Where to start learning to fix computers

[coffee]

My last employer offered in house training and what they did was setup different servers and had you do certain tasks via a emailed pdf. They also offered classes. Of course, They were more concentrated on hardware than software. So, A lot of their training was on things like managing raids and other hardware issues. But could easily be applied to software like SBS.

 

[NETWizz]

I recommend this site a lot for people.

Cybrary.it

I recommend this site to established techs or those in the field. I do NOT, however, recommend this site to those trying to fix their own problem. The intent of this site has always been a professional to professional type site not a "help me fix my own computer" site... though admittedly we do sometimes respond to those and treat all folks with respect.

What I really love about this site is some of the business lessons I learn, and I find some of the utility reviews interesting... Basically, there is something for just about everybody in the "field." That said, some things are best kept away from users and customers. For example, I might personally (in the closet) badmouth Windows 10 in that I really do not give $.02 if I am using a Windows 7, 8.1, or 10 machine because to me Windows is Windows... Yet, if I had a customer ask me to do an upgrade to Windows 10, I would certainly help them out and charge them a reasonable fee for any support I provide.

That said, I am NOT a re-seller of any Anti-Virus products, so I typically do not push any and have been giving bad advise to use Windows Defender, which up until the last month I have STILL been referring to as Security Essentials out of bad habbit. Turns out I learned on here that it stinks with only about 80% detection rates, so I was giving bad advise.

I guess I will probably start recommending something Kaspersky when someone actually asks...

 

[NETWizz]

Speaking from the networking side, I recommend every Tech learn the absolute basics... I am not talking about shortcuts, CLI, actual configuration, any specific syntax: Cisco, HP/ProCurve, Foundary/Brocade, Juniper... anything.

What I am talking about is device agnostic. Any aspiring tech should learn:

1. How to Subnet (# networks, # hosts per network, network ID, network broadcast... )
1a. That two (2) hosts cannot communicate on the same Layer-2 LAN segment if they do NOT belong to the same subnet
2. What a default gateway actually is used for
3. What DHCP does (how to release/renew/test)
4. What DNS does (how to run queries against it)
5. The OSI Model
6. What a Switch Does (Ethernet Frames vs IP Packets)
7. MAC Addresses and ARP
8. What a Router Does (Matches routing tables pushing packets via an Interface OR to an IP on a different router, generally physically/geographically, at the other end of a subnet one of its local interfaces sit on... Automatically route for directly connected networks.)

 

[Digital Micro]

I recommend this site to established techs or those in the field. I do NOT, however, recommend this site to those trying to fix their own problem. The intent of this site has always been a professional to professional type site not a "help me fix my own computer" site... though admittedly we do sometimes respond to those and treat all folks with respect.

What I really love about this site is some of the business lessons I learn, and I find some of the utility reviews interesting... Basically, there is something for just about everybody in the "field." That said, some things are best kept away from users and customers. For example, I might personally (in the closet) badmouth Windows 10 in that I really do not give $.02 if I am using a Windows 7, 8.1, or 10 machine because to me Windows is Windows... Yet, if I had a customer ask me to do an upgrade to Windows 10, I would certainly help them out and charge them a reasonable fee for any support I provide.

That said, I am NOT a re-seller of any Anti-Virus products, so I typically do not push any and have been giving bad advise to use Windows Defender, which up until the last month I have STILL been referring to as Security Essentials out of bad habbit. Turns out I learned on here that it stinks with only about 80% detection rates, so I was giving bad advise.

I guess I will probably start recommending something Kaspersky when someone actually asks...

I don't remember recommending the site to a user for the purpose of DYI repair.

 

[bgrove77]

There are some great resources on Pluralsight that help me out. I know there are a few courses geared toward CompTIA A+. Even though you said he took a A+ course a few years back, an update might be useful. Also, like everyone else said, experience. Same way you learned. Isolate a task or a couple that you seem to do a lot and show him how to do it. Have him do that until he can do it well, then show him something else. Before you know it, he'll be helping you out a lot.

I also agree with YouTube. There is a bunch of crap out there, but there are also some really good resources on YouTube. Most of the time you can tell after the first 30 seconds of a video if it's going to help you.

Pacific Blue: I like the Lego's comment. I agree. I think that's why I like this industry.

 

[DataRecoverySingapore]

Most of the computers repair were done at modular level.
Ram damage ,Buy a RAM.

In some cases , you may require a chip level repair . eg ; laptop motherboard chip failure. It would be very difficult to procure such item. You may wish to outsource to other companies which focus on repairing for other tech shops.

Same goes for data recovery cases.
Your best bet is to get to know more competitors, hardware and service suppliers.

 

[tucsonpc]

I agree with pretty much everyone here. Have him check out the provided sites for more in depth training (like if he wants to go into servers/networking/etc), and toss him a messed up computer to try and figure out (after taking an image of the drive(s), just in case).