I love it when people profess to be do-it-yourself'ers of handymen, believing that they can open up any mechanism or object, tinker with it for a few minutes and have it up and running again in no time. These people, who I will admit are very clever at cleaning fuel filters, fishing rod reels, and toasters, think that all it takes to get a broken computer working again is a Philips screwdriver and a can of WD-40. But once these self-proclaimed computer repair specialists get the computer case open, they soon realize that there's a bit more involved than a few loose wires or rusted gears.

I was knew a man who installed service station pump systems, and bought a crate of old PC's from a computer auction, thinking that all it would take to build a working machine was to fit all the right parts together. Well the man did build a machine, but once he plugged in his salvaged system, there were more than a few beeps and blinking lights from the machine complaining that there was no operating system on the non-formatted hard-drive. It seems that the gentleman had quite the talent for fitting the right pieces together, but no sense of how to make it all function as a unified piece of technology.

There is a talent to computer repair, and as much talent as you have as a handyman, it can't necessarily translate to computer specialist, especially when you have to work with operating systems, antivirus and security, partitioning, and making certain that your CPU fits your motherboard, your motherboard fits your case, your memory is compatible, your drives are formatted, and your power supply...supplies power.

Now it's always good to have a friend who can fix things (non-computer things), but am I going to trust the security of my computer to a tinker? Probably not...definitely not! I'm either going to learn to do it myself, or I'm going to pay or barter with a computer guru friend to get the job done right.