ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Oh yeah, happens everytime.

First off it wouldn't boot from overheating: Found the CPU heatsink completely blocked with what looked/smelt like Golden Virginia's finest.

Then find it still won't boot; OK recovery console on. boot record is foobarred, ran Chkdsk, sorted it so I could run a repair installation of XP. Repair done, its booted. Now I find it trying to run a gazillion start-up programs, so frantically kill them in task manager as quickly as they start up.

Find A360 is installed (scam software). Remove it. Right, now I have a usable computer (just). So, I Load explorer to DL some updates, registry scan tools and stuff. Only to find its taking forever to load, I notice its guzzling 60meg in task manager, hammering the page file and hard disk in the process. It finally loads and I find this:




Oh FFS

What is with people installing sodding useless toolbars they don't need and end up hogging more of the screen than the actual browser content?

I have none (so does he, now I've uninstalled them all ). If anyone here has this many toolbars installed, please, switch off your computer, unplug it, open the window, and throw said computer out of said open window....now!

Wish I had wiped and clean slated the thing now ...oh well, lets see what hijackthis finds (and what **** I find in his file history ).

I mean, how does one expect 400meg worth of start-up application, tool bars and other junk to run on a computer with 256meg?



This is going to cost him more than a few beers.......

[rant=off]

Thats better

spectrum48k

I've done that a million times too - I charge now!

Latest one off a mate - he's clogged it up totally with **** malware. To the point it just boots into windows and hangs. God knows what he had on it.

Completed reformatted and latest drivers downloaded. No joy with the wireless - damn Advent laptop - turns out to be a rebadged ECS laptop with one of 3 different types of Wireless hardware Intel, Via or Realtek. Got it in the end.BIOS utterly terrible - seems the laptop disables wireless on boot. User has to press wireless button to turn it on!

All done - heading over there tomorrow night to drop off and be treated to a few beers and pizza and watch the footy.

StickyMicky

spent 3 hours on my mothers pc just trying to get the thing to boot once

ended up just wiping the thing clean as i could not be arsed

darlodge

Everytime I fix a friends PC it takes about 3 times as long as if I had been doing my own.

I looked at my neighbours PC recently as she was having some problems, when I got around there it was a Pentium 90 with the large 9 PIN (DIN) connector. I almost spat my tea out.

Darren

Hanley

I think the problem lies with software installers.

A lot of them have a sneaky little checkbox saying "Please install Google toolbar" blah blah blah and I bet most people just joyfully click Next

Leg@cy

iTrader: (2)

I only get calls from my 'friends' when their PC is up the spout !!

Hadn't heard from a friend for a few weeks, only to be told, he'd forgotten his password.... He changed it late one Saturday night after a considerable amount of alcohol !

jowl

hehe, I know what you mean.

I have a friend (yes, a real genuine best mate) - his wife, also a friend wants me to sort their computer out. I know it's gonna be a pain. And if I lose one pic of their daughter I'm done for !

I was sorting another computer out last night. Celeron, 256mb, XP with no service packs. Took 3 agonisingly s-----l-------------------o-----------------------------w scans to wipe out all the malware/trojans. I hope I got 'em all. I daren't put SP3 on because a) I would still have been there now and b) No Genuine XP sticker and I have a feeling it wasnt genuine at all.

I should have either wiped the whole thing or just sell them one of my refurbed desktops!

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

nothing worse, and they tend to take advantage . A guy I used to work with asked me to build him a decent budget spec a few years back which I did for a few beer tokens. Then the questions started about the software he installed why the software didnt work etc etc. Eventually after a few years (yes really) he asked me something and I said I will give you my card with a premium rate number on it. He did a nervous laugh and hasnt bothered me since


(only got the father in laws problems on his to deal with now, and my bosses sons that he keeps messing with )

MJW

I get this all the time too. In fact it sometimes feels like I'm the free technical support for the entire bloody street ! Relatives & close friends are the worst - 'can you come and look at my computer ..' I agree the toolbar situation is ridiculous, why the hell software installs these things without getting your explicit permission I don't know. Mind you it'd help if the user actually read what's on the screen before installing things.

ScaldedCat

I got sick to death of the 'free PC repair' thing, and announced a couple of months back that I'd now be charging £40 an hour to fix anything IT-related. The final straw came when I'd spent several hours on a mate's PC and only got a brief "Cheers mate" at the end!

It works perfectly: the £40 goes nicely towards petrol for the Impreza, and it also puts people off dumping their PCs/laptops/routers on me so quickly.

