The most annoying thing about building a PC
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The most annoying thing about building a PC
By far the most annoying thing about building a PC is doing it for someone else as a favour for only the cost of the parts, because they expect free technical support for life no matter how badly they screw up.
If they pour a bucket of water over it whilst it is plugged in and running, it's your job to repair it - because you built it.
If their house burns down because their meth lab exploded and the PC was destroyed in the flames and they had no home insurance then it's up to your insurance or you to replace the PC (with a better one of course) - because you built it.
If the PC does not perform as well as another person's PC or one they saw on the Internet (damn you YouTube) which cost eight to ten times as much in parts, then it is your job to bring their PC up to that standard (for free of course) - because you built it.
If you get a call that the PC is not working and are then demanded to get in your car and drive for a couple of hours to get to the person's home (at your own expense of course) to then press the power switch and when nothing happens to follow the power cable back to the socket (if indeed the power cord is plugged into the computer) only to find that the power strip it is plugged into has been switched off then that is only fair - because you built it.
Starting to notice a trend here?
If they pour a bucket of water over it whilst it is plugged in and running, it's your job to repair it - because you built it.
If their house burns down because their meth lab exploded and the PC was destroyed in the flames and they had no home insurance then it's up to your insurance or you to replace the PC (with a better one of course) - because you built it.
If the PC does not perform as well as another person's PC or one they saw on the Internet (damn you YouTube) which cost eight to ten times as much in parts, then it is your job to bring their PC up to that standard (for free of course) - because you built it.
If you get a call that the PC is not working and are then demanded to get in your car and drive for a couple of hours to get to the person's home (at your own expense of course) to then press the power switch and when nothing happens to follow the power cable back to the socket (if indeed the power cord is plugged into the computer) only to find that the power strip it is plugged into has been switched off then that is only fair - because you built it.
Starting to notice a trend here?
Re: The most annoying thing about building a PC
When you do support you have to know this and compensate for it. It's also an exercise in setting limits. Building systems for others is a great way to get rid of your older stuff. Or less than new stuff. Since you are responsible for support it will have to be good stuff; only sell crap as a challenge to yourself.
Seriously. For me the most annoying thing about being known as the "tech guy" is that people expect you to handle all kinds of crap that never came from you. Smartphones you never saw before and newer and increasingly bizarre versions of Windows. This is where I try to exercise my limit setting.
Seriously. For me the most annoying thing about being known as the "tech guy" is that people expect you to handle all kinds of crap that never came from you. Smartphones you never saw before and newer and increasingly bizarre versions of Windows. This is where I try to exercise my limit setting.
Re: The most annoying thing about building a PC
It's the bane of the "Computer User, Non-Technical" - it would be nice if there were an acronym for this.Vicotnik wrote:When you do support you have to know this and compensate for it. It's also an exercise in setting limits. Building systems for others is a great way to get rid of your older stuff. Or less than new stuff. Since you are responsible for support it will have to be good stuff; only sell crap as a challenge to yourself.
Seriously. For me the most annoying thing about being known as the "tech guy" is that people expect you to handle all kinds of crap that never came from you. Smartphones you never saw before and newer and increasingly bizarre versions of Windows. This is where I try to exercise my limit setting.
Re: The most annoying thing about building a PC
Wrong kind of friends?
Re: The most annoying thing about building a PC
If I were to eliminate all people other than techies from having the potential to be my friends then I would have to eliminate 99.999% of humanity and about 90% of my family from consideration.Cistron wrote:Wrong kind of friends?
Re: The most annoying thing about building a PC
No I mean, friends usually don't take the piss. It's probably family that's more annoying on that front.Nec_V20 wrote:If I were to eliminate all people other than techies from having the potential to be my friends then I would have to eliminate 99.999% of humanity and about 90% of my family from consideration.Cistron wrote:Wrong kind of friends?
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Re: The most annoying thing about building a PC
if someone wants help, my advice is don't give them it.
Now you can rest and leave them fester. Computer help is meant for the following: A temporary girlfriend, a relative with no hands, eyes or heartbeat, A cat, someone who paid you lots of money and does not have your phone number, or for yourself. If it is not any of the above, it just isnt worth it. It would be worth it more to go buy them a macintosh for 1300 and then 400 dollars in Apple store lessons for them and then change your phone number.
You will save money in the end if you do that.
I only build people Linux machines with AMD A10 Apu's and lightweight ssd's. I slap 8 gigs memory on it, use a form of ubuntu and warn them if they dont want to learn how to use it on their own, I will come with 150 dollar OS install disk and they have to pay me for it. So far it works great.
I also never fix anyone's computer ever. I tell them to throw it out and get a new one or we will build one for cheap.
Now you can rest and leave them fester. Computer help is meant for the following: A temporary girlfriend, a relative with no hands, eyes or heartbeat, A cat, someone who paid you lots of money and does not have your phone number, or for yourself. If it is not any of the above, it just isnt worth it. It would be worth it more to go buy them a macintosh for 1300 and then 400 dollars in Apple store lessons for them and then change your phone number.
You will save money in the end if you do that.
I only build people Linux machines with AMD A10 Apu's and lightweight ssd's. I slap 8 gigs memory on it, use a form of ubuntu and warn them if they dont want to learn how to use it on their own, I will come with 150 dollar OS install disk and they have to pay me for it. So far it works great.
I also never fix anyone's computer ever. I tell them to throw it out and get a new one or we will build one for cheap.
Re: The most annoying thing about building a PC
Windows XP Pro will support SMP so a dual core CPU is not an issue.
I don't run XP myself but my parents still do and it's a long running thing that at some point I'll have to upgrade them.
Interestingly, I did an XP install last week on an old system and it looks like it's getting harder to do. MS appear to have relaxed the activation process a bit so that you don't have to call up after using the same key on over 10 systems but... for windows update you need IE8 and IE6 won't work on any of the site's to download IE8 so you have to download Firefox to download IE8 to do Windows update!
I don't run XP myself but my parents still do and it's a long running thing that at some point I'll have to upgrade them.
Interestingly, I did an XP install last week on an old system and it looks like it's getting harder to do. MS appear to have relaxed the activation process a bit so that you don't have to call up after using the same key on over 10 systems but... for windows update you need IE8 and IE6 won't work on any of the site's to download IE8 so you have to download Firefox to download IE8 to do Windows update!
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Re: The most annoying thing about building a PC
you should sticky this for people. Yes, without this bizarre process you can't run updates. I could not figure out how to get it run automatically when reinstalling it on an old machine for a MUD server. That is the only way!
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Re: The most annoying thing about building a PC
Ha! sad but true, if you're to helpful, some people take advantage. Whoever you built this PC for sounds like one of them.~El~Jefe~ wrote:if someone wants help, my advice is don't give them it.
I always have a ready excuse when interacting with that type, and if they're to pushy "do it yourself" followed by a blank stare will save you any future requests