A Quick Reference Guide to Effective PC Maintenance / Service.

Phil Benwell says:

I disagree with alot of the comments above, now I’m no expert but I certainly can figure my way around the PC but occasionally do get stumped. If I took my PC in for a tune up/fixing and had all this done I would be impressed more than anything. The re-branding would show me that the company cared enough about their work that they stick their name on that work each and every time. The list also looks very decent.

So where do I fetch my PC?

JohnR says:

I would stab the technician who did most of that to my machine – in particular, the passwording and the rebranding? And the little things like enabling numlock – if that’s disabled, it means the owner disabled it. Why would you reset that?

And, of course, there’s the problem of you sticking stickers on my case, that then leave stuff behind when they’re removed? You’d be there with a putty knife scraping those things off LONG before you saw a cent in payment. Damage my case and then expect me to be happy about it? Hell no!

Of course, I’d never take my computer in for a tune-up, but if I did, all that stuff you’re doing that has nothing to do with fixing the problems and everything to do with making sure you get more business would royally cheese me off. Not only would you lose my business, you’d lose the business of everyone I could tell.

And I can tell a whole lot of people.

Hank says:

The re-branding bit I can see goin either way with customers and then the password setting in BIOS and on Administrator is easy enough to explain away if they call about it. There is no problem with it if you provide the password at the end of the work. The hint to call is becuase the tech sets it to a standard and might keep papers better then the customer. If a customer already has thier own I would leave it as is. BIOS well as long as they never have to type it in unless they need in it also makes sense. The majority of our customers won’t even know that BIOS is there to begin with. It is a security measure. Now for Numlock bit there are machines that oddly enough defualt to numlock off at boot instead of on out of the box and most people want it on. It agian is a simple appology and inform them it is just part of your standard process as most of your customers are glad to have that set. You can talk them through it or they will have done it themselves or you make a no charge visit to correct it.

ColinB says:

A few short comments.
I to would not like the re-branding of my PC, many people (including those who are not too tech savy) would not like this. To these people a personal computer is exactly that… personal.
I doubt I’d be happy with so many new programs being left on my machine, but that just me. However in the same time I think you could get a few calls from people give a “Holy Moly! What the heck is this on my PC that’s updating!”. Please tell me you give everyone a complete list of everything you have done to their PC?

Nathan H says:

ColinB raised a good issue, I feel obliged to reply.

I give my customers a full report of what I have done to their PC and Why,

I uninstall everything except:
Skype
Spybot S&D
Adaware
Crossloop
Ispell
Foxit (If they have no PDF Reader)
and AVG if they have no AV.

99.9% of my customers are very happy with this, in fact I have only had 2 people ask me to remove something, which i did at no extra cost to them.

I have had customers ring and ask for there Administrator P/W which I give them, It has lead to work but only after the customers have tried and failed at what they are doing (not because they had no access to the passwords)

Mrinal, Your welcome..

Hank, you get it.. That’s exactly how I operate!

L.Ward says:

If branding and passwording are so tacky, I guess we all need to send Dell, HP, Acer, Toshiba,Mac’s etc, etc an e-mail and tell them all to stom branding , password protecting, and putting basic support and contact information on all those computers.

Jim Boyd says:

Well after being in business for 19 years, and a having a Masters degree in my field, I’m pretty sure I am qualified to make my own decisions without asking the senior members of this board and I am well aware of the existence of obsolete equipment owned by customers.

I stand behind my statements above such massive software installation is completely unnecessary and a massive waits of time and billable hours. The branding and passwording of equipment for the purpose of sales is tacky at best. It

Steve Elliott says:

I guess it’s personal thing, some like to fiddle, others are happy to leave things be unless there is a major problem.

It’s the latter catagory for me. I have spent too many hours cleaning up and defragmenting, only to realise that increase effficieny and speed (if there are any improvements at all!) will never get back the time spent in the first place.

My current rig hasn’t really been tidied up for a year or more and still runs like a dream.

