I can't say enough about these guys. Their rates are reasonable, they communicate clearly and they're efficient! I have taken in my laptop and my Mac Pro and both times, I have been thoroughly satisfied. The prices are very reasonable and they can figure out a problem faster than I ever could. I definitely recommend them if you're having some computer issue. read more

Expert assistance, competitive prices, friendly service and timely results. I have used TechCollective for computer repair and recovery twice now and I highly recommend them for your computer needs. Taran and his crew are knowledgeable and helpful. They know what they are doing and they do it well! read more

First, thank you Yelpers for showing me the way! These guys are GREAT! Repairing a computer is just as nerve-racking as going taking your car to the shop. Are they going to fix the problem? screw me over? sell me something that I really don't need? Honestly the minute I walked into the shop, I knew these "techies" were legit. My problem: my computer was shutting off without warning and running extremely slow. I had tried to troubleshoot as much as possible to no avail. My guess was overheating. Billy (their hardware guy) took my computer apart and cleaned the heat sync and reapplied thermal grease. Yes, lots of cat hair. Then Yochai gave it a tune-up. Poor guy was banging his head against the wall trying to figure out why it was running so slow. But he wouldn't give it back to me without solving the problem. Hours of frustration later and me chilling with them on a Friday night, PROBLEM SOLVED! I will totally come back here for an OS update to Windows 7. I have Vista right now and it's crap. The guys are honest, hard working, knowledgeable, trustworthy!! Thanks guys. You rock. read more

TechCollective did a really good job with getting my data out from my dead laptop. My boyfriend helped me take my laptop in & they checked my drive & then gave him the pricing. They gave him back my laptop & they were fine with us bringing it back about a week after. My boyfriend dropped off my laptop & they were pretty much done transferring out my files in one day, we couldn't make it though so they were fine with holding my hard drive for a few days & then go in to let them put everything in an external. After they were done, they let us view the files in the hard drive to make sure ALL my files were in there & none of them were left out. It was about $70, which is pretty worth it compared to other places I have checked and it was for the advanced data recovery because there were some damages on my hard drive. Just bring in an external to have your files transferred in & they cover you for 30 days after you leave so if you find any missing files, just go back! The people at TechCollective are very knowledgeable compared to Geek Squad. When my boyfriend took in my laptop, they told him that my whole motherboard was dead while when we took it to Geek Squad, they said "oh, only the fan isn't working, we don't know why though". Definitely recommend! read more

So its all been said already but yea this place is great. I dont know shit about computers other than looking up e mail and porn, so when I had a problem I went to best buy they wanted 400 bucks and they were just gunna erase everything and put it back to factory settings. Took it these guys and they said 100 bucks and you wont loose anything. I dropped it off and went to work. when i came back a few days later it was fixed. I payed cash to keep uncle sam out of it and the computer works fine. So if your a regular person than this is the computer shop to use. Thanks Oh side story when I took it to best buy they hooked it up to their monitors up front and the first thing that came up was some sweet porn. the geek squad tech froze and just staired for like a minuite. read more

Wow. Just Wow. Took my laptop here based on all the other glowing raves about this place and , boy howdy, did my fellow Yelpers get it right. These guys are amazing. Within seconds of walking in the door I was greeted by the ultra-friendly Matt who, I later discovered, was actually going on his lunch break but instead sized up my situation and decided to help me out. My problem was pretty simple, swap out a dysfunctional DVD drive with an identical one from another laptop. Matt sat down and knocked it out in 15 minutes while gladly answering every other question I could bounce off of him. I felt so good about it that I started asking about other services and had my RAM upgraded as well. All in under a half an hour and just a hair over a hundred bucks. My laptop runs like a dream and I didn't have to break the bank while waiting a week to get it back. These guys are the real deal. If you take your computer anywhere else you're NUTS! NUTS I TELL YOU!!! read more

Took my PC here a long while ago to get my fried HP some straightening out. The location has loads of available street parking and a great cone-drip coffee place around the corner to grab a drink while the dudes are diagnosing your machine. Before I agreed to have them repair my laptop, I did some research on their pricing for the part they said had to be ordered. Their quoted price was actually less than what I could find at other reputable vendors and the price of labor was not too high, so I said A-ok! Before I left, I was given some advice on how to prevent future problems. Since then, compy has been chugging along beautifully. Thanks Guys :) read more

