Is the ability to provide techicnal support a function of normal Thai culture? Is it that difficult?

[connda]

It technical support a function of normal Thai culture?

 

Why question or attempt to analyse beyond the present moment?  If you immediately don't see a problem?  There must not be a problem.  This is why India kicks Thai butt when it comes to IT, imho.  America as well. 

I have a laptop with an intermittent fan problem.  It makes a racket.  Have you ever put a playing card on the wheel of your bicycle with a cloths pin when your were a kid (old school here.  Maybe before your time).  We did that as kids  to make "motor" noise.  That's what my fan sounds like.  But - not all of the time.  Turn it on you may have to wait 5, 10, 15 minutes then "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......"

So I take this to a tech who was recommended to me online ("Great guy", I'm told. "Excellent tech!") and explain the problem.  He turns it on, looks at the display (probably confused because I'm running Linux), finally turns the computer over, puts his ear to the fan, looks confused, looks at the display - looks at me - "Nothing wrong!"

I spent 25 years working in IT and the first 7 years of that career was repairing mainframes and MF peripherals.  When a data operator puts in a ticket saying that he hears intermittent noises from inside the computer, I NEVER simply listened and then stated, "Nothing wrong!"  We schedule maintenance and look into the problem. 

So, right now my fan is making a god-awful racket - "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"

I know the fan has issues.  Sometimes it stops, then grinds to a start and makes noise, and then may go silent for awhile - especially when i just stops.
The fan needs to be taken out, inspected for obvious issues, cleaned, blown out with compressed air, retested - or just replaced.  Not have some numbskull tell me, "I no hear noise! No problem." 

For me I'm thinking - "No Problem.  I'll never come back to your shop or recommend you to anyone else.  Basically you suck."  But I kept those comments to myself.  I just said, "Thanks, give me back the computer.  Have a nice day."

Maybe its not a Thai culture thing.  Perhaps it's generational.  But I don't think so.  I know some super-sharp techs that are 30 to 40 years younger than me. 
What I hate having to do is to take the computer to a laptop shop and tell the supposed "expert" what to do.  They lose face, as soon as I walk though the door they're probably thinking "farang idiot" and then I need to get.....assertive, which I don't like doing in the particular culture.  But if you don't get assertive you get - "I no hear anything.  No problem."  That ain't gonna cut it with the next trip to a tech shop.

If I had the tools and the inclination I'd do it myself.  But I'm retired, I have physical issues which make those small motor skills you need rather frustrating, and I just want a competent technician to simply do what they claim they are trained to do - analyses and fix laptop problems.  In this case - fix or replace the fan. 

How difficult is that? 

I don't know.  Anyone have recommendations for a set of tools needed to take apart a laptop.  Perferably not cheap-ass tool, nor a tool set with "150 different tools."  I need the minimum to open the case, pull a fan out, or replace my hard drive, or change out my memory.  Minimal, quality, but functional.  Maybe I'll just do it myself. 

Edited January 18, 2021 by connda

[FritsSikkink]

Getting tired of people who have an issue with a bad skilled person and blame it on culture.

[KeeTua]

1 hour ago, connda said:

The fan needs to be taken out, inspected for obvious issues, cleaned, blown out with compressed air, retested - or just replaced. 

Did you state that specifically? Do you speak fluent Thai? If not maybe something lost in translation?

 

Google is the place to begin for troubleshooting and repairs, even for IT professionals. You can research the tools and view videos for all the tasks you mentioned specific to your device.

[JeffersLos]

No noise, no problem.

 

1 hour ago, connda said:

I have physical issues which make those small motor skills you need rather frustrating

 

Perhaps there are hearing issues creeping in too?

[Oldie]

Perhaps a virus? 

 

Just kidding. I always bring my things to authorized service centers if I am not able or to lazy to fix it. It does not guarantee always quality but you can then contact the company behind this service center and make pressure. 

[connda]

Yeah I do speak Thai. and for christsake, this isn't a difficult issue.  It's a fan than needs replaces or taken out and cleaned.
What's difficult is finding someone who gives a s**t.  And yes!  That in my opinion after living here 13+ years and seeing that same s**t time and time again - this "I don't give a damn" attitude with Thais - is an issue.
Dude - Mai Bpen Rai.  It is cultural.  I have found exceptions.  They are far and few between.  My wife is one of them.  She actually understands "customer service" from a Western perspective, and she's never been out of the country.

