Component Level Laptop Repair

[BCS Head Tech]

Tell us a little about yourself
Well I live in California, and I have a lot of hobbies. I coach and ref soccer(youth). I ride dirt bikes, drive r/c cars and play paintball. I also spend some time playing PC games.

What country do you live in?
I live in the US, I have my whole life. California Bay area.

What is your current experience? (Years working on computers, in the business, certifications etc..)
Well uh where do we start, I have over 20 years experience with computers. I built my very own desktop when I was younger a 486 DX2 66 with Dos 6.0(boy did it rip). I have owned and operated several businesses since my younger years. I'm currently a Head Tech and have years of experience in operations for laptop repair facility. I do on a daily basis basic troubleshooting, diagnosing power issues or video issues, I'm soldering components capacitors & resistors 201, 402 packages, mosfets, other IC's any other items soldered on boards. I do BGA work, re-balling, profiling, jumping traces, repairing pads, etc..

Are you self looking to start a computer business, already have one, working for someone else or something else?
I currently have interest in and Manage a Component Level laptop repair facility, probably the largest volume of repairs in the US. We do approximately 400+ repairs per month. We have been in business for over 8 years, and I have guys working for me who have been re-balling for 20 years. In fact, one of my guys works a split shift for another company in Silicon Valley Re-balling BGA chips that are wroth about $2,000-$10,000 ea. that go on boards in fighter jets.

We have grown quiet a bit and do repairs nationwide mostly for laptop repair companies who don't actually tell people we exist, which for obvious business reasons there would be no reason to go to them then. One of the most common things I get is the statement of "I didn't even know someone could do this type of work"! We know that when we fix it its not coming back we have an extremely high success rate and less than 1% in warranty return. We have finally decided to bring our knowledge to the forefront of the industry so that people can benefit from it.

Currently we are expanding and we are putting together one of the first ever in the US Laptop Component level training course(5 days hands on training) in California. Individuals in certain areas will be given exclusivity in there perspective areas. We are planning our first classes in late July!

Anything else you would like to share? hobbies etc..
A lot of what we do is proprietary, so one may ask why be on the forum and the reason is because we got tired of people talking about how to do repairs that didn't know what they were talking about. Putting the wrong information out, like when people asked me questions I saw that what I had told someone else ended up all over forums, in videos, and other places or in other peoples training. You noticed it when someone has a link to others websites or things I specifically said that I know two years ago no one said or even knew. Or the fact we know that we did work for those companies but we just kept our mouth shut. Because of the shear volume we do in repairs we never kept track of who we talked with on the phone so someone could state almost anything and say that "this is what they found", and this is what people did.

I think I have probably said enough above....

[Larry Sabo]

Welcome to Technibble, "BCS." Nice to see a component-level repair tech join the forum. The only forum (blog, actaully) focused on component-level repair that I frequent regularly is Getting In Too Deep. There are a few here who do component-level repair, but one doesn't see much posted on the subject. Are there others you can recommend? In any case, welcome!

[Mr.Mike]

Greetings and welcome to the forums. Nice intro BCS! This forum could use more members that speak with authority about component level work. In fact, that 5-day course you mentioned sounds very interesting. If you are willing, I would like to know more about it as I am looking to take my repairs to a higher level. Note the email below.

Cheers.

Mike

[strollin]

Welcome to the forum!

Component level repair used to be the norm. Back in the early 70's when I started as a tech, parts were expensive and labor was cheap so it made sense to troubleshoot down to the component. Nowadays, labor is expensive and parts are cheap making it more economical to replace an entire module than take the time to determine which actual component is bad. It's just one reason why many people refuse to spend money to repair something when it can be replaced almost as cheaply.

In the case of those $10,000 boards, it makes sense to repair them to the component level.

I also work in the silicon valley and have since 1975, who knows, we might have crossed paths somewhere.

[Trusted IT Solutions]

Welcome to the forums! I hope to get some of that knowledge off of you. There aren't many component level repair guys that frequent this forum as someone already mentioned. Good to have you.

[BCS Head Tech]

Originally Posted by Larry Sabo

Welcome to Technibble, "BCS." Nice to see a component-level repair tech join the forum. The only forum (blog, actaully) focused on component-level repair that I frequent regularly is There are a few here who do component-level repair, but one doesn't see much posted on the subject. Are there others you can recommend? In any case, welcome!

