- Diagnose a faulty RAM stick in a desktop PC, and while doing that had to fix on the CPU cooler fan which was loose inside the machine. The co
- Repaired a liquid damage Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 with sticky liquid damage through keyboard and onto components inside – was previously powering off after a few minutes, but now all good. Please with this job as these machines are not very repair friendly and the amount of liquid inside too a long time to sort.
- Security wipe of an entire Windows PC computer after remote access scam, including backing up data before wipe, restoring data after wipe, updates and installation of common programs so all ready to go.
- Got a customer’s new self-built computer to boot – the issue was the incompatibility of the motherboard chipset with the chipset of the graphics card. We were about to give up and then saw on the graphics card website a small footnote saying that some motherboards may require an older BIOS version to accept those models of graphics cards. When we downgraded the BIOS, the graphics card worked, and the machine booted well. Happy to work this issue out as it was a specific compatibility issue not well know about or advertised about.
- Multiple fixes and modifications to a desktop PC. Bad air flow example…
- Usually when machines come to us there is just one issue that needs sorting and when that’s done things run smoothly again. This PC came to us with, ‘nothing displayed on monitor’ and we were able to diagnosis what we thought was a faulty graphics card. Tested the card on another machine and still not working and thought that was confirmed faulty. At the same time, we had another machine which wouldn’t take a new graphics card, and decided to try the failed graphics card on that machine – and it worked… It came back to life. Put it back in the original machine and everything worked fine and after lots of stress testing no issues.
- Then put the side of the case back on and crashes started to happen. There was too much heat being generated in the case by the graphics card which then stopped working because it was too hot. Then noticed the case fans on the front of the machine were positioned in such a way that they were right up against the case so basically very little air could go through then. Moved the fans the other side of the case mounting point so good air flow could happen and moved one of them to the top of the case for better hot air exhaust. Then realised that although the case allowed for fans to be mounted there, the grill for air flow out barely had any holes so not much air could pass through – we spoke to the customer and confirmed out to make some holes of airflow as needed.
- Now the cooling in the case was much better, but the graphics card still crashed (after a much longer time time). It was the end of the graphics card as irreversible damage had been done through overheating and it just wouldn’t stay cool enough, so it was replaced with a working one and the system worked fine.
- Things learned from this experience: Ensure the case has good air flow (this case clearly didn’t give any design thought to airflow); and to ensure the graphics card hot air exhaust goes out the back of the case (the failed graphics card had two fans blowing on its heatsink, but there was no flow of air to the back of the graphics card and out the back of the case – causing all the hot air generated to stay inside the case. Not seen this in a graphics card before). Also, should have carded more for this job because of the complexity, time and electrical power used on it!
- Enabled a Windows 10 PC to connect to a Virgin Broadband router. This shouldn’t have been an issue, but we got it working as it should and the customer was happy with the work and price.
- Fixed a non-booting Windows 10 computer. The computer was booting only part of the time…the customer was interested in computers, so we worked through things together and got it sorted, and he learnt a but at the same time.
- Fixed a blue screen of death on a computer game programmer’s student laptop. The blue screen was seemingly random but after a thorough clean, health check and test, we experienced no more errors. Upon giving the laptop back to the customer, we found out that he had already been to a local competitor on Ecclesall Road who had charged over twice the price we did (and the problem was not fixed). We always offer after sales service and advice and a fair guarantee on any work.
- Removed a CD stuck in an 21.5″ iMac. The customer already had a USB DVD drive so wasn’t concerned about if the internal DVD drive could be repaired. After the CD was extracted, the drive still didn’t work correctly, so as instructed, the internal DVD drive was disconnected to prevent it making any noise plus reduce power consumption. We also sealed the DVD slot on the side of the machine with insulation tape so disks couldn’t be inserted in the future – the tape was internal so from the outside the DVD slot looked like it was fine.
- Downgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 7 on a Toshiba Ultrabook. Windows 10 start menu and other necessary functions weren’t working, and the customer just wanted a reliable system. As a bonus we got the small SSD drive in the computer used as cache to speed up the system that got disabled when Windows 10 was installed working again. After some other fine tuning the system is probably working better than it was when it was first switched on.
- Dramatically increased the speed of an old Windows Vista PC for a couple who have no need to upgrade or buy a new computer. They were happy to save hundreds on the cost of a new computer.
- Fixed a hard drive connection issue on a 2012 MacBook Pro. The drive wasn’t being recognised and booting correctly, now works as good as ever.
- Replaced the regular hard drive of a 2008 MacBook with a solid state drive (SSD) and upgraded the RAM from 2GB to 8GB – system is pretty much maxed out…and performs like it booting to usable state in about 20 seconds. Very happen customer who will get at least a few more years use out of the machine now.
- Installation of powerline networking kit for blanket Wi-Fi coverage of entire (huge) house.
- Fixed dim LCD screen on Asus laptop.
- Restored emails lost in Windows 10 Mail app
- Replace hard drive in MacBook Pro, reinstalled MacOS, set up iCloud and all services and installed common programs.
- Created an invoice template for a local electrical services company. They can easily create digital invoices for printing and emailing.
- Created a ‘blog’ website for a local customer. The site was custom made to their liking including, images, layout, and functionality.
- Removed a broken off headphone jack stuck in a MacBook headphone socket. A cracking bit of DIY was required to remove the stuck piece of headphone jack – this done, saved the customer around £200 by avoiding the cost of a new mainboard.
