When the PC goes awry - try DIY
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Your support makes all the difference.WHEN a personal computer fails, the user's first response is to turn it off and on again and hope the problem goes away, writes Alison Eadie.
If it persists, the user asks for help from the nearest person, then the closest computer whiz to hand, then the company help desk, and finally the external maintenance service.
Time and money could be saved if all PC users had more computer knowledge. With these goals in mind, Merlin Training has devised technical support courses that include actually stripping down a PC and putting it back together again.
Neal Hutchinson, technical director of Merlin, claims PCs are quite simple. 'If you can build a Lego house, you can do it. It's all about confidence.'
The cost of calling out maintenance services can be high, yet problems are often solved quickly. 'If everybody knew a little more, they could keep the machines going and cut down on the costs of maintenance contracts,' says Mr Hutchinson, who was designing PCs 15 years ago, when malfunctioning floppy discs were repaired rather than thrown away.
The hidden cost of running a PC was estimated at pounds 6,000 a year in a recent report by KPMG Peat Marwick.
The cost includes depreciation, external maintenance and wasted time while the user tries unsuccessfully to fix the machine. Mr Hutchinson says there is no point in trying to knock pounds 100 off the price of a PC if the user has no training in what to do with it.
Merlin offers a standard four-day course for pounds 900. It also customises its programmes and conducts them on site if businesses prefer. It will bring along its own PCs for stripping down and rebuilding.
Advice on dress for these courses is that ties will snag on the electronic components. Jeans and T-shirts are more appropriate.
Merlin believes its training programmes have an advantage over others because it offers three months of after-course support.
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