Okay, so, I am the opposite of a tech geek. I mean, I am completely dependent upon my technology, but don't ask me what to do when a computer behaves badly. Slamming the door and crying had no effect. Now I know exactly what to do. Bring it to these guys. We have a small biz and, thank goodness, thanks to these guys, we have an IT department:) Full disclaimer-we bring our stuff to them, they have never come to us, but, it's a tower or a laptop, it's manageable. read more

They tell you to stay on the line, but never pick up the phone. Perhaps my expectations of a tech company are to high. Or they no longer exist. read more

2 laptop batteries, 2 service charges, a $350 bill, and a still unfixed laptop. This has been my situation over the past 2 months. Laptop trauma: I knew my comp. was not totally broken but it wouldn't charge so I assumed it was the battery and the repair stored agreed...WRONG. Next store "oh Miss it's definitely your battery you need a higher quality one" okay just freaking fix the thing please, I need to YELP now! Still not fixed. Alright, so now I am fired up and 100% sure it's not my battery. Enter scene: Tech Collective. Called and described my situation and begged them to help me with this minor problem that had now turned into a debacle. Billy was so friendly and told me to bring my comp in that day, but they closed at 6pm, and I don't get off work until at least 6pm.....darn it! No worries, Billy came to my office and picked my computer up...AWESOME x1million thanks! By the next day he was like it's not the battery, you just need a new power cord (so simple), I will call Dell and it will be here the beginning of next week. Thank you for finally fixing my stupid minuscule problem. Oh, and the service fee was only $20. read more

Like other fellow Yelpers, I took my old laptop to these guys and I have to say that they are a great group of guys! I gave my sister my old laptop before I moved so she could use it for homework and personal use. She tried downloading a homework assignment when she got this error that kept popping up every time she clicked on something. She looked up TechCollective on Yelp and I drove her to have it fixed. Matt helped us with our issue and was really nice in explaining what he or the other techs were going to do. I started asking him questions about what good programs we should install for viruses, spyware, etc. He gave us several suggestions and I went home and downloaded them onto my new laptop. My sister picked up the laptop today and it runs great! These guys know their sh!t and they're so awesome and nice. My sister and I agreed that if we had to bring in our laptops or computers anywhere, we'd bring it to TechCollective. Go see these guys, they're great! =) Thanks again for your help guys! read more

I called and emailed several times, no response. All of their reviews are older... is this business even still around??

Ok, looks like TechCollective is going to be THE ONE that deflowers me (earns my first ever post)... I was looking around for some laptop help and happened to see the very positive reviews for TechCollective on here. Boy, you weren't kidding!!! This firm truly rocks!!! If I could, I would give them even more stars. All of my friends and family, including my staff, know that I am one tough grader, so for me to want to even take the time during down time to write a post about a company is saying something. I deal with salespeople all day and I know what really good service is. TechCollective truly gets it and some. People, this is a company that just took a $100 from my wallet and I couldn't be happier!!! The staff was incredibly friendly, did not talk down to me, took the time to explain what was going on and even performed extra duties since they had the time. Wow. Actually, the pricing was cheap considering they didn't charge me for labor. Double wow. I didn't even mind having to feed the meter... I was told this place can be very busy but if you really need help with your computer and you are worried about the integrity of some companies out there give TechCollective a try. You truly will not be disappointed!!! I have been blessed to have a great wife, a great mechanic, a great tax man, a great home contractor and now a great computer resource. I can go now... read more

Great service, quick delivery, good prices. We worked with Ricky, he was very competent and friendly. Got the lap top back within 5 hours! Plus, he put free software on that we didn't have and didn't know about. Just great. read more

Absolutely great service from the moment we called them on the phone. We were in panic mode- without any IT services and all 5 of our emails were down. There were tears and a few screams from the staff... then we called TechCollective and spoke to Brian. This was at 10am. Brian had a busy day, but took 3 hours at 2p to come save us. He fixed everything, we are up and running and we are creating a plan so that we're never in this predicament again. Thank you so much! The best. read more

These are computer folks who don't snicker at you for not speaking their language. Who don't treat you like a moron for needing to do business with them. Good people. Good work. read more

