Winston_Smith
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From reading these boards I've seen hat the issue of bad computer techs is a growing problem. I've been looking into starting a computer repair buisness in my area. The reason I'm looking to start a repair buisness is because of stories I've heard about the other repair shops in the area.
One charges way to much for sub standard service, A person I worked with had their computer "fixed" by this tech. They took the computer in, she tried booting it and it hung at the windows screen. She turns to the guy and tells him she needs to reinstall windows, you can pick it up tomarrow. He went back to pick it up the next day and she had not even touched it, he managed to get it back 3 days later and she charged him $400. He was still having problems with it, so I took a look at it. The drivers for the sound card and modem had not even been installed, she gave him a dvd with his data on it, never told him how he was supposed to put it back on the pc. So I installed the drivers, did all the security updates (had to install SP2, she had installed xp SP1) and got all his data back onto the pc. The other shop just looks like a joke, the website is very unprofessional. It's got annoying flashing GIF's, a layout from 1995 and the navigation is more of a maze than anything.
So I'm looking to start my own repair shop.
My experience consists of the following.
Removal of malware and adware, I've fixed many computers that have been infected with malware.
Installing Hardware, I've built 30+ computers from scratch. Mostly taking 20 computers and making 5 computers. Installed cd/dvd/blue-ray drives, HDD, PSU's, Memory, CPU's, Video cards, Sound cards, USB cards, Raid controllers and many others.
Reinstalling Windows 95/98/2000/XP, Drivers, Security updates, software, back-up and reinstall of data.
Network setup, setting up wireless and wired networks. I have a home network with 5 computers, 2 XP, 2 Linux and 1 Vista. I've setup Samba shares, one of the linux boxes is a media/file/print server. I just setup a wireless router for a older friend of mine that works in IT, he spent 2 hours trying to get it to work. I had it done in 5 minutes, just had to set the dsl modem to bridge mode, plug in the wireless router and set it up.
Building/tearing apart computers, I've torn apart more computers than I can count. I like to pickup computers I find sitting outside buisnesses (I ask before taking, some say no a lot say fine) and try and get them working. More often than not I can get them working, then I put them on the network and fart around with them. Until I get to many built up, then I'm told to "get ride of some of them f$$ing computers". I managed to get a nice server from my last job, the server had just up and crashed one day. They called in their tech guy, who looked at the computer tried a few things and said well your going to need a new computer this one's fried. So I said can I have that computer, took it home opened it up and it was packed with dust. Took it apart cleaned everything up and put it back together, it's still running 2 years later (this is my linux media/file/print server).
Linux, Installing Linux, dual boot and full drive. USB thumb live with persistent file systems, Live SD install with persistend files system. I've been using linux as my main OS for 2 years now. I use Ubuntu 9.04 and windows XP on my main desktop and eeebuntu and backtrack 3 on my laptop.
I just don't want to be some two bit tech, I plan on getting a site designed along with some cards and some small add's for posting up around town. I'm fairly confident in my ability's to fix computers, I've ran into some tricky problems. I'd like to make sure i'm up to par before starting out, but how to do that? I can pass the A+, I've read 3 books on it and have passed all the practice tests that I could find. But the drive to the nearest testing center last time I checked is 3 hours, and from what I've seen people say A+ is not even worth it.
One charges way to much for sub standard service, A person I worked with had their computer "fixed" by this tech. They took the computer in, she tried booting it and it hung at the windows screen. She turns to the guy and tells him she needs to reinstall windows, you can pick it up tomarrow. He went back to pick it up the next day and she had not even touched it, he managed to get it back 3 days later and she charged him $400. He was still having problems with it, so I took a look at it. The drivers for the sound card and modem had not even been installed, she gave him a dvd with his data on it, never told him how he was supposed to put it back on the pc. So I installed the drivers, did all the security updates (had to install SP2, she had installed xp SP1) and got all his data back onto the pc. The other shop just looks like a joke, the website is very unprofessional. It's got annoying flashing GIF's, a layout from 1995 and the navigation is more of a maze than anything.
So I'm looking to start my own repair shop.
My experience consists of the following.
Removal of malware and adware, I've fixed many computers that have been infected with malware.
Installing Hardware, I've built 30+ computers from scratch. Mostly taking 20 computers and making 5 computers. Installed cd/dvd/blue-ray drives, HDD, PSU's, Memory, CPU's, Video cards, Sound cards, USB cards, Raid controllers and many others.
Reinstalling Windows 95/98/2000/XP, Drivers, Security updates, software, back-up and reinstall of data.
Network setup, setting up wireless and wired networks. I have a home network with 5 computers, 2 XP, 2 Linux and 1 Vista. I've setup Samba shares, one of the linux boxes is a media/file/print server. I just setup a wireless router for a older friend of mine that works in IT, he spent 2 hours trying to get it to work. I had it done in 5 minutes, just had to set the dsl modem to bridge mode, plug in the wireless router and set it up.
Building/tearing apart computers, I've torn apart more computers than I can count. I like to pickup computers I find sitting outside buisnesses (I ask before taking, some say no a lot say fine) and try and get them working. More often than not I can get them working, then I put them on the network and fart around with them. Until I get to many built up, then I'm told to "get ride of some of them f$$ing computers". I managed to get a nice server from my last job, the server had just up and crashed one day. They called in their tech guy, who looked at the computer tried a few things and said well your going to need a new computer this one's fried. So I said can I have that computer, took it home opened it up and it was packed with dust. Took it apart cleaned everything up and put it back together, it's still running 2 years later (this is my linux media/file/print server).
Linux, Installing Linux, dual boot and full drive. USB thumb live with persistent file systems, Live SD install with persistend files system. I've been using linux as my main OS for 2 years now. I use Ubuntu 9.04 and windows XP on my main desktop and eeebuntu and backtrack 3 on my laptop.
I just don't want to be some two bit tech, I plan on getting a site designed along with some cards and some small add's for posting up around town. I'm fairly confident in my ability's to fix computers, I've ran into some tricky problems. I'd like to make sure i'm up to par before starting out, but how to do that? I can pass the A+, I've read 3 books on it and have passed all the practice tests that I could find. But the drive to the nearest testing center last time I checked is 3 hours, and from what I've seen people say A+ is not even worth it.
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