consider this:

Most customers (like 95%+) do not know what is wrong with their computer. Almost that same amount do not know how to even accurately describe what the problem even is! So in short, the customer is usually clueless except to the fact that the computer isn't working the way they feel it should or the way it used to work for them.

To get everything setup that the OP suggests will take 10 min of your time and 8 hours (or more) of waiting. While it can be a big selling point that you can get most machines back to the customer the same day, it can be a much bigger selling point to have a low low percentage of recent repairs come back in (atleast for something you could have caught and something that is unrelated to the original problem).

So you get everything set up and start the diagnosis and find that indeed there are issues with the memory sticks, motherboard or hard drive(s). Now you can proudly say the following to the customer:

Tech: "While running a complete diagnostic, I've discovered that your hard drive is failing and could stop working at any time."

Customer: "You ran a complete diagnostic? I just wanted the porn viruses off of there?"

Tech: "It's a service I perform to every machine. I do this so that I know exactly what is wrong with the computer. I don't want to guess what might be causing a problem or just clean out the viruses and have the machine crash because of a failing hard drive I could have easily caught."

Customer: "Wow. The kid down the street just ran malwarebytes, took my money and then quit answering the phone when it happened again."

Tech: "I just want to look out for my customers." I can replace that drive and hopefully save anything important that you need before the drive does fail. It will be X for a new drive and I can have you up and running by tomorrow."

Customer: "Wow. That's great! No more neighboorhood freelance techs for me!"

You don't want customer coming back unhappy. Now if you clean all the crap out of their computer and they go and clunk it right back up, there is nothing you can do about that (except keep taking their money and keep fixing the machine). But if the hard drive fails, try explaining to them that you had no idea it was going bad.

Most of the time they are unreasonable and irrational about these things. They do not care that, in all honesty, a brand new drive out of the box could fail within days, weeks or a few months. Hard drives can crap the bed in 6 months or some can make it 10 years.

I know for a fact: The customer will appreciate the fact that you fully tested everything before they got the machine back, even if it means waiting an extra day.

P.S. : Most customers these days are willing to wait an extra day instead of paying for same day service. I know when shopping online, or sending something through the mail I usually always go with a slower service because more often then not it's either free or a small fraction of next day shipping. The exception being the one or two times I've needed something the next day.