Got a job at a computer repair shop. What do I need to know? What do you recommend I know...

Got a job at a computer repair shop. What do I need to know? What do you recommend I know? Do you have any experience working as a computer technician?

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Get a different job ASAP

How did you get this job with so little experience that you have to ask Sup Forums how to do your job?

99% of what you're going to be doing is reformating and selling people antivirus protection.

I imagine it's like working at a hame store like like I did. It ducks the life out of you. Do what said

Ignore EVERYTHING that the client thinks is wrong/broken.

unless you enjoy suffering do what says
yeah and deal about people bitching they could've done that themselves

Learn from this guy: youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup

Google is your no1 tool.
Grow a thick skin and smile be friendly. People will be cunts sometimes but just smile and charge them abit more.
Read your customer, if they dont know much about computers don't bombard them with information, but if they're interested be prepared to give them a detailed break down. People appreciate this.
Basically you want to be "the friendly computer guy". This field is dominated by indians and chinese. Make yourself stand out.

Above all do your best to enjoy it, been a technician for 18 months or so.

i assume a relative owns that shop. we got one like that in our town and all his employees are his relatives.

call your clients fucking faggots for not having a thinkpad

Work as a pc technician.

Most of my day is spent formatting , cleaning dust , installing AV and setting up wireless range extenders.
You can have the usual dead motherboard or laggy computer (hint: dead or dying hard drive) or the occasional kid who wants to upgrade his fathers old computer to play LoL for 300$ or less(usually a p4 with ide drives or pentium d/c2d with sata).
Most things come with experience in this sector.
If a customer annoys you , charge more. If a customer is in a rush , you charge more and proceed to take your time.
If you misdiagnose stuff (like my colleagues) and the client doesn't want the "dead" stuff back you get to keep cool old stuff (like an HD 4870 and an HD4890 that they declared dead and threw them in the recycling bin but were working fine and I kept them).

If you make mistakes though , may god be on your side. You will never hear the end of it. We have a bad rep because of exactly these practices.
You lost some files from a backup? You are fucked.
The hard drive died in your hands? Pray the client has a brain.
The pc died in your hands? Pray the client is reasonable.

You get the usual lunatic that photographs every single barcode on the laptop so that you won't swap his battery.
Or the guy that prints a small novel worth of programs he wants installed after formatting.

It's like retail because you still try to sell stuff (depends on the store you work for) only you have an actual responsibility.

I will recommend knowing what the settings of a router do and how to diagnose common hardware issues like the lagging computer I mentioned.
Also Teamviewer/Ammyy is your friend (again depends if the store makes you do this).

If you need anything more specific ask away and pray I won't be asleep by then. Tomorrow's a long day.

Learn the fine art of soldering. Be a god among humans in this field.

>You get the usual lunatic that photographs every single barcode on the laptop so that you won't swap his battery
I'd do the same though

fucking faggots stealing my batteries

OP here, thanks for all the replies.

I will just be fixing electronics, and won't have to actually talk to customers.

you're so fucking lucky

how much are you being paid

if its more than me imma scream mang

People like you, or rather your attitude, are the reason that PC shops are held in such low opinion.
You think people are dumb because they need your help so you can't help exploiting them to prop up your sad little ego.
Work had a RIF and I had to start my own business. I used all the people skills I had been taught to build a business with repeat customers who were word-of-mouthing me all over town.
The most common comments I got was that I didn't make customers feel like idiots and I didn't overcharge.
I had to give away blocks of customers to people starting up their own busineses because I didn't want to work overtime. Employees are a pain in the ass, in so many ways.

>soldering
huehuehue i put the metal and the soft metal together and make it hawt. i am a god :^)

Get out while you can

Failing that, enjoy constantly removing chink shit PSUs and pop up ad malware.

You sound like a terrible place to go to. If we break something we replace it. Only thing that doesnt apply is Data. If data is lost we have already had the client sign a disclaimer saying they backed up their data. HDD's don't just die for no reason.

Your also taking advantage of a customers trust literally stealing PC parts. I have a strong reputation in my area because customers can trust me and I'm quite like-able.

>Don't be this guy if you want to enjoy your job.

We don't overcharge. We charge less than the competition and tell them it will be 2-3 work days due to how many clients there are before them. If they call once or twice the next day we just ignore them. If they start calling the same day and every day after that we bump the price to what the competition offers (which is 20% more) and yet we still do more than they do. We are the best local shop in my town. The next best shop in town scammed one of our clients by offering a lower price than us for a simple no video fix (a gpu reseating and contact cleaning) by swapping his gts 250 and putting in a 6600 gt and charging him 50€.

