Tool Recommendations?

[CjScout]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm putting together a tech "toolkit" in a sense. Basically a bunch of hardware and software tools for troubleshooting, upgrading, you name it. I've got the obvious iFixit kit, LTT screwdriver, and LTT backpack to carry stuff, as well as a flash drive running software based recovery tools (Medicat USB and a few others). I don't want to spend money on hardware stuff that isn't helpful/will just break after some uses, so I ask, what hardware tools (AVHzY USB tester, etc) does everyone recommend?

[Crunchy Dragon]

Cable stripper/crimper and a punchdown tool will save your life running Ethernet. Cable testers can be useful as well for troubleshooting networks.

If you don't already have a bootable Linux USB and a Windows recovery disk, I would recommend having those as well. Both have been very useful to me in the past.

 

What kind of scenarios are you planning to handle with your kit?

 

If you don't already have a decent laptop with a solid variety of ports to bring with you, that's a must-have as well.

[SpookyCitrus]

A PSU tester is a must, you can find them for around $10 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J9LRC6T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

If you are going to be a mobile tech, you'll want a Bluetooth/portable mouse and keyboard. And a portable monitor. They're going to be a little bit of money, but are pretty much essential for a mobile technician. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09PYKCF1Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/obVus-Solutions-Foldable-Keyboard-Ergonomic/dp/B094XB6GVH/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3KD5DLQKJOBUG&keywords=portable+keyboard+with+trackpad&qid=1689003636&sprefix=portable+keyboard+with+trackpa%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-3

 

If you are going to be doing networking, network cable testers, and an ethernet crimping kit would be helpful.

[CjScout]

4 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

Cable stripper/crimper and a punchdown tool will save your life running Ethernet. Cable testers can be useful as well for troubleshooting networks.

If you don't already have a bootable Linux USB and a Windows recovery disk, I would recommend having those as well. Both have been very useful to me in the past.

 

What kind of scenarios are you planning to handle with your kit?

Primary family issues, though I'm probably going be doing side work for friends and stuff because I'm the tech nerd of my friends/family.

Realistically data backup/recovery, and classic why doesn't x work, and fixing their horrible setups.

3 minutes ago, SpookyCitrus said:

A PSU tester is a must, you can find them for around $10 on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07J9LRC6T/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

If you are going to be a mobile tech, you'll want a Bluetooth/portable mouse and keyboard. And a portable monitor. They're going to be a little bit of money, but are pretty much essential for a mobile technician. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09PYKCF1Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/obVus-Solutions-Foldable-Keyboard-Ergonomic/dp/B094XB6GVH/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3KD5DLQKJOBUG&keywords=portable+keyboard+with+trackpad&qid=1689003636&sprefix=portable+keyboard+with+trackpa%2Caps%2C131&sr=8-3

 

If you are going to be doing networking, network cable testers, and an ethernet crimping kit would be helpful.

How the heck was I such an idiot to forget about that...

Thanks y'all for the advice!

[Crunchy Dragon]

1 minute ago, CjScout said:

Primary family issues, though I'm probably going be doing side work for friends and stuff because I'm the tech nerd of my friends/family.

Realistically data backup/recovery, and classic why doesn't x work, and fixing their horrible setups.

Definitely bring a laptop with you. Being able to use Google on something bigger than a phone is a godsend on its own, and being able to download other tools you may not have accounted for onto a USB drive can save you as well.

Some known good devices like mice, keyboards, and cables are good to have as well. A compact flashlight or penlight, and a headlamp I would consider must-haves also. If you don't have a tube of decent thermal compound, get some.

 

There gets to be a point where you bring so much stuff with you that it becomes a hassle to lug around this bag full of toys and only use a couple of them per trip. My solution was to have a smaller list of tools that I would bring with me, and other things I would be able to take advantage of if they were able to bring the system to me instead. At this point, I travel fairly light when doing tech calls for friends/family. I bring my laptop, my iFixit kit, my software tools on a USB drive, and that's largely it. Depending on what the situation is, I'll add or remove things but those 3 items are the constants that go with me.

 

The key to making the way I do it work is gathering as much information as I can before heading out so I develop a pretty good idea of what to pack.

If your buddy just needs help with cable management, you really just need a light and some zipties or Velcro cable ties. If your grandma needs some malware removed, a USB tool with antimalware/antivirus on it should be sufficient.

[mariushm]

I disagree on the power supply tester ... I mean it's only 10 dollars, so not a great investment but if your budget is tight you'd be better off spending 30-50$ on a good multimeter.

A multimeter will be able to tell you if a fuse is broken, will tell you if the VRM on motherboard or video card is shorted (check continuity on EPS/pci-e connector between 12v and ground pins) etc. 

 

You can test a power supply by turning it on by shorting PS_ON to any ground in the 24 pin connector with a paper clip.  (PS_ON is fourth pin on the side with the clip, but you can find it with the multimeter as it will have 3.3v - 5v on it, and the only other pin will have 5v stand-by). Then you can check the voltages with the multimeter.

