Haha. This isn't exactly "charity" but..here goes.
A lady from my temple called me, as my MOTHER gave her my #. She was having problems with her computer. So I told her I would have to come and look at it, so I made an appointment to come to her house on a saturday.
My worst fears were confirmed. Home-built computer. Cheap parts, cheap motherboard, athlon (cheap), cheap everything. Windows 2000. Spyware/adware/bonzi buddy/IE toolbars/pop ups on startup out the WAZOO. This was causing many problems, and every few minutes a message would pop up asking me if I wanted to keep previous version of some files (windows file protection.) Ok..I didn't have a Win2000 CD..so I just found a way to disable the message. Problem solved. I get paid.
3 days later. Called again. The computer won't boot up. Apparently disabling that message has caused problems, and now the computer doesn't boot up. I forget the message I got, but the computer indeed would not boot up. I decided to format. She was OK with that, and since I didn't have Windows 2000...I said screw it, and loaded up Windows ME. I get paid.
1 week later. She is experiencing random lockups. I come over, and I have no idea what is locking it up. It HARD froze, out of nowhere. I updated bios, updated drivers, did everything I could think of. Seemed to work fine. I get paid.
3 days later. Same thing, locking up all the time. I confirm this, and try to fix it again. No pay this time, I refused.
I come back later sometime..I stopped keeping track of days at this point. She then offered me the information that the guy who built the computer (a friend of their son, who no longer lives in the area) told her that that Windows ME would not work, as it locked up. Of course...cheap hardware, AMD based system (not slamming AMD but the cheaper stuff always seems to be much more incompatible), it made sense. I told her I did not have Windows 2000 (I lied), and I couldn't load it on the computer. She then asked the question I was waiting for the whole time..."Would it be easier if I just bought a new computer?" THANK GOD!! I told her yes, go to Best Buy or whatever and just get a new one. She did, and I have not heard from her since.
Total hours spent at her house : 13 hours
Total cost of repairs: $270.00
Yea..I know, cheap. I didn't charge her for alot of it, I was trying to be nice. I no longer do sidework for anyone, except family and family friends.