Slashdot Mirror
BBC Writer Tries PC Repair, Finds Poor Software
twitter writes "BBC author Paul Rubens tried out amateur computer repair and wrote about it. All of the software was for Windows, and he finds what most of us do: "Most of the problems I've been called to look at have been caused by viruses and spyware, some by strange software [conflicts], and only one by faulty hardware." He then flames the whole world of computer repairmen as 'a bunch of unqualified amateurs.'"
You bought software or your hardware from somewhere I would guess (if you built this stuff on your own you have enough knowledge to fix it on your own). Take it to them. Dell, Gateway, Apple, whoever. If you're talking about software issues, call the company of the software you installed, oooh, it's Spyware problems.
The difference between a computer repair and a car repair, is that the computer repair center can claim your computer broke from a software issue that isn't their doing, whereas a car mechanic isn't going to say, "take this car back to the station you got gas from, they gave you bad gas".
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
So this weekend (yep, my holiday weekend) a close friend of my parents needed serious help. Her external drive (where she unfortunately saved all her data without backups) had stopped working. This was her entire business (stupid mistake, but common among end users). She had already spoken to one "IT Pro" who had taken a look, said the drive was completely dead and told her to send the drive to one of those low level recovery services which cost $3000. I took the drive, plugged it in to USB, and copied her files right off. Turns out the firewire connection on the drive had died. This "IT Pro" didn't even have the brains to try a different connection type! When someone tells me they've got a friend or brother or son in IT I assume only that that person is an idiot. Often I'm correct. If you don't know what your talking about, shut your mouth. Don't try to oversimplify or make something up. It makes all of us look bad.
I think he was. His point is that we have professionals to take care of our legal, automotive, medical, veterinarian etc problems, but we don't have an analogous professional to take care of our computer problems.
However, his theory is wrong because such profesionals exist. The problem is that users are not willing to pay them.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
What about other appliances? I recently had to pay $500 to get my furnace fixed, when the whole thing was probably only worth a few grand.
Maybe it's not so much the percentage of the original cost as it is the time between repairs (furnace = once every 5-10 years, computer = once every 6-12 months) as well as the lifespan of the appliance.
I have been in professional pc repair for 14 years, and I can honestly say he's missed a big point. While most problems are fixable by the user, most don't seem concerned enough to learn the basics and try it. While I wouldn't expect every home user to know all about their machines, I have dealt with businesses that are staggeringly, and proudly, computer illiterate. Then when you do that thing (found on page 12 of the manual) that fixes it, they give the same classic line : "I could have done that! Why should I pay you?" They'd rather call someone else to deal with it. This same principle keeps all those oil change places running! But, hey, as long as guys like this are around, I will always have the next house payment!
No, but he will charge you for his time to drain your tank and lines and replace your fuel filter and whatever else may have been damaged by the bad gas. Then he will tell you never to get that gas again. Same goes for spyware.
I realized the perfect example to shut your gob.
My parents have been computer users since 1984. We had an Apple II+ (followed by a IIGS ugh), and then they some variety of PC's at work.
They are very organized and successful people, and they used those early computers with no problem. Word processing, spreadsheets, it was enormously useful and rarely gave us problems. As the years have gone by, the problems they have had with computers have increased exponentially.
This same story is being repeated in every computer owning household in the world.
But if it makes you feel better to stand on your soapbox spewing gibberish about stupid everyone is and if they just follow your 6 simple steps (each of which has 10 implicit substeps that would require hours of training to get through) then everything would be rosy... well keep doing it I guess.
I wholeheartedly agree with all you wrote... but let me throw some more fat on the fire...
I think people are too afraid of their computers. Let me explain... I was just last night helping my wife (over the phone) fix her parents computer. It had erotic popups all over the place and the computer had ground to a halt (only took about 5 minutes for the computer to stop responding after a reboot). This was a particularly nasty situation.
I had given her a CD with SpyBot and Adaware and Firefox on it to take with her (she was going to visit for easter)... the problem was whenever she would try to run either SpyBot or Adaware the computer would restart (maybe some adware was detecting it? I seriously don't know).
So what's the solution? I had her get all the documents they wanted to keep off the computer and onto a CD (luckily the computer would work long enough to get this done)... and then I walked her through resetting the (Dell) computer back to factory defaults.
In working with her over the phone (she is in NO way computer savvy... just a good user) I noticed that she was always reluctant to do ANYTHING without me telling her EXACTLY what to do. Occasionally (not familiar with their computer) I didn't know EXACTLY how to get passed a certain screen and I would just tell her take a look at what she was seeing and make a choice. Finally after doing this several times I told her "You CANT break it! We're wiping the computer clean! Just choose something and if it doesn't work we can start over!"
She is not alone. I find often that people are reluctant to explore their computers. If you've got all your documents backed up what is the worst that could happen? There is NO way to (physically) hurt the computer with software. As long as you have reinstallation CDs JUST GO FOR IT!
Ok - long story... I apologize...
Friedmud
My father is a veteran systems administrator with 35 years of experience in the industry. His and his girlfriends' home PCs keep getting virii, spyware, and adware.