Heh, it's almost funny that these guys get all five star reviews, but they are deserved in this case. I've been meaning to add my review since I saw them last June, when they build a computer for me, but I kept forgetting. My apologies to Tech Collective. I needed a new computer to run Photoshop, which is a real memory hog. Because of that I determined I needed a desktop that had to run 64bit Vista (this was pre-Windows 7), which I was a bit apprehensive about. They met with me and helped me figure out what components to purchase. They gave me a written estimate for the parts and work. In this case I elected to buy the parts myself locally at Central Computer, and was able to do it with the parts list they provided me. (They would have been just as happy to source those parts themselves, BTW.) Tech Collective did a wonderful job installing both the hardware and software. In particular, I was impressed that Billy took extra time and care to do a wonderful job with the cables to insure the best airflow. He could have cut some corners, but he didn't and built the machine with the same care he would have used had it been his own. They only charged a nominal fee to build the box for me. It works great, and I couldn't be happier with it. I'm sure I saved $600 or $700 versus an Apple workstation, which wouldn't have had the same amount of memory (12GB) or hard drives (4) I needed. My other alternative was Dell, but I had gotten so fed up with their lowered service standards over the last few years I really didn't want to go there again. I'm so happy I didn't. There's no way they could come close to giving me the service I know I'll get from TC if/when anything goes wrong. I got exactly the case, number and type of drives, memory, etc. that I needed. Possibly the best part of having them build the machine for me was the absence of any bloatware that a bunch of marketing nerds would have put on the box had I gotten it from Dell or some other provider. That is just so great, LOL. The staff there was always friendly, helpful and very knowledgeable. If anyone is considering getting a new desktop on-line, I couldn't stress more emphatically that TC would be a much better choice. read more

Wow, I am highly impressed with the service and timely manner in which these guys serviced my laptop! I will definitely go here again, hopefully I won't have to soon :) I upgraded my hard drive to a larger capacity and then to ease with the transition they recommended running a program called Migration Assist which rolls over all your info and software running on the old hard drive (mine was in working order so it worked seamlessly). This was amazing, considering I could find 2 out of the 20 software CDs I needed! I recommend them completely from my first experience. read more

I visited these guys after reading about them on Yelp when my computer conked out over the holidays. Having never backed up any of the 10-years-worth of data on my computer I was desperate to get it fixed. Yohan (I believe) whom I saw was totally great. He not only explained to me exactly what was wrong in non-geek terms, he was able to rescue all my data, fully explained all my options (and subsequent pricing) and gave me some great advice on what open-source software to put on my computer. The office is a ramshackle collection of second-hand furniture and a total lack of decor, but the guys who work there are honest, helpful, and know their stuff. I'd go back in an instant. read more

First let me say that my PC is 8 years old. No one rolled their eyes about that. My touch pad had stopped working correctly, so I brought it in. I told them I was just trying to make this old laptop last a few more months until I got a new one. They disabled the touch pad and tested the laptop with a mouse. It was all fine thereafter. They did the work right there as my daughter twirled around the room. They were efficient, helpful, affordable, and understanding about a 7 year moving around their workspace. I did not expect to get the computer fixed on the spot. I will go here with any problems with this computer or any other computer. read more

TechCollective was very responsive on my request to schedule an appointment to evaluate my external hard disk drive which ceased to work. I was expecting to drop it off and wait for their assessment and estimate, but to my surprise I was provided with an assessment and since they had the part to fix the problem, they repaired while I waited.....a whole 15 minutes. It was a simple fix, but based on their customer service and knowledge, they would be my first choice to drop off retrieving data on a crashed drive or any other repairs. read more

I had a great experience here with Yochai. I emailed him franticly the night a system on my laptop failed. He emailed me back promptly and even called me the next day to follow up. When I brought in my computer he was up front with me about how much the work could cost and how long it might take. Being in Graduate school I was uneasy about being away from my computer even for the short time he estimated. However, four hours after I left the office he called and told me I could come pick it up. It's been working like new ever since. The price was so reasonable and I appreciated how the problem was explained to me in comprehensible terms. The Tech Collective office is tucked away above the Mission Market, like a hidden treasure! read more

Affordable. Knowledgeable. Local. It's one thing to get your computer repaired successfully, and another to enjoy hanging out with the techs while they do it. My failing hard drive was diagnosed and replaced within 20 minutes. These guys love what they do and are good at it! read more

Tripping over the charging cord to my Sony Vaio. I yanked the charging receptacle out from the computer. I panicked! ,called around for help and the TechCollective said to bring it by and they'll have their tech pro, Tom, take a look at it. I drove there, parked in front, Tom was called out and he sat and examined the computer, checked out its functions and said no serious damage done, all functions are operating. He said Super glue the receptacle back in place and you're good to go.! Excellent service and very professional. Thank you TechCollective!! read more

