The woes of being a builder

[StofPCs]

So I got an HP for free from a guy.  It had bent pins and the boards onboard audio didn't work.  I fixed the pins, added an R7-240 1GB GDDR5, bought some DDR2 memory (4GB), tossed in a 500GB HDD (I got a killer deal months ago, got 12 drives for 300 bucks).  I paired it with a Fractal Design Core 3000 that I bought for 20 bucks that came with a DVD-RW and a brand new EVGA 500W PSU.  So all in all I had like 140 bucks in it.  The day I go to sell it, the fan header errors out and cannot be disabled in the BIOS, so every time you boot it up you need to press F2 to continue.  So I found the perfect buyer who wants to use it as a server.  I told him about the issues and he managed to get me down to $150.00.  So I figure whatever, I'll do it.  Well he decides he doesn't want to use the video card and his "tech" ripped it out bending the bracket (found this out later).  His "Tech" said it has 6 blown capacitors.  No, it has 2 caps that are ever so slightly bulged but being in a good case it's not an issue,  I offered to buy a new AM3+ board to his house, but he didn't want a different board, he wanted an exact replacement.  Well, the exact HP board is on Amazon and eBay for $140+ (working).  So I offered to buy it back from him.  I also found out that his tech smashed the +4 connector in the 20+4 pin plug.  Because of this, the PC will not shut down even if you hold the power button in.  Monitor turns off but the PC doesn't.  I tried another PSU and it works fine.

 

Fast forward to today, a friend of mine will buy the PC for $320.00  I ordered a Gigabyte GA-780MLT-USB3 board, 8GB of DDR3 memory for it and a Rosewill Wireless Adapter.  This is when I found out the PSU issue and because the CPU cooler is 3 pin and the board only has 4 pin connectors the fan runs 4k rpm all the time.  So now I have to replace the PSU and Heatsink, so YAY I get to break even!  I've been on a great run though, I've done about 40 machines (used/refurbished) and New without a single hiccup.  I am currently overhauling another guys PC only to find that his 3TB Externals are formatted in MBR and cannot be read by Windows.  So I had to reconstruct the external enclosures and spend 10 hours transferring data off the 3TB's to a 2TB drive to format them as GPT in order to be read by Windows as a SATA drive.  After I transferred 1.5TB from a 3TB to the 2TB, I formatted the 3TB and transferred everything from the other 3TB then formatted that as GPT.  External drives use a connector interface that changes the signal to be read via USB by Windows, but he wanted them installed into his PC.  In all we had a 2TB HDD, 2x3TB HDD's, a new SSD (Upgrade), and a 2TB (blank drive) that he bought to add more storage that I used to transfer data.  Now when I deliver his PC back to him (upgraded case, SSD's and all of his DATA in 1 machine), his motherboard died.  Cannot read any USB's and the SATA controller died.  So after some talking, we bought a Gigabyte AM3+ board with 8 SATA 3 ports for all of his drives.  5 Trips to his house doing a ton of work all for $100.00...  Sigh the life of a builder I suppose!

[ddbtkd456]

So I got an HP for free from a guy.  It had bent pins and the boards onboard audio didn't work.  I fixed the pins, added an R7-240 1GB GDDR5, bought some DDR2 memory (4GB), tossed in a 500GB HDD (I got a killer deal months ago, got 12 drives for 300 bucks).  I paired it with a Fractal Design Core 3000 that I bought for 20 bucks that came with a DVD-RW and a brand new EVGA 500W PSU.  So all in all I had like 140 bucks in it.  The day I go to sell it, the fan header errors out and cannot be disabled in the BIOS, so every time you boot it up you need to press F2 to continue.  So I found the perfect buyer who wants to use it as a server.  I told him about the issues and he managed to get me down to $150.00.  So I figure whatever, I'll do it.  Well he decides he doesn't want to use the video card and his "tech" ripped it out bending the bracket (found this out later).  His "Tech" said it has 6 blown capacitors.  No, it has 2 caps that are ever so slightly bulged but being in a good case it's not an issue,  I offered to buy a new AM3+ board to his house, but he didn't want a different board, he wanted an exact replacement.  Well, the exact HP board is on Amazon and eBay for $140+ (working).  So I offered to buy it back from him.  I also found out that his tech smashed the +4 connector in the 20+4 pin plug.  Because of this, the PC will not shut down even if you hold the power button in.  Monitor turns off but the PC doesn't.  I tried another PSU and it works fine.

 

Fast forward to today, a friend of mine will buy the PC for $320.00  I ordered a Gigabyte GA-780MLT-USB3 board, 8GB of DDR3 memory for it and a Rosewill Wireless Adapter.  This is when I found out the PSU issue and because the CPU cooler is 3 pin and the board only has 4 pin connectors the fan runs 4k rpm all the time.  So now I have to replace the PSU and Heatsink, so YAY I get to break even!  I've been on a great run though, I've done about 40 machines (used/refurbished) and New without a single hiccup.  I am currently overhauling another guys PC only to find that his 3TB Externals are formatted in MBR and cannot be read by Windows.  So I had to reconstruct the external enclosures and spend 10 hours transferring data off the 3TB's to a 2TB drive to format them as GPT in order to be read by Windows as a SATA drive.  After I transferred 1.5TB from a 3TB to the 2TB, I formatted the 3TB and transferred everything from the other 3TB then formatted that as GPT.  External drives use a connector interface that changes the signal to be read via USB by Windows, but he wanted them installed into his PC.  In all we had a 2TB HDD, 2x3TB HDD's, a new SSD (Upgrade), and a 2TB (blank drive) that he bought to add more storage that I used to transfer data.  Now when I deliver his PC back to him (upgraded case, SSD's and all of his DATA in 1 machine), his motherboard died.  Cannot read any USB's and the SATA controller died.  So after some talking, we bought a Gigabyte AM3+ board with 8 SATA 3 ports for all of his drives.  5 Trips to his house doing a ton of work all for $100.00...  Sigh the life of a builder I suppose!

