How much do you charge for PC repairs?

[ADay2Long]

Well I wouldn't say I never format or clear the CMOS, but I try my damn hardest to find the problem, because formatting and clearing CMOS ... well you fixed it but you don't know exactly what caused it, so how can you educate your client to try and explain to him how not to redo the same mistake.

But that was with friend/family's computer where I charge them 20$ no matter what, not paid by the hour.

Sometimes I know what the problem is and the almost only solution is to format it. But as I said, it's the last option.

In my computer troubleshooting classes, formatting or clearing CMOS was an automatic fail for that day.

 

[JMCD]

I'll try using system restore, or troubleshooting in safe mode. But really beyond those 2 things I'll just wipe it. If someone really wants to preserve their install full of bloatware, by all means I'll waste my time on that. I try to keep costs down for people, and time for me.

 

[tzetsin]

I don't charge them that much.

What is retarded is all the people who just wipe all the time. Then the shit hits the fan and they don't know what to do. Well I supposed they do..... They come get me. The "wipe and reload" 'techs' don't know what to do.

I do it to "win" and to learn. Every time you wipe you learn nothing.

i can see where your coming from. I spent years doing what your talking about. I made it a personal point of pride to not have to reformat, but be able to "beat" the problem.

This is a great way to learn, and an important skill as you'll not be able to nuke n pave every pc you come across (business pc and servers are good examples)

When doing this for money, not as an aside, you'll need to know when it is more economical for the customer, or yourself to pull the pin on a pc. I've seen lots of computers get "cleaned" of an infection only to have the infection reintroduce itself a day or two later. The benchmark I use to assume an infection has the capability of doing this is system restore. If the infection is advanced enough to disable or live through a restore, then it is definatly advanced enough to make a pc "look" clean and reintroduce itself after.

Another thing with "fixing" an infection is that they do alot of damage to a pc while its infected, and even if you clean the infection perfectly, sometimes it takes hours or days to fix the damage they've caused. Remember this too, after all that time spent removing an infection and repairing the damage, they're still left with a pc that ran exactly the same as it did before the infection, which is usually not very good. After a reformat the infection is (almost) garanteed gone, there is no damage to repair and the customer is left with a computer that runs BETTER than it did before the infection, and you (should) know exactly how long the repair will take (so you can schedule more work) thats a win win win win situation in my books.

 

[tzetsin]

ok some more advice.

Keep a couple 2.5" 160 gig SATA drives on hand, both IDE and SATA NOT MORE THAN 160 even if they're only 10 bucks more for a 320, waste is waste. I've very very rarely seen anyone with a laptop using more than 40 gigs. (outside of HWC users.) thats 10 bucks less you gotta charge, and 10 bucks happier the customer will be.
Keep a couple 400W PSU on the shelf too. ESPECIALLY after a thunderstorm.
keep 1 each of SATA and IDE dvd drives around. (at least 1 each anyway.)
keep a couple IDE/sata 3.5" drives too. 160gigs. (or more. I find people use more hdd space on a desktop, but not typically)

I say keep these on hand for 3 reasons
1: they're common problems.
2: people are ecstatic when you tell them their dead pc can be fixed for 60 bucks in 10 mins. (they dont want to miss any updates on facebook)
3: They dont have a shelf life. a 2 year old psu works pretty much the same as a brand new one, so they wont lose value over time.

DONT keep any MOBO, RAM, CPU, GPUs on hand. they have a shelf life and are specific to the user.

I mighta said it already but DONT GO TO THEIR HOUSE. make them bring it to you. there are a couple reasons for this.

1: computers take time. lots of time sometimes. sitting with some sweaty old man 2 feet from your back for 5 hours isnt worth ANY amount of money.
2: Once they have you there, in their power for hours and hours they will annoy you with 2309829034759028374590287 million questions about their computer, and even more about facebook.
3: Peoples homes are DIRTY its gross. Dont go there.
4: people jerk off on their computers. Do you really want to use their keyboard and mouse? its gross, dont go there.
5: you look like a retard when your sitting there for 3 hours watching a progress bar slowly creep across the screen during a scan/defrag/install/update...
6: you cant work on anything else while your waiting.
7: If you go there once, they'll expect you to ALWAYS go there. Even if you have time to do this in the beginning, hopefully your expecting to be too busy to do this later and they'll get pissy when you tell em you wont come anymore.

ok, thats all I have to say about that. If you take anything away from that section I hope its that "its gross" cause thats enough.

Ok, this part I'm sure i'll get shit on for saying. but I do this shit for a living an unless the shitters do it for a living too, they can sup sup my otin cause they dont know what they're talking about.

When backing up a hard drive DONT CREATE AN IMAGE. Back up ONLY THEIR USER FILE. (if you dont know where the user file is, you shouldnt be doing anything at all.) DONT include the hidden files. DONT INCLUDE THE HIDDEN FILES. did you get that part? Dont include the hidden files. But do check the root directory for random important files.

the User file will contain all the persons personal data, and will be extremely simple to restore after a reformat - create user, merge files, done. Just make sure you DONT include the hidden files from within the user files as these contain gigs and gigs of useless temp files among other things virus/malware/trogans can hide in there and infect the new system.

MENTAL CHECKLIST and PROCEDURE FOR DOING A REFORMAT.
(actually you should write it down an make prints to check it off before every job. Saves it biting you in the ass later.)

