What's On Your Tech Bench?

Twev1701 writes "As a small computer repair company that has seen enormous growth in the past few months, we are now looking to expand our facilities. With construction starting on our office space, we now turn to the task of designing a new tech bench. Our existing bench is 6'x3', has a dedicated 15" CRT, 4 port KVM, and overhead storage bins for parts. With a new bench of 12'x4', we have lots of room for expansion. What essentials would the /. community put on their new tech bench?"

Comments

Re:i'd put..

[biryokumaru]

Actually, in my experience, the single most useful tool for computer diagnostic/repair (next to a philips screwdriver, of course =]) is Linux. Whenever a friend needs to reformat or gets some virus that keeps their machine from booting, or some such, I just plug their hard drive into my Linux box here and do whatever needs to be done. Recently, my Chief (I'm a Navy recruit) needed some files recovered from a system who's admin password was lost and/or corrupted. I just hooked his hard drive into my system, recovered encrypted NTFS files with ease and burnt'em onto a CD. Yes, a 15" CRT is nice, but if all you're hooked up to is a BSoD, it's not terribly helpful =] Also, both the laptop offerings are called "m5000 Series." Typo?

More than one console . . .

[millisa]

One CRT isn't going to cut it. Get a second LCD mounted up on the wall. That much space, you likely want to watch more than one thing at a time and a switch box is frustrating.

An old laptop with floppy drive (and a burner if you want to get fancy). Nothing is more irritating than having to walk back and forth for bios, drivers, and whatnot to put on floppies at your desk . . . There's always something you want to lookup online or download to use on your hardware.

Easily accessible tools. Not bins. Not a toolbox under the bench. A nice set of phillips and flatheads, maybe a couple needle nose just there on the wall. (Paint them fluorescent orange or something so they dont walk away if you want). Those all-in-one tool cases with their plastic snapin holders are not conducive to putting things away right.

An assortment of 'known good' parts in easy to get to bins doesn't hurt. And a nice sorted variety of screws is always good (I don't know what they do with them, but people seem to like hording backplanes and their screws . . .).

Easy to reach canned air. Easy to reach paper towels.

Invaluable

[BS405397]

I have to say that one of the most useful things I've gotten my hands on in a long time is an IDE to USB cable. It saves tons of time hooking up drives that aren't able to boot for one reason or another for data extraction. All that slaving to another system and rebooting gets old real fast, but I end up working on quite a few laptops. I'd also reccomend a hard drive duplicator/maintainence station. As far as tools go, everyone has their favorite for one stop shopping, but I prefer the Swiss Army Cybertool. It's way more useful than the model with a USB drive, and has nearly every commonly used PC maintenance tool I need, including a pin for reset buttons. A bit bulky, but I wouldn't be without it in my pocket. I don't know what type of KVM you use (USB or PS2), but I would also reccomend keeping a genuine opposite, read not using adapters, keyboard and mouse handy. Typically, I use PS2, but every now and then I get a system like a Compaq iPaq (the desktop not handheld) that only has USB, and doesn't work well with adapted PS2 devices.

Booting and power

[commanderfoxtrot]

I'd definitely agree with the USB key/CDs.

Much of the time spent fixing is in diagnosis. Having a selection of USB keys and CDs to boot into memcheck and Linux environments for analysis will be very useful. Also have a huge disk around with *everything* on it.

You'll need power. Lots of power. Put a few mains sockets on the wall, and get a couple of big computer power supplies screwed to the wall with extra-long cables. Just make sure you have a means to turn them on and off- modern power supplies can be a pain in this respect. On the ATX ones, I recall you ground pin 10 to turn it on... but check this!

I'd also say my Leatherman has fixed more than its fair share of VCRs and computers :-)

Re:well..

[tintub]

I prefer to attribute the origin of the name espresso to the "quick" way it is prepared in opposition to the usual italian way of preparing the coffee (at home) by using a special coffe maker tool called "moka" that produces coffe lighter than the espresso.