 

I don't understand whats so bad? Sure you had some bad buyers and some issues but isn't that totally normal even when you are building a new pc? This thread is completely pointless IMO

[StofPCs]

I don't understand whats so bad? Sure you had some bad buyers and some issues but isn't that totally normal even when you are building a new pc? This thread is completely pointless IMO

Ehh, I have had a 40+ PC streak of it going flawless.  I did have an issue with some audio work about a year ago

[ddbtkd456]

Ehh, I have had a 40+ PC streak of it going flawless.  I did have an issue with some audio work about a year ago

 

I see. Well maybe your a good pc builder better then me maybe even but it always seems like I have some sort of issue.

[Santa_Dwarf]

sold=sold

[StofPCs]

I see. Well maybe your a good pc builder better then me maybe even but it always seems like I have some sort of issue.

Well this was an interesting case.  Very rarely do I buy/take trade on PC's with problems.  They usually work just older.  But PCs from the ground up, I rarely have any DOA parts.  I do buy alot of Core 2 Duo's/Quads, refurbish them and sell them as tier 1 gamers for like 200-300 depending on my cost.

 

sold=sold

Sorry, I stand by my work.  All PCs have a 60 day warranty and brand new custom builds come with 6 months.  Ofc, it's only against failure not viruses and stuff.

[ddbtkd456]

Well this was an interesting case.  Very rarely do I buy/take trade on PC's with problems.  They usually work just older.  But PCs from the ground up, I rarely have any DOA parts.  I do buy alot of Core 2 Duo's/Quads, refurbish them and sell them as tier 1 gamers for like 200-300 depending on my cost.

 

Sorry, I stand by my work.  All PCs have a 60 day warranty and brand new custom builds come with 6 months.  Ofc, it's only against failure not viruses and stuff.

 

I see....

[Trik'Stari]

This is why you should stay away from HP products lol

 

That, and if another "tech" works on it after you, I wouldn't do a thing for em, since someone else messed it up. I.E. "You voided any warranty with me by having someone else that I don't know work on it who fucked it up"

[Santa_Dwarf]

Sorry, I stand by my work.  All PCs have a 60 day warranty and brand new custom builds come with 6 months.  Ofc, it's only against failure not viruses and stuff.

Yeah see, that's different, you're selling them a warranty, then you can't really complain about having to actually take it in for repair afterwards.

[StofPCs]

Yeah see, that's different, you're selling them a warranty, then you can't really complain about having to actually take it in for repair afterwards.

Well, my markup is insanely small.  I do this because I love doing it, not for the money

 

This is why you should stay away from HP products lol

 

That, and if another "tech" works on it after you, I wouldn't do a thing for em, since someone else messed it up. I.E. "You voided any warranty with me by having someone else that I don't know work on it who fucked it up"

I didn't know until after I got back from my vacation when I looked it over.  I bought it back just hours before I left.  But I did get the HP and COA license for free.  It only came with a board, Athlon II x4 and case with COA.

[Trik'Stari]

Well, my markup is insanely small.  I do this because I love doing it, not for the money

 

I didn't know until after I got back from my vacation when I looked it over.  I bought it back just hours before I left.  But I did get the HP and COA license for free.  It only came with a board, Athlon II x4 and case with COA.

Put it back together and say "you have someone else work on it, I'm not going to fix their mistake"?

 

Just a thought, I'm no system builder but most companies do the same when they see a sticker broken or something

[StofPCs]

Put it back together and say "you have someone else work on it, I'm not going to fix their mistake"?

 

Just a thought, I'm no system builder but most companies do the same when they see a sticker broken or something

Ya I think I'll stand by that next time.  Again I was in a hurry and didn't check everything over like I should have so my fault.

[ddbtkd456]

Put it back together and say "you have someone else work on it, I'm not going to fix their mistake"?

 

Just a thought, I'm no system builder but most companies do the same when they see a sticker broken or something

 

Yep yep.

[Trik'Stari]

Ya I think I'll stand by that next time.  Again I was in a hurry and didn't check everything over like I should have so my fault.

Yep yep.

I'm just guessing lol. I have no idea what you have to worry about with reputation and all as a system builder. I just know what I would expect one to say to me if I tried to take something back after having a different person work on it.

[StofPCs]

I'm just guessing lol. I have no idea what you have to worry about with reputation and all as a system builder. I just know what I would expect one to say to me if I tried to take something back after having a different person work on it.

I get alot of work because of my reputation .  But ya I totally agree!