Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here plz

how long did it take for you to fully understand how to repair a computer??

 

And that spiral can be a sharp decline into an assylum. Be patient! When I do things it never goes the way it should.

 

I got my first PC in 1997 (166mhz cyrix with 32mb ram and a 2GB harddrive) and the very first thing I did in the case was update the ram . . . and that was after I had it for a year and did some research first. It wasn't till 2001 I had the money to build my first system (A PIII based PC, for my son) and I thought I had things well in hand . . . then a year or so later I popped it open to upgrade it and thought "Was I drunk when I built this?!". I had made a basic error - putting an optical drive on the same ribbon as a hard-drive . . . I was astonished it worked as well as it had. So I had come a long way in that time - but still have a long way to go. In fact, no one ever actually gets "there" at all. It's a matter of keeping up with new technologies as they come out.

I've built four systems and repaired a good many since that time - and I am still learning better ways of doing things, and learning new stuff all the time. It is a never ending process, filled with good days and bad, bad days . . . Having a broadband connection helps - I now always do lots of research on repairs and upgrades before I venture into a case, and am pretty much an avid reader of anything to do with computers or technology in general.

The more effort put in, the better a person gets . . . but there is always room for more knowledge! And darn it, it's fun!

 

i agree with you HALO
its really a never ending spiral as the technology has also never ends
and also searching in the internet help much and asking other people

 

Over 22 years for me. Every new model and advance in hardware and software means more learning required. Just check out hardware and software catalogues to see what the advances are. USB hardly rated a mention a couple of years ago. Now it has taken over, sending floppy drives, serial and parallel ports almost to oblivion.

I've gone from a Tandy Model 1 with a cassette as the "hard drive", to one of the latest TOSHIBA laptops. I've built and modified desktops and laptops.

People here at MG are always available to help. Bazza

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

Hey bigbazza! I started with a "Trash 80" model 1 also. I had a massive 16K of RAM and really envied the people who could afford the "expansion box" and max out the RAM to.....(drum roll) 48K!!! And you could measure the dimensions of those clunky b&w pixels with a ruler. Still, I was pleased to have it. Moved on to several Atari 800/800 XL's, then a Commodore Amiga. Was the "goto geek" for my local union's computer (a 286 DOS machine) and when Win95 came out I took the plunge.

I'm not nearly as knowledgeable as many people here, and I'm certainly not a pro repair type but I enjoy tinkering with my systems, often get help here and really like it when I can help someone else straighten out a problem.

So I agree with all the comments that it's a never ending process. You never know everything about a given operating system and about the time you start to get reasonably comfortable and feel you can at least sort out most problems (even if you don't really understand what the heck is going on at a low level) the next new OS comes out and you have to learn a whole bunch of new stuff.

While I did a few simple hardware mods of one of my Atari machines I didn't really know what I was doing, just followed directions carefully and got good results. Took a few programming classes and really began tinkering with the hardware when I got my Win95 system as it was the first machine I owned that I could really open up easily and put new stuff in, change things around and so on.

The internet can make a repair person out of nearly anyone as there are so many resources online, including this great site. Reading several good computer mags can also help, as can a good selection of OS reference and troubleshooting guides.

But as I said, I started out with a TRS-80 Model 1 and that was circa 1979! So it's taken me over 25 years....so far!

 

just get out there and start helping. Every friend you know will have a computer problem and if you're pretty intuitive, you can figure it out.

Everyone here is right.

You'll never understand it all, but you don't need to. What you need to understand is how to solve a problem, not the answer to every problem.

good luck!

 

Computer it's a never ends unterstand situations it alway something new to learn me i begin with a VIC-20 5K memory WOW that's a lots and move from there 25 years later still learning stuff everydays but i am still searching
for that any keys on my keyboards simpson joke

 

im 14 and ive only seriously been fixing computers for about a year.
i had my first computer when i was 7 and i screwed it up and my dad made me reinstall it myself!
ever since then, ive been learning and teaching myself.
the insides is a whole nother story which i know nothing about...

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

Eezak...... I TOO started with the old faithful TRS-80 with 16 WHOLE MB of RAM. Boy, was that fun. Had to learn BASIC to make it work. Used the audio cassette tapes for programs and such. I once spent 6 hours of typing to copy down all the thousands of lines of code in order to be able to program my machine to play Star Trek. God, it was awful. Got nearly 3/4 of the way through, and guess what. Machine crashed and I lost all the code I had entered. Right then and there, I learned to periodically SAVE my work.

