I don't know about anyone else, but I'm having to view the lessons over and over again. They crack on at quite a pace. Having said that, they are highly informative and realistic - and thank you William for breaking that piece of plastic on the laptop keyboard ribbon - I don't feel such a klutz anymore.

Anyone got any good study aids they'd like to share?

About 95% of desktops are exactly the same to take to pieces and put back together (give or take) so if you can do one you can do the rest, some can be a little more complicated to get into but the parts once your inside are pretty much the same so its plain sailing, im thinking of small form factor like this click on this , they can be a little awkward to figure out how to remove parts to get at what you want.

laptops on the other hand, taking them apart is always an adventure, best place ive seen for taking them apart is Inside my laptop, and of course google, youtube and last but not least ask on the forum and if we havnt tackled one ourselves we will try and find someone somewhere who has

I've bookmarked "inside my laptop" for future reference.

What with the free lessons, the forum, and the course, I am slowly getting to grips with computers. It's the software that's the scary bit...but the more I learn, the more I'm beginning to understand.

Laptops still make me cringe.
Having to totally disassemble the thing to do the simplest repair...gazillions of screws and connections that are so small they're almost invisible! Arrggggh.
I had a bit of a relief this week, though. Someone brought in an old Toshiba Satellite laptop with a bad hard drive. Glory!!! The HD was under a panel with one screw!!!!!
(...and there was great rejoicing...)

Originally Posted by busdriver72

Laptops still make me cringe.
Having to totally disassemble the thing to do the simplest repair...gazillions of screws and connections that are so small they're almost invisible! Arrggggh.
I had a bit of a relief this week, though. Someone brought in an old Toshiba Satellite laptop with a bad hard drive. Glory!!! The HD was under a panel with one screw!!!!!
(...and there was great rejoicing...)

Guess what I've got on my desk - a toshiba satellite laptop lol!! Apparently, it runs win 95 - that's if I can get it going. It's one of the donations I have to play with.

Just now, I'm using a dell latitude d505 - I bought it second hand for £100, and I've used it daily, and so far it's not letting me down. However, it's only got one useable usb port - which I use for my dongle - so I'm rather limited with what I can do with it. I'll have to price up parts, and learn a darn sight more about laptops before I open this one up.

My first foray into laptops will be the toshiba - there's no cables, the battery is obviously dead, so it's gonna be fun.

Cant remember who it was off hand but there was one lad few weeks back, only wanted to replace the hard drive had it in that many pieces we thought he had took a hammer to it, only way to get at it was removing keyboard and going in that way, bet they pissed themselves laughing when they designed that, "this'll teach the bastards to try and fix our laptops themselves"

as for being unsure about the computer programing side of things, theres nothing stopping you learning how to write code but it wont really help fixing computers, im forever calling microsoft but trust me they they know a damn sight more about it than we ever will, the idea isnt to change the operating system, the idea is to change as little of it as possible, after you install drivers and updates and installed essential programs you try keep what you have got, you see a lot of registry editors for fixing computers, they are more like registry repairers, if you can install anm operating system that the closest you will come to programming

Cant remember who it was off hand but there was one lad few weeks back, only wanted to replace the hard drive had it in that many pieces we thought he had took a hammer to it, only way to get at it was removing keyboard and going in that way, bet they pissed themselves laughing when they designed that, "this'll teach the bastards to try and fix our laptops themselves"

Exactly!!!

heres nothing stopping you learning how to write code but it wont really help fixing computer

No, but it may help me out in the Matrix someday.


..

Originally Posted by popeye67

Cant remember who it was off hand but there was one lad few weeks back, only wanted to replace the hard drive had it in that many pieces we thought he had took a hammer to it, only way to get at it was removing keyboard and going in that way, bet they pissed themselves laughing when they designed that, "this'll teach the bastards to try and fix our laptops themselves"

as for being unsure about the computer programing side of things, theres nothing stopping you learning how to write code but it wont really help fixing computers, im forever calling microsoft but trust me they they know a damn sight more about it than we ever will, the idea isnt to change the operating system, the idea is to change as little of it as possible, after you install drivers and updates and installed essential programs you try keep what you have got, you see a lot of registry editors for fixing computers, they are more like registry repairers, if you can install anm operating system that the closest you will come to programming

I've only done one os install - and I was petrified I'd mess it up - that's the software I'm talking about. Once it's installed and if it malfunctions, that's the scary part - I haven't a scooby how to fix it...

I have absolutely no intention of learning code - it takes me all my time to write in english!! lol. I'm really enjoying getting into the guts of the computers and seeing how they work, and getting them to work. It's the most satisfying thing I've done in a long time - and it will get better when I'm more proficient and earning money!

Originally Posted by sandra

I've only done one os install - and I was petrified I'd mess it up - that's the software I'm talking about. Once it's installed and if it malfunctions, that's the scary part - I haven't a scooby how to fix it...

I have absolutely no intention of learning code - it takes me all my time to write in english!! lol. I'm really enjoying getting into the guts of the computers and seeing how they work, and getting them to work. It's the most satisfying thing I've done in a long time - and it will get better when I'm more proficient and earning money!

nah you just get bored waiting for something a bit more challenging, as for installing os, i've had installs go wrong (no particular reason just messed up somehow), just stick the disc back in and start again, simples.

everyone in America is thinking what the f , whats simples.

Originally Posted by popeye67

nah you just get bored waiting for something a bit more challenging, as for installing os, i've had installs go wrong (no particular reason just messed up somehow), just stick the disc back in and start again, simples.

everyone in America is thinking what the f , whats simples.

You're watching too much telly (between the adverts)!