Computer Repair: Peripheral Repairs

It is a fact that today a great majority of the population is dependant in one way or other on computers. Hence, maintaining them, repairing faults, providing upgrades and ensuring that work and leisure proceed without interruption have become crucial. The keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, CD or DVD-roms and writers, power adapters and jacks, USB sticks, memory sticks and cards, printers, scanners and web-cams etc are collectively known as peripherals and they play a crucial role in allowing the computer to function properly and to its optimum potential. Customers have very little tolerance for computer down-time and sometimes it could be a minor problem with one of the peripherals that causes this. Hence peripheral repairs is a major part of computer repair services and technicians are trained to deal with everything connected to computers. The peripheral repair process however is not as well-documented and structured as that of computer repair. Many technicians learn by sheer trial and error, substituting with similar or compatible parts and testing and re-testing till the problem gets resolved. One obstacle with peripheral repairs is the number of different procedures involved, since there are so many different types of keyboards, mouse, etc. Fast-moving development in these fields also means that newer products emerge almost daily in the market, making it difficult for technicians to keep full abreast with them. Because they are seen as add-ons, many customers prefer to junk them and buy new instead of trying to repair, so maintaining a peripherals repair-service doesn't always make good economic sense. Providing separate warranties and dealing with claims/complaints takes up time and effort which could be used in more lucrative areas of business in computer repair. This sector is also difficult to control because repair processes are less structured or automated. Skill in this area is thus not seen as a specialization for most technicians, who often do double-duty as peripheral repair personnel. Since many peripherals are small and portable, chances of misplacement or theft are greater, leading to further stress for the computer repair-service provider and customers. Many repair-service providers offer rentals on peripherals. Products like projectors, multi-user switches, wireless routers and conference-phones etc are given out on hire basis to tide over the problems of stocking inventory. In this context, repair-service providers offer add-ons like helping users transfer music or videos onto their MP3's or providing downloading tutorials, dealing with system errors after installing a new device etc. Today using a computer has moved far from the simple monitor+keyboard configuration, making it important for any good computer repair-service to also have an excellent peripherals repair section.