Hi! I want start my own computer tech biz. I have an idea of what I want to do and how i want do it, but I missing one part and is... What distributor or coompany i can get the PC parts for repair the computers cheap and for resale too. Any help with that? Thanks!

I work in repair and have been wanting a way to quickly test ram sticks on machines that wont boot, just a quick plug it in, yes/no. the ramcheck seems to be the proper tool for this job but is also priced accordingly. is there any reason this is a terrible idea. i realize that most people's answer for this is to just keep known good ram sticks on hand and if the machine boots when you swap them then its obviously good, but it just feels like a device such as this would save a good bit of time in the long run compared to that workflow

https://preview.redd.it/vj0oai4hh8ee1.png?width=1223&format=png&auto=webp&s=fbb913a11c5ce0cf2b338571b4aaf1a041f8809a

I was getting reports about QB desktop updates taking hours to install from a few clients. Something funky with Windows Defender if they are using it for AV. If you disable Defender, the update finishes in seconds. So if you run into it, that is the solution.

Getting back into Onsite PC Repair and Networking after 6 years in cyber security sales. Had an old friend reach out to me with computer issues in his Insurance company's office. It's a small office currently running 6 PCs on Windows 10.

He is currently having issues with each PC running slowly and not all connect to the 3 Printers in the office. He has his main PC which also serves as a quasi File server w/ .5 TB of data shared to all computers in the office. His main complaint was that the internet was slow and asked me to come over and take a look. I checked out each machine and they all seem to be running very poorly. Most likely due to the excess bloatware on each machine and possible malware. Each have performance issues like long load times for simple things like Windows Explorer some will take seconds to simply load the start menu. None are running antivirus other than Defender. Most are calling for OS updates to 11.

My inclination is to simply back up all local data. Format all the PCs and upgrade them to WIN11. Then restore files and software including one machine's instance of Quickbooks. I'd repurpose an additional PC to be used as a basic server to store the .5 TB of data and network to each PC for access. Then set up each machine to print to all available printers in the office. Confirm his router and switch have the latest firmware.

As this is a favor to an old friend and would be the first networking gig in a while here is the pricing I'm considering:

$80 Per PC for Formatting OS Upgrade to WIN11

$90 for the repurposing of PC to serve as File Server

$100 for the networking of all 7 Devices ( connecting to file share / printer setup )

Total $670.

I figure this all would take a few days to complete.

I thought about modernizing the whole set up via Sharepoint and Office365 but figured that the simpler the better for this project. Could use ya'll opinion and maybe a few suggestions. Is my pricing in line for this type of project? What else would be suggested for this type of refresh? Thanks for reviewing and your thoughts in advance.

It's a website which sells laptop spare parts... Can you guys help me tell if it's legit buying in it

I find it mind boggling that in this day and age with how important computers are there isn't a company that makes laptops with quality similar to MacBooks but are fully upgradable. I know if there was one, besides Framework, that people actually recommended that's where my money and millions of others would be going and this company would make millions. Besides that it's not what other companies would want and that you would have to partner with cpu manufacturers am I missing something?

Why couldn't you make a device, like an adapter so to speak, where one end attaches to the processor and the other end attaches to the motherboard. You could make a new adapter to fit the most current processor or partner with a cpu manufacturer to make a processor that fits your motherboard or your most current adapter at least.

Hey All, I'm trying to get an idea how all of you are pricing your repair work, looking for ideas. When we opened years ago we offered Free diagnostics and billed hourly for everything after that. Eventually we trimmed down to 2 flat rate buckets (Quick fix for $100, and Normal bench rate for $175) and in rare cases, will quote out an hourly rate if its a custom or very niche job. We include a 30 day warranty with all jobs.

