Essential Tech Tools???

[TechIr1shm1ike]

I have been a Tech for 2 yrs. I was wondering if anyone can recommend what I should carry with me at all times. I have a nice 700MHZ Laptop. I have a Leatehrman Tool, and a precision screwdriver set. A Mini Knife, and a few cd's like operatings systems and stuff. Anyone got anything else that would be handy dandy, or some good utilities, etc.

Even Networking Utilities.?

[Icculus]

One more thang, besides your list of tools, I carry is a cat-5 crimping tool, some ends, and a tweeter. It's has been necessary in the past to fix problems the wiring guys left for me. If possible I also bring along pretty much one spare stick of mem, HD, Video card, sound card, modem, floppy, and NIC. I have ended up selling these items as used parts on several occasions. Usually the parts I carry are from rebuilds that a client let me keep parts from. So I sell them pretty cheap.

Cheers

[Auric]

Icculus has a good plan thier, PCI Video card..Nic, etc.. you may want to make cd's with all the IE's on em, and other M$ stuff

[Wasaw]

A boot disk with ghost on it and xcopy32

[Major Kong]

All the the above are excellent. I know this will sound silly, but it's my nature . I carry a pack of tie down strips, some velcro, some extra screws, SiSoft Sandra Professional on a CD, a can of air, some static free wipes and waterless hand cleaner.
And not to sound to flippant in my box I have a spare pen, a mechanical pencil with a good eraser and a small notepad.

[DANIMAL]

a clean Stress free Brain

this helps immensely.

[geeksRus]

Ultimate boot Disk...will boot about any CD
Trouble Shooter
Various drivers on CD as well as utilities on CD
F-PROT on floppy...updated regularly

[cookin chef]

You guys also forgot to mention about the computer tech's handy dandy book, PC Repairs for Dummies!!



Recommended by 8 out of 10 computer consultants!

[breugie]

All the above is just great! The one thing i carry with me is an loop-back tester for parallel and serial ports + checkit (program). bye and good luck

[MacGyver]

Make sure you have some Torx screwdriver bits (6 pointed star), at least T-10 and T-15 types. HP uses these screws on a lot of thier equipment and PC's. Some of the screws you can use a slotted screwdriver on, but some not. Having the right bit makes all the difference....

[Dan Man]

Like all of you, I carry with me some flat-cable, a small box with screws, and 64M SDRAM. In my car I cave printer-cabel, old PCI Video card, power supply (AT & ATX), twisted and standatd net cable and floppy drive. And of course, software from all kind.

[jimmm33]

Some of the things I carry not already mentioned are CPU fans. I keeep fans for every possible CPU and with both power connector types. I often get service calls that say the machine is making noise. It's either CPU fan or power supply.

[DANIMAL]

[quote]Originally posted by bohr:
<strong>You guys also forgot to mention about the computer tech's handy dandy book, PC Repairs for Dummies!!



Recommended by 8 out of 10 computer consultants!

</strong><hr></blockquote>

That's not the best book to break out while sitting with a customer.Think about it.

[DANIMAL]

Honestly I have a briefcase full of junk I use for repairs

Fans,
Slot covers
Screws
screwdrivers
air can
Old EDO Ram
Mouse
Modems
Sound Cards
Driver CD's
Boot Disks
Price lists
Business Cards
Cat 5 cable and Crimper
Various documentations for boards and Systems.
and lots more.

[WesFlash]

I'm no traveling PC tech, but I recently went to my wife's friends house because she had gotten SirCam. I took the following in a breif case:
Print outs of removal instructions
Virus removal utility for Sircam
Win98SE
WinME (upgrade)
Win98 startup disk
WinME startup disk
Small utility knife
Loop back cables
Extra phone cable
Norton Untilities
Socket driver with standard and phillips heads.
1/4 socket set, including metric and english.
Spare drive bay and case screws (in socket driver)

It was my first house call. After driving there, I wish I would have remembered my mini mag light. I was fortunate to talk to her before going over, so I had a good idea of what to bring over. I have many spare parts to add to my breif case if I need to, but the power supply won't fit too easily. I don't have and extra RAM, so that would be a possible service killer.