Those were the fun old days. You young studs have it so easy. Now you just go out and buy a game, insert it in your DVD drive and it installs itselt. Voila.

Fun, fun, fun.

 

I started with the Trash 80 tiny BASIC 16K RAM and a cassette drive (LORDY I DON'T MISS THOSE!!!). I've build a Sinclair from parts, built several other nameless machines (chess player for example), bought a Trash 80 Model 4, PET, then found the C64. The C64 was the one I truely loved, the PET was a good machine so I gave it to my brother. Anyone who has ever owned one of the old machines knows that many geeks can't help themselves, they have to modify and improve them as well as writing code.

Nowdays I build and mantain for friends and family, but I don't really enjoy it per se. The pleasure of helping other folks is why I do it.

BTW, I have to agree, you never ever stop learning if you're active. My own experience is sometimes it was against my will, but learned I did.

 

I also owned a Tandy 4P. Portable (?) luggable laptop (?). The size of one of those portable sewing machines that come with a carry all case. 2 x 5 ¼ floppy drives, side by side. No hard drives. My first laptop, I guess. Bazza

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Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

My first machine was an IBM PS/2 with a 386 processor and 8 megs of ram!

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

PS/2, now that brings back memories.
IBM's attempt to recover lost ground.
Never did succeed. Bazza

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In my opinon you never fully "understand" computers,

 

Luggable Laptop?!? I've seen those suckers, more like a crushable lap top. Remember the Commodore SX64? I think that fits the description.

One of the things I REALLY like about 8 bits is they were understandable. People even wrote machine code directly on the video display with the PETs. It helped the books for the computers were only $20 each, new.

I think I've said this before, but I miss 8 bits. I was at my peak, been loosing ground ever since.

 

Yep, it's a 'never ending story'. I've been a Technician in one form or another for eighteen years. And yep, I'm STILL got a lot to learn.

Building P.C.'s is easy. Diagnosing and solving obscure faults is where the experience shows.

I will say that practical experience counts for MUCH more than just theory, thogh, as useful as theory is.

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

I've been using computers since I was a child.

I had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k when I was about 10yrs old.

When it came to the early 90s and the birth of IBM/MS PCs, I already had an understanding of how they work in essence.

Really today's IBM PC is still the same technology as the old Spectrum.

The heart is the CPU, the Central Processor (Unit). That lives on a board.

You need a basic OS, Operating System to speak to the chip. Then it was Spectrum basic, now its Windows.

You need 3rd parties to write software, and a media for loading and saving said software.

The modern PC has just really integrated the seprate items. The main quantum leap is the integration of the hard drive.

Basically, if you've been in it since the early days, you have a natural understanding of the progression of the overall technolgy. You just have to keep up with the ever changing details!

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

I hears ya pain!

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

I still have no idea what I am doing. It's mostly just poke and hope. Spray and pray.

I just start at the simplest, dumbest solution and go from there. And get help. Lot's and lot's of help. If nothing else help means more scapegoats when the single point of failure system crashes

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

I have one of those floating around the house somewhere.

 

Really Cool guys! Glad to see we're still around! I to like several others started with the old TRS model 1, and thought I could take over the world with a Model III, Built a 286, overclocked it, was easier in those days, change the crystal! passed the 386 fad altogether, built many 486, swore my 486DX100 was the greatest computer ever, avoided the pentium 75 mess, built many since fixed hundreds, stood in line to get 16k (not megs) of RAM for a commodore and then paid $179 for it! Got my first version of Windows, it was 2.0 came on 3-4 5 1/2 floppies. Sent my TRS Model III to Texas to have Radio Shack install a floppy drive at around $300 and they had it for 8 weeks! I was in the Air Force and the "State of the art" system there was a massive 384mb bubble memory hard drive....Sorry I went down a very long road there! The point is the day I stop learning something new about computers will be the day after I died. These people here are very good, for the most part very helpful and offer many great pieces of advice. The best thing for you to do would be buy an old computer, tear it apart, fix it, up-grade it, experiment, play, and then do it again. If you want to get good at it make it into a shotgun system, remove it from the case, best to mount it spread out to wood, and make it work, then if you come up with a piece of hardware you have doubts about, connect it to your shotgun system and try it. Read everything, try everything, never take one piece of advice without another backing up the first! Never forget that someone helped you when you started so be willing to help those that come behind you! Sorry this got way long but there was a lot of exprience here and from the others back to when the first PC's came out in the late 70's!

