Some customers really make me think; and this particular customer did a great job. I was asked about something that would seem like such a normal question and problem that anyone could remedy it. My problem was I simply couldn’t until I thought about it.
The machine was a custom built gaming console that would work for minutes and then freeze in the middle of something. Sometimes it would work for hours, sometimes days and then randomly freeze. What made it difficult to diagnose was the fact that it was a custom built system and wasn’t built by my company. There were no manuals to research and we had no knowledge of the machine.
We originally signed the machine in for a virus removal thinking it was going to be a fairly simple repair. Clear out the viruses and the issue will go away. About a half an hour into the process my technician called me to say the machine froze up. “Any suggestions?” After thinking about the problems and the fact that the customer had brought the machine to other places I suggested we duplicate the hard drive to a new one.
Duplicating the hard drive preserves data and settings exactly as they were on the original hard drive. Logically, if we can make an exact copy then the diagnostic will be that it either works or doesn’t. Two hours later the technician called me again to tell me the new drive was in and everything seemed OK.
But it wasn’t OK. No less than ten minutes later he called me up frustrated that it had stopped working. We’re back to square one again after investing close to three hours. It wouldn’t have been that big a deal except I had told the customer it would be a four to five hour job.
Systematically I walked through the computer with the technician piece by piece. My goal was to rule out everything that could possibly go wrong. We tested the power supply, replaced the processor, and swapped out the memory. After each step I was expecting success. Nearing closing time I called the customer to tell him we were tardy.
Based on an epiphany the night before, I started unplugging all the unnecessary components and put them aside. The only components plugged into the computer at this time were the motherboard, processor, memory and hard drive. Expecting the computer to power up and stay running, I turned it on and experienced the exact same issue.
If I had other people who I could pass this machine to I would. But, I’m the last straw at my company so I stuck to it. Something made me unplug the fan in the back of the computer. It’s such a rarity that a fan would cause the computer to crash I thought nothing of it. At this point I figured anything is worth a try. Turns out, without the fan plugged in the computer starts and runs perfectly.
A bill of $20.00 hardly seemed worth all of the time we spent diagnosing the machine. In the end it was worth it for me just to see the machine out the door. There can be many issues with computers that are so difficult to find that even the pros can’t figure it out. This customer spent nearly $300.00 prior to bringing the computer to us.
My suggestion is to develop a routine you can walk through to check your computer’s hardware and software on a regular basis. A good routine should take no more than 20 minutes each month. If you find issues you can’t resolve easily then I suggest surfing the web for a possible solution. Some solutions may be the last one anybody would suspect.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. located at 509 Main St. in Gardner. You can text him at (978) 413-2840 or call him directly at (978) 919-8059.)