Being Tech Support for Friends Sucks

[Germz]

Dude I way rather be spending my day working end user support/hardware than where I work now (service desk...serving over +50,000 users). I hate talking to people on the phone T_T

[SonofWWIIDI]

You should fix it ala the fax machine in office space.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=giuI0e-wqIc&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DgiuI0e-wqIc

[high_revs]

i don't do nothing for co-workers, friends or even family (except in-laws). maybe my brothers (family) if they come to me and it's done that day. but they get to do all the calling for any follow-up.

such support is easily abused. get nothing for it. they also never learn if there's a bail out/safety net. dust bunnies? clean the freaking thing! LOL

hope you get a nice lunch at least Peter. maybe just reformat the darn thing, put win2k on it or add ram and put win7 and be done with it. better yet and what i did for an admin at work, teach her how to do it. then she can teach someone else and so on and so on. any bios reset or something if it's just giving post?

[billofrights]

I do this for a living but I'm on staff at a school, so when something breaks if it's in warranty we just have Dell send parts, if it's out of warranty we strip the box and replace it.

That said, a huge portion of my skillset came about from taking on jobs other people didn't find "worth their time." Sometimes I fixed it, sometimes not, but I learned tremendously from it.

The A-numbah-one problem with fixing a computer for a friend, co-worker, or family is this: one you touch it, now and forever when something goes wrong it's YOUR problem. "Well it ran fine up until whatever YOU did that one time..."

[controlled_burst]

I am the IT department for my folks. They are in their 70's and while they can use a computer and understand basics, anytime something freezes or the internet goes down, I get the call.

I love my folks so its not really a big deal, but for simple stuff, its kinda annoying.

CB

[ibanezfoo]

This is why you charge for fixing things, even for friends and family. If not money, then barter goods or services.

[stilly]

I do this for a living but I'm on staff at a school, so when something breaks if it's in warranty we just have Dell send parts, if it's out of warranty we strip the box and replace it.

That said, a huge portion of my skillset came about from taking on jobs other people didn't find "worth their time." Sometimes I fixed it, sometimes not, but I learned tremendously from it.

The A-numbah-one problem with fixing a computer for a friend, co-worker, or family is this: one you touch it, now and forever when something goes wrong it's YOUR problem. "Well it ran fine up until whatever YOU did that one time..."

No doubt on the learning portion here, but you know what came back to bite me in the butt?

Hey I am A+ certified, and I know a lot (compared to the average joe anyways) about comps and networks but those LITTLE things that they ask at an interview, like, Use the MMC to change the password for the administrator account to xxxxx. Well, guess what? That is NOT fancy talk for control panel. I am SO kicking myself for messing up THAT one. But also, I have NEVER had to use MMC so I did not know, nonetheless, it was used against me when I failed to do it and now I am just waiting for my "thanks but we uhh, found someone better..." e-mail... Totally sucks. So now in order to go back and learn this stuff, I should prolly take a class or what not. OR, just push on through and maybe study some reading materials for test prep... :\ goddamn MMC.
:flickcig:

[yellowsulphur]

I'd at least tell her to keep the case off the floor. This will solve most of the dust build up problems.

[MadMax]

The A-numbah-one problem with fixing a computer for a friend, co-worker, or family is this: one you touch it, now and forever when something goes wrong it's YOUR problem. "Well it ran fine up until whatever YOU did that one time..."

This is the worst, and so true.

[Peter.Steele]

So, you were asked to do a job, and you are deciding to say **** it? It aint worth it?

Maybe there is something on there that is important. And maybe you are one of the few people that she trusts or knows that can do it. So ask for some lunch money ($20) and diagnose the damn thing.

I am not a certified tech by ANY means, but if someone gives me a comp to check out I WILL fix it or at least figure out what is wrong. Yeah so what. I am typing this up on a socket 939 machine with 4GB of RAM and a 6800 GS. What the hell is THAT supposed to mean? This computer that I am on has been up and running since 2007 and I aint about to shelve it any time soon. Machines that are old have the BEST memories (get it? ). When I was working for the city once I found two machines on the side of the road. I picked them both up and put them in the back of my city truck, then later on I took them home and started exploring. One was an e-machine and one was a pentium 3, but they both had some funny things on them. Now of course they are in the front office about to be zapped into NIX zombies...

