With the cost of repairs higher than I could afford, a friend suggested I simply rebuild my computer with his help, over the phone. His confidence in my ability was all I had to go on – and really my only option: I couldn’t imagine not having a computer, and I couldn’t afford to have a technician repair it for me.
To make a long story shorter, I bought a tower, installed the motherboard, plugged in the CPU, the CD ROM, video & sound cards and the memory. No one was more surprised than I was when my computer was back up and running in no time. I re-installed Windows and the other software I needed, and I was good to go.
When my family and friends learned of my new-found abilities to get my computer repaired, they automatically assumed that I could help them with various challenges they were experiencing on their own computers.
Never once did anyone ask me to work with the hardware of their systems; they only ever wanted help figuring out the software and how to use it.
… to be continued in Part 3, here.