And we do have repeat customers. Hell , even my towns navy base was coming to us for everything instead of the competition until they decided to cut down on spendings and stopped upgrading their shit.

A hard drive at 3% health (courtesy of HDSentinel) does die for "no reason" while trying to save the files inside. People come and ask for a format with backup , meaning they require us to keep their files for X€ (instead of X-25%) when most of the other shops ask for X+25% without keeping files , like you do with the disclaimer.
My colleagues are in this job for decades and they stopped caring about dead stuff. It is always up to me to prove that what they call dead is not dead. The 4870 case that I was present ended up being a dead psu/motherboard fault and he decided to dump what was left of his rig on our shop for parts and bought a new one at a discount. We never steal parts. We always offer everything replaced back to the customer and they usually give it back to us to recycle it.

I realise I may have worded some things wrong. What I meant by parts dying , I don't mean working fine and then not working at all. I mean barely working and then not working.
A pc was booting very slowly (hdd speeds) despite the 850 pro. When the client brought it in it wouldn't boot at all for us and it is his stores' "server" (a file server that he called his "main server"). Mounting the ssd on any other pc caused it to boot fine and really fast (praise windows 10). It wasn't our fault his motherboard died because he is a terrible owner that doesn't understand what a 6-pin does for a gpu (2 out of 3 pcie x16 slots were fried already). That guy bought a new motherboard and left the old one to be decorated on our wall (a p5e3 deluxe).
I bent some mobo pins during a cpu upgrade (dumb mistake when placing the protective cover) and I paid for the motherboard out of my own pocket. Our store has a very strict "you break , you pay it" rule to reassure clients we are careful with their stuff.

didn't this guy had some problems some months ago iirc because apple was trying to sue him? what happened with that? i remember some Sup Forumsentoomen tried to mass download all his videos too right?

You'll rarely have to use any electronics at all.

I used to own a small repair shop myself, 90% of my clients issues were software related.

Get the PC to repair, say "Oh no! It's the motherboard! It's useless to repair it... Why don't you get a new PC with a discount and we take this one?"
Take the PC, fix it, use it to do the same thing over and over again.

Most of your customers will be over 60, they won't understand anything you tell them, they'll download adware repeatedly until you fit Chrome/Firefox with an adblocker, then they'll just use Edge or IE anyway and download more shit.

Don't trust SMART attributes, run a full block scan if there's even a hint of trouble with an HDD.

Don't forget to test the PSU.

System Restore and repair installs are your best friend.

Outlook is a gigantic piece of shit, have fun with that.

Windows update sucks, so does Windows 10, but just convince them to let you upgrade them to 10 anyway so you don't have to deal with the bullshit of failed updates on 7 and 8.

All antivirus sucks, but McAfee is in a tier of it's own, keep MCPR handy, because just uninstalling it doesn't get rid of all the resource eating services.

That laptop is pushing 90C+ because there's half a dog stuck between the air intake and the fan, blow all the compressed air in it you want, you're not getting that clog out without taking out the fan.

I think that's about it.

>yfw the customer's computer has Captain Planet on it
EVERY TIME

>Most of your customers will be over 60, they won't understand anything you tell them
Jeez, since a 60 year old today was 20 when the Altair 8800 came out, I sure hope he knows how a computer works. It's not as if computers are some new thing that appeared 5 years ago.

/r/talesfromtechsupport

Understand by "60 year old" I really meant "woman".

>cunts being able to use technology
>any year ever
Pick one.

Be super cool with the boss and you'll get free shit.

>i5 2500
>gtx 680
>8GB ddr3
>2x 300gb raptors
>"gaming" case
Only thing I bought new was the power supply

>tfw you somehow still think the 1970s was 20 years ago

I hope OP breaks something and then has to explain it to the customer.

My dad was literally 20 at the time. He's been using the bastards since...well, they first invented them.

>Get a different job ASAP

Unless you wanna be a hooker, computer technician is Step 1 of any IT career.

I meant more the average blue collar truck driver kind of baby boomer who never had an occasion to use a PC before the 2000s.

I'm 65 and did computer maintenance for ten years for a living. Bought my first computer in 1982 and haven't been without one since. I love it when some kid assumes I'm compter challenged.

It's mostly software related stuff. Hardware repairs are rare on modern PCs unless the user dropped a Coke into the keyboard or something.