Gah! No, no, no! A moka (such as the classic octagonal aluminium pot that you are talking about) is an espresso machine. It's a cheap stovetop version designed to emulate the cafe espresso machines. The point of espresso and the reason an espresso is called an espresso is that the water (or steam) is forced through the coffee grains at high pressure, which is exactly what a stovetop espresso machine does. The heating of the water in the lower half of the moka builds up the pressure, until the steam is forced through the coffee, up through a tube and into the top half. You are right that it doesn't match a cafe espresso, you don't really get a crema with a moka. Another disadvantage is that because the water is boiling when it passes through the coffee, the coffee gets a bitter burnt taste when compared with a cafe machine, which runs at about 90 degrees C. All the same, it's still an espresso.

my service bench

[v1]

As a macintosh repair tech I probably have a little different spread of toys than many PC techs, but I suspect the basics will be much the same. Some items have been added after a moment of inspiration, and have made life a LOT easier.

* A parts caddy. One is a large caddy, and is full of parts of course. Start out with one at least twice as big as you think you'll need, then add a second one later when you run out of space.

* Another parts caddy. This should be a smaller one, with 36 small drawers. DO NOT put anything in this one, it's for service. This is a huge idea. When taking apart a laptop, each step of disassembly, pull out a drawer and put the parts/screws/etc in the drawer and set it on the bench to the side. Set them down in a row as you take apart the computer. This does three important things for you. First, it makes it unlikely that you will lose a part or try to put a screw in the wrong place. Second, you now have a distinct order in which to reassemble the computer so you don't put a panel back on and then realize you have to take it back off to attach a cable. Since you can't always count on having a service manual, especially for a laptop, this is very important. Third, all the parts for each assembly step are grouped together, which also helps prevent delays in reassembly and "hmm I have parts left over...". This is good for laptops and desktops, but the biggest benefit is really anytime you really have to tear something apart.

* KVM or similar switch, to switch video between your service monitor and up to 3 other VGA sources. USB switchbox to switch your keyboard between your service machine and up to thee other computers. Four VGA/USB combo cables to run around with. Number them, and number your switchbox positions. Some people opt for the "tap shift three times" KVMs, but I personally prefer the good ol pushbuttons.

* Tools. You can never have enough. I have particular need of my precision screwdriver set from Sears. It includes philips 0, 00, and 000 which are essential for laptops. It also comes with t5-t8 and small flatheads too. I also have a larger set of long handled philips 1 and 2, plus a set of large torx wrenches for t powermac g5's.

* multimeter. Doesn't have to be an expensive one. You need to test voltage (BIOS batteries, power supplies) and continuity (is that wire good?) $15 from radio shack is fine.

* firewire card in your service machine, and firewire enclosure, opened up, on your bench. This is for quick hookup and removal of drives for testing and repair, without having to reboot your machine. Another very "big idea", this will really help you. I *strongly* recommend a Granite Digital "FireView" bridge board, it has an LCD display and menu buttons and can be used to test a drive without even hooking it to a computer - extremely helpful and costs only about $100. Hard to find good diagnostic hardware of any type for that price. This will easily save you hours of frustration trying to track down a gremlin that ends up being a flakey or failing hard drive.

* air compressor, and a place to use it. (outside) You will be thankful for this when a machine comes in that looks like it was fresh dug up out of the ground. You'll see the worst ones at least twice a month, and they will send up a huge brown cloud when you first hit them with the air. Make sure it does not have a tool oiler in line, (yes, I've seen that done to a computer, once) and it would be better still if someone knew how to empty the water drain valve occasionally.

* cables and adapters. Like USB A-to-B, USB A-to-mini, firwire 6-6, 6-4, and 6-9. Parallel, maybe even some scsi (they come in handy from time to time). Serial, old and new style. Don't forget a DVI to VGA adapter (both ways!) because you will need them.

* floppy drives. Definitely need a 1.44mb usb floppy, and should also try to have a zip-100 if at all possible. Zip 250 is optional but good. DVD burner also manditory, for data backups. Anything else probabl

Re:The essentials of desktop repair

[cellocgw]

blah blah never seen a PC part blow due to static blah blah
No, you've just never looked closely enough to see the damage. Most often the ESD damage is not catastrophic but does degrade a chip or two, leading to errors or slow performance, or maybe the chip's premature death months hence.
Just because you don't get a micro-nuclear explosion doesn't mean you didn't break something.
Heck, I once grounded the wrong side of an FM antenna (in the pre-polarized-plug days) and saw a spark. The electronics ran fine for another 6 months until some part finally croaked.
At the risk of sounding officious :-) , trust the experts. They may actually know something.