Harsh...but it works!

jpor

iTrader: (1)

Same here! A mate of mine is currently having issues with his PC at the moment, especially IE explorer not working etc... Been getting texts off him giving me his life story on the events of whats happening with it. I'm loathed to be offereing him help this time, as last time the cheeky begger charged me for having a carpet fitted.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I'm still not done yet

I took it to work with me and have sat on the other desk continuously chugging away with scans. Currently its running a SP3 update.

The worst people are the ones who insist on me going to them to sort the computer; fact is 99% of the time I will be sat on my **** waiting for it to finish whatever install/scan/update I've set it to do. Especially the ones that want it done ASAP.

I'm not to fussed if they drop it down to my place and not bothered if take a week or two to sort. As then I can just plug it in a let it do its own thing, and I can check up on it as and when, leaving it overnight if need be. So in time, I've barely spent an hour on this system, as I crack on with something else (like sleeping ).


To think I used to build the odd computer for some people: I now just fobbed them off to Dell or HP - for good reason

psigeek

iTrader: (17)

PEBKAC - the single biggest reason for needing fixes.

WRXewl

iTrader: (1)

Ah yes Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair

Fixed too many to keep count now but the best was one mate having 984 infections on a machine that only had a 56k modem lol

psigeek

iTrader: (17)

You know one of the main reasons for switching to a Mac was that I could claim ignorance about being up to date with the PC market and not get bombarded for fixes or requests to build something. Ali-B you must have a lot of patience to still be doing it.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I hate it with a passion, I only do the in-laws now but my father in law isnt apt to look at anything himself, problem = STOP call son in law who has **** all better to do, despite my brother in law living next door to them, he doesnt call him as he isnt that good with pc's and even though he doesnt work he gets all grumpy when asked to do anything so muggins gets the call.

Last nights was a garbled message so I just thought it was easire to go round, he had seen one of those popups "Your computer may be, running slow, full of virus, about to explode" and "The internet wasnt working", so once I ascertained that the popup had spooked him I looked at the none working net side of things, it was the local bookshops website diplaying an Apache error, I got dragged out for a poxy bookshop website being down.

He gave me a bottle of "Riesling" wine which is horrific, he must have bought a case in error as its sweet and icky and he is diabetic so cant drink it anyway, my missus rang to protest as the last two were the same, I dint want anything but at least its one for the school bottle raffle ! I dont mind doign it for the in-laws as they are good to us and the kids and family is family, its the neighbours that pee me off but they seem to have got the message.

I am a Database Administrator, I work as a permanent employee now but before I was on £40 plus an hour for my skills, but it seems when I get home I turn into the local hapless pc bloke who likes nothing better than beign presented with a knackered ten yeard old box of dust and wires to fix for free or some cheap booze.

I dont have time to fix my own computers never mind anyone elses, I do not offer a 24 hour help line, them not getting on the internet only means more bandwidth for me !

ScaldedCat

I had that last year: my mate tiled my kitchen whilst I fixed his PC (about 3 or 4 hours all-told), working on a PC that had enough viruses (81) and spyware to make even the most enthusiastic PC user weep. Seven toolbars for IE, etc.
He charged me for the tiling, and then expected the PC repaired for free because "You like working with all that computer stuff don't you?".

My 73 year old mother didn't help matters when she handed out my mobile number to her numerous elderly (and idiot) neighbours telling them that I'd be more than happy to help them with their PC issues!

boxst

It appears that most feel that repairing computers isn't a proper job and as such shouldn't be charged for. Where-as carpet-fitting and the like is...

I think I've mentioned before, I've seen WAY too many naked pictures of the owners of the PC's I repair in my spare time. I have no idea what possesses (sadly mostly fat women and men) to take pictures of themselves in various poses...


Steve

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Its such a shame that very rarely do I have to fix a computer with any amature pics worth looking at

**** stash on the otherhand can crop up a few interesting things

jpor

iTrader: (1)

I feel like that episode of Southpark when reading that comment, the one where Ike was having an affair with his Teacher and the cops were going 'Nice', 'nice', and then one spouts out. 'Where are all the sexed up teachers when I was at school'. I have yet come across that when I've fixed PCs

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

I prefer PICNIC as a way of warning colleagues of a potential bad user

hodgy0_2

i have two friends who both have business's to avoid this sort of thing I charge them both 2k a year as a retainer (whether they call me or not -- they both think its a bargain)

any site visits (which I try and avoid - have remote access) encur a charge

I would never do home PC's unless for immediate familly

Removed.

