So I have software called BatteryMon that works but is a bit old and the UI is clunky. Are there any decent battery diagnostic and analysis software? Software that will allow me to run a test on the battery to test its strength and longevity?

Hello, I am not sure if this is appropriate to post here or not, so I'm sorry if it is and please remove. I was going to post to r/talesfromtechsupport but it looks like it would violate their rules about pranks. I have a story to share of my own ignorance, and extend a thank you and apology to all the IT professionals out there.

This was about ten years ago in the military. We had a room with about 12 computers in it that was also kind of the hang out area. I had heard that the BIOS password was likely 'admin'. It was. My buddy and I were trying to think of what kind of shenanigans to pull, and decided to set the idle fan speed to 100. Then we changed the password to 'bigboobz' and proceeded to repeat this process on each computer.

Flash forward a couple of days. People are talking way louder than usual, some are complaining that they have been getting random headaches. It was just a subtle enough difference that they didn't know what was happening, but they knew something was up.

Eventually it got back to our building manager, who was supposed to handle basic computer issues. He spent a decent amount of time troubleshooting it, and after several more days of the loud room, it was over. The BIOS password was changed, and the building manager complained about something like a jumper wire(?). Again, I'm not familiar enough with the stuff and it was a decade ago.

I offer this story with an apology to whoever the real IT help desk person was who fielded this building manager's call about how the computers were all being too loud.

Hello, I am a student and working on my Senior Project. We have to research and gain knowledge in the field that we are interested in going into in the future. This project is meant to help us prepare for the future and gain valuable information about different aspects of said careers. I thought the best way to do this would be through primary sources.

If someone could take just a few minutes out of their day to answer these questions it would be great help. The answers don’t have to be super in depth, just one or two sentences will do!

1. Firstly, What is your job/career title?
2. Is your job constantly moving or is it more mundane/slow? 
3. Do you enjoy your job? 
4. What is the daily routine of your job?
5. What do you really like about your job?
6. What do you really dislike about your job? 
7. Do you work more with software or with hardware? 
8. Do you have to talk to a lot of people for your job or is it more independent?
9. Would you choose a different career if you could? 
10. Does your work ever come home with you, or is everything only done on the clock? 
11. Is it easy to balance your work and personal life with a job like this?

I want to start my own tech repair business/store. However, I am concerned that I might be liable for any illegal documents/programs etc in client machines since I may have been “in possession” of them for a period of time. Is there a way I can protect myself?

Also, what about liability regarding potential mail ins? How can I protect myself from damage in transit?

Hey everyone,

I own a cell phone/electronics repair shop in a small-ish town. We are quite well-known in the area and things are going well. We mostly repair but also sell devices and anything related to phones, tablets, and computers.

We're looking for ways to expand and one of the things I looked at was selling brand new computers instead of only used ones.

Comparing prices between my cost from major distributors vs. big box stores such as Staples and Best Buy, it's clear we can't compete on price alone as the prices they sell to consumers for many devices are well under our cost from the distributor.

This begs the question: how can we compete with big box stores if we can't compete price-wise?

I'm open to any idea you may have as it could help expand my business.

Thank you very much!

Hey all, I was hoping I could get a little advice here? I've headed up a warranty dept going on 6 years now, my prior experience being about 2 years at a break/fix shop. Problem is, the refurbisher game is getting cutthroat for many reasons. I have about 7 years of management experience between the two jobs.

Right now, the next logical career step seems to be getting some certs to try and find myself something different. I'm looking into CompTia certs as that seems to be a common starting point. Based on a friend's advice I'll be skipping A+ and going straight for Net+ and Sec+ as just some general get-me-in-the-door experience. Realistically I'd be best at desktop support or asset management, but i want to grow my skill set.

The problem: CompTia is releasing new versions of net+ and sec+. I have bills to pay and to be honest the idea of my position disappearing is lighting the fire i need to get ahead financially. The newly revised courses will be released in Mid-June. That is quite close to the timeline I'm drafting up for myself.

The question: Is it worth it to wait for new revisions to drop or should I treat that as a deadline to get certified and get the hell out of my dead-end job? while I don't know that I have time to wait, if it's worth waiting I just might roll the dice.