Hello all, thanks... sorry I have been away for awhile, we have a lot of work and we are very busy. The reason I have joined is to keep people informed about truths I have found from a lot of other forums, that a lot of info is posted without any proof or backup of facts. So I'm here to help and keep people on the right track as far as information on repairing. Yeah I'm familiar with getting into too Deep, but Evan doesn't actually do all parts of the business or repairs. We offer this in our new classes that we are now offering starting September 2012, to learn this business(Component Level Repair)are at this link: Our Home Page, and actually Evan is one of our instructors for this course out of 5. It is a 5 day course including all aspects form running the business to marketing advertising, BGA work, profiling, re-flowing, re-balling. Also the diagnoses and troubleshooting side of it and fault finding, we will also have a complete side of the business whcih will teach individuals how to solder all components on the board, including but limited to QFN's, QFP's, 402, 201 packages resistors and capacitors, etc..Evan(from Getting into Deep), and I have worked together and have been for years, we share a lot of info between each other. He works on specific types of units and we literally do all of them. But check our site we are still putting the curriculum together and we can post it here if you like, I will always do my best to answer stuff to the best of my ability and to be factual about all information given. One other thing is most companies giving or showing, and or selling information on component level repair(DVD's, PDF manual's, etc..) is on old antiquated boards that no longer have any nay use or nothing really now days applies to them.

Don't know if I'm suppose to post this here or not, if not sorry..

IM: pci.tech

Regards,

Don

[BCS Head Tech]

Originally Posted by Trusted IT Solutions

Welcome to the forums! I hope to get some of that knowledge off of you. There aren't many component level repair guys that frequent this forum as someone already mentioned. Good to have you.

There are not many component level repair facilities period in the US, oh that speak English. There are only 3 in the US that actually do what we do and none have been in business more than 5 years, we have been in business for over 20 years. It is funny because more and more are saying they are and have the ability to do the repairs, but they are not and they don't. Most are in the habit of replacing MB not repairing them. This is only once you can get past the language barrier, which is why we have put a training program together that is unbelievable in how it will assist laptop repair businesses nationwide.

Also, I read another post how big companies do this type of work and they don't know the truth. All laptop manufactures actually don't do repairs they just replace boards they don't have the inventory to replace components, nor the techs trained to do it.

Techs in this field are paid anywhere from $12hr.- $65 per hr. obviously it is based on skill, knowledge, performance.


Regards,

Don

[BCS Head Tech]

Originally Posted by Mr.Mike

Greetings and welcome to the forums. Nice intro BCS! This forum could use more members that speak with authority about component level work. In fact, that 5-day course you mentioned sounds very interesting. If you are willing, I would like to know more about it as I am looking to take my repairs to a higher level. Note the email below.

Cheers.

Mike

Hello Mike,

Thanks... and yeah I will do that, and what I can do is for anyone coming from this forum apply a discount to the course. I will let you know once we finalize pricing and everything. As far as the course once I have finalized the curriculum I will send it to you if you want to post or just put it up. If there is help you need you can IM me at pic.tech during the day.

We have been for along time doing 20-30 repairs a day for years which is more repairs than other facility's nationwide. We have slowed it down recently to do this training or we wouldn't have the time to do it. Also 80-90% of our business is from laptop repair companies we will also offer exclusivity to individual companies in certain areas, meaning we will not do training for other companies in those areas, thus eliminating competition. We will also be doing advertising in local areas so that consumers are aware that this type of work can be done and not believe big companies like Best Buy that there only alternative to repair is to buy a cheap new laptop. They will also have constant support via Skype and IM, email or telephone.

We are trying to educate the repair community to bring repairing technology back to the US economy, so that skilled technicians are more appreciated for what they do.

Check out this link to our site, as well as this video:
http://baycomputerisyoursolution.com/index.htm

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO_KgfQp3jk

Regards,

Don

[BCS Head Tech]

Does anyone know how I can merge an account or change my name which appears "paramountcomputers"?

thanks in advance,

[NYJimbo]

Originally Posted by paramountcomputers

We have slowed it down recently to do this training or we wouldn't have the time to do it.

I have found that the need for this type of work has slowed down as well. We used to get laptops with bad GPU or chipsets almost every day but that has dropped to only one or two a week, sometimes none in a week.

Looking at your ebay feedback profile for the past 90 days I dont see anyone who has had a reball and only 2 or 3 motherboards sold. Aren't you also seeing a slow down in requests for this type of work ?