Had pc fixed at local pc repair shop

Hi there,

Can anyone tell me if this sounds about right?

I took my desktop in to be looked at today. It is a Dell and it was making a weird beep sequence on start up and then just sitting there doing nothing.

The technician phoned me back this afternoon, and said he had looked at the pc and that it was not an issue of any faulty hardware. He said it needed a 'rebuild' - that all the connections were worn and pitted because of conditions it had been used in, like dust or condensation. It is pretty old so I was completely happy with that. He said he had already spent an hour cleaning it all and re-doing the 'gold'(?) and it would take another half hour or so. He charged me £45 quid. When I collected it he said there is dust in the corners etc but to just leave that alone.

I know this sounds a bit mean, but I am not convinced by the authenticity of a lot of these people, and so I opened it up and had a look inside. It possibly looks a little bit less dusty than before, but there is still a lot of dust on everything inside. I can't see anything that looks like it's been 're-done' but is that just because I can't see them. Did he mean the connections have been re 'golded' or bits that are not visible.

Who knows!! He seemed a really nice guy.

Does that sound a genuine repair - I have no idea!?

 

I sounds funny to me Victoria. Nearly every component is soldered in - so there is not a lot of scope for bad connections.

In the old days I had an Apple II computer and all the chips were push fits. On the very odd occasion it didn't work properly, I took the top off and pressed all the chips down into their sockets. They did tend to come lose sometimes as a result of the expansion when heating up and the contraction when cooling down, when the computer was switched on and off - thats why they are all soldered these days. Pressing down all the connectors invariably solved the problem. Sometimes they might get a bit corroded and a quick rub of the connectors with a rubber pencil erasor would help. But as they were mostly gold connectors I don't think there was much corrosion.

The hard disk connector is still a push fit, and if it is an old machine the memory chips might be push fits as well. As it didn't even try to boot, I wonder if the hard disk connector had got a bit loose. I suspect he pushed down all the push fit connectors - he might have even rubbed the connectors, but he wouldn't have re gold plated anything. I suspect that it was a reasonably genuine repair (he could have charged you a lot more), but I think you pay as much for the knowledge as for the actual time involved.

Incidentaly - there are different sequences of beeps when a computer won't start, and the sequence will tell what the problem is.

 

Thanks Peter.

I looked up the beep sequence and something came up about RAM - people on other forums which I searched through, but don't post on, had said something about taking out the (I can't remember what - whatever drive contains the memory I guess) and putting it back in again, which would solve the problem more often than not.

I just don't like the feeling that I've been treated as a fool. But I guess there is little I can do about it now!! Unless it doesn't work of course.

 

I think it's in the proof of the pudding Victoria Plum.
Is the PC fixed ?
If it's fixed then good job done and I don't think he overcharged you.
Even for a simple job - it's only simple if you know how.

 

I think if it now works again, and continues to for more than a few days, then job well done, even if the tale you were told is completely implausible.

You can't 're-gold' anything in there, I've never even heard of such a term. Maybe it is an innocent term that that particular chap uses to save the trouble of explaining exactly what he did. Maybe he made it up to make it sound like he'd done a specialist job that you should never attempt yourself. Either way that's not necessarily a bad thing.

He might have meant that he'd removed everything, cleaned all the connections, then re-seated everything. That is very plausible, and fixes a surprising number of issues on older machines that have eventually built up lots of dust.

The thing to remember is that a PC is quite literally like a vacuum cleaner. The cooling fan for the power supply draws air in for the purpose of cooling the transformer so it doesn't overheat. The air it draws in will inevitably contain dust (unless you're in the sterile conditions of a NASA lab). That dust, being carried in the air, becomes electrically charged as it it passes over the transformer, and then it is attracted to anything electrical of opposite polarity. That means all your connectors for example. Over time this gradual build up interferes with the connections, and things start to play up. A good clean with a suitable residue free (ethanol based) contact cleaner, and an 'air'osol (pressurised air squirter with no chemicals in it) will often fix it, and the bigger dust particles that you can see with the naked eye are just left, as they are doing no harm.

 

Thanks everyone.

It is indeed working, and the great fun the kids have had with it this weekend in their new 'grown up' bedroom is probably worth the £45 quid.

I just wanted to know if what he was telling me was genuine, as I obviously would want to trust him to go back again.

I'd have been happy paying for his knowledge, just don't want to be spun a story that 'sounds about right' rather than hearing the truth. I was concerned when it looked the same inside as when I took it in!

 

The bits he'll have cleaned will be out of sight, they're the contacts that sit inside the connectors when you slot the various components in.

He won't have bothered to clean much dust off elsewhere, because it can be fiddly and involves very gently wiping with a cotton bud coated in contact cleaner (unless he just sprayed it, which works, but doesn't get all the deposits off).

 

My first desktop computer was a Sinclair QL, I joined the QL Users and Tinkers Assn. (QUANTA). The chap who wrote the operating system often came to workshops around the country (he lived about 8 miles from me). When someone brought along a QL which would not work, he would unscrew the case, take two little levers out of his pocket, lever the processor up then push it down and the QL worked.

The problem in this case is probably that the memory card has managed to become unclipped. Push the card down into it's socket and make sure the clips are in place.

 

I once ordered a replacement hard disk for my ever reliable Ubuntu based media PC because it froze, and then crashed in spectacular fashion, then at the bios checks it said the hard disk was missing. I ordered the replacement, then waiting a few days for it to arrive. Then it took me a couple of weeks to get round to opening it up.

When I finally got round to fitting the replacement hard disk, guess what I found? The ribbon cable had become dislodged. I pushed it back on, and lo and behold, all was fine. I still fitted the new disk as a secondary, seeing as I'd bought it anyway, and then mirrored all my data just in case.

 

A very wise move, I have two external HDD's which I use to save data on (apart from temporary stuff which will be deleted later).

 

I really appreciate your advice on this. Thanks everyone.

It's still working ( I'm touching wood as I type!)

 

You have a wooden keyboard?

 

You mean you don't?

To be honest I'm getting a bit sick of cleaning up poop from the donkey who turns the motor!