The title pretty much sums it up. I know there’s programs like TeamViewer and other Remote Desktop programs, but these all take over the main users computer and doesn’t allow them to do anything simultaneously. I’m not aware of a way to do this off the top of my head other than possible some very effective RAT lol. Does anyone have any idea of a way to do this? Also, I’m providing her explanation of what she wants below.

Client’s request: Is it possible to set up the new laptop so that she can network into the server/my computer so that when she is networked in I won’t be affected by what she is doing? Example: if she net works into my computer and I am using my computer, is it possible for her to search for a file and send it to herself or somehow use the file, but I can keep on working on whatever I’m working on?

Eg. X problem with a users work computer that happens once every X amount of days. When you get to the users computer, the issue won’t be there anymore.

(Reassigning the ticket to someone else is not the answer im looking for)

Edit: It's a Windows laptop that won't register new audio input devices (wireless headphones, USB mic etc) when they are plugged in. Reinstall of OS requires setting up their computer for their use again (which takes lots of time and due to their work position, time is a limited resource).

In 2005 I started work as a contractor for an MSP, was decent work with a fair manager. 6 month into the contract I was hired directly.

I started working on the service account of a large printer company and in 2007 was moved to general service contracts, by 2009 had prepared for a transition into the IT financial support aka the Banking Team.

In 2010 was moved to a dedicated role on the Banking Team to support a multi-million dollar account. I covered a modest to large area depending if I needed to cover other territories due to man power or PTO.

In 2012 started traveling out of state as the account started purchasing smaller regional banks. And assisted with the conversion as local banks were assimilated.

In 2014 a co-worker was at our depot and we received a large shipment of supplies, laptops, desktops, printers and the cables, monitors etc. An executive of the account we supported walked into the supply depot and started handing out some of the laptops we were responsible for.

This led to an verbal altercation and less than Profesional attitude between the 2.

This is were it becomes Toxic, in 2015 I was written up no less than 6 times with 2 back to back PIPs. I was working several hours of OT a week just to get things done. While all this was going on they cut our party from 4% to 16%.

So the raise I got in 2014 was not only nullified but it was further reduced luckily it was 4% Not the 16%

At that point being so stressed out and exhausted, feeling like no matter what I did it was still not enough. Finally I passed out while driving,

Luckily I was shaken by the rumble pads on the highway and an accident was avoided. I pulled over and requested time off. I saw my doctor the next day, he found an irregularity in my heart, sent me to a cardiologist that SAME DAY.

I had a cardiac arythmia, on my right side of my heart. Not crazy just detectable. I took a week and was placed on medication, then I had Jury Duty for 6 weeks, refreshed I returned to work

Then I was told I was to be shadowed. I worked with the person and he reported back that I was performing well above average and my management relented and my direct manager was replaced. It was later that I found out the account executive sent the guy down to fire me.

One of my co-workers was fired immediately. I was given a zap bonus amounting to 50$, because I was going to covering my co-workers and my own territories.

Things seemed to mellow out and we were working with a 10th the stress. But things were happening.

In 2017 I marked the begging of the end as PC's converted to thin client and all of the servers were removed.

In 2019 in May I was told to attend a Webex conference it was in this conference that my job was eliminated.on9n0ooj9mo9l

I went to the office one last time to turn over my keys and sent in my laptop and my shop was inventoried.

In the end it felt like the worst day of my life. But actually was really the beginning of a much improved life.

Hello all,

I have been working in the IT industry for 7 years now, starting as a helpdesk technician at a MSP for 3 years, network specialist / engineer for 3 years, and now being a Security & Network specialist now. I am very comfortable with what I do and have that experience to back me up.

I have a lot of free time on my hands now and am looking for side gigs and other jobs for some extra spending money.

I have been looking to sign up for Angi's list and a Computer Technican Specialist and have a few questions. I've done research already and found that I should be getting liability insure to cover myself just in case. Where I live currently doesn't require me to have a business license, more of self employed 1099 status, so I would have to set tax money aside, etc. Where I am getting stuck however because working full time currently I would have to do it on the weekends as well as nights (which I'm fine with). I'm asking for people who have done this for their advice, how it went for you? Etc. I'm just skeptical I can't pull out if I go in too deep. And if my pricing would be competetive enough. Thank you all in advance! And sorry for the long read.

