[I Fix 4 U]

Originally Posted by Rockn

A fellow ex military and a geek....where were you 15...nevermind!!

Wheres a person like her now?!

Well I hope I find the "smart" bestbuy if I'm to work as a geek squad member (once i get cert) before I get an actual good job. (wonderin what the $/hr is for a geek squad employee)

[Alex Ethridge]

Evidently, not much.

[Smety]

I think its like 8 bucks, lmao, I plan to work there before I get a real job too . . . stupid hippocrits . . .

[I Fix 4 U]

NVM then I'm gonna find a better job. You can get more than that workin down the block @ ur local gas station... here atleast.

[primetime212]

lol at all this Geek Squad bashing.. I went to Best Buy to buy an ATX PSU tester ..I asked one of the Geek Squad guys behind the counter if they had any...one guy said no and he said let me show you a trick so you dont have to buy a tester..get a paper clip put it in one end in one of the main power connector wires and the other end of the clip in another end of power connector wires and if the fan spins then its probably a good PSU..all this while the PSU is plugged in ...I said OOOOOOKKKKK..then went to another store to buy the tester

[primetime212]

if you are good at marketing yourself you can make your own independent business no matter how badly you suck at fixing computers..I know 99% of the shops around my area have 0 idea how to remove spyware/adware/trojan/ etc. and just reformat your computer and reinstall the operating system forcing to reinstall all of your programs

[ekim68]

I resemble that remark...I used to reformat at the drop of a power cord..
However, after the education I've gotten here, many of my clients have
not been bothered by a lot of spyware and stuff, and have been educated
in regards to backing up things regularly..
Once again, TSG's 'the site'..

[sglv]

Originally Posted by clsxmas

Keep viewing the forum posts and don't be afraid to ask questions. I'm not a "techie" either, but learned to install a hard drive and a DVD burner in recent months. I can't get timely service so jumped in to learn for myself. Hang in there.

Thanks for the encouragement!

[sglv]

Originally Posted by JStergis

Don't feel bad...I know people that can't even check their e-mail, even with a detailed sheet loaded with screenshots. Usually it's because that can't even double click fast enough...even when it is set at the lowest speed.

It's sort of like this:

You don't need to know how the car works to drive it, you don't even NEED to know how to repair it if something goes wrong. Nor do you on a computer, BUT there is one difference, its much less complicated. You don't need to know all of the somewhat useless junk that people like me know, just how to install Drives, cards, RAM, maybe even MoBos and Processors.

J.S.

Thanks to you too! I actually used to be able to repair my own cars until they computerized them. LOL! At least I can still change the oil and a tire. Not to work on the computer skills.

[jiml8]

Originally Posted by primetime212

lol at all this Geek Squad bashing.. I went to Best Buy to buy an ATX PSU tester ..I asked one of the Geek Squad guys behind the counter if they had any...one guy said no and he said let me show you a trick so you dont have to buy a tester..get a paper clip put it in one end in one of the main power connector wires and the other end of the clip in another end of power connector wires and if the fan spins then its probably a good PSU..all this while the PSU is plugged in ...I said OOOOOOKKKKK..then went to another store to buy the tester

I do that all the time. Nothing wrong with it. Jumper the soft start to ground; if she fires up, she's probably OK. Not certainly OK, though.

[jiml8]

Originally Posted by primetime212

if you are good at marketing yourself you can make your own independent business no matter how badly you suck at fixing computers..I know 99% of the shops around my area have 0 idea how to remove spyware/adware/trojan/ etc. and just reformat your computer and reinstall the operating system forcing to reinstall all of your programs

I always ask the client.

"Here is the deal. I probably can clean this system up, but it'll cost you because from what I see it might take several hours. I can certainly reinstall the OS in under an hour, which'll be a lot cheaper, but you'll lose everything on the HD. Which do you prefer?"

Depending on what is wrong and how their system is configured, I can give them a third choice: "I can pull your data off to a CD, then reformat/reinstall, and put your data back. You'll still have to reinstall packages though."

[Alex Ethridge]

Lots of power supplies will spin their fans and still not run a computer.

With testers around ten dollars on the 'net, it just makes sense to bypass the guesswork.

[PixieStrange]

Should always be able to pull their information off. At least, I've only run into problems wqith that when the HDD was totally destroyed. If I can get it to recognize/show up at all (even if it takes some tweakage) I can pull something off of it. That isn't to say that everything I get is COMPLETE, or even usable, but at LEAST some of it will be.

As for the PSU bit, Basically what we use is (what appears to me) to be a rigged up simple off/on switch that runs to a connecter that looks like it was pried off a motherboard. Hook the power supply to it, flip the switch. If it comes on (and the little green lgiht held on by electrical tape comes on) then you should be gold.

Otherwise we can just break out the miltimetere and test the voltage coming out of each and every wire but.... Yea, unless we're totally dead I can't take that kind of time when someone just hands me a power supply and says "Is it dead?"

[Alex Ethridge]

I once had a power supply that would run fine for hours or even a day or two. Then, suddenly, the computer would boot. Every time I checked the supply, it checked out okay.

I connected a volt meter to the 12v side of the supply and connected its PC interface to the computer. A program on the computer records the voltage every second, five seconds, ten seconds, minute--whatever I choose. I set it to every second.

I had another of the same meters connected to the wall socket, also recording every second.

After about 30 hours, the computer booted again. I checked the voltage logs and the wall voltage was right on; but, the power supply's 12v side had dropped to somewhere between 9- and 10 volts. (I forgot the exact voltage; it was about three or four years ago.)

Anyway, testers are nice and I wouldn't be without two in the shop, one in my office and two on the service van; but, I hope I never run into another like the one several years ago. A simple tester simply misled me on that one.

[PixieStrange]

Simple tools are just that... Simple tools. And they're not perfect ;-)

But jeez that's an awful lot fo trouble to go through to find out the PSU is bad. Was there any indication of a software issue? Because if not (and it just seemed to be kinda random), I probably would have checked the PSU first. Course I learned the hardf way >_<

Lived in a house that was TERRIBLE for brownuts. I was bad. Electrical system in that house ate a LOT A LOT of stuff before it got fixed. Gotta love 200 yr old houses whre EVERYTHING is on a single circuit.