Face it, if you’re even slightly more computer literate than the rest of your family you’ve been pegged “the computer guy”; Henceforth doomed to a life of unpaid tech support. There’s no time when it’s more readily apparent than the holidays. If you’re like most of the Download Squad, your family are already preparing their laundry list of “Hey, can you look at this?” items to bombard you with as soon as you step off the plane looking for your Thanksgiving turkey leg.
Maybe you’re not even the person they should be looking to for fixes and patches. It can take as little as being the first one in your family to have loaded up an Mp3 player or burned a home movie DVD; Regardless, you’re on the hook and we’re here to help you with some basic troubleshooting tips and tricks.
Bring the basics
As the Boy Scouts say, “Be Prepared!” For less than $20 you can buy yourself a key-chain sized USB drive to load with some basic spyware, adware, and malware cleaning tools. Add in a fresh copy of Firefox, a free anti-virus scanner plus any other utilities you find useful in keeping your own computer running well and you’ll come to the Thanksgiving table prepared to tackle some of the most common free tech support requests.
Must have software for your USB repair kit include the USB PC Repair System and Clam Anti-Virus. Another great looking kit — although we’ve not tested it — is the Computer Repair Utility Kit which includes Clam AV and leaves you with one less thing to download.
Also useful in your arsenal, blank media. There are few things worse than having to run around hunting for blank CD-Rs or DVD-Rs during the holidays. Stuff a few from your own stash into your carry-on bag and it’s likely you’ll be happy you did.
For the advanced family computer expert, and for the really tough problems, it’s also a great idea to pack a bootable rescue CD or “live” CD based on Linux. The recently released Ubuntu 7.10 even includes read/write support for NTFS so you’ll save time having to scramble for the rescue tools you need to get mom’s data back.
Start from square one
When you’re doing tech support duties, it’s easy to get wrapped up in details. The best advice is to start from the most basic issue which could be causing the problem and work up from there. Keep notes, and make changes one at a time. Paying careful attention to detail can easily mean the difference between catching the game on TV, or being stuck in your mother’s home office pulling out your hair while everyone else is lounging in the family room.
For example; Don’t spend all day trying to fix the supposed software problem with that USB printer before you check the basics. Is it connected? Is it connected through an el cheapo USB hub? Get rid of it. Plug the printer directly into the PC see if anything changes. Basics like this may only solve your problem one time in ten but, that one time will save you endless frustration, and make you look like a pro. Ok, looking like a pro is only going to get you more phone calls for free support in this instance but, you would’ve gotten those anyway. At least you got to see the game.
Start with the simplest potential cause of the problem and work forward from there, keeping notes and eliminating possible causes.
Don’t bite off more than you can chew
The last thing you want to do is create more problems than you solve, especially if you’ve got a return plane ticket in the next few days. If the problem is too big, or if you think you’re headed into deep water with little chance of making a difference, don’t be afraid to say so. A little diplomacy goes a long way. Grab the phone book and find a good local computer shop you think has the skills. Your helpful and understandable problem description should make things easier for the tech who winds up with that family computer on his bench, and you’ll have saved your family from the big expense and poor service available from a big-box retail chain service desk. You’ll rest easy knowing that you not only saved your holiday time, but saved your family some cash.