A few weeks ago, I created a survey for our software competition and one of the problems that frequently came up was many technicians don’t know how to compete against the low price of new computers now days. If you visit any big box store you can now get a Netbook for as low as $250.
If a client asked you to repair the LCD on their laptop, it is quite possible that your price will come pretty close to what they could have bought a new computer for. So how do you compete?
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This tool is more for the technicians who have the job of looking over a business or school network. However, this could be used to find a single printer on a residential setup.

Page Countster is a small, portable and freeware application designed to scan a network for printers and display the information about them including the IP address, MAC Address, Host Name, Model Name, Serial Number, Total Page Count, Color Page Count and the ink levels.

Some other features that this application has is the ability to send the information to an email address or display it as a HTML report. Another neat feature is that you can right click on the printer and bring up more information including the loading of the printers web interface. You can also send a test page to any network printer without needing a driver.

Note: This application must be “Run as Administrator” as it makes use of RAW sockets. If you don’t, you will get a socket error.
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The year 2009 has almost come to an end and it is also Technibble’s 4th year of operation. The site has grown to the point where it had 62% more unique visitors than last year.

I’d like to thank you, the readers, for helping us create a great community for computer technicians. Without your comments, opinions and experience Technibble wouldnt be the place it is now.

Over the last year there have been about 120 non-blog articles and I have compiled a list of some of the most discussed and “must read” articles in case you missed a few:
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Have you ever had to backup a clients files to a CD or DVD? I think most of us have at some point and it can be tedious sorting out how many files will fit on a single disk, especially if the client has a lot of data.

This is where Capacity comes in to make the task of backing up to CD or DVD much easier. Capacity will automatically separate the files into different CD or DVD sized folders. It can even create these CD/DVD sized folders based on the file type if you want so you can keep all documents on one CD and pictures on another. There is also other sorting criteria such as by month created, by month modified and by file size.

Capacity is small and mostly portable (requires .NET 3.5) application with a donation-ware license. This means it is free to use but if you like it you should consider donating to the developer.

This application is definitely worth keeping on your onsite USB drive and the backup machine in your workshop.
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In today’s day and age, people are relying on computers more and more to complete their day to day tasks. In just the last 5 years I have noticed a change in how 30 to 60 year olds use their computers. They used to just use them for light internet browsing and basic email, but now days many of them have stepped up into using them for internet banking, paying bills, running a business and made it so that their lives depend on it.

This is great for computer technicians as it increases our potential client base but adds more pressure for a faster turn around since they rely on their computers so much. While you should always try to get a computer fixed as soon as you can, sometimes its just not possible because you are waiting on a certain part or are battling a tough problem. These clients can start to get anxious while they wait so here is how to deal with them.
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One of the biggest frustrations when installing Windows XP was making sure you had the correct CD for your license key. Windows Vista fixed this problem by having a universal CD that contained all versions (all 32bit versions or all 64bit versions, not both) and simply installed the version that the key matched.

Now that Windows 7 is out, Microsoft have reverted back to needing a separate disk for each version which is annoying for us computer technicians. However, the only difference between each DVD is a small 51 byte configuration file called ei.cfg which tells the installer what version disc it is. If you were to turn your DVD into an ISO, remove this ei.cfg file and write it back to a DVD, that DVD would become a Universal DVD.

ei.cfg Removal Utility will make this easy for you. Just create an ISO with your legitimate Windows 7 DVD, run this tool, choose the ISO and let it run. Once it has finished, just write the ISO back to a DVD again and you would only need to carry one 32bit version and one 64bit version to support any Windows 7 install onsite.

Of course, your client would still need to provide you with a working key for the Windows 7 install to work.
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Computer tuition is something I end up doing a few times every week. Most of the time the client calls me out to resolve a specific computer problem and I often end up fixing it in a very short amount of time.
I need to charge my full hourly rate to cover the travelling time but the client may feel they didn’t get value for money if I just pressed a few buttons and charged them for the hour. So, I ask them if there is anything they want me to show them and if there is, I fill out the hour by teaching them something.

One of the problems with computer tuition is that it is easy to tell someone how to do a certain task, but for them to understand it and to be able to reproduce it later is much harder. Most Computer Technicians tend to either give too little information or too much which confuses the client. We need to remember that some of the things we are referencing require prior knowledge on the subject.
“Your operating system needs to..”
“Whats an operating system?”

To increase the chances of the client absorbing the information and be a better computer teacher all round, here are some great methods that work really well for me.
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Steve Cherubino from Podnutz.com invited me on his show again to talk about recent computer repair jobs and the computer repair business in general. We have two different shows for you to listen to.
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The default power settings for Windows is to have the computer go to sleep after about 15-30 minutes of inactivity (such as no keyboard input or mouse movement). This is great for the client because it saves power but not so great for a technician who is working on the computer.

Insomnia is a small, freeware and portable application designed to prevent the computer from going to sleep. As long as the Insomnia window is open, the computer wont go to sleep. This is great for a technician who is running malware or diagnosis scans on a computer which can potentially take hours.

If you are a technician who makes use of .BAT file or AutoIT scripting, this would be a nice addition to your script to keep the computers awake while your script does its task.
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Our software competition this week was a success with 721 people entering it, but there can only be 3 winners. So, for the 718 of you who didn’t win, I got you the next best thing – Discounts!

• Instant Housecall is offering 10% off any package.
• CommitCRM is offering $50 off (works out to 20% off single employee version or 10% off three employee version)
• Podnutz is offering 10% off their Laptop Repair Video package.
• SUPERAntiSpyware are offering 50% off SUPERAntiSpyware Professional
• And I am offering 20% off the Technibble Computer Business Kit

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