 

Depend on how you define an old computer. My personal experience is about the time Athlons and Durons became common most of the devices you put in those machines were so smart themselves it is a snap. I HATED working with jumpers on the 8086/286/386/486 machines. Even the K6/2 and K6/3 motherboards had jumpers (hate hate hate...).

Nowdays you slap a card in, it tells the OS what it is, if the OS doesn't already have the drivers you put a CD in the slot, and you're good to go.

I spoil easily. Recently I rebuilt a K6/2 system for the son of a friend in the military from closet parts. The motherboard was well documented, so I was able to get the straps right mostly the first time, but have I mentioned how much I dislike them? To set RAM speed, CPU speed, and CPU voltage took around 15 jumpers. The older motherboard/cards were much worse.

One of the things I really loved about Commodore was the standardization. You could modify those old computers a lot, but certain things you could always count on. The video and sound was well documented.

If you decide to build a machine yourself find a friend for quick reference, one who is not fanatical about speed and performance and understands good enough is the enemy of the best. Then start shopping, I've got a lot of good hardware from eBay, less than 5% was bad. Given how many items I get from flea markets this is a good number. Dallas is a marvelous city to get hardware, but I suspect every state has somewhere.

Of course, anyone who decides to go that route has us!

 

What advice would everyone give to someone considering a technical field for their career? I've been interested in computers for a few years now, and I'm good at it and I love it. But I'm worried about technology advancing fast enough to weed out people at different levels and the job security not being there. Kinda like computers being able to fix and maintain themselves sometime in the not too distant future. My next choice is pharmaceuticals but I'll be stuck with $100,000 in debt if I attend the University I want to.

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

LOL That is exactly how I learned to save my work frequently. I remember buying books of BASIC games ( the program listings ) and spending hours typing them in. Taught you how to program in BASIC thru sheer repetition, if you paid any attention to what you were typing in.

In some ways, they were the good all days.

 

Depends, if you plan on working for someone else there ain't no job security. I do computers as a hobby, I like to call myself an electronic technician. Worked 24 years for a company before they got ground up in the telecom bust as a top line technician, now I operate machines I used to fix with someone else. This makes me very sad.

If it is an issue of love then go for the computers, but you'll never get rich. Might even go through hard times. With the pharmacy job you'll have a steady income, maybe a great one, and you can play with nice hardware on your own time. Servicing computers you get to play with other peoples stuff and probably won't be able to afford top of the line, and the competition from do it yourselfers and other wannabees is brutal.

There is one exception to this, if you're REALLY good at it your income goes up. I know several folks that are self employeed in computers, most are artists (or boarderline) for web sites, or consultants. Consultation work is feast and famine. The one thing I've heard consistantly about the folks that are really good is they can't believe they get paid so much for something that is so easy for them, but this is a very small percentage of the job bracket. Most of us just hope the job market will improve, and it hasn't.

Short advice, try to find a unique nitch and make your name. If you don't feel you can do that then go for the high paying job.

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

and sometimes..............


...........you need to experieced a fault><mistakes to learn something and more

infoseeker

 

Re: Computer Technicians and all others who fix computers for a living come in here p

Thanks for the advice. I'm kind of leaning towards the direction of pharmacy then doing some computer work on my own time. With the baby-boomers getting older, that field is going to explode right when I'm going to be searching for a job so I don't have to worry much about job security. That way I'll have a nicer paying salary and I can tinker with all that nice new technology on my own time like you said.

 

Yep what he said! Drug dealers make more then computer people everyday! But really the computer thing is a pure love of seeing what you can do and what will happen next in the field. there are a lot of people that are Bill Gates age, and I am one of them I am not close to retiring, and the whole industry, software, hardware, etc is so clogged with the founders, and younger that there is hardly any room there. I have a nephew that graduated from the University Of Florida as a Computer engineer and his first job started out at $75k a year, not bad at all, but he is writting OS's for refrigerators! You know the smart appliances that are supposed to call a repairman when they need service, etc. While it is great money I would go nuts trying to write code for an icebox all day!