[GrandPapillon]

a lot of DIY repair on youtube for laptops, not that hard to fix

 

sounds like you have a cluttered fan, the best solution is to use your vaccum cleaner and put the nozzle on the fan exhaust for 2 min, when the laptop is off, and then when it's on, to make sure you have everything

 

amazing how low tech things can do the job ????

Edited January 18, 2021 by GrandPapillon

[OJAS]

1 hour ago, connda said:

I don't know.  Anyone have recommendations for a set of tools needed to take apart a laptop.  Perferably not cheap-ass tool, nor a tool set with "150 different tools."  I need the minimum to open the case, pull a fan out, or replace my hard drive, or change out my memory.  Minimal, quality, but functional.  Maybe I'll just do it myself. 

 

Are you serious? You claim to have worked in IT for 25 years, yet you in effect confess to being totally clueless on the tools needed to take apart a laptop. Absolutely i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e !!!!

Edited January 18, 2021 by OJAS

[GrandPapillon]

5 minutes ago, connda said:

Yeah I do speak Thai. and for christsake, this isn't a difficult issue.  It's a fan than needs replaces or taken out and cleaned.
What's difficult is finding someone who gives a s**t.  And yes!  That in my opinion after living here 13+ years and seeing that same s**t time and time again - this "I don't give a damn" attitude with Thais - is an issue.
Dude - Mai Bpen Rai.  It is cultural.  I have found exceptions.  They are far and few between.  My wife is one of them.  She actually understands "customer service" from a Western perspective, and she's never been out of the country.

they are lazy, and if it's not obvious, they won't bother, takes too much time, and they don't get paid more for it, so they give up

 

they are not entirely wrong, hence why technical support for hardware has completely died in the western world, nobody wants to serve low paid tech work with no upside

 

it's a lose-lose proposition, hence why the solution these days is to buy a new laptop, even if it could cost 100 THB to fix, except nobody wants to do it ????

Edited January 18, 2021 by GrandPapillon

[connda]

4 minutes ago, GrandPapillon said:

a lot of DIY repair on youtube for laptops, not that hard to fix

 

sounds like you have a cluttered fan, the best solution is to use your vaccum cleaner and put the nozzle on the fan exhaust for 2 min, when the laptop is off, and then when it's on, to make sure you have everything

 

amazing how low tech things can do the job ????

Been there, done that.

[GrandPapillon]

1 minute ago, connda said:

Been there, done that.

then the fan needs to be replaced, possibly dry motor, problem is some are soldiered to the motherboard or attached to some silly parts or area, making them unable to be fixed

 

spray some WD40 on it, in the center, that could work too ????

[connda]

Let's go back to DIY.  Any recommendations for a set of tools that are good enough to take the case off and pull and replace a fan, a hard drive (I have reasons why I want to work with more than one hard drive) and replace memory.  I looked at Lazada and their is half a zillion choice.  I need a minimalist set of quality tools to work on a laptop. 
Suggestions with a link?

[connda]

3 minutes ago, GrandPapillon said:

then the fan needs to be replaced, possibly dry motor, problem is some are soldiered to the motherboard or attached to some silly parts or area, making them unable to be fixed

 

spray some WD40 on it, in the center, that could work too ????

I don't think so.  But thanks anyway.

[stubuzz]

10 minutes ago, connda said:

Let's go back to DIY.  Any recommendations for a set of tools that are good enough to take the case off and pull and replace a fan, a hard drive (I have reasons why I want to work with more than one hard drive) and replace memory. 

Usually just a small Phillips screwdriver and pointed instrument to release the keyboard. A can of compressed air or a small brush for the fan.

Google the laptop model there are many instructional videos.

[treetops]

I had an almost identical issue a month or so go. After describing it to the guy in the repair shop we switched it on and of course, no noise.  He took it from me and said they'd open it up and have a look.  If it just needed cleaned it would be 500 baht and if it needed a new fan it'd be 1,000 (somewhere around these prices).

 

A couple of hours later I picked it up, paid 500 baht and it's been fine since.

 

Maybe the issue isn't where you think.

[Natai Beach]

38 minutes ago, OJAS said:

 

Are you serious? You claim to have worked in IT for 25 years, yet you in effect confess to being totally clueless on the tools needed to take apart a laptop. Absolutely i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e !!!!

And  he is asking this forum with an average age of 60+. 
And he only tried one shop?
 