Well, its 2025, the majority of our income now comes from our MSP offering where we provide unlimited support for local business. I haven't really looked at the break fix side for a year or 2. I understand this will eventually go away, but we're in a small ish town with a small city and other small ish towns nearby. Not many other computer shops exist near us, so I sorta feel like we'd be turning our back on the community if we stopped offering residential repair.
Last year we started to charge for Diagnostics ($50 due at drop off) but apply that to the labor rate we quote. The main idea here was to push away people with super old computers the want looked at. We usually keep 1 or 2 laptops in stock, and a NUC mini pc, so if someone has something super old, we'll recommend we just do a data transfer to a new machine (been happening more with Win 10 end of life coming up)

We also do some remote and onsite work (which is all billed hourly, $90 per 30 minutes for remote, $180 per hour for onsite)

How are you guys billing? Do you charge for diagnostics? Charge hourly or have some sort of flat rate? What sort of turn around time do you typically offer?

We're in the northeast US for a point of reference. I'd say in a medium cost of living area.

I'm buying lots of used laptops in bulk for a research project. I probably have 60 sitting in my garage right now. Aged anywhere from 22 years old to 5 years old, with the average being here in between. I know I'm not going to make a lot of money off them, but I don't want them to end up in landfill and I also want to recoup some of my losses (paid for this research out of pocket). So my plan is to list them on eBay. I've wiped all the drives, and cloned Linux Mint 22 xfce onto them. Works great on even some of the oldest laptops, although certainly not the snappiest. I can get the drives for about $7 apiece. And the chargers for about $7 apiece (bargain shopping for lots). I want to gain as much money (or lose as little money from my investment) as possible- would I be better off selling the laptops barebones no HDD, no charger, or including them? Would I make more money stripping units down and selling the working parts - DVD drives, HDD caddies, batteries, RAM, etc? I know what would be more work too. Just curious what people's experiences are. Thanks!

Hello Computer Techs,

First I guess I’ll give some background on myself. I graduated high school in 2013 and initially wanted to start a computer repair service right out of high school. Both my parents were self employed and I always desired that as well. I obtained my A+ and gave it a shot, and well as you can imagine, it did not work out well with no experience or knowledge of how to run a business.

Fast forward a few years of bouncing around retail jobs until I finally landed my first help desk job and one year after that a promotion to desktop support. Now, desktop support was kind of always what I imagined an “IT guy” to be and honestly it was kind of my dream job. I’ve been in this role for four years now and while I enjoy it quite a bit, it quite literally is not paying the bills. On top of that, the place where I work no longer seems stable and I wouldn’t be surprised if it folds in a few years. It’s a shame because I could see myself working there for a long time.

Anyway, because of all that I’ve been reminded of my dream of being self employed and my first go at running my own business and I’m really thinking about trying again. My plan is to start it on the side with the intention of switching to full time in around a year or so.

However, there is so much conflicting information regarding on whether or not a computer repair business is worth it anymore. Earlier this week there was a post on this subreddit about starting a repair business and the replies seemed to be pretty mixed. In my experience as an IT tech, I truly do believe that the need is still out there. People of all ages seem very clueless about their computers and technology and routinely need assistance, at least in a work setting. Initially I wanted to start a residential computer repair service, which I know people generally don’t enjoy doing, but now I’m thinking of something like a home technology consultant business who also offers repair services as well? Like, I would hear out their technology needs, come up with a plan to solve them, and implement that plan?

Another idea I’ve tried in the past is ewaste collection. I would pickup old technology, repairing and selling the stuff that was worth while and recycling the rest. This was probably my most successful side gig. I ended up stopping when I got my first help desk job and the recycling center I like to go to ended up closing. Maybe I could give this a shot again or do it in conjunction with with my computer service business?

Another thing I’ve seen people bring up is that the money has moved from computer repair to repairing and selling used computers, however, for this to be profitable you would need to be getting the product for as cheap as possible, nearly free. Where do people source this stuff? IT auctions? Ewaste collection like I had done before?

I know this is a lot of text, and it isn’t as focused as I would have liked, but I’m interested in hearing your thoughts! Thanks for reading!

