Computer Assemblers/Technicians.....which toolkit did you purchase?

[slicksilver]

I'm looking out for a new toolkit for my computer ......which one should I get? I know the basic screwdrivers are enough...but then I'm looking for a more complete solution.........for ex. I should be able to open up a HDD or Writer etc.....Is there any specific toolkit? I haven't seen any on newegg.com or googlegear.com.....

any suggestions?

Thanks

Raj

 

[jaeger66]

Originally posted by: rajkanneganti
I'm looking out for a new toolkit for my computer ......which one should I get? I know the basic screwdrivers are enough...but then I'm looking for a more complete solution.........for ex. I should be able to open up a HDD or Writer etc.....Is there any specific toolkit? I haven't seen any on newegg.com or googlegear.com.....

any suggestions?

Thanks

Raj

Just lots of screwdrivers, wrist strap, screws/bag o' hardware, and maybe a little grabber thing to retrieve tiny parts dropped into the case. And why are you opening up hard drives? Do you have a clean room in your house?

 

[slicksilver]

nope i dont....just want to buy them all since it will be a one time thingy.....moreover, maybe I could try changing the PCB of my old HDD and try swapping it with a new similar HDD and see if it works.......now most of you may wonder why all the trouble of opening it up and changing the PCB......the reason is being a student I simply cant afford 500 + $$ for data recovery.

Raj

 

[YodasBrains]

Have you tried any programs available online yet? I tried this (freeware)
PC Inspector File Recovery
And got back most of the files i thought were lost off a crashed hd. And this is after I tried other techniques like the whole put it in the freezer. One thing to note if you try it is recover any important files by themselves instead of recovering a whole folder or drive, I think you will get better results that way. hope that helps.

 

[slicksilver]

nope no point...its physical damage for sure ..coz. along with it my ECS K7S5A got fried......the disk just refuses to detect in windows

Raj

 

[godmare]

Anybody remember that homemade clean room some guy made with an aquarium and a filter? I think it was posted on AT but I can't find it....

 

[Mr N8]

Sometimes removeable HDD Racks are good for data recovery. Does the drive spin up at all? If so, look at getting a removeable rack, and installing the hard drive in that. In my experience, this has been a cheaper solution for a lot of people.

 

[mrzed]

If the drive does not power up at all, it is probably a problem on the PCB. Same thing happened to me when a PSU went down. I replaced the PCB with one from an identical model, and it worked fine. If it spins, it's more likely a physical disk problem, and can't be fixed this way.

What I did was hold the disk in my hand while powering up the system. This way, even with a quiet drive, you can feel if anything is happening.

 

[RaiderJ]

I've never been impressed by all those expensive toolkits, they seem to have very cheap tools, and not that many of them. Even if you only need some tools for a one-time thing, I think you are better off buying some good ones, you WILL use them again.

Some of my favorites for the computer:
Racheting driver w/ a magnetic tip (if getting a small magnet near your drive doesn't freak you out)
Set of precision screwdrivers
Assorted set of bits for the driver, should include torx bits, and other obscure tips
Needlenose
Compressed air

 

[human2k]

The $10 from svc.com, works great!

 

[jackschmittusa]

I bought an aluminum case with tool panels years ago, and have filled it piecemeal, changing some tools and parts over the years. I use it for a field service case. Here are some of the things in it: screwdrivers (all tips mag) incl. offset and 1" long, hemostats, long nosed pliers, nippers, pickup tool, tape measure, multi-meter, sm. vise grips, nut drivers, soldering iron, wire stripper, set of gasket picks, parts (power, data, cd, phone cables, jumpers, screws, drive adpt. standoffs, i/o blanks, etc.) , supplies (thermal paste, batteries, solder, elec, tape), boot disks, bootable utilities, Sharpie markers, notepad, empty parts box (Altoids tin). I also have chip pullers, inserters, pin straightners and odd stuff like that. Carring the case around helps keep me in shape too!