1- Check that the pc has a license sticker. (no license no work. simple. you'll have to give them the bad news that they'll be spending 120 bucks extra on a license. I should also point out that this is also a good time to review your decision to reformat. the extra cost of the license may tip the balance to decide to repair instead.)

2- Make DAMN SURE you have the correct installation disk. (remember before I mentioned to NEVER use the restore partition? if you "have" to, I guess it cant be helped, but dont do it by default.) If you have the wrong version of windows the product key WILL NOT WORK and you'll be stuck installing windows more than once. colossal waste of time.

3- Backup to your blackX duet's backup drive (the one you backup everyones stuff to, make sure you have one.) Here are some things you'll need to backup or risk the wrath of the owner...
-their User file/s (except the hidden files.)
-Their EMAIL. this one is tricky and a pain in the ass. I charge more for having to backup email. I have a special part in my sign in sheet that pertains to which email they use so I dont miss anything.
-Their CONTACT LIST. in their email. (this is even more important to some people than their emails. dont screw this up.)
-Check their root directory. Sometimes people put stuff there (for some strange reason)
-Check for storage partitions. (if they have one DONT FORMAT OR DELETE IT like i'm going to tell you in an upcoming part.
-

4- Test the hard drive. pull that baby out of the computer, shove it into your blackX dual, run checkdisk from a test pc. Test has ANY bad sectors on it REPLACE THE DRIVE. I dont care if you can "repair" it, an the disk will "probly" run another year or two... REPLACE THE DRIVE. Especially true if its a laptop. a desktop will likely run alot longer after a simple "repair" but a laptop HDD that is showing bad sectors has probably been over heated to the point of failing, and will likely be overheated AGAIN when it gets back to the owner.

5- Before you reisntall windows you'll have the option to format or create partitions. Delete all partitions (even the recovery ones as they wont work anymore after installing windows manually, and remember, if the customer was ever going to use that recovery partition the computer wouldnt be in your hands right now.) So now with ALL partitions removed, create ONE SINGLE BIG OL' LONELY PARTITION. Do not create a "storage/backup/whatever" partition. People dont know how to use them. they'll just waste HDD space. (there are special case people, but as a rule, no partitions.)

6- Install windows. DO NOT apply the product key during installation (except with win xp) there is a long winded explination for this and i'm being long winded enough as it is. just take my word for it.

7- While your waiting for windows to install, make sure you have the correct service packs already downloaded in a redistributable form, NOT THE WEB INSTALLER. This will save tonnes of time later cause you wont have to wait for it to download from the server.

8- Download the most current drivers for their network device, or keep a usb wireless network device and driver on hand to give the computer network access. USE WINDOWS UPDATE TO GET THE DRIVERS FOR MOST THINGS except the vid driver if they have a dedicated vid card. Use the mobo/computer manufacture for anything win update doesnt provide.

8.1 During installation it'll want to make a user, make sure to name it whatever their user was before.

9- After windows is installed and you have access to the internet and BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE activate the product key. At this point you want to be damn sure the key is going to work before you do anything else. If it doesnt work, you'll have to reinstall windows AGAIN with the proper version, so you dont want to waste any time doing other things before activating.

10- Install drivers.

11- Install service packs.

12- Install updates.

13- Install software suite of your choice (I use microsoft security essentials, Open office, Adobe acrobat, Klite codec pack, adobe flash)

14- Restore user file and anything that was in the root directory.

15- DEFRAG using a good defragger, not the windows one. I use perfect disk.

16- Call your customer for pickup.

That is pretty much good advice for ANYONE that needs to do a reformat.




Oi, that got a bit long winded. lol ask for more if you like, but at your own risk.

 

[ADay2Long]

Wow, thanks for that, some good reading.

And I agree with simply copying the files they want to keep when doing a backup.

 

[botat29]

I do agree that you don't reformat on site ......but your list is a computer repair, this not good services, you have to change the 16 for

16- Call the customer and take an appointment to go reinstall the computer in his house, especially the printer, web cam etc. customer are very noobs, if they pay $$$ for a repair and their printer do not work, they will go other place next time.
What you do is by example charge $ 60 for the reformat only and $ 100 for reformat Windows and reinstall in their house.

 

[Perineum]

ok some more advice.

[snip]

Oi, that got a bit long winded. lol ask for more if you like, but at your own risk.

I do (more or less) most of that in one form or another.... except I go to the persons place.

I do not do this for a living. If I did then I would have to make a few adjustments. At times I could be doing it for a living though.

Typically I don't wipe and reinstall because I'm not counting hours.... and I don't have to, because I'm not trying to eat off that money. It's my slush fund.

 

[tzetsin]

I do agree that you don't reformat on site ......but your list is a computer repair, this not good services, you have to change the 16 for

16- Call the customer and take an appointment to go reinstall the computer in his house, especially the printer, web cam etc. customer are very noobs, if they pay $$$ for a repair and their printer do not work, they will go other place next time.
What you do is by example charge $ 60 for the reformat only and $ 100 for reformat Windows and reinstall in their house.

printer and network installation is pretty much the only thing I'll do onsite in a person's home. I give em a choice an almost always they do printers themselves. I charge boku cash to go to houses though, so it doesnt surprise me ;D