I've always wanted to figure out how power sequence works. have firm grasp on the basic electronic components , do u guys have any links on where to download free diagrams ? ty in advance.

I’ve been doing repair for years, currently 25 and have been hooked for atleast a decade now and have built up quite some tools and skills over the years buying and selling broken electronics. Ie: reflow/reball, microsoldering, general repair work, software etc. As I got older I worked at a cheap cell phone repair shop for about 2 years, moved to ubreakifix as a for about a year and some change before advancing to lead tech bouncing where my district manager wanted me to help. Unfortunately I was at a bad store at a bad time and got laid off. Found a job pretty quickly at a batteriesplus as their tech wiz but had to take a decent pay cut and in a less repair oriented environment with company values that don’t quite match my own. Do yall have any ideas of where to go from here career wise? I found it hard to break into IT (maybe I’m looking at the wrong job titles) as I’ve been considered in a similar but adjacent career. I’d like to start a side hustle to bring in what I’m missing financially but the market is indeed hard especially ran out of a home. Currently wise, Apple, Samsung, google, & dell certified if that helps.

Thought I'd do it from home at first to see how steady the business is. I live in a small town, and the only option is an older guy who knows nothing about higher end systems and won't really touch them. He also isn't super familiar with newer versions of windows, and really only ever does stuff for the older crowd as I know from helping him out for a while. The nearest "real" competition is geek squad which is 30 minutes away, and it's a small town that's grown pretty fast over the last year. I've built my own systems, and am avid with software. So, any suggestions? I know one thing for sure is that I'm going to do free diagnostics, but I'm not entirely sure on pricing for specific things.

Hello all,

I'm new here so forgive me if it's a redundant question.

So as the title suggests I just started repairing a bunch of consumer electronics that I bought in bulk in hopes of flipping it for profit. The struggle is real out here I needed a side hustle.

TDLR: I asked if there's a place to find schematics for consumer electronics, how to repair a motherboard that doesn't even have a socket for the CPU to to the seat in, and if there's a place that I can buy certain transistor/chips for repairs without needing to buy a second donor board?

In the past most of my repairs involve following a power trace to something that needs to be resoldered or just a faulty chip. I've fixed keyboards, headphones, vapes, computers (mostly the normal reseating a component or reinstall a driver). I'm not an electrical engineer so I don't understand the complexities of electricity. Just that it flows to ground and if the component can't handle the power input then it pops.

So generally speaking I know how to solder and do research on certain repairs. I don't have a ton of fancy repair equipment though. I'm working on that stuff. I'm about to get some USB wire, heat gun, microscope, soldering tips and what not. So I have some questions.

#1 is there a decent/reliable way to find schematics for popular consumer electronics? If so where?

#2 Some of the motherboards I purchased don't have the mounting bracket or the pins to even socket a CPU in the first place. What is that part even called?

Is there a way to buy certain chips/resistors/pin connectors (I have no idea how these things are classified) for these repairs without needing to use a donor board?

If you know anything even a little bit. I'm all ears. Thank you for reading! I really appreciate it.

Hi all,

I do occasional computer support for people, and a number of them happen to live in a completely different location from me so most of the support ends up being remote. This is fine for PCs as we can just hop into Quick Support or TeamViewer or what have you. But when it comes to mobile devices, that's where things get tricky. I happened to support someone who was in a 365 tenent, and we were able to use Teams fairly easily so I could see their screen. I've used TeamViewer in the past, but it's almost always had issues. I just now tried doing a FaceTime call, but that was riddled with issues since I do not have Apple devices so had to join using a browser, and encountered a known bug with it not being able to pick up my microphone.

How do you all remotely support users using mobile devices, particularly Apple devices?

I'm in the early stages of building my in-home business and it's also early enough if I make a massive change like this to the website, no one will notice because I haven't driven any site traffic yet. But: currently, my site lists prices for everything. Hourly labor, discounted rates, fixed-rate services.