 

[thorin]

1) Any mutlihead screw driver (the ones that take the hex bits) [the magnet is irrelevant].
2) Any set of jewellers screw drivers.
3) Any set of Torx drivers (including everything down to T5 ... if you really plan to rip HDs apart).
4) Any (non-dispossable) antistatic strap (though I hardly ever use mine).

Thorin

 

[Electric Amish]

I use a screwdriver w/ a magnetic head.

That's all I need.


There's no need to open HD's.

amish

 

[Remedy]

Judging from some of the responses here. I can see a few members here don't actually work on PC's as a job. I'll give a small list of my tools;


My Pro kit

VOM/DMM
Small (1") paintbrush (for cleaning things.)
Bottle of isopropyl. 70%
Box of KemWipes.
Small vice grips.
Nutdrivers.
Cables, all sorts.
Large and small jumpers.
Small mirror flexy-mounted on a stick.
Magnifying glass.
Box of formatted floppies & labels & pen.
Spare HD drives.
Spare CDwriter
Spare Floppy drives
Spare ATA cables
Spare PS/2 mice
USB/ps2 coverter.
Compressed AIR can.
PartitionMagic boot disk
Dos 6.22 boot disk
Drive Image boot disk
Crossover network cable
10/100 Cat5 cable max 30FT
CableTester
RS-232 Pin Extractor
Telephone Line Tester
DB-25 Gender Changers
Cheap ATA 66 controller
Parallel Port PCI adapter
AT Power Supply
AT to ATX PSU converter
ATX power supply
CD wallet
Extra Small and Big Jumpers
labelmaker
Basic Network LAN kit
Gender Changers
Heavy Duty grade 50FT Extention cord.
Spare SiMMs,DIMMS,EDO modules
Surge Supressor/Protector
Cordless Screwdriver
Cordless Dremel
Spare Cmos batteries
ISA Video card
Internal/External 56k Modem/with your own account
Bags of screws
Static Mat
Spare 800MB+ HD with Win95/98/NT drivers
Anti Virus Disk
USB&firewire card
4Port Net hub
ISA network card/modem
Win2k/XP resource book kit
Software Utilites CD(winzip,adobe acrobat,memtest,prime95 etc)
Mini PS2 keyboard.
Disk drive cleaning kits
2port KVM
AC outlet tester
wd40 spray
undelete 3.0 software
Micro/Flex ATX Pentium3 VIA system with ISA/PCI/AGP slot(fits inside a Duffle Bag.)
13inch Micron CRT monitor
Small headphones
Texas Instruments Voyage 200 calculator
Solder Rework kit.
Digital Measurement tool

I have more, but not much help to the thread. Sorry for the OT.

 

[Remedy]

I always thought jewelers kits were best for HD's? Atleast I thought so.

 

[SpeedFreak03]

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
Judging from some of the responses here. I can see a few members here don't actually work on PC's as a job. I'll give a small list of my tools;