My imac needed a new HD and an OS install. I originally emailed Thomas 7 months ago inquiring about pricing, etc. and he was very prompt in getting back to me with pricing and answers to my questions. I ended up delaying my repair until Feb, so I e-mailed Thomas again and he was just as prompt getting back to me as he was the first time. Dropped off my imac, got it back in a few days, he took care of ordering a new 3TB HD as well. i would highly recommend these guys for any computer repair needs. read more

Quick service, reasonable rates, friendly staff. I had a hard drive that I couldnt retrieve data from. They managed to recover all my data and stored it on a new portable hard drive in a short time frame. I would definitely use them again. read more

First off i wanted to mention I am not affiliated with these guys and the reason i went to see them is because i read the yelp reviews. I was about to take my 30 inch Samsung monitor for diagnostics to GeekSquad, at the Geary Best Buy... I was almost at the door and I said to myself: things seemed a bit weird over there when i went in person to ask them a question, the guy didn't seem to pay attention to what I was saying ...he first told me they need to ship it to a repair facility, and I had to repeat to him I just need the monitor checked because it's in warranty and came back from warranty service unrepaired.. The geek squad guy finally answered me that I could bring the monitor for diagnostics and it will cost me 70 dollars. Ouch. Just to prove that it's indeed broken. More pain. So I yelped the GeekSquad and up came TWO stars so I decided to go with the best reviewed service in town - I first called Peter's PC Repair and they had me leave a message so I finally called TechCollective guys. The guys answered the phone and told me to bring it in right away - at no cost. I took my giant monitor to the mission and all took 5 minutes, the guys were absolutely amazing - competent, friendly and just plain cool San Francisco crowd. They refused to take my money. What can I say, 5 starz and i am taking my next pc need to the TechCollective. read more

The guys at TechCollective totally ROCK! One day one of our old Dell computers (6 year old Dell Dimension desktop running XP) won't turn on. Push the button and the keyboard lights go on, but no boot. I'm no It or tech guy, so I ask an It guy and he doesn't repair hardware. Tells me to take it to the Geek Squad. Yeah, right! I look on Yelp and see 5 stars for TechCollective as reliable and reasonable. Conveniently located in the heart of the Mission, I drop in and Johanas tells me to bring the Dell in. He opens it up and goes through a systematic diagnostic sequence and in 5 minutes finds it's a power supply problem. Get this- he has a power supply for the old machine and hooks it up on the spot. As good as new! He even ran a diagnostic on the hard drive to make sure bit was OK. 40 bucks for the power supply and 35 to install and I'm up and running in a half hour. Awesome. read more

Computer failures and nervous breakdowns tend to come in pairs. Why? Well, we're all idiots so no one backs any of their shit up and WIndows has a preternatural ability to fail at PRECISELY the WORST moment. No Matter. The Tech Collective guys have got you covered. They won't make you feel like an idiot, even though you are. They'll explain what's going on clearly- even if you don't speak computer. They are well equiped to handle panic and can triage pretty fast (i.e. get your files off the crazy machine) in an emergency. and also - they're very reasonably priced. read more

These guys don't want your business! And trust me, that's the sign of my kind of repairshop. I came in with a broken fan for my T43 laptop. i knew it was broken because for the last 6 months my computer sounded like a small plane trying to take off... then finally, i went to turn on the laptop and a few seconds into the startup, the screen goes black and says, "fan error." I did a little research online and sure enough, T43's tend to have faulty fans that need replacement. So I brought in the laptop expecting that i'd have to take a number, wait to be seen, find out that it'll be another week before they can order the part, get it shipped, yada yada yada. Instead, Billy, very friendly co-founder and only employee in the shop, paused what he was working on in order to welcome me and talk through my case. He popped open the laptop and tried the simple solution... de-dusting the fan with compressed air. and low and behold.... PROBLEM SOLVED!!! not content to fix something only to let me go home and have it break down one more time... he had me go through the startup/shotdown 2 more times to make sure. Yep! definitely fixed. So at first i thought, damn, i can't post this review because then i look like an idiot. Well, i guess i felt a moral obligation to share the experience. Saved me ~$65 for the additional labor and part order and that could've been money in their pocket. But they've got too much biz already to worry about milking customers for extra cash. SF Dentists... take heed!! Their location isn't in the safest part of town... but i hear they are in the process of looking for a new location with a bit more room. Hope you stay virus free!!! read more

