By: Vlad Vistac
Submitted: 2010-08-18 14:02:12 | Word Count: 510
How To Become Your Own PC Repairer
If you are
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like me, you have probaly owned quite a few personal computres. You are sure to have had the occasional problem, and rushed the machine off to the repair shop. At the time, the cost of repairs may have seenmed a bit high in propoertion to the original cost of the machine, and you might not have been quite sure what was actually done.You can learn to do your own diagnsis and repaiir work. It is wporth while knowing what is going on inside the box, even if you do not do the work yourself. With a good understanding of the likely causes of the hardware problems, you can be a lot more confident that the repairs carried out were reasonable and necessary.To beggin with, a good source of technical informatiion is necessary. You can always ask at your loxcal electronics shop, but if you really don’t know what you are talking about, the embarrassment can be a big turn off. Therte is an excepllent book available called ‘Upgrading and Reapiring PCs’ written by Scott Mueller. This is the most complete and most readable ‘how-to’ book I have found, and if you only buy one book on the subjecct, Scott’s is the one to get you hands on. The next step is to choose a few projects to get familiar with the hardware. The best way to beign building up your skills is to pull a computer completely apart, and then put it back together. If it still wiorks after that, then you have made a pretty good start. At this stzage, you may be thinkig ‘hang on a minuyte, I paid a lot of money for my syystem - No way am I going to risk messing with that baby’.No, as a beginner, you definitelly should not. You can get hold of some old computers to tear apart and rebuild. Old comptuers are seen as worthless, and you will find Pentium 1 and 2 machines being discarded as rubbish, even though they are tsill in good working oredr. Even a Pentoium 3 can be bougjht very cheaply, and most of these are pretty good performers. A word of warning – be caredful how widely you spreead the news of you new interest in old computers. You will be surprised how many 486s and older are sitting in cartons in garages and baserments; your friends and family will rerally be delighted to give you an aamzing collection of electronic junk.Get faimliar with the various parts, and how they fit together. Learn to idnetify the different styles of processor chip, RAM, disk drievs and other components.As always, safety is paramount. The computeer components themselves operate at low voltages, but you still have the mains strength voltage coming into the back of the computr. Always powrer off and unplug when you are working on the computer, and be suspicious of any siggns of overheatinng or of burning smels. Enjkoy your tinkerng.