Yeah I dunno, maybe it is just me, I like to break machines and loot their info but as a tech I see everything as a challenge and if you don't WANT to fix it, then give it over to someone that DOES want to fix it... (PM sent)

At least figure out the issue and giver HER the decision.

No, there's nothing there that's important. I've already been given blanket permission to wipe everything.

Thing is, I've also been told that there is no money available for hardware repairs, so it really doesn't matter what's wrong: she's not going to buy replacement parts. I'm not a nice enough guy to pay for replacement hardware for her out of my own pocket, and the only hardware that I have that would (potentially) be useful to her is currently installed in my desktop. Everything else is AGP & SDRAM. Never mind the fact that it's all AMD-based and not LGA775 compatible no matter what.

So, no matter what's wrong with it, if it's hardware based, it ain't getting fixed by anyone. At least it's clean though, so when she does have money either I or someone else will have an easier time dealing with it.

If it was just software issues, no problem. I can't even get it to boot from a Ubuntu live CD or USB stick. Might even be the motherboard, I'm not really sure. Pressing DEL for BIOS setup didn't do anything. Is it because it crashed before that stage, or is it because the USB port wasn't working and it never got the DEL keystroke? Who knows. Doesn't matter, because she's not buying replacement parts, and I'm not the hard-luck-sister PC repair charity.

[stilly]

No, there's nothing there that's important. I've already been given blanket permission to wipe everything.

Thing is, I've also been told that there is no money available for hardware repairs, so it really doesn't matter what's wrong: she's not going to buy replacement parts. I'm not a nice enough guy to pay for replacement hardware for her out of my own pocket, and the only hardware that I have that would (potentially) be useful to her is currently installed in my desktop. Everything else is AGP & SDRAM. Never mind the fact that it's all AMD-based and not LGA775 compatible no matter what.

So, no matter what's wrong with it, if it's hardware based, it ain't getting fixed by anyone. At least it's clean though, so when she does have money either I or someone else will have an easier time dealing with it.

If it was just software issues, no problem. I can't even get it to boot from a Ubuntu live CD or USB stick. Might even be the motherboard, I'm not really sure. Pressing DEL for BIOS setup didn't do anything. Is it because it crashed before that stage, or is it because the USB port wasn't working and it never got the DEL keystroke? Who knows. Doesn't matter, because she's not buying replacement parts, and I'm not the hard-luck-sister PC repair charity.

Well now that I know that I can sleep better. Okay. I would be the same way then. I would also yank all things off the mobo cept the ram and cpu and my custom pc speaker and see if it gives any errors. But that is me. It seems that I will keep coming back until I figure what it is that is busted. All capacitors and regulators look good? Burn/brown marks underneath?

Sorry. Anyways. You are doing great. Keep it up.

[bg]

If it won't stay on long enough even get to BIOS, it sure does sound
like hardware. Wonder if the CMOS battery is any good ? Have
you pulled the ram and just tried it with 1 stick ? Pretty old unit.
Might try a spare PSU to see if it'll lite, but it sounds like maybe
you are just going to put it on hold due to funds and I am with you
on that. I don't buy hardware unless the client gives me money up
front for parts.

[high_revs]

it's been eons since i built up a tower. isn't there a bios reset anymore on the new mobo's these days?. pull up a compressor and blow all the dust out of all the fans and power supply? or try another supply?

[stilly]

Even if the cmos battery is dead the bios should still show up, it will just tell you that the cmos checksum is incorrect or something and will want you to reset it.
possibly all that crap in there bridged some connections and maybe fried something? Maybe it caught some crazy ants and they killed the electrical components.

[the86d]

I just put Pear OS 6.1 (Ubuntu that looks like a even more simple than Apple [hence the Pear]) on an old notebook for my lady's mother. (TRY and screw THAT up... Yo! )

I figured I would try her as a Guinna-pig for what I am going to tell everyone to do from now on... run Linux, and stop paying M$ to put out a crappier OS every time.