Why are some techs so bad?

[anglian]

Originally Posted by hondablaster

I hate when forums destabilize and now I went and almost destabilized it further.

Go and stand in the corner for 10 minutes.

[NETWizz]

Originally Posted by sorcerer

If you've seen any of my previous posts you may know that I've only been trading since the beginning of January. However, even as a 'noobie' I always start any tune-up or service with a visual inspection of inside the case and blow out any dust. More often than not I'll also put fresh thermal paste on the CPU/heatsink assembly too.

There really is no excuse for not opening the case for a visual inspection at the very least.

You have a much different job than I do, but I see things totally opposite working for large companies over the years and doing consulting work on the side for some medium-sized firms (i.e. 1,000+ computer Novell to Microsoft migration or GroupWise to Exchnage, etc.).


Anyway, in my case, I try NOT to find anymore work to do... there is always too much and I have many large projects not small groups of computers and individual computers. If I get an oddball ticket that someone else can't solve like "You have been logged on with a temporary profile. You cannot access your files and files created in this profile will be deleted when you log off..." I am NOT going to pop the case open and inspect for bad capacitors or blow out dust!

If it's a customer's computer (i.e. If I help an employee out after work), I don't want to be blamed 6 months later that the computer died or they can't print and I was the last one who worked on the insides... Now, that said if the job is to upgrade the RAM, replace a hard drive, add a Blue Ray Drive, or something along those lines and I MUST open the case then I do look for swollen capacitors and blow the dust out. That said, I don't look for every excuse under the sun to open the computer chassis.

At work we have about 3,000 PCs in my area right now. Even if I did 10 a day it would take a year and a half to get to them all. I am NOT going to send my team out to go inspect, either. Sometimes, we have bad batches which have bad motherboards, hard drives or something, but it is generally hundreds and hundreds of the same model.

That said, I can see you doing this when they drop it off in your shop. After-all, you have some hopped-up list of the 30+1 Whiz-bang inspection you do where you check all the fluids, etc. Ultimately, it is different because you are looking for more work, where I am looking for less work.

Heck, even if I stumble upon a computer with swollen capacitors on the motherboard at work, I just let it be full knowing that it will shortly die. It just isn't worth my time to contact the manufacturer, get a part number, get that to spare parts, have them provide a quotation, pass that to Purchasing and Fiscal services and have them write up a Purchase Order Net 30 (or Net 22) and then wait for the part... then find the computer and pro-actively replace it. Way too time consuming when there isn't a complaint or ticket about the issue and nobody knows there is a problem.


Lastly, I would highly advise against re-doing the thermal paste on CPUs UNLESS you are replacing the motherboard, cooler/fan, or have a valid reason. The reasoning is that once you break that thermal seal, you have to really clean the old compound thoroughly on both surfaces... Carefully re-apply a quality compound after filling the microscopic pores by smearing it on and wiping it off (tinting the metal) and securely fasten it. Even then it takes several thermal cycles and probably a week or two to fully burn in and creeping/migrating/flowing and reach full efficiency.

Bottom line, I NEVER remove a CPU cooler unless I am replacing the cooler/fan assembly, upgrading a CPU, or replacing a motherboard. If I do any of these things, I do a clean/professional job of re-applying the thermal paste. That said for some time our policy at work was to just slap things back together without replacing the thermal compound at a previous job. Surprisingly everything still worked though it was really an incorrect procedure.

[PCX]

Originally Posted by NETWizz

You have a much different job than I do, but I see things totally opposite working for large companies over the years and doing consulting work on the side for some medium-sized firms (i.e. 1,000+ computer Novell to Microsoft migration or GroupWise to Exchnage, etc.).


Anyway, in my case, I try NOT to find anymore work to do... there is always too much and I have many large projects not small groups of computers and individual computers. If I get an oddball ticket that someone else can't solve like "You have been logged on with a temporary profile. You cannot access your files and files created in this profile will be deleted when you log off..." I am NOT going to pop the case open and inspect for bad capacitors or blow out dust!

