1) Often.
2) No, I shove them firmly out of the way and do the job alone.*
2a) Anyone who asks.
3) There is no worst problem. The hardest one was diagnosing a faulty PSU in an otherwise healthy PC. Any such intermittent fault is a nightmare to resolve.
4) Usually, it's friends that get me to fix their PC. My payment is that they cook me dinner. I'm so good at fixing stuff that I'm now getting fat.
It is not worth fixing PC's for a living. It is largely unrewarding and people are never all that grateful that you've have their PC for a week only to tell them that they need a new motherboard, RAM, CPU and hard drive because their PSU was faulty.
You will not make more than £5 per hour on most jobs and you will make almost nothing on replacement parts (if you remain ethical in your business practise).
The only piece of software that will directly help you diagnose a problem is memtest86. Everything else will give you only indirect hints.
You will need:
Screwdriver set with replaceable bits.
A screw retreival tool (a pen-sized device with a plunger activated 3-prong 'grabber').
A small torch.
A battery operated mini-vac.
A smaller battery operated mini-vac.
A can of compressed air.
Screen wipes.
Surgical gloves (especially if using someone elses keyboard).**
Anti-static wrist strap.***
Ability to suck air between teeth.
Patience.
Stamina.
Common sense.
Patience. (yes, I know I put this twice).
* People who think they know a bit about computers are the arch nemesis of those of us who do. Especially where they are in a position to ask questions whilst we work. Always encourage customers to, quite politely, fork off whilst diagnoses and repair is effected. If customer refuses to leave, take their PC to your workshop.
** Keyboard and the innards of PC's are extremely dirty. Toilet bowls are cleaner than PC's. You will come across 10 years of accumulated dust, dirt, dead insects and long lost pizza when fixing a PC. Most PC technicians have a year-long cold. The act of putting on and removing surgical gloves in front of a customer will gain you an unqeustionably large amount of respect, whilst cutting down your exposure to nasty bugs.
*** This does almost nothing, but looks professional. However, if you are working alongside a professional and they are not wearing a wrist-strap, do not put one on. They will think you are an idiot.
(edit) If you do make it your business to repair PC's in a professional way, you need good paperwork. I had to diagnose a dead laptop for a miserly client and I was very glad that I kept a to the minute diary of events whilst going through the process of locating an unrepairable fault. Nobody likes being charged for something that you didn't fix.
(second edit) Repairing PC's isn't my business, but if someone asks me to, I will. I just don't advertise it because I don't enjoy doing it.
2) No, I shove them firmly out of the way and do the job alone.*
2a) Anyone who asks.
3) There is no worst problem. The hardest one was diagnosing a faulty PSU in an otherwise healthy PC. Any such intermittent fault is a nightmare to resolve.
4) Usually, it's friends that get me to fix their PC. My payment is that they cook me dinner. I'm so good at fixing stuff that I'm now getting fat.
It is not worth fixing PC's for a living. It is largely unrewarding and people are never all that grateful that you've have their PC for a week only to tell them that they need a new motherboard, RAM, CPU and hard drive because their PSU was faulty.
You will not make more than £5 per hour on most jobs and you will make almost nothing on replacement parts (if you remain ethical in your business practise).
The only piece of software that will directly help you diagnose a problem is memtest86. Everything else will give you only indirect hints.
You will need:
Screwdriver set with replaceable bits.
A screw retreival tool (a pen-sized device with a plunger activated 3-prong 'grabber').
A small torch.
A battery operated mini-vac.
A smaller battery operated mini-vac.
A can of compressed air.
Screen wipes.
Surgical gloves (especially if using someone elses keyboard).**
Anti-static wrist strap.***
Ability to suck air between teeth.
Patience.
Stamina.
Common sense.
Patience. (yes, I know I put this twice).
* People who think they know a bit about computers are the arch nemesis of those of us who do. Especially where they are in a position to ask questions whilst we work. Always encourage customers to, quite politely, fork off whilst diagnoses and repair is effected. If customer refuses to leave, take their PC to your workshop.
** Keyboard and the innards of PC's are extremely dirty. Toilet bowls are cleaner than PC's. You will come across 10 years of accumulated dust, dirt, dead insects and long lost pizza when fixing a PC. Most PC technicians have a year-long cold. The act of putting on and removing surgical gloves in front of a customer will gain you an unqeustionably large amount of respect, whilst cutting down your exposure to nasty bugs.
*** This does almost nothing, but looks professional. However, if you are working alongside a professional and they are not wearing a wrist-strap, do not put one on. They will think you are an idiot.
(edit) If you do make it your business to repair PC's in a professional way, you need good paperwork. I had to diagnose a dead laptop for a miserly client and I was very glad that I kept a to the minute diary of events whilst going through the process of locating an unrepairable fault. Nobody likes being charged for something that you didn't fix.
(second edit) Repairing PC's isn't my business, but if someone asks me to, I will. I just don't advertise it because I don't enjoy doing it.