You Mention two Hardware Diagnostic programss: Troubleshooter & QAFE. Could
you tell me where to get them please. tried GOOGle but can't find any
references.
THX
Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kyle Elmblade" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, 8 mmmm 2002 7:30
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] For the Professionals...


> Ahhh...  The age-old and possibly ethical question of how best to solve
> ambiguous issues without having to charge your customer an arm and a leg.
>
> Sometimes you can figure it out fairly quickly, other times you cannot.
If
> I cannot pinpoint a hardware or driver problem in pretty short order (I
use
> two hardware diagnostics program called Troubleshooter and QAFE), I take a
> best-guess (based on my experience) on about how long it might take for me
> to track the problem down.  If I think it's going to be more than about
> three hours, FFR it is.
>
> For my own part, I would love to know why.  I am a very "why" oriented
> individual, and I have a hard time accepting anything at face value.  I
want
> to know how the clock ticks, not just know that it does.  BUT, my customer
> should not be made to pay for my curiosity.  If I can figure out why, I
will
> tell them.  If they REALLY want to know, I make sure and explain to them
> that the minimum it will cost is $200 (based on an estimate of at least
four
> hours work), and could be much more, depending on how deep I need to dig.
> As well, they will be without their computer during the entire time I am
> digging into it.
>
> Usually the reinstall will actually help you discover the problem.  I
found
> that most driver conflicts will expose themselves when you go through the
> install process.  Sometimes the problem is a corrupted driver that is
fixed
> during the reinstall, but figuring out which driver it could be
before-hand
> can cost much more time than a FFR.  In the end, I usually leave it up to
> the customer, explaining the pro's and con's of each approach, but more
> often that not my recommendation is the FFR.
>
> Kyle Elmblade
> Distinct Computer Solutions
> Sales - Upgrades - Training - Consulting
> [log in to unmask]
> "A closed mouth gathers no foot"
>
> From: "Mike Whalen" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 8:19 AM
> Subject: [PCBUILD] For the Professionals...
>
>
> > I thought this might be a good place for this question since there
> > are so many professionals -- as in working techs -- on this list. I
> > have worked in tech support for a few years and have recently started
> > taking on my own clients for Windows support and troubleshooting.
> >
> > Every once in awhile, I get a client who complains of general
> > instability -- Applications crash. PC BSODs, GPFs, etc.
> >
> > My previous tech support experience has been working hand-in-hand
> > with developers. So, I would, first, reproduce the problem, second,
> > determine the steps to produce a hard failure, and, three, take it to
> > development for logging and a possible patch.
> >
> > It seems to me, however, that my customers don't care for this
> > approach. (Aside from the "take it to development" part, which may or
> > may not be available, as we all know.) They want it all to be better
> > as soon as possible and they don't so much want to know _why_
> > something doesn't work.
> >
> > I understand their reluctance; they're paying me by the hour. It
> > could be substantially more expensive for me to eliminate every
> > problem one-by-one. But I cringe at the Scorched PC policy, as
> > someone at Gateway Tech Support put it to me. "F-Disk, Format,
> > Reinstall. Doo-Dah. Doo-Dah." For one thing, it may not eliminate the
> > problem. For another thing, we won't know what caused the problem in
> > the first place. (Learning from history and all that.)
> >
> > Plus, in all of this there I have the desire to create something
> > affordable _and_ practical for the customer.
> >
> > I'm wondering how you guys deal with this? Do you apply some
> > policy-driven set of fixes then, if those don't work, go into
> > seek-and-destory-errors mode? Do you install in-place if the O.S.
> > supports it? Do you backup files, format, and reinstall? Or, do you
> > convince the customer to pay you to actually troubleshoot?
> >
> > Curious...
> >
> > m
>
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>                      support at our newest website:
>                           http://freepctech.com
>

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