It's not that dad's an old coot, he actually keeps his skills up to date. It's that Windows is so unbelievably insecure he just can't keep up with it. He uses antivirus software, he tries to keep it up to date, he has multiple spyware scanners/removers which he updates regularly, and he just can't keep the systems clean. Every year or two it gets too unbearable and he just has to wipe the machine and reinstall from scratch, or replace it.
If my father can't do it, then no normal mortal computer owner should be expected to do it.
I think I've got Dad just about convinced to buy a Macintosh. When he hears that I have absolutely no problems with malware and I don't even have to have special software to prevent it, he gets very interested.
There are two reasons why so many amateurs are the only ones doing this kind of work.
The first reason is that computers often cost more to fix than what was paid for them in the first place.
It can take a few hours sometimes to fix some of the more persistent viruses and malware out there. As a consequence, only businesses seem to be able to afford my services.
The second reason is that home users have unreasonable expectations. Many seem to think that once I've touched their computer, I own it, and anything that goes wrong after that is my fault, not theirs.
I've only made a couple of home user calls. My first call was on a PC that had 26 viruses and over 100 malware and spyware-related issues.
In another case I had to tell a lady that she could buy a new PC for about $200 less than what it would cost me to rid her aging computer of demons.
Surprisingly, I have noticed that I charge $20/hr less than Geek Squad out of the local Best Buy. However, the home computer market is a touchy one.
Proverbs 21:19
I can't remember who said it, but "You put a supposedly intelligent person in front of a computer and they become an incompetent idiot".
At work I deal with some front line helpdesk stuff, and honestly sometimes you wonder what on earth these people do at home (I keep getting an error message! What does it say? I don't know... I don't understand computers) - like if a light bulb goes, do they sit in the dark until an electrician comes out to replace it?
I imagine like many a young geek I was not alone in repairing PC's for access to food, money and girls. I didn't have qualifications other then being born into a household where computers were modded on a regular basis.(my appleIIc dual booted between an ibm board and the apple board) Of course what was important to me as a young geek isn't as important now. Fixing someones PC is a pain in the ass. Inevitably there is going to be something you didn't expect - like very few people keep motherboard manuals, and how do you look up jumper info when the only machine around is the one your repairing. When I was 16-20 it provided pocket money and access to girls and food (pasta for powerpoint anyone?) but as an adult I long ago realized that my time is more valuable - if I was doing it for a company I would expect min $50 an hour, I spent the years accumulating the experience and refining the skills. The average home user isn't willing to pay the 50$ an hour so they get 16-19 year old kids(unqualified amaturs)fixing their pc's. I have nothing against these kids, and I imagine many of them are more capable then me with some of these technologies. As long as the home user refuses to pay professional rates for PC service then that market place will stay the domain of young geeks, and provide them a place to use their skills for food, girls and money. Let em have it - if you are worth professional rates work in the professional market - don't work in the home market and crowd out the kids.
The rock, the vulture, and the chain
Even sitting the computer on a small stand an inch or so off of the carpet does wonders for keeping dust out of a machine.
A fine is a tax you pay for doing wrong and a tax is a fine you pay for doing all right.
What amazes me is how everyone in IT knows that even some of the most expensive certification programs are bullshiat -- I've taken my share through some of the big guns, like SUN for godssake, and can you say crrrrap? -- but still everyone demands the damned certs.
There have been a couple occassions where I've been in a slump and just need to pick up some work and would have been more than happy to do basic hardware work. I've been building PCs since I was in Jr. High over twenty years ago, but oh hell no, you don't have an A+ certification... oooh no, can't let you swap out that DIMM, buddy, you're an unqualified amateur. You've got to be fscking kidding me.
That said, corporate IT departments survive because they can enforce a known configuration where they can just re-image a troubled machine. Consumers, with their infinite and arbitrary configurations insist first on having support cost less than the machine, but also insist on never returning to a known-state. With a vehicle, your mechanic can simply return it to factory specs, generally with no complaints. Everytime a computer tech suggests that, oh hell no, you obviously don't know what you're doing. No, it's just that I have know way of knowing what YOU have already DONE without a point of reference.
With cheap computers, however, simply replacing them outright is the most logical solution to almost any problem for those who need support. Google, from what I understand, does ZERO diagnostics on malfunctioning nodes. They just pull out the pizza box and toss it in the trash. It's just not cost effective to even bother figuring out what went wrong when just replacing the entire machine is cheaper and that applies to most consumer computers, like it or not.
But, like with cars, they scream conspiracy. The industry wants me to keep replacing these things!! Well, if you knew how to maintain and rebuild either yourself, you wouldn't have to pay $75/hour to replace a $2 component and, voila, it might be more cost effective to fix rather than replace.
Total agreement on your point. You learn a whole lot by just trying stuff, and seeing what happens. Sure, sometimes you break stuff, but that's part of the game. Now, I know not everyone has the time to do that every time something breaks, but you can at least try clicking on a few dialog boxes before looking for help.