If you're going to ask my rates would be: Home: $125 hour (1 hour minimum) Business: $175 per hour (I hour minium)

Problem Solved! Thank you everyone for the suggestions and fresh perspectives!

If this is not allowed or needs to go to a different sub, please let me know. I've been been working on computers for 30 years, and have been doing help desk for 22 of them and have never had a problem like this so I'm looking for a fresh perspective. Working on a HP Pavilion x360 Convertible and I can't for the life of me get Windows to install. I tried from a freshly made USB and had to load the controller driver to see the drive. When it get to the point of picking the drive I cleared the existing partitions and had it create new ones. It in turn gives me a message that Windows can't be installed on drive 1 partition 2. When looking up that error it says to make sure it's set to UEFI and not legacy. Legacy isn't even an option in the bios. It's BIOS was out of date so I did a bios recovery to update to the latest F.23. Still no dice. I looked up hp recovery methods and found their cloud recovery. I downloaded the app, made the media on a different machine putting it to a different USB stick and boot from it. It runs through the initial file copy and wants to reboot. I reboot it and it continues for a short time, then reboots again and then goes to an inaccessible boot device and reboots again. It then boots to a recovery screen. The Boot Configuration Data file doesn't contain valid information for an operating system File: \BCD Error code: 0xc0000098 You'll need to use recovery tools. If you don't have any installation media (like a disc or USB device), contact your PC. administrator or PC/Device manufacturer.

I have repeated this process on a second drive with the same results. I can however, get Ubuntu to load with no issues, but of course that is not the desired outcome. Any other suggestions other then to give up on it?

Looking to see an overview of what pain points my fellow shop owners are experiencing today in 2024.

It's well known that if we do our job perfectly, we may never see a customer again. If we don't do our job perfectly, we may see that customer in a substantially less happy mood. Getting good technicians is a problem, holding onto great technicians can be an even bigger problem. Our industry goes through down / dead periods, we sometimes have issues with sourcing parts, etc.

I want to know what specific pain points plague your business, and if you don't mind sharing, what geographical part of the world you're in. Whether your issue is customer based, cashflow, vendors, reputation, etc. Thanks in advance.

Need some expertise here, I work as a technician for a larger company in Norway and we often help customers and businesses with all types of tech issues. My question is, which program is best for transferring data from older laptops to newer ones?

I've tried Acronis True Image to create backup and then recover it, it booted fine the first time but would often go into recovery or just the screen would stay black. I assume it was due to the older laptops drivers, which weren't recognised/some system files or just the boot partition (which I messed around with after the issue started). context: old laptop was W10, new laptop was W11.

We currently use our cloud solution and do a upload on the old laptops and then download on the new laptop, however this often does not add drivers such as added printers, same icons on the desktop and the programs they've had. Is there any such software or is this something customers/businesses have to accept?

Hello

I use the IODD 2531 and im looking to get a new one as mine is worn out. i have 3 replacements in mind and wanted peoples opinions on which one is better?

These 3 are the ones im looking at:

IODD MINI

IODD ST400

IODD ST300

I own a computer repair shop, also have a digital marketing agency on the side. Seems like MSP is the answer to it all. Except, I have no idea how to get into MSP. We are very well established in our area and have scaled significantly since I took over. Yet still having a difficult time hitting profitability, seems like we continue to break even.

What am I doing wrong with the repair side to not be profitable? Are we too cheap? I can explain more as you ask questions.

Best I can think is to get into MSP, it will help us scale more significantly and be good recurring revenue which we need. Where do I start?

edit: here’s our pricing:

If we can’t fix it, you don’t pay -Diagnosis: $50…… -Low repair (Easy fix): $75…… -Basic Repair (Moderate difficulty): $120…… -computer build: $200……. -house calls: flat $100 (+$8/mile over 10 miles)…… -console repair: $120…… -data recovery (up to 2TB): $130……. -Data recovery (up to 3TB): $150….. -data cloning: $160….. -new computer setup and migration: $180

mostly wondering hourly, but per job is fine too. i am one person just doing pc repair, building, etc on the side. currently i do 25/h (usd, in california) but i want to see what other people charge. thanks!