If it's a customer's computer (i.e. If I help an employee out after work), I don't want to be blamed 6 months later that the computer died or they can't print and I was the last one who worked on the insides... Now, that said if the job is to upgrade the RAM, replace a hard drive, add a Blue Ray Drive, or something along those lines and I MUST open the case then I do look for swollen capacitors and blow the dust out. That said, I don't look for every excuse under the sun to open the computer chassis.

At work we have about 3,000 PCs in my area right now. Even if I did 10 a day it would take a year and a half to get to them all. I am NOT going to send my team out to go inspect, either. Sometimes, we have bad batches which have bad motherboards, hard drives or something, but it is generally hundreds and hundreds of the same model.

That said, I can see you doing this when they drop it off in your shop. After-all, you have some hopped-up list of the 30+1 Whiz-bang inspection you do where you check all the fluids, etc. Ultimately, it is different because you are looking for more work, where I am looking for less work.

Heck, even if I stumble upon a computer with swollen capacitors on the motherboard at work, I just let it be full knowing that it will shortly die. It just isn't worth my time to contact the manufacturer, get a part number, get that to spare parts, have them provide a quotation, pass that to Purchasing and Fiscal services and have them write up a Purchase Order Net 30 (or Net 22) and then wait for the part... then find the computer and pro-actively replace it. Way too time consuming when there isn't a complaint or ticket about the issue and nobody knows there is a problem.


Lastly, I would highly advise against re-doing the thermal paste on CPUs UNLESS you are replacing the motherboard, cooler/fan, or have a valid reason. The reasoning is that once you break that thermal seal, you have to really clean the old compound thoroughly on both surfaces... Carefully re-apply a quality compound after filling the microscopic pores by smearing it on and wiping it off (tinting the metal) and securely fasten it. Even then it takes several thermal cycles and probably a week or two to fully burn in and creeping/migrating/flowing and reach full efficiency.

Bottom line, I NEVER remove a CPU cooler unless I am replacing the cooler/fan assembly, upgrading a CPU, or replacing a motherboard. If I do any of these things, I do a clean/professional job of re-applying the thermal paste. That said for some time our policy at work was to just slap things back together without replacing the thermal compound at a previous job. Surprisingly everything still worked though it was really an incorrect procedure.

I agree a great deal with what you are saying. People like yourself need to stick with what you are doing and have another tech or team of techs service the actual PCs. Those are two totally different jobs. Now, if like you said, someone brought the computer into the shop or if its a small business with only a few computers, then yes, you most definitely should make some of these things part of your maintenance agreement.

As for the thermal compound. There really is nothing new to what you said. Everyone replacing thermal compound should know this and its only feasible in certain situations.

Everyone has got to keep in mind that there is a balance to everything. If I were in your shoes, I would do nothing as far as maintaining the actually client machines, its not my job. That is for someone who specifically is tasked with maintaining the machines and not the server and such.

If I remember correctly, I believe that Lisa (Call That Girl) actually handles the software /server side of contracts (meaning retail stores or similar with 20+ computers) while subbing out the actual PC maintenance. This I believe is how it should be done unless you have the staff to do both.

[NETWizz]

Exactly. Today for example, I migrated our Patient database from Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 to some new Virtual Machines with a clean install of Microsoft SQL 2012, which I just got a licence for from my vendor.

We paid $1,475 per core * 24 cores (2 SQL Servers)

I was going to migrate to 2010 first, but the software company said 2012 should work.

All I can say is success. Also migrated via SVMotion ALL 56 servers in my data-center to new LUNs on the SAN and setup Thin Provisioning to conserve storage space.

Oh, and we had no downtime, and our own tests indicate our main application is performing 10% faster. SQL Clusters are AWESOME!

[PCX]

Originally Posted by NETWizz

Exactly. Today for example, I migrated our Patient database from Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 to some new Virtual Machines with a clean install of Microsoft SQL 2012, which I just got a licence for from my vendor.

We paid $1,475 per core * 24 cores (2 SQL Servers)

I was going to migrate to 2010 first, but the software company said 2012 should work.

All I can say is success. Also migrated via SVMotion ALL 56 servers in my data-center to new LUNs on the SAN and setup Thin Provisioning to conserve storage space.

Oh, and we had no downtime, and our own tests indicate our main application is performing 10% faster. SQL Clusters are AWESOME!

Awesome! Sounds like things are running smoothly.