Cowboys or The Young Guy Next Door
Every month, I see machines come into the workshop in far
worse condition than they should be. Why? Because of our "we can fix
anything" ethic.
This
is an excellent attitude to have and is probably why
Kiwis are globally successful in a huge range of activities, but there
is a
downside sometimes, we just end up making things worse. Young Johnny
next door may impress you compared to your own computer literacy but
often the gaps in his knowlege will be painfully obvious to an
experienced technician.
Here's
a classic example all us techs have had; a machine brought in with a
problem. The owner didn't know what was wrong other than the computer
was
crashing and they had trouble accessing some of their data. The person
who "repaired" it had been trying to run a set of
restore disks, which would get half-way through and then fail.
The problem was a failing hard drive. This drive was making what is known as the "Click of Death", exactly as it sounds, a clicking noise. "Yeah, it's been doing
that on and off for a while," is the usual reply. Then:
"Oh no! all our photos are on there, and our emails. They'll be OK, won't
they?"
Probably
not. Usually, if your drive clicks like this,
remaining life is measured in minutes; they don't call it the Click of
Death
for nothing. By trying to repair it using restore disks, this not only
risked wiping out the family photos but also used up any time the drive
had left to
live.
For most, that is not an option. If this machine had been turned
off and left alone, we would most likely have had a much better outcome.
While a complete reinstall of WIndows sometimes may be necessary if it
has been too badly damaged to repair, it is NOT a cure for everything.
If you have a hardware problem, it can be the worst thing to do.
While computers are complicated in their operation, they are
appear deceptively simple to assemble and get going. Because of this, many people know just enough to get into trouble.
Problems arise when problems arise, which is where
experience counts. Computer literacy is at an all-time high, but that doesn't
automatically follow that users are qualified to repair them.
While most of us are happy to pay a plumber any amount of
money to stick his hand down the loo and fish out whatever is blocking it,
people often resent paying a tech to press a few buttons to fix their computer.
There is always the look and unspoken mantra: "I could have done
that."
The difference is that invisible, impossible to quantify
element - knowledge. If we think we know how to do something, we try it, yet if
we don't know how to do something, we often give it a go anyway. Sometimes we
get lucky and this doesn't make things worse, with computers though, it can be
the difference between tears and smiles.
So should you always take it to a tech? There are a few things you can and should do yourself:
Click the links at the top for each article.
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