 

Only thing a multimeter won't tell you is if the system reboots/crashes/restarts due to unstable 5v stand-by (causing chipset to reset) when the 5v stand-by circuit in power supply is going bad (due to leaking electrolytic capacitors for example). But a power supply tester also won't tell you that, because generally 10$ testers don't put any load on rails.

 

If you have to go fix stuff often, I'd say carry an external usb drive (a fast ssd on usb 10g) and a regular higher capacity hard drive in a usb enclosure. Sometimes it may be faster to just make a disk image of the partition and dump it to the external drive and reinstall the operating system, then copy the disk image back so they can extract stuff from it. Optionally scan it for viruses on the laptop while Windows or whatever installs on PC. Macrium Reflect can make images and you can mount the images as virtual drives easily to access the contents.  Oh ... and carry a dvd drive just in case user doesn't have one, and the pc doesn't have boot from lan support.

 

If you can open the PC, then you can take out the drive from enclosure and plug it into a SATA port, otherwise you could have a laptop with 2.5g ethernet or higher and carry with you a 2.5g or higher usb ethernet card (because they may not let you open the computer or laptop, or the laptop may not have regular ethernet). They're not that expensive these days , like 25-50$ for 2.5g ethernet on usb.

 

If you're up for small repairs, maybe carry a usb powered soldering iron (that pencil or whatever is trendy these days) and some of the most commonly used capacitor values these days ex low esr 100uF (16v or higher), 470uF (16v, 25v,35v), 680,  820uF (25v , 35v) , 1500 / 2200/ 3300 6.3v / 16v, ceramic capacitors in standard values like  100nF , 1uF , 2.2uF , 10uF , 22uF  0402, 0603, 0805 ... 

 

470uF and 820uF are super common in LCD monitors, if the backlight fails you could probably fix the monitor by replacing a leaking capacitor . If one led fails opening a strip of leds, you could solder a wire across the led contacts to get it working until you find a led to replace the broken one.

Sometimes it's those ceramic capacitors shorting out ... carry a candle or rosin (colophonium) dust with you... if you suspect some ceramic capacitors as shorted but you can't spot one as much hotter than the others, then turn off the power, let it cool down, rub the suspect capacitors with candle or spread some rosin dust and plug power again and pay attention to where the candle wax or rosin starts to melt first and that's your problem component.

 

 

[ToboRobot]

Tech toolkit is rather broad.  Networking tech, PC repair tech, wifi and radio tech, electronics level with multimeters and oscilloscopes. 

I'd assume you are starting with basic PC repair tech, and build that toolbox and skillset up before venturing into others.  

Screwdriver, and USB (with bootable images for Linux and Windows) will help with most of that.  But I think it's best to slowly assemble a toolbox, if you go buy a bunch of tools right away, it's hard to get what you really need, find the good tools and most importantly learn to use them.

[RollyShed]

Hardware -

Sidecutters 4" and make sure they are good quality. Long nose pliers, again good quality. Larger pair of pliers.

Wirestrippers make it easier than using sidecutters and pliers.

Dental tools if you know anyone getting rid of some. Tweezers and "pokey" type tools. They should be stainless steel.

A key item, a DVM (multimeter). A cheap one will do.

Soldering iron ~25 watts and good solder - "Alloys commonly used for electrical soldering are 60/40 Sn-Pb, which melts at 188 °C (370 °F),". Yes, lead, as the melt temperature is lower.

 

Software -

USB stick with Linux burnt to it. This can be used for booting a doubtful computer to prove it isn't the disk or Windows at fault.

USB to SATA cable - so a removed disk can be run, checked and data transferred if needed.

 

Maybe have a spare power cable, internet cable, USB A to C, mouse.

 

Magnifying headband glasses.

[RollyShed]

Have any of us mentioned screwdrivers?

Lots of them in every combination of type and size, straight blade, Phillips, Tork, Pozidriv, etc.

 

A good starting guide -

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/content/discovery/ideas-and-advice/screwdrivers-guide

[RollyShed]

Power drill and a set of drills and screwdriver bits.

 

I've just put things in the car as we are going out soon. As well as my tool kit, a small power drill. In the chuck at present is a Phillips driver.  I'll be replacing an SSD in a laptop. This laptop is only 3 screws to get in but some have 20 and a power drill saves a lot of time. I might need it for someone else's computer today.

 

An  air-fryer I've been working on. An internal wire broken due to bad design. The hole where the cables come through, drill a couple of holes beside it and break off plastic to make the hole bigger.

 

Typical, a power drill and drills for those odd jobs.

[CjScout]

Hello all,

 

Thank you for all the advice! As I'm reading, the common themes I'm seeing:

- keep it light/gather info ahead of time

- have adapters and spare known good cables

- a bootable external drive

 

Time to start putting everything together, thanks again!