My Pro kit

VOM/DMM
Small (1") paintbrush (for cleaning things.)
Bottle of isopropyl. 70%
Box of KemWipes.
Small vice grips.
Nutdrivers.
Cables, all sorts.
Large and small jumpers.
Small mirror flexy-mounted on a stick.
Magnifying glass.
Box of formatted floppies & labels & pen.
Spare HD drives.
Spare CDwriter
Spare Floppy drives
Spare ATA cables
Spare PS/2 mice
USB/ps2 coverter.
Compressed AIR can.
PartitionMagic boot disk
Dos 6.22 boot disk
Drive Image boot disk
Crossover network cable
10/100 Cat5 cable max 30FT
CableTester
RS-232 Pin Extractor
Telephone Line Tester
DB-25 Gender Changers
Cheap ATA 66 controller
Parallel Port PCI adapter
AT Power Supply
AT to ATX PSU converter
ATX power supply
CD wallet
Extra Small and Big Jumpers
labelmaker
Basic Network LAN kit
Gender Changers
Heavy Duty grade 50FT Extention cord.
Spare SiMMs,DIMMS,EDO modules
Surge Supressor/Protector
Cordless Screwdriver
Cordless Dremel
Spare Cmos batteries
ISA Video card
Internal/External 56k Modem/with your own account
Bags of screws
Static Mat
Spare 800MB+ HD with Win95/98/NT drivers
Anti Virus Disk
USB&firewire card
4Port Net hub
ISA network card/modem
Win2k/XP resource book kit
Software Utilites CD(winzip,adobe acrobat,memtest,prime95 etc)
Mini PS2 keyboard.
Disk drive cleaning kits
2port KVM
AC outlet tester
wd40 spray
undelete 3.0 software
Micro/Flex ATX Pentium3 VIA system with ISA/PCI/AGP slot(fits inside a Duffle Bag.)
13inch Micron CRT monitor
Small headphones
Texas Instruments Voyage 200 calculator
Solder Rework kit.
Digital Measurement tool

I have more, but not much help to the thread. Sorry for the OT.

That's quite a collection!

 

[thorin]

Heh ReMeDy{WcS} I think most of us were simply quoting the stuff we use at home or take to a friends or family members house. Not everything we've got collected in our shop that we "may" need some day to reserect some system that's been in a fire. Geez I coulda listed a million extra components that I have lying around my shop too, and all my software etc...... But I don't think that's really what the original request was looking for.........

Thorin

 

[loafbred]

I just work on mine and a couple of friend's and relative's, but I thought of a couple of more spare tools and parts which come in handy.

Some Super Glue which actually dispenses.

A 60mm and 80mm fan.

Some minimum 400 grit sandpaper.

3 to 4 pin and 4 to 3 pin fan adapters.

A small active cooler for video cards and chipsets.

Thermal epoxy and/or thermal tape.

Zip ties.

Small guage, insulated solid core copper wire.

A couple of coat-hangers for whatever you can think of.

Aluminum duct tape.

 

[Remedy]

Thanks Thorin. You didn't have to be so mean! I can take a hint.

 

[Zepper]

They have excellent tech tools at Sears/Craftsman. I use their tech screwdrivers and nutdrivers and mini pliers and cutters. Also they have a B&D cordless screwdriver at Sears w/ the Craftsman name on it that is great - converts from straight to pistol and has a torque clutch for safety.
Besides most of RMD's stuff:
Contact cleaner (Caig Labs Pro Gold)
Mini Hot Glue gun w/ dual temps.
For opening drives, you will need small Torx (5-9) and some are starting to use security fasterners - you can get a block of security bits to fit most security screws (some are like torx w/ a little pin in the middle).
.bh.
:beer: time!

 

[thorin]

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
Thanks Thorin. You didn't have to be so mean! I can take a hint.

Uh dude I wasn't mean at all

Thorin

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: godmare
Anybody remember that homemade clean room some guy made with an aquarium and a filter? I think it was posted on AT but I can't find it....

i remember that. that was hardcore

 

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: loafbred
I just work on mine and a couple of friend's and relative's, but I thought of a couple of more spare tools and parts which come in handy.

Some Super Glue which actually dispenses.

A 60mm and 80mm fan.

Some minimum 400 grit sandpaper.

3 to 4 pin and 4 to 3 pin fan adapters.

A small active cooler for video cards and chipsets.

Thermal epoxy and/or thermal tape.

Zip ties.

Small guage, insulated solid core copper wire.

A couple of coat-hangers for whatever you can think of.

Aluminum duct tape.

you forgot a hooker

 

[Budman]

All you really need to assemble a pc is a philips screwdriver.

 

[Remedy]

Originally posted by: thorin

Originally posted by: ReMeDy{WcS}
Thanks Thorin. You didn't have to be so mean! I can take a hint.

Uh dude I wasn't mean at all

Thorin

It was a joke. I'm so broke I couldn't afford a smile.