But it occurs to me that when you call a plumber, or a piano tuner, you have them come look at your problem and quote you. And not for nothing but once they have, you're in the position of either accepting their price right there or asking for time to shop around for quotes.

Is it a big mistake to lay my prices on the site like this? My concern is that when people see my IT prices (reasonable though they are, from what I gather around this sub and elsewhere), they will become anxious at the uncertainty of how long and how much it could take, and quickly talk themselves out of even contacting me.

Do you all share pricing right on your site / marketing pages? Or do you keep that behind the scenes until you're actually talking to a customer? Right now I'm strongly leaning toward scrubbing my prices from the site because I just don't think I've ever seen it done. But I'd love to know how you all are handling price transparency.

Im going to college next fall and computer science has always intrigued me, i have my own pc which ive had for 3 years. I had to build it myself and basically every problem I had needed to be solved by me. I mainly just want a job that I will be able to provide for my family and not get replaced by AI soon. Should I even try for CS? and If so, which courses should I take?

I normally absolutely refuse to pirate software on my customer pcs in my shop, my windows licenses are not 100% legit (online bought OEM stickers) but at least it's there.

The thing is: I feel bad for my pre-8th gen customers that are not going to receive support the next year, so i'm wondering, should i just install W11 LTSC IoT? it works wonderfully and officially doesn't require TPM and all the other stuff so it would work on older machines (installed it on my personal T430 and it's smooth as butter, and didn't even have to rufus it)

The moral dilemma is: Pirate it as it's the only way for the normal folk to install it or telling my customers that they should begin thinking about replacing perfectly good machines?

what are y’all’s thoughts on the repairability of all in one computers? I am helping someone find a new computer and I recommended an all in one computer that is optimal for the type of work they do, and their IT person said that all in ones are hard to repair hardware wise and that it would be hard to repair the hardware if need be

is the answer to just use HDMI or DisplayPort to pass digital audio?

I’ve been using computers for a long time and always had an interest in tech, but I felt stuck because I couldn’t afford college to earn a degree. Recently, I found out my tribe (Native American) will pay for my college education, which is an incredible opportunity, and now I’m looking to transition out of my current industry (automotive).

Right now, I’m in the $90k range on a good year, but it comes at a cost. I’m literally working my fingers to the bone, breathing in fumes and dust every day, and facing long two-hour daily commutes. On top of that, I have a wife and a lot of kids who I want to spend more time with. Working from home and doing something I enjoy is my dream, but I also need to make sure it’s financially sustainable for my family.

I’ve always loved video games, and the idea of creating them is really appealing. But I’m unsure if that’s a realistic or lucrative career path, especially starting later in life. My dad mentioned that programming and IT might be oversaturated, so I’m trying to figure out where I could fit in or what’s worth pursuing.

What are your thoughts on tech-related fields (or any other suggestions)? Are there careers where I could leverage my computer skills, earn well, and eventually work from home? I’d love to hear about people’s experiences or advice for someone in my position.

Thanks in advance!

Hello I’m a sophomore in high school and I have completed my first extremely simple cpu. Its specifications are as follows.

• 4-Bit calculations, (add, subtract, AND)
• 96 bytes of EEPROM storage
• 32 bytes of RAM
• Simulated at 20HZ but can most likely be upped to much much higher speeds

The instruction set is as follows.

0000 Do nothing 0001 move register 3C to register 1A 0010 move register 3C to register 2B 0011 add register 1A and register 2B to register 3C 0100 subtract register 1A and register 2B to register 3C 0101 AND register 1A and register 2B to register 3C 0110 set register 1A to [address] (next storage address) 0111 set register 2B to [address] (next storage address) 1000 set [address] (next storage address) to register 3C 1001 set register 2B to [0000] 1010 set register 1A to [0000] 1011 set selected storage register to [address] (next storage address) 1100 N/A (Not used) 1101 jump to [address] (next storage address) 1110 jump to [address] (next storage address) if zero flag is set 1111 jump to [address] (next storage address) if carry flag is set

I’ve made a simple program for the cpu to run that tests all the instructions that are pre programmed into the cpu. If you would like you can make your own, I would love to know how it goes if you do.