I have always been amazed at how good the computer shops are in Thailand. 
I must have been lucky. 
 

I find the way to go is be extremely polite and friendly, rather than assertive.

 

 

[NanLaew]

1 hour ago, connda said:

Yeah I do speak Thai. and for christsake, this isn't a difficult issue.  It's a fan than needs replaces or taken out and cleaned.
What's difficult is finding someone who gives a s**t.  And yes!  That in my opinion after living here 13+ years and seeing that same s**t time and time again - this "I don't give a damn" attitude with Thais - is an issue.
Dude - Mai Bpen Rai.  It is cultural.  I have found exceptions.  They are far and few between.  My wife is one of them.  She actually understands "customer service" from a Western perspective, and she's never been out of the country.

 

If an intermittently noisy laptop fan upsets you...

 

If the local PC tech can't obviously can't understand your obviously impeccable Thai mangling...

 

If being unable to work out how lazada works...

 

Then yeah, you've been here too long. That's not even a quality Thai bash.

 

BTW, as this the same, long-suffering wife you recently berated here for being like one of them "dirty farang" haters?

 

 

Edited January 18, 2021 by NanLaew

[connda]

24 minutes ago, treetops said:

I had an almost identical issue a month or so go. After describing it to the guy in the repair shop we switched it on and of course, no noise.  He took it from me and said they'd open it up and have a look.  If it just needed cleaned it would be 500 baht and if it needed a new fan it'd be 1,000 (somewhere around these prices).

 

A couple of hours later I picked it up, paid 500 baht and it's been fine since.

 

Maybe the issue isn't where you think.

Nope.  It's the fan.  Easy enough to figure out with a flashlight and a couple of tools and an IQ of 100.

[NanLaew]

4 minutes ago, connda said:

Nope.  It's the fan.  Easy enough to figure out with a flashlight and a couple of tools and an IQ of 100.

 

 

I assume you have a flashlight so here's your toolkit.

 

https://www.lazada.co.th/products/110-in-1-110-in-1-i1824916423-s5487546837.html

 

I couldn't find any IQ's on lazada so I don't know how you'll manage but good luck anyway.

 

[connda]

1 hour ago, OJAS said:

 

Are you serious? You claim to have worked in IT for 25 years, yet you in effect confess to being totally clueless on the tools needed to take apart a laptop. Absolutely i-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e !!!!

You think so sunshine.  The units I worked on took up the size of a room.  And lets see.  Hummm.  Haven't done that since the 1980s. 
There is a big difference between a half ton mainframe and a laptop.
And I plead ignorance.  I don't know jack about the small tools out there to work on laptops.  Anyway, all my tools came complements of my employer and the service center I worked in.  So haven't done that for about 35 years.  But go ahead.  Keep blathering.

[treetops]

3 minutes ago, connda said:

Nope.  It's the fan.  Easy enough to figure out with a flashlight and a couple of tools and an IQ of 100.

 

I agree it's the fan.  Your problem however lies elsewhere.

[GrandPapillon]

3 hours ago, connda said:

Nope.  It's the fan.  Easy enough to figure out with a flashlight and a couple of tools and an IQ of 100.

then you have the solution, you have to DIY, not that difficult

[CharlieH]

Reported post and response to it removed.

[JeffersLos]

So, I guess we've concluded that shouting at both laptops and Thais doesn't fix them. 

[ravip]

On 1/18/2021 at 5:28 PM, connda said:

Let's go back to DIY.  Any recommendations for a set of tools that are good enough to take the case off and pull and replace a fan, a hard drive (I have reasons why I want to work with more than one hard drive) and replace memory.  I looked at Lazada and their is half a zillion choice.  I need a minimalist set of quality tools to work on a laptop. 
Suggestions with a link?

What is the Brand/Model of your PC?

For example, HP has the service manuals on their website that explain in detail assembly/disassembly.

[4MyEgo]

On 1/18/2021 at 10:46 PM, connda said:

Yeah I do speak Thai. and for christsake, this isn't a difficult issue.  It's a fan than needs replaces or taken out and cleaned.
What's difficult is finding someone who gives a s**t.  And yes!  That in my opinion after living here 13+ years and seeing that same s**t time and time again - this "I don't give a damn" attitude with Thais - is an issue.
Dude - Mai Bpen Rai.  It is cultural.  I have found exceptions.  They are far and few between.  My wife is one of them.  She actually understands "customer service" from a Western perspective, and she's never been out of the country.

