Geeks and Nerds caught on film lacking geeky nerdiness

Ah, well....

Oh, i'll always take a look at a friend or family member's PC. I don't charge, it's something called a "favour". They might cook me lunch, I'll fix their PC as they're my friend/relative.

As for the "blown" memory. Just what does this mean? Are we talking "PC will not start" style blown or "when it gets warm it crashes windows" style blown Most competant repair people will try taking memory out of a PC that will not boot as we know it does fail and cause unpredictable problems. But if the thing boots and then fails later, you'd look at O/S file problems and hard-disk corruption first (well, I would).

Diagnosis is often just "playing the numbers" you look at the most likely cause first, test for it, and if it's not there you move on - and sometimes there is nothing to tell you what order to try things in. So it's pure luck whether you try the right thing first or last.

Obviously...

Not heard of MemTest86 then?

These cretinous 'geeks' make my blood boil. I make it my business to accompany friends and family into places like PCWorld should they require me so they don't get the nonsense, sell-it-quick sales patter that often supercedes thoughtful, technical advice. I've had too many people consult me for advice having been dealt with by no more than over-insentivised sales staff with little to no knowledge about what they're selling.

We need a proper IT cohort that is driven by customer's needs, not it's shareholders, like an IT co-op I suppose. Thoughts welcome.

They didn't call ME

If the machine wouldn't POST, memory is one of the FIRST things you check. Here in southern Missouri, USA, we have many rural dial-up users and we occasionally have thunderstorms. Therefore, usually no-POST issues are either the modem or power supply (depending on whether the lightning struck a power line or the phone line.) If you eliminate those 2 problems, the next thing to do is pull the memory and see if your motherboard beeps at you. It helps to have a 25$ post-code checker, but it's not entirely necessary. If the machine will POST, but you're having flaky problems, then run a bootable diagnostic tool like pc-check to check your processor, motherboard, memory, and hard drive.

The problem with many of these "geeksquad" type services is that they're not interested in fixing your computer. They are about selling product. They DON'T WANT to fix your computer and they DON'T CARE about you. An honest computer tech is like an honest mechanic, once you find one you can trust, stick with him (or her) and tell all your friends.