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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.'"
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 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 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
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.
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:-).