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[bluey]

Two problems with repairing home-user PCs:

1 The average user thinks they know it all about computers and taking it to a repair shop can be a real last resort for many of them. 
2 The average users tends to really struggle with the concept of paying for broken computers to be repaired and the repairer needing to earn a living - yet they happily pay for someone to fix a washing machine!

I blame the web, it's got too much duff advice that people take for gospel and makes them think they're bleedin' experts. 

[TheBoy]

Two problems with repairing home-user PCs:

1 The average user thinks they know it all about computers and taking it to a repair shop can be a real last resort for many of them. 
2 The average users tends to really struggle with the concept of paying for broken computers to be repaired and the repairer needing to earn a living - yet they happily pay for someone to fix a washing machine!

I blame the web, it's got too much duff advice that people take for gospel and makes them think they're bleedin' experts. 

The problem is that most of the 'experts' think they are experts, when the majority aren't 

[bluey]

Very true.  What really bores me these days is the 'guess how much I paid for my PC'  game, where someone inevitably tries to make out they got their hands on a Cray for two buttons and piece of string.  That and the '(insert brand name) laptops are rubbish' terribly sorry old boy, I am a little tiredfest.  Listen, just 'cos your's broke due to you downloading some malware infested junk "because it's free" and then repeatedly punching the keyboard doesn't mean it's rubbish.   

[aaronjb]

There are specialist sites for recovered 2nd hand laptop spares, tend to specialise is specific makes, but google normally finds them. Or Egay.

Yeah - I've bought Compaq spares like that in the past.. my stock of Dell bits came from old stuff work sold off that were non functional.. I bought 15 laptops and ended up with two working ones and a giant pile of bits

System boards seem to be the buggers, and generally not cost effective - when a system board costs me £100, plus an hour fitting (inc testing), making it a minimum of £135, its not cost effective for people, buy a new one instead.

Yeah - everything moves on so fast now.. still, back when I was self employed I don't think I ever sold anyone a system - just fixed whatever they'd buggered up in Windows, usually

[aaronjb]

Two problems with repairing home-user PCs:

1 The average user thinks they know it all about computers and taking it to a repair shop can be a real last resort for many of them. 
2 The average users tends to really struggle with the concept of paying for broken computers to be repaired and the repairer needing to earn a living - yet they happily pay for someone to fix a washing machine!

I blame the web, it's got too much duff advice that people take for gospel and makes them think they're bleedin' experts. 

The problem is that most of the 'experts' think they are experts, when the majority aren't 

Ah yes .. but there's still a lot of home users who think they know it all

My favourite, back then, was always the "Why do you charge X for a website? My son's friend/cousin's daughter/etc can do it in five minutes!"

[Andy B]

....

BTW - Andy - what model Dell is it? I happen to have a bunch of Dell hinges at home for various models (and they're generally not that hard to swap out) -  .......

I'll find out. :-/ It's a few years old now.

Then again, back in the day, most of my work was "I can't connect to the interwebs!", ......

I was nearly asking for help last night with my daughter's newlaptop. I did the only thing I know how ..... changed channel on the modem ..... and wasn't getting anywhere.
I then noticed the 'WLAN' (whatever that means  :-/) was 'off' 

[tunnie]

....

BTW - Andy - what model Dell is it? I happen to have a bunch of Dell hinges at home for various models (and they're generally not that hard to swap out) -  .......

I'll find out. :-/ It's a few years old now.

Then again, back in the day, most of my work was "I can't connect to the interwebs!", ......

I was nearly asking for help last night with my daughter's newlaptop. I did the only thing I know how ..... changed channel on the modem ..... and wasn't getting anywhere.
I then noticed the 'WLAN' (whatever that means  :-/) was 'off' 

Wireless Local Area Network 

[Andy B]

....

Wireless Local Area Network 

I suppose I should've been able to work that out! 

[TheBoy]

There are specialist sites for recovered 2nd hand laptop spares, tend to specialise is specific makes, but google normally finds them. Or Egay.

Yeah - I've bought Compaq spares like that in the past.. my stock of Dell bits came from old stuff work sold off that were non functional.. I bought 15 laptops and ended up with two working ones and a giant pile of bits

System boards seem to be the buggers, and generally not cost effective - when a system board costs me £100, plus an hour fitting (inc testing), making it a minimum of £135, its not cost effective for people, buy a new one instead.

Yeah - everything moves on so fast now.. still, back when I was self employed I don't think I ever sold anyone a system - just fixed whatever they'd buggered up in Windows, usually

I got into it early, maybe around '90/91, so got business from people buying their first PC, and the word of mouth (as PCs were considered a black art then), then all the upgrades for Win3 and 3.1, then same again for W95, then all the upgrades when the internet start yo get popular around '96/97.

After that, the arse dropped out of the market, and the likes of Dell made it not worthwhile.

By the millenium, everybody thought they were an expert, and were not prepared to pay my rates, so when I moved in 2001, I shoved all my customers onto a mate, and never really bothered. I just mostly do family and friends now.