FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Running a Computer Repair Business
Last updated: 8/7/03
Q. What advice/comments do you have on repairing
laptop computers?
A. I try to avoid them and have been burned quite a few times by attempting
to work on them. One cannot usually work on laptops effectively without a very
large supply of parts, extensive documentation, and experience. The parts are
usually hard to identify and get, expensive, and difficult to return. The documentation
is almost impossible to get. There are an “infinite” number of models and manufactures,
and many manufacturers have gone under, and they keep changing. The cases have
no rhyme or reason and are often hard to figure-out, and they are very fragile.
They are difficult to take apart, put back together again, and avoid breaking
or marring while doing it. You need a large shop (or depote--thats' what I
usually use if I can't avoid them) in a large city that specializes in laptops,
and you will usually pay to the nose for parts and labor. If it has a bad motherboard,
chances are that it is beyond economical repair. Except for basic repairs and
troubleshooting, the same is true for printers and monitors, although to a
lesser extent, and they are now so cheap that in most cases they aren't worth
fixing if they are outside of warrantee. Them’s the facts as I see ‘em… Larry
Q. Do you have a form that your technicians use when
troubleshooting PC's?
A. For many years my shop used a Nebs
form 311.
A few years ago when my shop became part of a Mom 'n Pop store I designed my
own form with Excel to cut costs :
http://duxcw.com/faq/shop/form.htm.
You
may need a recent version of the Internet Explorer or Mozilla to see the form
properly. The original looks better (e.g., no space under the logo), but I
think you
get the idea.
There are computer programs designed to support this function,
but we found that paper worked better for us. A one person shop may
want to consider using the customer notes feature in Quickbooks
Pro as tool for doing this task. However, that feature has
a note size limitation and no structure.
Forum
discussion on this subject.
Q. What is a good way to clean a computer?
A. See A
Good Way to Clean a Computer (and a Computer Shop).
If you have more questions about running a computer repair
shop, building custom computers, networking small businesses, etc. please
post them in our Forums. I've
been doing it since 1987. Also, see About
Dux.
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