computer repair be aware....

[VitaBene]

Originally Posted by EricP

There are too many variables when working on computers for anything to be plain and simple. Even the example of installing RAM in pairs is not always true or false. Depends on the other components of the system and it is always better to check the manual and/or specs of that particular system when adding RAM so money isn't wasted.

As to the original post, when a system blue screens it can be straight forward or confusing as to the cause. I personally have diagnosed thousands of blue screen crashes and some have been easy, others have taken monumental efforts to solve. I will say that usually when a RAM chip goes bad you can get all sorts of false positives tracking the cause until you finally get it. I've also been able to solve bad RAM crashes on initial inspection, it's really a crap shoot.

It is so hard for people who do not do this stuff to sometimes know even where to begin and are in many ways at the mercy of the so called experts. My advice is treat the situation as any other transaction and first determine if you think you can trust the person doing the work. I would imagine a fair amount of us have had vehicles serviced only to have to go back for the exact same problem and feel like we were ripped off, computers are no different.

Thank you, your post backed up what I have wanted to write! Especially the bit about the mechanic. Any time a technician of any type diagnoses a problem, there is a chance they may be wrong. There is no magic gonkulator that will diagnose all problems, the technician will need to troubleshoot and that is where differing styles come into play- a good technician will get there faster than a poor one and cost you less money ultimately.

I can't imagine spending the time in small claims over this.