URGENT -help required

[Welsh Pete]

Hey,

I`ve just had a call from a friend of mine who owns 2 PC shops. He`s poaching me!

I have to attend a meeting with him and his staff tomorrow so I realy need any literature on PC repair anyone can muster. For example, the dummies guide to pc repair would go down a treat

Cheers, and uber-K on standby...

Maybe this should be in the employment fourm...MOD: move please!!

[Waka]

Here's an nzb for these books:

Wiley.PC.Repair.Bench.Book
Upgrading & Repairing PCs, Eighth Edition.
Que.Upgrading.and.Repairing.PCs.15th.Anniversary.Edition
OReilly.Repairing.and.Upgrading.Your.PC.Mar.2006.eBook-BBL
John.Wiley.And.Sons.PC.Upgrade.and.Repair.Bible.Desktop.Edition.eBook-LiB


W.

[Welsh Pete]

Mate, you would be a bloody lifesaver, if I used newsgroups! Dont suppose therea a torrent lurking around is there?

[whatnow]

there's about 100000s websites out there pete with this info, go seek.

There's one resource you may have never thought of, click Start > Help and Support! Madness, it's like as if they made it AND documented it

[Welsh Pete]

Actually, scratch that I`m good...got one or two coming down now.

So, are there any tips anyone can offer re: this pc repair topic?!?

[Welsh Pete]

there's about 100000s websites out there pete with this info, go seek.

There's one resource you may have never thought of, click Start > Help and Support! Madness, it's like as if they made it AND documented it

yeh, F1 did cross my mind but I remembered it was written by microsoft so decided against it.

I dont really have time to trawl the net hence the ebook request...thanks though

[TwoPlAnKs]

i'd think about what they are gonna ask and figure out a sensible answer

1) Client brings in a dead box. How you gonna fix it?
so you'd check if it had fans and lights on first, if it does then check monitor connection and the monitor they are using, if not those then graphics card, processor, possibly mainboard, possibly another part causing it not to start so you could disconnect them all etc. etc., if fans and lights not on then check fuse in plug, check that annoying little on-off switch on the back, check power switch hasnt come lose from mainboard, then try disconnecting non-essential parts and if that doesnt work start swapping the essential parts with working ones etc etc.

obviously you'll know all that if you are about to go into pc repair, but think of how to word it, talk it through in your head, think of every possible thing you can say without going totally overboard

if its pc repair then they might have customer service questions too. you fix a pc, they take it home and it blows up. they bring it back with a burnt face after leaving a message with their lawyer, what are you gonna say to sort them out? "sorry, have a refund and piss off" is the approach i use at work but you need to think of what you are actually supposed to do to make the customer come back without costing the company money

your mate has probably asked his technical staff to test you so they might have some corkers of questions, but if you just relax and remember the fact that any computer can be fixed if you replace enough bits and that you could do that then they really have no question that can throw you completely

half an hour reading back through threads in the pc problems section on here would be quite useful i reckon, fill your head with ideas for solving problems so that they can just pop straight out in the interview.

reading the microsoft help could be useful too, most people who are gonna take their computer to a shop to fix it will use windows so if you know as many tricks as possible to find software problems with that then you could be set. perhaps reading actual helpfiles is futile but you could certainly see what the microsoft troublshooters suggest for various problems and see what diagnostic stuff windows has under the hood.

[Waka]

This one:
OReilly.Repairing.and.Upgrading.Your.PC.Mar.2006.e Book-BBL
is just under 6MB
and this one:
Upgrading & Repairing PCs, Eighth Edition
is about 1.5MB
if you want me to email them to you (the others are ~20MB each)

W.

[Welsh Pete]

I`m good now. I downloaded a few books from torrent spy and am setting about reading them.

I do have great customer service skills, and fairly advanced IT skills, but I just a little rusty after being away from the game for 2 years: I`m a telecom engineer right now you see!

[Zippeyrude]

you'll be alright, fuck all has changed really since 286 pcs were about. different mobos, sockets and ram but they all work the same still

[Welsh Pete]

Lets hope so. The guy obviously wants me to work for him. He asked me what i`m on now, I told him and he said he could match it straight away. I then pushed him an extra K, that was also matched...now for the next K...

[Little John]

If the guy has phoned you it looks like he wants you rather than advertiseing and getting the dross from the job centre.

I've had a few of those types of interview, they just tell you what they do and ask if your interested and try to meet your terms. I had 1 guy sak me how to crimp an RJ45 end and just to test him I told him the wrong thing and he said ok and i got the job.

If you have done pc repair in the past you can do it now you just have different shaped holes to put things in. I would expect that he is looking for more than a PC engineer, your telecoms background and cableing skils will be invaluable to him especailly with the way companies are wanting VOIP and that phone systems are becoming more and more integrated with PC's the comapny can now offer phone system installs. It could be a tough thing to take on if you want out of telecoms then make sure that isnt what the guy is planning.

[Welsh Pete]

Well, yesterday I was offered the job. The dude has just signed the lease on his new premises.

Question is now, how to let my current boss down...

Oh, anyone got a copy of vista that I can half-hinch

[blaggard]

Well, yesterday I was offered the job. The dude has just signed the lease on his new premises.

Question is now, how to let my current boss down...

Oh, anyone got a copy of vista that I can half-hinch

I'm tempted to point you towards the newsgroups but.. . . . ..

[Toffeeman]

You might be able to find something in here that will come in useful:

http://freecomputerbooks.com/

[Welsh Pete]

I'm tempted to point you towards the newsgroups but.. . . . ..

I think a mate of mine has a DVD I can nab...cheers though