I Want to Repair PCs for Money - What Stuff Do I Need?

**cheesepuff** · #1 16th Oct 2009, 23:41

ok, so a starting fixing peoples PC's for a little extra cash here and there, but it seems like im starting to get a lot more customers than i bargained for! seeing this as a opportunity to make a LOT of money, i figure i might as well repair/build PC's for a living (im 16, so i cant do much else, and i refuse to work at a restaurant lol) so anyway, if i am going to so this, i wana do it right. what stuff do i need to diagnose a PC correctly? i figure stuff like this http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MjA3OA== would come in handy, but what else do i need?

**SocialWarfare** · #2 17th Oct 2009, 03:13

LOL nothing much

A spare PSU, GPU(agp+pci-e) kettle leads and mostly common sense
Oh and lots of sticks of RAM(different types of course lol)

Been fixing for a few years now and as long as I have that arsenal im all good

**philthomas** · #3 17th Oct 2009, 05:01

Also .... a few External HDDs and some Live CDs, such as Puppy Linux ..... these will come in handy for recovering Data on non bootable Systems.
Thhe Customer is always happy, if you are able to recover their critical files and/or cherished photos.

**SocialWarfare** · #4 17th Oct 2009, 05:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by philthomas

Also .... a few External HDDs and some Live CDs, such as Puppy Linux ..... these will come in handy for recovering Data on non bootable Systems.
Thhe Customer is always happy, if you are able to recover their critical files and/or cherished photos.

Oops forgot about them lol

And a few screwdrivers

Edit: Maybe a anti-stactic band too if you believe in that

**Razer** · #5 17th Oct 2009, 11:31

Can I ask why you want to repair PC's if recently you won $53.7 million from the lottery?

But you should get spare, working components for each type of PC, IE: RAM, CPU's for each socket, PSU's etc

**cheesepuff** · #6 17th Oct 2009, 13:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Razer

Can I ask why you want to repair PC's if recently you won $53.7 million from the lottery?

that was just a hypothetical silly! xD

**mctw** · #7 17th Oct 2009, 15:15

A can of compressed air (though I find a hoover to be as good) fixes many problems in my experience. Its astonishing how much dust, fluff and other stuff I dont even want to think about builds up inside a PC when the user hasnt got a clue!

**Hybr!d** · #8 18th Oct 2009, 06:27

Aside from a full parts and tool kit you need to be very good at fixing computers, people have very little patience if you cant fix their problem. Many will refuse to pay, and you will have running costs so this will kill you fast. You also need to be presentable and likable. After-all you'll probably be doing this on their premises. Also you'll need insurance, business cards, flyers, proper invoices etc. A business bank account, trade suppliers wont want to deal with individuals and customers will frown on you if they find out. No offense but at 16 with little work experience and likely none of it in an on-site tech role your giving yourself a big challenge. My advise is work for someone else for a bit, see how everything works. I did this for years with others and my own company, i know it inside out. So if you need any advice just ask here.

**cheesepuff** · #9 18th Oct 2009, 12:01

i see. hmm...well, this isnt really a job per say, its more of just something on the side i do for money. if i cant fix the problem i dont charge anyway, and if i do fix the problem, i dont charge much at all. lot of times i wont charge anyway but they give me money out of kindness. im always very kind and i explain what im doing as i do it and what each part does and why i think something might be wrong with it.

**KanoakaVirus** · #10 18th Oct 2009, 14:35

I tried this, no one trusts a teenager =/, its all good though, i get my laughs in when they come back from pc world a whole lot lighter in the wallet department..