 

After living here for 5 years, I have learnt not to expect things to be the way they were home, yes, to me it's a cultural thing, it starts at school and then it's just what it is, suffice to say, I have learnt to say, it is what it is and move on, otherwise I will end up like you venting on TVF, been there, done that many times.

 

Funny thing is, I saw the wife lose it one day, you see she spent almost a decade overseas with me and saw the other side and also expects better, when she lost it, I got a hold of her took her outside and said, welcome to Thailand, that got her, cracked her up, and then she said to me, it is what is, I said, no, it is what it is ????

 

[louialive]

Why didn't you just go to the repair shop and say "My fan is noisy can you replace it please" it's not noisy all the time so when you first switch on laptop you may not hear any noise, but I am finding it so annoying it will be best to replace it as I know they don't last forever.

 

Then the nice repair person would have opened the laptop, replaced the fan job done.

 

[OneMoreFarang]

It seems to me you know what you need. A new fan. Even if you have the correct tools you still need a new fan - and exactly the correct fan.

I think it's best you bring or send your computer to an authorized service center (i.e. Lenovo) and tell them to replace the fan.

Maybe ask in advance if they have that fan in stock.

 

In the meantime what you can try is use a vacuum cleaner and hold it near the output of the hot air. And then suck the dirt out of it. If you are lucky it works - I did it before on several computers.

[BigStar]

On 1/21/2021 at 8:06 PM, 4MyEgo said:

After living here for 5 years, I have learnt not to expect things to be the way they were home, yes, to me it's a cultural thing, it starts at school and then it's just what it is, suffice to say, I have learnt to say, it is what it is and move on, otherwise I will end up like you venting on TVF, been there, done that many times.

 

So true. Back home, the schools hardly teach English, never mind foreign languages. Cross cultural communication means learning stereotypical slurs and nicknames. Small wonder a farang here finds himself after 5 years, and then after 13+ years, still unable to communicate effectively with those whom they regard, even if subconsciously, as his natural inferiors.

 

Some like yourself eventually look in the mirror to realize they're unable to unlearn the old lessons and must remain forever clueless. Others, the majority, fail to do so, fall into  paranoia and continue to reinforce a negative impression towards farangs:

 

as soon as I walk though the door they're probably thinking "farang idiot" and then I need to get.....assertive

 

with wrong responses like need to get.....assertive without knowing how properly to go about doing that for effective action.

 

And so, as you note, they're therefore doomed to whinge and bash Thais on TVF year after year. Ironically, selective perception often dictates they're unable to see how similar things back home actually were, but why point this out?

 

So in this case a simple request to replace the fan would have painlessly achieved the desired result. It would need to be a polite request, however (using Thai politness), not an arrogant demand that may result in an excuse to stop having to deal with the idiot.

 

Otherwise, youtube abounds with tutorials on dismantling and repairing laptops, probably including this very model. Should be a trivial procedure. Set of tools. ???? Oh, the drama.

[4MyEgo]

31 minutes ago, BigStar said:

So true. Back home, the schools hardly teach English, never mind foreign languages. Cross cultural communication means learning stereotypical slurs and nicknames. Small wonder a farang here finds himself after 5 years, and then after 13+ years, still unable to communicate effectively with those whom they regard, even if subconsciously, as his natural inferiors.

 

Some like yourself eventually look in the mirror to realize they're unable to unlearn the old lessons and must remain forever clueless. Others, the majority, fail to do so, fall into  paranoia and continue to reinforce a negative impression towards farangs:

 

as soon as I walk though the door they're probably thinking "farang idiot" and then I need to get.....assertive

 

with wrong responses like need to get.....assertive without knowing how properly to go about doing that for effective action.

 

And so, as you note, they're therefore doomed to whinge and bash Thais on TVF year after year. Ironically, selective perception often dictates they're unable to see how similar things back home actually were, but why point this out?

 

So in this case a simple request to replace the fan would have painlessly achieved the desired result. It would need to be a polite request, however (using Thai politness), not an arrogant demand that may result in an excuse to stop having to deal with the idiot.

 

Otherwise, youtube abounds with tutorials on dismantling and repairing laptops, probably including this very model. Should be a trivial procedure. Set of tools. ???? Oh, the drama.

 

Very nicely summed up.