These guys are AWESOME. My laptop suddenly started acting up and I thought it was possibly a virus. I found these guy on Yelp and saw how highly rated they were and stopped in to drop off my computer, they ran a Virus check on my computer and cleaned it up for me which was $80 and got it all done in about three hours. My computer came back fully functioning but then had another strange problem so I took it back and they worked on it for over a week before figuring out the problem and they only charged me for one hour of time, $60 even though they spent all week on it and way more than an hour of time!! They are only open from Monday through Friday, 9-6 but I was able to pick up my computer on a Saturday easily by coordinating with their on-call guy who works on the weekend. They are very friendly and responsive and I recommend them for all your computer or tech needs. read more

Jason at Tech Collective is the BEST person to call when your computer has a problem . He works on weekends, KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING, is priced reasonably and makes house calls too. I have had Jason save my computers a couple of times now...puts Dell tech support to shame. The guy is just brilliant. read more

This place is "as good as it gets" to quote the yelp rating scale! Yochai is top notch! He knows his stuff when it comes to computers. Billy is enthusiastic and extremely helpful in all the good ways. They fixed my laptop... I had a black screen computer error message -- no bootable device found. My computer was on a loop and couldn't find the hard drive. It turns out the hard drive crashed and luckily I had backed up the drive 2 months before this event. Yochai tried to salvage the drive but said he wasn't able to retrieve the data but could recommend some people who might be able to. He was honest and forthright. He let me know it would be expensive. I opted out of that and instead, he installed an new upgraded hard drive with 160 gigs and - re-installed my operating platform and software for $180. The price of the hard drive was $80, $20 to reinstall my operating system and the remaining $80 was labor. By the way, they didn't tax the labor. These guys are really fair and good. I highly recommend them. They rule! I am completely happy with them and my computer has been salvaged and works wonderfully! FYI... it's a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop and evidently hard drive failures is a common occurrence with this model... so back up your important stuff. read more

This place is the shit. One of the guys..darn me for forgetting his name, fixed my computer in 15minutes with minimal service charge. So happy! He was friendly and he was down to earth. This nasty ole blue error screen popped up whenever I went into Safe Mode or logged on. I hate you error screen. It was a corrupted memory card that was the problem. read more

I found this business via Yelp. While there, I heard at least 6 other customers say they found it on Yelp, too. This is a business that deserves to thrive, and if Yelp helps, I am very glad to write my first review here in support of Tech Collective. I had a complete hard drive failure. Though it was not long since my last back-up of data for our small not-for-profit, several very important emails and perhaps 6 hours of work were lost. In seacrhing the web for data retrieval services, I was astonished at the high costs. Then I notice the Yelp rating for this worker owned business. Very reasonable rates that made it worthwhile for a try at retreival. I dealt with four different techs there over the period of the week they had my hard drive. They were patient, not the least condescending, straight forward and very honest every step of the way. They explained the choices available to me at each point, too. In the end they were able to retrieve an image of my mechanically useless hard drive and to transfer it over a couple of days to a new hard drive. The cost was very, very reasonable. I realized a few days in that even if it turned out that they could not get my data back, that I trusted them and would trust them to help me get started with a new "clean install" on a new drive. 5 stars only because I cannot give 6. read more

Only days after solving one problem, I was calling TechCollective again with a more serious one after a virus attack and the dreaded blue screen of death appeared repeatedly. I took in my laptop, and it was diagnosed as having a failing hard drive. I was facing repair costs for recovery and assorted other costs which added up to more than the price of a new computer to replace my 5-year old laptop with all the new technology and a new warranty. One of the advantages of TechCollective was that I could pick their collective brains about what to do and where to go. Their recommendations made sense based on my situation. Armed with a list of options, I was able to purchase a new computer with confidence and was back in their office in less than two hours with a new Asus laptop ready to have the data transferred from my failing hard drive to the new laptop. I was given an option to recover data in a safer mode, but chose the much cheaper but riskier transfer with the appropriate warnings of failure. A less reputable outfit would probably not have been so honest and pushed me to the more expensive route. I greatly appreciated the honest advice that themore expensive route was probably not worth the expense for what I was trying to save. That was two days ago, and now I am writing this on my new laptop with all the data I wanted saved having been safely transferred and made accessible. The old hard drive survived the risky operation, though still failing. However, it may be useful as a backup computer for awhile. I learned long ago that one should find the best experts one can find and follow their recommendations and advice. I bow to expertise if I sense the diagnosis is correct and I am listened to carefully. Such was the case here. With fully informed consent as to the risks and benefits,, the patient underwent a risky procedure and survived at minimum expense. Disaster was averted. It will take time to see how complete the recovery is going to be, but the patients are doing well and we are back online in much better condition that when we went into the shop. I am very happy with my new Asus and would have never considered this brand had I not had the collective expertise to rely on. Once again, they lived up to their Five Star Rating. What seemed a misfortune turned into the fortune of encountering a nice group of techs who know what they are doing and how to do it with respect and consideration. read more