I’m excited to finally finish this project but this is just the first step. My next cpu with be a 4-bit cpu with a 8-bit memory bus and 16 selectable input drives. I will also include I/O and possibly a very simple L1 cache to learn the basics of it. As well as a full rework of the instruction set that will also of course include a full redesign of my microcode.

Just a few questions as well. Should I move to logisim from circutverse? Are there any major/noticable issues you notice that I could fix?

Edit: Here’s the link to see it my apologies didn’t realize it wasn’t in this. Centurn 140 V1 (4-Bit CPU)

hello all, im a high schooler at the moment and want to become ,as the title says, a computer technician. the idea of working in an office fixing computers and phones and anything thats brought to me, moderately unbothered sounds like a life long thing I can do! but of course I have no idea where to start, I know a little bit of HTML and some Javascript but I know HTML would be useless in this path. Any advice would be really appreciated!!

Hi everyone i'm trying to get some mac os installers on my newly bought ST400,
I'm having some troubles getting it working, i tried making a 8gb VHD, presenting it to a mac, and getting high sierra on it through the command but once attached to the mac it refuses to accept it as a bootable device, what am i doing wrong?

I work as the it guy for McDonald’s and one if my stores recently got remodeled. They said I could have the kiosk. My first thought was to make it shuffle pictures, like a giant smart picture frame. Now I’m thinking about installing an emulator on there. Does anyone have a good idea for what I should do with it, or a recommendation for an emulator that would be compatible with the touchscreen? Is there a way to load a phone is on there? I’m open to any ideas

These days it's absolutely killing me scrapping/recycling usable machines. Competent, perfectly capable PCs that don't need to be "cast off".

BUT

I know perfectly well that a 4th gen i7/i5 with 16GB of RAM and Linux is effectively not even an option for a "normie" American. They wouldn't even entertain the thought of it, and since it can't be made to run Windows 11 in a meaningful/reliable way, what is everyone doing with machines like these?

Are you also giving in and recycling these machines?

I could build a small home out of perfectly usable machines that most people now consider scrap.

Microsoft can eat s#@$.

Hey, everybody. I'm grateful for all the good advice I've gotten on this sub so far, and it has helped me get a lot of stuff in order for starting my first business as an in-home technician / tech tutor with a special focus on cybersecurity hygiene and older users. I've worked out my pricing scheme, set up a website I'm fairly proud of, gotten some good promo photos, bought business cards, begun a Facebook business page...I've got nearly everything in place. Yet to do still are business insurance (my guy is soliciting quotes) and to have my lawyer look over my drafted SOW, TOS, privacy policy, et al. Otherwise I'm essentially ready to start booking.

My title question (and sorry it's so broad), comes from the fact I'm very unhappy in my day job, and I'm now hanging more hope on this new business 'taking off' than I was before. It was at first a "nice if I can make money on the side, nicer if I can replace my main job" kind of thing. But whether I was happy at my day job or not, if the business did well, the day would come regardless where it becomes incompatible with a 9-5 M-F because I need those times available for booking, especially with a target demographic that is likely to be retired. So I'm saying, whether I rip off the band-aid of quitting my day job in two weeks or two months, it's getting ripped off sooner or later and I want to have the best shot I can at staying afloat.

My fiancée makes okay money so we wouldn't starve if I drop my day job, but major compromises will need to happen if I can't turn up a lot of business rapidly.

So my question, based on the experience of those of you doing this work independently, is how did you successfully establish yourselves? How did you survive the gap between leaving a steady job and breaking out on your own? How did you grow your clientele base, and do you have any good ideas about how to do it as rapidly as possible?

Thank you!