Business computer repairs

What we do

• Laptops, desktops, all-in-ones and workstations
• Screens, batteries, keyboards, fans and power faults
• Drives, SSD and memory upgrades, Windows problems
• Machines that will not boot, or that lost their data
• Malware clean-ups and post-incident checks
• Point-of-sale and reception machines

Fixed labour, quoted parts

Workshop repairs are a fixed $274 in labour, whatever the fault turns out to be, and that includes the $88 diagnosis. Parts are separate, quoted after the diagnosis, and never ordered until you have approved the price.

If the diagnosis shows the machine is not worth repairing, or you decide against it, you pay the $88 and nothing else. We would rather tell a business that a six-year-old laptop is finished than take a repair fee for a machine that will be back in two months.

Most repairs are done within 72 hours. Parts that have to be ordered can add time, and we tell you that when we quote rather than after. Workmanship carries a 90-day warranty, and parts carry whatever warranty the supplier provides, which we pass on to you.

Getting the machine to us, and keeping someone working

COMPwize is fully mobile, so machines do not have to be driven anywhere by your staff. Pickup and delivery is $50 and covers both the collection and the return, with a time slot you choose: 9am to 12pm, 12pm to 3pm, or 3pm to 6pm. For a business that is usually cheaper than an hour of someone's time in traffic.

5x New COMPwize Lockers are being installed in an area near you, at local businesses, most open until 10pm and some 24 hours. They are not open yet, and when they are, they will suit after-hours drop-off for businesses that cannot spare anyone during the day.

Ask about a loan machine when you book. We can sometimes supply one so the person keeps working while theirs is on the bench, but it depends on what is free at the time, so it is something to confirm rather than assume. Where the work is urgent we will say what we can realistically do rather than promise a time we cannot make.

Onsite repairs and when they make sense

Some machines cannot leave. A desktop wired into machinery, a point-of-sale terminal, a reception PC that runs the booking system, a server. For those we come to you, and onsite work is quoted per job or per visit so the cost is agreed before anyone drives out.

The fixed $274 labour applies to workshop repairs rather than onsite time, because an onsite job is a different piece of work with travel and time on site in it. Where a fault turns out to need bench work, we take the machine with us and it goes onto the workshop price.

Anything that is software rather than hardware is usually faster remotely. Remote support is $179 per hour, and a ten-minute fix at 9am beats waiting for a visit. If a remote session shows it is a hardware fault after all, at least we know which parts to bring.

What we repair

Laptops, desktops, all-in-ones and workstations, including the business ranges, plus Macs. Screens, hinges, batteries, keyboards, charge ports, fans, thermal problems, power supplies and boards. Drives that are failing, machines that will not boot, and Windows installations that have become unreliable.

Upgrades are often the better answer for a business machine that is slow rather than broken. Moving an older machine to an SSD and adding memory can buy a couple of useful years for a fraction of a replacement, and we will tell you when that is the case and when it is not.

We also handle the aftermath of the bad days: malware clean-ups, machines that have been hit by ransomware, and data recovery attempts from drives that have failed. Data recovery is never guaranteed by anyone who is being straight with you, and we say up front what the realistic chances are.

Your data and your privacy

Business machines hold client records, payroll and accounts, and we treat them accordingly. We open what is needed to diagnose and test the fault and nothing else, and what we see on a business machine stays with us.

Two practical things help. Tell us the login password or be ready to sign in when we return the machine, because a repair that cannot be tested under Windows is only half checked. And if the machine is encrypted with BitLocker, make sure you have the recovery key somewhere other than that machine before it comes to us.

Back up anything critical before the machine leaves, if it is still working well enough to do so. We are careful, but a drive that is already failing can deteriorate during any repair, and a business should never be relying on a single copy of anything. When equipment is retired we wipe or destroy the drives rather than passing them on with your data still there.

How repairs fit with managed IT

Repairs are reactive by nature. They work well for a business with a handful of machines, or alongside an arrangement where the important things are already looked after.

If machines keep breaking, that is usually a sign of something else: a fleet that all reached the same age at once, dust in machines that are running hot, drives past their life, or no monitoring to catch a failing disk before it takes the data with it. Those are fixable as a plan rather than as a series of repairs.

For ongoing monthly management, our MSP division, Managed IT Helpdesk, handles it at managedithelpdesk.com.au. Plenty of businesses use both: a plan for the office and the repair side for bench work and staff-owned laptops. You are dealing with the same people either way, on 02 9833 1800, Monday to Friday 8am to 7pm and Saturday 9am to 7pm.

Typical jobs

A typical job: a reception machine that will not boot on a morning full of bookings. We check it remotely first, work out it is a failing drive rather than Windows, collect it the same day, fit an SSD, restore the setup, and have it back on the desk inside the usual 72 hours.

A typical job: an office laptop with a cracked screen after being closed on a headset. We match the panel by part number, quote the part before ordering, fit and test it, and return it with the hinges and cable checked while the lid was apart.

A typical job: three ageing desktops in a small office, all slow, all the same age. Rather than repair each as it fails, we quote SSD and memory upgrades on the two worth keeping and replace the third, so the office is not back on the phone every few weeks.

Questions