Alright its about time I review these guys. Even though this all took place last year, I'd say around November. Basically my very old yet still fully functioning and dependable HP was the victim of one of those black outs that were going on during that time. I was not able to turn on my computer... AT ALL! I did a little research to see if it was something I would be able to fix. Of course, I found out, short of a large likelihood of completely fucking up my computer, I hopped up on here. What did I find? TechCollective! Christ Almighty!!! Look at these reviews!! These guys gotta be the truth yo!!! So I took my tower to them, (Damn, wish I remembered one dude's name) anyways this guy was hella cool and very helpful. Called me for updates like when the part came in, he'd let me know if any changes arose he'd call me to see if I wanted to go through with them, and just overall great customer service! Not to mention, the price! When I told people about the price they flipped out because compared to Geek Squad!?! Amazing. Great job there! 5 Stars are very much well deserved and then some with these guys. I recommend these guys to any and everyone for their computer repair needs. read more

Long story short, an IT acquaintance who works for a very prestigious college suggested I change ALL of my system's permissions because my Excel wasn't working. After nothing else worked, I naively took her advice, which resulted in my Macbook not even turning on. It's nerve-wracking to bring your computer into a shop where they could tell you anything. But I preferred to support local, rather than the Apple giant. TechCollective had great reviews, and for good reason! Not only did they restore my settings to the best of their ability, but they also fixed my Excel problem! All for a great price. The only reason for 4, rather than 5 stars is due to the amount of time it took to fix my laptop. Luckily I had a backup, so this wasn't a huge deal. I did, however, have to go back several times before the issue was fixed. I'm sure if I told them I needed the computer ASAP, they wouldv'e ensured I had it faster. One of the great aspects of TechCollective is that you are a client with a face and name, not just another ticket number. I never had to wait on hold when I called and the guys were always friendly. I would definitely bring my laptop back in if it experienced other problems (knock on wood). Thanks guys! Hope you enjoyed the cookies :) read more

I had simple requirements in my seach for PC repair.... 1) listen to my needs (I didn't want to reinstall all my software); 2) don't keep my laptop very long as I am not sure I can live without it; and 3) don't charge me an arm and a leg. Mission accomplished (and right on Mission Street too! ;-) -- Jason listened to me, gave my ThinkPad a LONG overdue tune up, had it back to me in less than 24 hours and only charged me $100. I HAVE FOUND MY IDEAL TECH SERVICE! HOORAY! PS: Thank you, Yelpers, for all your previous postings or I may never have found TechCollective! read more

I read about these guys on Yelp and felt encouraged to try to fix the snarly old laptop I bought on Craiglist that never really worked right. (I justed really wanted an itunes hard drive with keys). I was worried that I would end up having that same old aggravating conversation that seems so typical of tech these days. You know, the one where you realize that the price of fixing whatever your old tech is would equal (but not quite...) to the cost of a new one. I wanted to avoid the rabbit hole that new tech gets you into -- the buying of all the accessories, software, etc. and save myself from discarding what should be a perfectly good tool for another little while. The TechCollective guys were totally helpful -- the one guy that helped me (I am so sorry I don't remember your name) called me multiple times to help me find a time to bring the computer by the office -- even offered to pick it up at mine, was really supportive -- had a laptop exactly like mine at home, knew of it's temperment and propensity to have fan belt problems, etc. etc. He also had spare parts he was willing to give me, etc. etc. Turns out that it wasn't really a belt problem. INstead, the entire inside was gunked up with brown fuzz/fur that was probably the legacy of the very SERIOUS cigarette smoking habit of the previous owner. the bag reeked so much I tossed it. so that was all cleaned up -- the entire insides swept clean and restored to pristine health. checked all over inside and out. then all of that cost me somewhere in neighborhood of $100 -- I can't even remember it was such a fair price -- alot less that I was willing to pay and even somewhat surprisingly low for all of the calls to manage me bringing it in on top of the cleaning and testing. I just felt so grateful that a) the problem was fixed,, b) it didn't cost an arm and a leg and c) that I didn't have one of those heartburn, I really hate the service industry moments. these guys are human and professional -- that's awesome. read more