By the time it needs sorting, it will be time to upgrade to a new machine !

Jimbo says:

I’m in the crowd that thinks some of the software changes are a bit too much. I almost completely disagree with every point that says “Install…” Hardware advice is spot on, though.

Automatically removing Norton AV or McAfee AV, despite how much you dislike them, is unfair to the customer. It’s best to help them make an informed decision, not automatically remove something based on your preferences. I almost always let people know that they’re really poor products and recommend something better….but I recommend. That’s key.

Next: Installing Skype with the veiled purpose of selling a webcam or skype phone is a bit sleazy. I know you’re in business to make money, but you should sell first THEN install the product, in my opinion. I’d be willing to bet that a good portion of the people that’ve had it installed don’t use it.

Installing all of those antispyware programs is counter productive. If you want to do a scan, you should build a BartPE or other PE disc, do your scan from that, then maybe choose the antispyware tool you trust the most to be installed. Each one of those has a service running by default.

I think branding the IE Bar and adding your own icon to the start menu is a bit too much. Branding in the System properties is ok, though I wouldn’t do it myself. The sticker, to me, really just seems like a way to enforce your warranty/rework policy.

I think, generally speaking, the bad vibes I’m getting from your list are that you seem to just install and make all of these changes without giving your customer the option. The computer is theirs, not yours. If I misunderstood, and you go over everything you intend to do (and let them pick and choose, if they like), then no harm no foul. One of the things computer techs seem to forget is that even though something may be technically superior, useful, or whatever…the end user needs to feel comfortable with their system and may be frustrated if you change something they use or are used to.

Carl Lutes says:

@Nathan,

I’ve only been in business for myself for less than a year, I’m curious as to what the charge would be for this multiple hour tune and clean. I do one for about $90 but it’s nowhere near as extensive.

Thanks

Carl Lutes,
pcConsultants of Louisville

gunslinger says:

I don’t agree with installing lots of software on a customers PC. Thats why most of the programs I use are portable. As for branding, I can see it if I build the PC. I also love to see some of the rates being tossed around on here. $90 for a clean up? Wow, thats about what the local shops get for a reinstall here. If you quoted someone that price here they would laugh you out of town. The cost of living is much lower here. Its very rare to see anyone making more than $20-30 an hour for anything.

Blogging HQ says:

I’m definitely going to save this for later as I have my own methods of maintaining/repairing my PC, but nothing as concrete as this.

In fact, I think *most* computer users should have a resource such as this because far too often expensive computers break down, or suffer from sub-standard performance due to lack of maintenance, mostly because the majority of computer owners out there know nothing about maintaining a computer for long-term use.

And, this is even more of a problem since the world has seemingly gone “broadband”, which is by no means a bad thing, but increases the risk for computer “infection” by far.

San Diego PC Repair says:

Interesting discussion. Unless I’m missing it, do you do any sort of data backup for the customer besides setting the system restore point? My biggest fear in working on other people’s machines is losing their data (sometimes it’s not even your fault). Everything else can be replaced.

I’ve been using Drive Image XML (free) and have been very pleased with it. It runs quickly and I haven’t had any problems with the drives that I’ve restored. It sure beats paying for multiple licenses of Ghost, Acronis, etc. Has anyone else used it?

Dave says:

I agree with most here in that Nathan’s maintenance/clean up routine is WAY overkill. I have a local friend/competitor who employs a similar approach in that he always does more work than is necessary and positions himself to sell accessories as part of the deal. I know, to each his own and the bottom line is satisfied customers. He and I argue over fundemental strategies constantly as my approach is always simple, honest and addresses only issues that I can qualify. Friendly expert advice on problems is good P.R., puts people at ease and gains customers without going far beyond overboard.

Chris Robertson says:

I almost forgot;
window+pause (system properties)Advanced>Preformance>settings>custom and turn on the last 3.
c:\drive rightclick properties>turn off allow indexing service.
start>run>msconfig turn all of – turn only necessities on.

I ask first about the antivirus