No More Revamps
Please excuse the dense layout of this article: It has been copied from my Windows Live Space and didn’t enjoy the conversion from html to php to html.
I absolutely love building and rebuilding computers; but out of the two the money’s much more in building them than repairing them: Rebuilding, repairing, renovating, upgrading hardware = too much hassle, and unless I start charging a fortune I simply won’t make money on it.
I took an electronics course at college in Exeter, UK; and I also got into computers in a big way there: I’d been making a partial living as a software doctor previous to college; and this was my middle-aged return to full-time education at 40: I’d always beeh a technically-oriented person and although it’s mainly a male-dominated scene I’d been heavily into electronics in my childhood and teens; but never had the chance, thanks to my mother insisting that I go to a lousy school because it was nearby, to qualify in the subject: So this was my V-sign to all the a-holes who’d stood in my way in my early years.
Although in the first term getting seven colds, flu, thrush, and cystitis, all one after the other, made studying rather difficult; I nevertheless persevered and left the following year with 2 City and Guilds qualifications in analogue and digital electronics. Also while I’d been using the computers to write up my notes and reports on I’d got in with the computer guys + 1 girl on the computer course and we’d spent time during breaks messing around with hardware and software, which of course I took to like a duck to water. I’d left the hardware side of things alone previously because I wasn’t qualified in any way with regard to it and wouldn’t blag to customers. However when I left college as a qualified technician, having tasted of how relatively simple hardware assembly was I immediately started messing around at home with it – only to ruin my home computer whilst flashing its BIOS without a UPS in-circuit and getting a voltage spike in the supply during the operation. I panicked and ordered a decent computer from a firm locally which custom-built computers, stating the specifications I requirede of it and getting charged £400 – Which was a lot but I needed a computer fast and had no decent parts in to build my own.
6 months later the PSU in my new computer blew up; so since I had a spare PSU and other components to hand on that occasion I thought I’d do my own repair and also find out why the machine was so slow. I discovered they’d used a motherboard other than the one I’d specified which had 250MB onboard graphics rather than the extra card I’d asked for, but which took DDR RAM rather than the faster DDR2. Also they’d said that they’d put a 64-bit Sempron processor in it, which turned out to be a 32-bit, and the Hitachi hard-disk I’d asked for was some Chinese generic make that I’d never heard of. I asked for a refund which they refused so I threatened them with trading standards and they agreed a partial refund which I accepted as I didn’t want to push my luck too far with the cowboys.
I reasoned that if they could get away 9 out of 10 times with selling a heap of cheap crap worth £175 at most for £400 to an unsuspecting non-computer-savvy public then I could sell the real thing, built as ordered and from quality components, to the public for a bit less and get myself a good reputation. The downside was that people I knew started bringing me their old clapped-out boxes to repair “As a favour – I’ll pay for any parts you need”: There goes £20 an hour down the gurgler: Thanks “friend”.
Building a computer from scratch is much more profitable, quicker, easier than repairing an old machine, and to me the result is more enjoyable. I can easily build a computer having bought the components in new and have it installed with operating system and other software, optimised, tested, and ready to go within 3 days at the outside. With renovations, rebuilds, upgrades, etc; a lot of the time it’s just not worth it: The costs will exceed the value of the computer I’m working on, the repair will take sometimes weeks depending on the availability of specialised or obsolete parts; thus occupying a workbench all that time, and the customer always moans about something:-
I once rebuilt a computer replacing and upgrading everything but the case, fans, front panel, PSU, and one of the DVD-RW drives: Previously the customer was running the Vista Ultimate operating system on an Athlon 64 single-core CPU and 2GB DDR RAM without a decent antivirus or any of the updates from M$. I backed up all the data, wiped and reformatted the HDD, replaced the motherboard with a better one, installed an Athlon 64 x 2 dual-core CPU and more than 2GB DDR2 RAM, replaced a fsked DVD-RW drive, connected up IEEE1394 ports that the customer didn’t even know they had, installed XP slipstreamed with SP3, reinstalled personal files from backup, scanned and optimised the installation, added extra software as well as further M$ updates, optimised again, tested for 12-hours constant, benchmarked, packed and dispatched by courier. What happens? I get a call from the customer as soon as they set it up and switch on: It’s not as quick as it used to be. That’s because you’re running all the recommended security updates plus antivirus software. No don’t uninstall it or you’ll pick up a virus. Yes you may well have just had the flu but I was referring to a computer virus. No shut down the operating system before you switch it off at the wall. Ok I’ll tell you how to do that – Have you never done that before? – Yes I’m sure it did turn off instantly when you used to pull the plug on it; but you’re supposed to let it shut down first. Yes I know it’s a slower way but it’s the correct way to do it so you won’t damage it. Yes I know it used to be faster…
At least with a new comp that I’ve built for the customer all I need do is just send it to them and that’s usually the last I hear of it.
Again I had an ancient comp in from one of my dear friends that I agreed to overhaul for her: Someone on drugs or something had pulled almost everything out of the insides leaving only the motherboard with the wrong RAM sticks forced into the slots, plus the 16MB AGP graphics card still in place, and had then told her it was a load of crap which was useless; This despite it working before they had started on it:
The sound card was missing, as was the NIC, the original RAM, and the case fans. I had 5 second-hand NICs in stock as well as at least 1 new case fan, but had to order more PC100 RAM off ebay (That indicates how old it was.) None of the NICs would work with it, but I eventually ordered an old Compaq NIC from ebay which did work. I also ordered a 32MB AGP graphics card to upgrade from the 16MB card; that wouldn’t work either so I put the 16MB card back in and that didn’t work either. Jiggling it around in its socket and adding washers to the fixing to keep it in the right place eventually had it working. Next day the RAM arrived – Wrapped in bubble-wrap by some half-baked ebayer, so that had to be dealt with: It’s hard to explain to someone with the intellectual capacity of a dead rocking-horse how RAM can be damaged by static electricity… First you have to explain what static electricity is…I eventually got them to agree to refund the money I’d paid for it. More RAM had to be ordered from a different ebayer; and just my luck that nobody else had any PC100 or even PC133 RAM for sale that week. Meanwhile the sound card arrived from Hong Kong even though the seller had said they lived in London, and surprisingly it worked straight away as soon as it was installed. A week later the replacement RAM arrived. Since I’d specifically asked the seller not to wrap it in polythene, bubble wrap, or anything but a static-proof bag, they’d enclosed it in a decent anti-static bag – between two sheets of polystyrene which they’s put inside the bag! Surprisingly it worked when I plugged it in and powered up though; which saved the computer from becoming a boat-anchor. I don’t usually believe in miracles but that almost changed my mind.
Three weeks after starting and £500 worth of time/labour plus £45 parts later it was ready to be returned to my friend; who said she’d be picking it up that week but picked it up the next month. I felt like charging her for parts, labour, and storage, at £675; but I kept to my promise and only charged her for parts. I vowed I’d never do any more upgrades or rebuilds again – But nevertheless I ended up getting myself suckered again.
Note to self: NO MORE UPGRADES/REBUILDS/REFURBS
©KKomp 2008
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