Dead Power Unit

Attempted to turn my Dell 4600 on yesterday, it was dead as day old fish.
After checking all my connections and anything else I could think of I
called a local computer repair company. I carried my Dell to his store he
ran a check and said the power unit was dead. He charged me $25.00 for this
information but he replaced the unit for an additional $65.00, total cost
$94.57 after taxes. Time in store 25 minutes. Computer works fine now, do
you all think I got ripped off or this the going rate for this type of
problem? I am just wondering.
Paul C. Courtney

> Computer works fine now, do you all think I got ripped off or this
> the going rate for this type of problem? I am just wondering.

I suppose it depends on how quickly you needed it fixing, and how much
hassle you were prepared to put yourself through ordering and fitting
one yourself. Not all Dell PSUs have standard connections, so there was
a chance you could have damaged more by trying to fix it yourself.

It wasn`t a cheap job as power supplies go, but we don`t know the
quality of the PSU he used as a replacement - if it was a branded one,
its probably not far off the mark, if its a cheap no-name one it
probably a bit over the odds.

Its like the old tale of a mechanic who charged £110 for hitting
something with a hammer. When questioned, £10 was the callout fee,
£100 was for his years of experience and knowing exactly where to
hit it.

In article <dFqEe.81625$Fv.27611@lakeread01>, says...
> Attempted to turn my Dell 4600 on yesterday, it was dead as day old fish.
> After checking all my connections and anything else I could think of I
> called a local computer repair company. I carried my Dell to his store he
> ran a check and said the power unit was dead. He charged me $25.00 for this
> information but he replaced the unit for an additional $65.00, total cost
> $94.57 after taxes. Time in store 25 minutes. Computer works fine now, do
> you all think I got ripped off or this the going rate for this type of
> problem? I am just wondering.

$25 for a half-hours work is cheap as many shops charge $90/hr and at
least 1 hour. $65 for a power supply, if it was a Antec is a good price,
but many shops sell cheap crap that you can buy most places for $35.

If you had called us, and we're not cheap, we would have come to your
location with a spare PSU ready, charged you 1 hours labour, and the
cost of the PSU.

--


remove 999 in order to email me

The price is not outrageous if the power supply was a brand of decent quality.
You are paying for the expertise as well as the labor and parts. Give credit to
the local company for knowing that the 4600 uses a standard ATX12V power supply,
and being honest about it. Some people will feed you the garbage that the power
supply MUST be a Dell-branded one, and charge outrageous amounts for part and
repair.

The $94 is in the ballpark for what I charge, and I think I give my customers
honest deals... Ben Myers

On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 08:23:37 -0400, "Paul C. Courtney" <>
wrote:

>Attempted to turn my Dell 4600 on yesterday, it was dead as day old fish.
>After checking all my connections and anything else I could think of I
>called a local computer repair company. I carried my Dell to his store he
>ran a check and said the power unit was dead. He charged me $25.00 for this
>information but he replaced the unit for an additional $65.00, total cost
>$94.57 after taxes. Time in store 25 minutes. Computer works fine now, do
>you all think I got ripped off or this the going rate for this type of
>problem? I am just wondering.
>Paul C. Courtney
>
>

On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 14:48:42 GMT, ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net
(Ben Myers) wrote:

>The price is not outrageous if the power supply was a brand of decent quality.
>You are paying for the expertise as well as the labor and parts. Give credit to
>the local company for knowing that the 4600 uses a standard ATX12V power supply,
>and being honest about it. Some people will feed you the garbage that the power
>supply MUST be a Dell-branded one, and charge outrageous amounts for part and
>repair.

Actally, the old (circa 1996) Pentium-90 mhz Dell optiplex's had
standard P1 connectors with non-standard voltage pin-outs. The
computer would smoke if you used a standard power-supply on the Dell
motherboard. Chalk one up to luck for the computer repair guy.

Dan

For those of us in the know, Dell used non-standard power connectors for most of
its P2 and P3 computers, too. They finally went straight with the Socket 478
computers. I'm sure the costs of manufacturing both a non-standard motherboard
and a non-standard power supply were a factor... Ben Myers

On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 20:13:05 -0400, Dan <> wrote:

>On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 14:48:42 GMT, ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net
>(Ben Myers) wrote:
>
>>The price is not outrageous if the power supply was a brand of decent quality.
>>You are paying for the expertise as well as the labor and parts. Give credit to
>>the local company for knowing that the 4600 uses a standard ATX12V power supply,
>>and being honest about it. Some people will feed you the garbage that the power
>>supply MUST be a Dell-branded one, and charge outrageous amounts for part and
>>repair.
>
>Actally, the old (circa 1996) Pentium-90 mhz Dell optiplex's had
>standard P1 connectors with non-standard voltage pin-outs. The
>computer would smoke if you used a standard power-supply on the Dell
>motherboard. Chalk one up to luck for the computer repair guy.
>
>Dan