My mom calls me with computer problems from time to time. I currently live about a thousand miles from her, so it's not that easy for me to diagnose and fix her problems, so I don't particularly enjoy it. Occasionally she'll call me while I'm busy at work, and so I can't even try to help her. A few times when that's happened, she's called me back later to tell me that she spent some time experimenting, and she figured out whatever it was that was giving her problems. So I know she can figure out some of it. She's no geek, but she's smart and when she actually tries, she makes progress on her problems. And even if she can't figure it out completely, when I do get around to helping her, she knows more about the problem, and we make progress faster.
I just wish she'd accept that, and not call me as quickly in the future.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
One of the biggest problems with PC repair and support is that the majority of technicians treat all problems like some poorly-trained doctor, prescribing antibiotics by the handful rather than doing in-depth tests.
When's the last time you saw a PC technician try to debug the problem at a low level? It's always just reinstall, reinstall, reinstall.
You should add these hidden costs to the dollar amount you put on the hardware, then compare $50/hr to the final value.
I've had to fix about 30 computers last year, and about 10 of them had problems caused by faulty power supplies and failing drives, both hard and optical. Power supplies are particularly nasty when they fail, since they often take other components with them. If you build your own box, rip out the supply that comes with your $40 case, and buy a good one.
One box was stepped on, resulting in some connectors ripped out of the motherboard, and was partially fixed by soldering them back on.
The rest of the machines were crippled by malware, which in 70% cases could not be removed automatically and had to be hunted down and exterminated by hand, leaving behind dead pieces of it n many cases. Only one machine had to be reinstalled (I'm sooo good!).
On all those machines I hid IE from the menus and installed firefox, and explained to the users why they should use it. I've only had two repeat calls so far. Both users were web designers who had to have IE available for work, and also had random relatives and friends using their computers for mail, web and itunes. Can't help there:-).
The only difference between a professional and an amateur is the fact that one of them gets paid.
A certification or a degreee doesn't mean you know more than anyone else, it just means you sat in detention longer.
Intelligence is a matter of opinion.
That's the exact approach I used on my girlfriend's parents (my willing guinea pigs), and on my mum too.
It worked pretty well, although I did tell them what I'd done, and that it was to help stop bad stuff happening to their computers.
Hide the IE icon, replace it everywhere with a shortcut to Firefox (using the IE icon), set Firefox as the default web browser, and as a final touch, deny Internet Explorer the right to connect to the 'net using Zone Alarm, so it can't be used by "accident".
As long as you remember to import their bookmarks, set up Flash and so on, it's pretty easy to make people switch. Once they've used Firefox a week or so, start showing them the cool extra features like tabbed browsing, adblocking and so on - it's a winning combination.
My mum complained a bit at first "what's this Firefox thing that keeps coming up?" but she soon got used to it. I also switched her over to Thunderbird without too much trouble - it really is getting easy to help average people switch to more secure internet tools.
Organic free-range music... yum!
If you want to check on a local business, you can check the local BBB. You know that a doctor with a degree from somewhere besides University of Phoenix has a reasonably good chance of being competent, but there is no way to prove to the average consumer that you are not an amateurish hack. I've been working with computers for the past 15 years (competent for last 10) and normally know what's going on, or when I don't know what's going on, where to turn to so that I don't crap up the situation even more.
A few years back I took the A+ Certification test to prove myself. The only thing that I proved was that the A+ Certification was a joke. I passed the test with flying colors without studying, or opening one single "10 easy steps to A+ Certification Glory". Not only did I not have to study, but I found a few questions that had no/incorrect solutions. One question had a picture of the connection riser of a legacy motherboard, and it asked to identify the USB port, except there was no USB port in the picture.
I find traveling or visiting friends to be a hassle because I seem to be the roaming tech support man. In the past 10 years of working on other's computers, I have only had to work on three Macs, and I don't have enough fingers/toes/hairs to count the number of Windows machines from which I've removed spyware and general crap, or changed settings that the user had no idea about.
Whenever I encounter a Windows machine connected directly to the internet, I refuse to work on it unless they make the small investment of a hardware router. I know that a router is not the end-all solution, and doesn't block things from phoning home, but it shows them that there are associated costs with computer security. Also, a few minutes explaining a few specific security functions can go a long way.
We (un)fortunately use laptops for everything. I'd say most of the class runs with no firewall and connect directly to the internet at home. The network chatter is incredible (I even had code red in my apache logs one day last year). When they installed windows, they never set an administrator password so spontanious remote shutdowns happen sometimes. The RPC DCOM worm that went around last year was very "fun". The college mandated that all computers connecting to their network have firewall and antivirus. Which was nice for the single day when the college did an audit (Most removed them because "it shows shit down")
These are people who are training to be professional software developers, but the sad thing is they only see what is laid out infront of them.
As for users exploring their systems, this is the first exposure many of these people have had to any operating system aside from Windows (We use Linux for our C/C++ based classes) and most people were toughing their way through vim because "its what the instructor uses". Very few people looked for another editor (gedit is right in the menu!).
I think this is an example of "shocked by complexity". Sure, computers are complex, but I think as soon as most people start seeing something they don't understand immediately, they glaze over and perceive the problem as too hard to solve.
-- Seq