>I love it when some kid assumes I'm compter challenged.

if u hang around computer shops, u have no one to blame yourself for the ridicule

that's like a woman going undressed in public

got a link to the webpage where this guy asks for a girlfriend ?

>that's like a woman going undressed in public
She'd only be ridiculed if she looks like Patty & Selma from the Simpsons.

But it's so much fun to embarass jerky little n00bs like you. :D

$5 says this is that ChuckG guy from VCFED.

Probably good anyway since most modern ICs are surface mounted and impossible to remove without expensive soldering equipment.

If your in my repair shop your are facing a computer challenge or you wouldn't be here wasting my time.

I saw three people enter the shop while I was talking with the owner. One lady (late 20s - early 30s) dropped off two macbooks she used for personal use that supposedly had fucked motherboards. Another guy (late 30s - early 40s) that brought in a dash-mounted GPS unit (I forget what the issue was), and some nigger who was picking something up that I have no idea what it was.

I think you might want to work on your grammar skills before you start working on people's computers.

OP by the way

Obviously an accident. I'm sorry I didn't proof read an anonymous forum post that will be gone in a couple of hours.

>forum

b bk

1. Don't EVER use a metal screwdriver (or anything metal) to take apart plastic panels. You can and will damage the looks.

2. First thing to do is make a full image of the hard drive(s) on the client's computer. With the exception of time sensitive work, you want to be able to go back to the original state within minutes. Especially on Windows 10 stuff, that garbage OS is ridiculously fragile. I'd wager 75% of stuff we get is because Win 10 stops booting.

3. Be ready to explain that fixing something doesn't warrant 6 months of free service related to all issues. Example: guy wants viruses cleaned. Comes back one month later with a new batch of trojans and complains about your initial job.

4. Buy a bunch of flash drives ($5 each), and put various live OS on them.

5. Question clients thoroughly before attempting to fix. Many of them don't know what they want, and you have to dig deep, otherwise you would end up with a pissed off customer despite doing a good job.

Also

6. When disassembling laptops, make a layout of where each screw goes (can tape to paper or organize in small boxes). On modern models it's really not an issue. But on older ones, the various screw sizes and the lack of labels might give you a hard time and possible damage.

I started in a pc repair shop at the age of 15, working every Saturday while at highschool.
I did that until I was 18, while at college doing an IT BTec, then after that did Forensic Computing at University.
As a result I set myself up pretty well for a career in IT, getting the experience I needed out of the way early.

I now do mostly 2nd/3rd line IT Support for a IT support and services company, covering IP Phone systems, IP CCTV, standard SBS/Exchange shit and still a little bit of domestic computer repair :( Most clients are small-medium sized business.

I now describe my job as a "pressure cooker fuck show" to anyone who asks.
All I seem to do is get stressed out having to constantly deal with stupid pathetic shit, either from customers/clients or my colleges, and also service providers we rely on being shit as well.

You will learn a lot of what you need to know on the job so the only tip I will give is; for laptop repair always youtube the laptop model for disassembly videos FIRST before doing the repair.

>You get the usual lunatic that photographs every single barcode on the laptop so that you won't swap his battery.
Instead of swap you meant steal right? Because that's what you are doing if you swap client's fine battery with your old dead one and claim you didn't touch it.

First job?
Congrats, little tip for you, you will think you know a lot, but you'll learn more in a couple of weeks than what you did in your lifetime.

t.user whose first job was also at a repair shop

>Get a different job ASAP
Why? I did that job for 2 months and it was mostly fine. Sure it might not be your dream job or anything but there are much much worse jobs around

I had a customer come in today for the Windows 10 upgrade & noticed he covered his webcam with black tape. lol

>What do I need to know?
Your customers are retarded children, treat them as such.
>What do you recommend I know?
How to cast magic.
>Do you have any experience working as a computer technician?
Yes, worked part time before going to university. The memes about tech stories are true.

Seems like a lot of praying is involved.

You don't repair shit, you are a part swapper.

Only reason you require training for that is that laptops are built like shit, and end users have to rely on ebay for parts,

You only did it for 2 months, nigga you a little baby.
Try doing that shit for 10 years phhhft what the fuck do you know 2 months baby

>forum
A forum is just the name for any meeting/meeting place that is used to exchange ideas on a subject. It comes from Latin afaik.
Not btw

well no, not a god
however when a client leaves you a dead part and you can fix it just by replacing some capacitors you make proffit