The computer that I have now replaced one that had broken down and the motherboard went on it. Anyway I took it to a little shop in Livonia, New York and waited, waited, waited.... They told me that it would not be worth it to have it fixed so we haggled on a new one and we ordered it. It took an unbelievable amount of time. So after some months of waiting I got the new one, and had hopes of reviving the old one some day. I poked around in the old one only to find that a memory chip which I had installed earlier was gone! The tech had stolen the chip right from the computer and it was expensive. They denied it of course but there was no question because I had not removed it prior to service. I talked to the owner, and she said that I would be reimbursed, which never happened. This is a horror story from a small town, so watch out you computer lovers. It could happen to you. There is nothing stopping some tech from stealing something from your machine. Oh the name of the company was Wise computers-- not wise at all.
I don't go to have my computer fixed at a shop. I just try to fix the problem myself by watching YouTube videos. I have no doubt that computer repair services are stealing parts. That's just not right next time just try to fix it yourself. You don't need the extra headache of people stealing parts from your computer. This saves you money and if you fix it you'll learn something in the process.
Thanks for the advice; I will take it. It was quite an ordeal. The computer that I have now is the one I bought through them, and it has a flaw which I just learned to live with. It will not stay in sleep mode for more than a few minutes. It was better though just to put up with it rather than go through the hassle of trying to have it fixed.
I also do not take my computer into a computer shop when it needs minor fix. Everything is on the internet these days. There are so many forums and websites where we could get advises with regards to computer trouble shooting. I think this is just another lesson learned. Don;t worry, that shop won't stay that long because they are not fair to their customers. We have a thing called "karma" in this world.
I've had the same computer for 10 years and never needed to get it fixed. I keep it clean inside and out. A computer is just a box full of crap really. When something goes haywire, usually just have to buy a new one of "that something". Harddrives go bad every 4 or 5 years. Just buy a new one. Then, place the old one into cable 2. And drag all the files from the bad drive to the new one. PSU (Power Supply Units), go bad every 5 years or so also. Replacing them within the unit is pretty easy. Also my computer has 4 ram slots so if I need more memory, I just buy new ram sticks and install them and viola, good to go.
I'm actually an advocate of replacing computers every 4 or 5 years, but if all you want to do is surf the net, use e-mail and do some word processing, I guess you can keep the thing going as long as you want.
how did you know that your motherboard had went bad or went out on your computer? Did you start getting funny lines or colors on the screen or something? That's all I do on mine pretty much. I type screenplays on my screenwriting program, work online typing articles on MSN, Chrome, and IE8. And I watch movies either online, or I download and watch them on my desktop using Windows media player, VLC Media player, or Real Player. I of course check my email, and use Twitter and Facebook. That's why I don't get when people say their computers were fried. I'm like what are you folks doing to your comps? The only thing in a computer that normally go over the period of a few years are hard drives and power supplies. And of course RAM sometimes needs to be updated.
Bad scene. I have had something of that nature happen to me. It's a shame that people cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
Wow. People are getting worse these days, even computer techs steel from you these days. I usually repair myself my computer and laptop because it's cheaper (I only have to pay for spare parts) and I don't have to worry about someone stealing my parts and things like that. Next time, you should definetely try to talk to a friend or something that knows here and there about computers or repairing a computer to help you out on the situation
Whenever my computer goes bad, I never visit a company to repair it, I just buy a new one. Sometimes computer repair shops can be a major problem when trying to have your computer fixed. To spare myself the headache I just buy a new computer. I have my desktop now for 8 years and my laptop for 5 years. If anything goes wrong with either machine, I will replace it with a new one.
I am doing computer repair Business from many years and i deal in all kind of computer sale and purchase and also repairing and now recently i have opened the sale and purchase of new Laptops and the parts of these laptops i have also made my shop's official web site and deals in very low rate of repairing and sales of computer and parts this is good business and have a reasonable profit and also a reasonable work of this Computer Repairing Business... Log In
What scares me is the level of fraud in the computer repair business. Like many of you have said, repair you own equipment! I think of myself as capable of my own repairs. Sometimes the time and effort can be difficult to put in. Recently, I subjected myself to a repair shop, against my better judgement. The guy seemed reasonable and understood that I was no dummy when it comes to computers. Then he stood there after working on it a litte and said to me that I needed to reinstall the software for $60...when it was clearly a hardware problem. Seems repairs shops don't want to put in the time and effort either!
Living in New York I see COMPUTER REPAIR flyers posted on traffic light and telephone poles all the time. The prices seem too good to be true and most likely are. But desperate people might take the risk if they have an older model, or the don't have the money to pay Geek Squad or someone like that.
It's possible they may have taken the memory chip out as part of their troubleshooting, to see if there was an issue with it going bad. Perhaps they misplaced it and forgot to put it back in, rather than having purposely stolen it. There's likely a lot of loose parts lying around that it got mixed up in. I wouldn't really bother paying someone to fix an older computer these days either, since it can quickly add up and the money you are paying them could pretty much buy you a brand new computer with all new parts as well as the newest version of Windows. I bought a laptop last year for $350 brand new. I wouldn't want to pay someone $75-$100 in labor to look at my old computer, plus whatever the replacement parts cost. It made sense 10-15 years ago, when computers cost $2k+, but now days they are so much cheaper.
Indeed, when repairing computers for friends, they always offered me, what was for me, too much money. Computer repairing stores really do ask for too much because they know their clients don't know jack about their computers, so they can charge a lot without them knowing.
Well, thank you for taking the time to warn us about what can happen in a computer repair shop. Not that I ever wanted to go to one of these myself. I use to think given the amount of money they wanted I would probably be better off just investing in a new computer then trying to fix the old one. Fortunately for me, I now have a brother who has learned quite a bit of computers and their components. He has sort of become my tech support. At least with him I know what is being done to my PC, because he tells me what has done. This is more then can apparently be said for some computer repair companies.
That's why you should get some knowledge on what's wrong with your computer first. Before you walk into a PC repair place. That way, you can just come in, tell them what needs to be fixed, pay them to fix it, and move on. If anything gets changed outside of the affected part, you always have a case because your request on the receipt is stated. If they go above and beyond, it's technically illegal.