I paid 400 dollars for diagnosing that my old CPU was dying and installing a brand new amd 5 5600x and an used rtx 2060 super. Thats like 290-310 dollars worth of components (I think), so around 100 dollars for diagnosis and repair. The people I asked on a PC building discord said this was an absolute scam, so I wanted to get opinions from the other side. How much would you charge for a diagnosis and installation.

1. This is in Southern California
2. The hardware problem could have been CPU, motherboard, or PSU (impossible to know without replacing parts) and I already wasted money replacing the SSD.
3. I am injured so I had my friend take it for me, so I couldn't meet them in person. I originally thought the price was good so I didn't even try to negotiate (kind of dumb in hindsight, but its been 4 months and I'm desperate to get it working)
4. They bought all the parts, and a cable for the gpu. They said that for diagnosis they would charge 55 dollars (which feels like a scam, definitely wanted me to upgrade), and offered to upgrade my computer instead. I originally had a 5600g with integrated graphics, and was planning on upgrading anyways. I thought this was a good idea since my poor PC-building skills were what caused this mess to begin with.

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Hey there!

I just talked to someone in Asurion corporate and was just informed that Asurion is testing a few pricing structures in various markets, one of which is designed to price out small repair shops. I don't have all of the exact pricing info, but for example, they would do an iPhone XR screen replacement for $50 and the iPhone 12PM for $100. The pricing is set to make it unprofitable for their competitors to price-match and to try to grab so many customers that locally-owned repair shops are forced to close.

Now nothing is set in stone, but I did want to share this possibility with you all and make sure you were all aware that this is something the executives are discussing and considering. I will make sure I post more information if any is provided.

As the title states, I’m a recent return to college student who has been tight on cash since I cannot work full time anymore. I’ve been a mechanic for most of my life, I’ve built and repaired my own laptop, pcs, and even some displays so I’ve gotten comfortable opening, fixing, and messing with things. After I repaired my FiLs laptop, replaced his Hard Drive to an SSD, reinstalled windows, and replaced his display, he suggested I should try buying broken laptops from Facebook and reselling them after I’ve fixed them.

I am on board with this idea and so is my fiance. However, having flipped cars in the past, I also know some juice is not worth the squeeze. I was wondering if anyone here had tips or advice on which brands, systems, models to stay away from, which problems are not worth the time, return on investment, etc.

This is not a business, I am not looking to pay my rent with it. I just want a way to pocket extra money for groceries, beer, or to go out to dinner without worrying about it affecting my limited income.

Literally any advice in this regards would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

I need to get some 1000' boxes of data cable.

Any recommendations on a source? I recently heard of TrueCable.com. I usually get bulk cable from HD or lowes. jumpers and other cables I get from monoprice.

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I was tasked by a company to try and clean up some of their old laptops that had been sitting in a warehouse/backroom somewhere. We’re probably talking around 75-100 laptops. I get through the first few no problem. The next 2 had me rethinking my agreement. I opened them up and there were dead bugs inside. I’m not sure what kind of bugs they were but needless to say it was pretty gross. I’ve cleaned some dirty computers in my day but nothing this bad. Should I be taking any precautions in dealing with these laptops? I don’t want an infestation in my shop and I may need to disinfect the damn things. I wasn’t sure if anyone here had dealt with something similar before.

I've had to repair countless Windows computers that won't boot, and a constant for me is that the automatic "Startup Repair" option Windows offers in the Advanced Options of their boot repair options NEVER works. Has anyone here ever actually had it work, or is it another case of Windows exceptional Troubleshooter?

We buy a lot of product for our shop from amazon because of the ease of use and delivery times are kind of predictable, free shipping. We have tax exempt status on file with them, etc.

However buying actual computers from them is a nightmare. Half of them are opened and had parts swapped out in the name of "upgrade" but it voids warranty and these 3rd party sellers swap in cheaper parts like RAM and SSDs. Also even if they have mfgr warranty, often times by the time you actually get something from these sellers the warranty could be half over.

We are mostly repair so we don't move a ton of product where we can actually be an OEM reseller, and I don't want to sit on a bunch of stock because our sales can be somewhat intermittent, but I am looking for better options that amazon when we need to purchase specifically laptops and desktop PCs.

Specifically talking about job posting for engineers in charge of systems such as "big heli chopper boom boom system engineer". I see these jobs commonly posted by defense contractors. Is there path to get these senior management positions as a CompE?