PC Repair

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I just took my old machine into the local computer repairman’s shop, mostly as an experiment. I’d built it about two years ago but it died in my most recent move, it’d power on but wouldn’t boot, so I figured it was worth $35 to at least see what was wrong.

I didn’t think these sort of shops existed anymore, but I was wrong: a cluttered storefront half-filled with stacks of old, refurbished CRT televisions; a dirty counter with dusty monitors and half-open PCs dumped without concern, spilling wires everywhere; glass cabinets filled with parts, balled up bits of paper, hand lotion (!), and what appeared to be empty cans of compressed air. The place was a serious dump.

The fat Chinese man behind the counter was drawing a portrait of Obama in charcoal from a picture on the cover of U.S. News and World Report. He was just sketching out an outline, but a completed one sat on the counter next to his chair. It wasn’t half-bad. I wonder if he’s been selling them on the side.

He didn’t respond to my entrance until I said “Excuse me”, after which he put down his drawing and told me to put the old machine on the counter. “Heavy!” he exclaimed, noting the three hard drives and the ”strong!” steel case. (Another Antec Sonata, actually. The second model.)

He spent five minutes rummaging for a DVI-to-VGA dongle so he could hook it up to one of the old CRT monitors on his cabinet, but after a while I interrupted him and said I didn’t need him to fix it right now. He wrote me a receipt of the parts, I told him he could just have the Creative Audigy sound card inside (I’ve sworn off Creative sound cards for good after all that nonsense post-Vista), and walked back down the Brooklyn street. My favorite street vendor was selling fried dough pockets on the street filled with chicken and cheese. (What are those things called anyway?)

I don’t have a lot of confidence that the guy will be able to fix the old machine, but I figured it was worth a shot. Maybe that disgusting, dusty store is actually the lair of a PC repair genius. Considering the shock he exclaimed when he saw the size of my relatively modest graphics card, I sort of doubt it.