Ah the glamorous life of "an IT bloke" About 10 years ago I spent a lot of evenings, and most weekends installing software and hardware, fixing, upgrading or building PC's for "friends" at work. I was the resident geek. Some of them really appreciated the effort involved and at least made an effort to repay me in some way, the best thank you was a meal at a nice restaurant for me and the missus, for rescuing a PC which had one of the kids entire A level course work on with no backups.

However, most of them were ungrateful barstewards. The final straw was one bloke who went berserk when his hard disk failed whilst I was trying to recover all the data off it. It had been sounding like a clapped out sewing machine for weeks, and I'd warned him enough about getting his data off. Apparently it was all my fault, and I didn't know what i was doing. I now only do favours for a very select few real friends, and immediate family. Even then I spent several hours the other night sorting the wife's laptop out, it was on a go slow.

I spend all my day "working in computers" as my mum used to say, the last thing I want to do is spend all my free time helping out ungrateful gits.

Oh, our problem users are called "frequent fliers"

mart360

It would appear that google mail has more downtime than the sun in the evening..

my mum constantly phones to say she cant send email, as goole says there a problem or its not working...


yet everytime i go round and check its fine...


but in her drafts or sent items folder there a squillion eamils with incomplete email headers or addresses,


but she never typed them or sent them


Mart

spectrum48k

Said I'd pop over to a mate's next week to look at something called a EuroVox. Never used one before but it can't be too bad. From what I've heard about it, it could well be handy for me and the lads, once it's working!

stiscooby

Glad i'm not the only one then.......

One of my mates seems to only call when he has PC problems, starting off with "hows things going etc etc" then about 2 mins later "oh while you’re on the phone, I have got a problem with my PC.........." bla bla. Sometimes I come out with something like "oh have ya mate, thats nice" but he doesn't really get the hint.

Also one of my uncles is a cheeky ****, one time he called me to say one of his friends has a problem with their laptop (some old IBM brick) would I mind taking a look. Said yea can do, drop it over at some point and I will take a look when I get a min. Half an hour later the cheeky ******* at my door with his friend in tow!!

He decided to stand there and wait while I looked at it there and then!! spent nearly an hour fixing various problems, I don't really like asking for money off family but he said what do I owe ya, so I said oh sort us out something for a drink (you know, in a manner of speaking) he turns round and says "I have some cans of fosters at home" not quite what I meant. To this day I never got anything for it.

Then one day my cousin, his son, car broke down nearly 30 miles from home so uncle called my dad as he has a car trailer and asked if he could pick his car up from some garage, my dad done a 60 odd mile round trip and they didn't even offer anything!!!

I have learnt the hard way, now if someone wants something done I am upfront and say well I have to cover my petrol etc so will be £30-£40 to come and have a look then go from there once I have an idea what the problem is and how long it will take to fix it. Basically if wasn’t for me they would have to take it to some computer place and pay £60+ per hour just to look at it so as far as i’m concerned i’m a bargain! and if they don’t like it then thats their loss.

Markus

I think any of us who happen to know more about a computer than how to power it on and use facebook seem to get some invisible sign above us that informs others that we know all about computers, and that we really don't mind fixing things for others in our spare time, when we would actually prefer not to have anything to do with a bladdy computer!

I've built a couple of computers for friends, and gave them a months worth of support, on the explicit understanding that they do not modify or upgrade the computer or software in any way, shape or form during that period - If they want something specific installed, then either I will have done this prior to handing over the machine, or I'll install it for them.
If they have problems during that period, and they stick to the conditions, I'll resolve the issue. I did this as I've had machines be perfectly fine during week one and then on week two, things go nuts for some weird reason, but a system restore usually fixes things. I also stress that they backup the machine, and show them how to do this. A bit of back covering on my part, as I can say that if they have backed up, I can simply restore their machine to a virgin state and they can put their documents back on (they should not have additional apps installed as per our agreement), job done.

If the rules are broken, well, I'll do one free restore on the machine, after that, well, you're going to have to pay.

Now and then I'll be friendly and fix the odd problem for free, but they are always under the impression I'll charge them, which is the best way.

The only people who get their machines looked after for free are my close family, and even then, it's known that I am not at their beck and call when it comes to problems, and that they should expect me to come in, look at the machine, and then format and reinstall the OS on it and tell them to restore their apps from the backup, which they will have, as I've drummed it into them that they need one