I give up

Richie-from-the-Boro

23n1th wrote: »

Hammyman don't mention xxxxx ssshhhhh!

OMG its 23n1th, :eek: don't you start again

cheapopete

LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LINUX LUMIX? LINUX
LINUS TORVALDS, What a hero!

I couldn't sympathize more with Hammyman. I'v always considered myself a bit of a numpty with computers, but I did defrag, and learned to protect with antivirus and firewall progs. And to clean out the cache and temp files. But I surf like a mad thing and so was always at risk in some ways.
I've been using Ubuntu on my machines for 5 years. Since I had a major prob with a DNS hijack, for which I still blame Virgin Media's 'outage' as I had AVG and Zonealarm protection.
I don't use my computer for work, so have zero problem with Mr Gates telling me what I can and can't do.
Bought an HP Pavillion from Staples with Vista on it (they had none without) 2 years ago, and immediately installed Ubuntu alongside Windows. Bought a £20 Dell 333ghz and fully installed Ubuntu, and am about to try Puppy Linux on it.
If you have precious files, SAVE THEM to a DVD! It's as easy as making toast.
Speaking of which, .....................

23n1th

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

OMG its 23n1th, :eek: don't you start again

Sorry couldn't help myself.

rdpro

I really sympathise!!

on the upside, the more work they need, the more I charge; show them how much their blase treatment of IT kit can cost (even though I work very cheap IMHO!) - I always give them a 'good talking to' afterwards regarding maintenance and avoiding dodgy websites/software (e.g., adding in Adblock to their browsers, etc, giving them a decent A/V, leaving a set of shortcuts to ccleaner/defrag/adaware in a special 'maintenance' folder on their desktop).

After that, most customers have been given a decent course in the basics and only come back for upgrades and so on. In a certain light, I could be seen as shooting myself in the foot by stopping bad behaviour (and therein, repeat business), but I like to think that the work I do is what I'd expect to receive from a decent pro.

Richie-from-the-Boro

23n1th wrote: »

Sorry couldn't help myself.

No problemo 23n1th, even I manages to raise a grin :beer:

spud17

I also sympathise, I only mess about with computers for myself, some(?) family and very close friends/workmates, now I'm getting even more picky.

I can wholeheartedly agree with the gripe about fags.

How many times have I spent a day saving, formatting/reinstalling and a week later they show me this brilliant toolbar/screensaver/reg cleaner/speed up your PC, thingy they've downloaded?

Rant alert.

I even spent most of a weekend helping someone, he'd borrowed his nephews recovery disks and installed Packard Bell Vista Basic on his Acer Vista Home Premium.
And he wondered why it wouldn't work properly or validate?

BTW he's been around PC's a lot longer than me.

His recovery partition was corrupted, so I got hold of a Vista disk and wiped/reinstalled everything including Avira, split HD into System and Data to try and minimise any losses, due to his tinkering.
I spent a couple of hours running through how to back up etc, copied his data back from external HD.
A week or so later, he said it was slow, found he'd swapped to VM cable and installed their own AV, also Onspeed, he's already got a solid 9.8Mbps.

To backup, he'd copied his C partition to D, and vice versa.:(

Sorted that, un-installed all the carp.

Couple of weeks later told me that he'd had an infection, some sort of pop up, Avira (he thinks) kept warning him, so he uninstalled Avira, then reinstalled, and the pop up was gone.

I said well done :mad: and vow to be busy next time help is needed.

Sorry, rant over.

These days there seems to be an inability to follow even simple instructions, this inability is seen most days on this forum.

Richie-from-the-Boro

Those I build [ applies to the last 25 years ] and those I repair [ loyal / repeat / persistent twice a year or more ] regulars.

In the olden days I used to make a CD and tape it to the bottom of the case for the inevitable return for PC's, or, as with Lappies, as HDD space became cheap I used to make and archive a segmented restore iso on a caddy in my care. I never ceases to amaze me how many come back like the seasons several times each year. I treat them as fond regulars, charge them cheap, do them quick, and look forward to their next visit. I still do so to this day. Vista installed two years ago now take an hour to update from the net when reinstated from a backup, if I have to do the updates and they are one of the fond regulars group - I make a new updated backup ready for their next visit.

Reff : rdpro's comment, I've found that over the many years giving the ' lecture ' actually works in my favour, they may not like it at the time, but they recognise its well meant and join the ranks of my fond regulars.

Ref : Hammyman' comments, I never strip lappies unless asked to, and paid for at full whack. Pc's are de-gunged, but that's easy I have a 150 / 150 compressor and a long nose blow gun with enough hose to use it outside.

kwikbreaks

So you make your living from the technically incompetent and then moan that they are idiots.

If they weren't you would either have to do something else for a living which would proibably pay less and is an option open to you anyway or go grubbing in bins for partially eaten burgers.

Now given those options do you still want to whine about your customers?

Browntoa

fixed one yesterday for a friend who were smokers , know what you mean !!

was more shocked by the line when I went back "we take it to Pcworld every year for a check up" as the fans/processor were almost TOTALLY blocked with dust ( and their house is not dirty) , I suspect little or nohing was done each year during the so called health check

and yes, it had all their photo's on and no back-ups but now done for them and the PC back up running ( and yes it was limewire on there)

garthdp

Hammyman wrote: »

For a start, why should I have to put up with computers that are borderline biological hazards? And why is it my fault people are too dumb to back up? If the population at large knew what they were doing, I'd still have work - there are still sysadmins in IT companies.

A.

You dont have to!Say no to them and be selective in the work you take on if you are self employed
If not, get another job stacking shelves in Aldi if you dont like the one you are doing