Sim Sissy ][ - Pt. 05

To my dear readers. A slow piece, no excitement here, but it is a part of the story. the development for Sim Sissy. I won't be mad or disappointed if you skip it. Though I hope you will read and enjoy it. --------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday.

When I arrived at A.C.S., Amalia's Cleaning Services, I looked at the office building. It was pretty old, a big building stood directly attached to it, I guessed this was where all the laundry was cleaned. I stepped in and introduced myself, I was forwarded to an office, I knocked and a stern 'Enter' was commanded. I opened the door.

"Aha, you must be Johan. I was told about you by one of my employees, you're some IT-wizard?"

"Oh, wizard, well, not sure about that but I do know my IT. I have my own company and I clean and boost PC's. I maintain some small networks and I assist in buying new equipment and install them., miss? "

"Miss Amalia, just call me Miss Amalia, I like directness. Good, now don't expect some high end server-farm here, we run with desktops, our accounting software is in the cloud and there's an old warehouse-system that helps us trace all the laundry. It's old but it works. I'm not going to let someone touch that, it has its own service-contract.

Now, I've got this supposedly powerful beast here under my desk, but the only thing I experience is a lot of heat and noise. So, if you can tame this beast down there, make it docile and purr like a kitty, then we can talk about a job-assignment."

With those words she stepped away from her desk and motioned me towards it. On her desk was an old small 17 inch flatscreen and under her desk was a self built minitower-pc dating at least seven years ago. It ran Windows 10 and indeed, it was noisy, moving a lot of hot air. A good thing I had brought my kit with me.

"Okay, is everything saved, can I shut it down?"

"Oh I'll check."

She moved the mouse, the system wasn't locked. Outlook was opened and some websites about Italian vacation resorts and hot-tubs were opened. She closed the windows and shut down the PC.

I ducked back under the desk, disconnected the cables and was already seeing lots of dust clogged in the system. I moved the PC away under the desk, took my bag and folded open the electrostatic sheet and placed it on the table in the room. Next I placed the desktop on it and used my screwdriver to open it, carefully. I expected a lot of dust to spill out.

With a plastic roller I collected all the dust bunnies inside it. Next I took the little vacuum I had in my bag and sucked out the rest of the dust. I noticed the case was premium so my next step was to remove the mesh covering the fans and I cleaned them too. One fan had a failing ball-bearing, I noted it on my notepad, but it still worked. It was temperature controlled, so if the machine would run with a lower temperature, the noise would be much less. There was also dust-buildup in the power supply so I tried to remove as much as I could. Again, the mesh-covering of the premium parts had helped.

Now, the CPU. A big aluminum block with a simple fan on it. I screwed the fan off and with some tweezers I could lift a complete piece of cloth from it. Next I unscrewed the cooler-block from the main board and lifted it. Yes, as expected the cooling-putty was completely dried up. That didn't help conduct away the heat. I cleaned both the CPU and the block and applied some thermal silver paste, spread it over it and re-fit the cooler and the fan.

Next a visual inspection. A couple of capacitors were pretty big, probably near failure. The hard disk, and old 320 GB Sata drive, was an excellent opportunity to speed things up, but regarding the age, I would recommend replacing the complete system.

I re plugged all connectors, making sure they were tight and wrote down some more specs of the machine. Next it was time to close it up. I got back under the desk first and also here I removed a lot of dust. Then I replaced the desktop and reconnected everything, I booted the machine, checked it turned on and then took a step back. There first was a humming noise, the defect ball bearing in the fan but it stopped quickly because the temperature was okay.

"Oh, that's a big improvement, usually it takes more than ten minutes before it stops. Oh, and the sound, yes, much quieter, close to kitty purring. Good. What are your recommendations? New drive, more memory, another fan?"

"Nothing like that. You should get a new pc, some components on the main board are at the end of life. Any component I put in will only last until those components start leaking and then you'll need to buy a new one anyway. A simple HP or Dell desktop is what I recommend. Three year warranty, quiet, complete and more than fast enough. And you'll also win a lot of space under the desk."

My dad had hammered more than once that if a machine was too old I should never keep it in maintenance. It would be better to replace it. Because if I had replaced a part and the computer broke down soon after, the customer either wants his money back for the new parts or a too large discount on a new machine. You're always screwed.

"Okay. Our technician told me I should replace the parts I mentioned, that's cheaper."

"Oh no, yes, in parts it's cheaper than a whole new pc, even in labor. But when this machine fails you still need to replace it. And because it's an old machine, those new spare parts I put in will be useless. And well, that main board is at least seven years old. With the bad cooling it has received, probably constantly being active, not going into hibernation because coming out of it costs a lot of time, it is now nearing the end of its life. I won't sell you parts for replacement because the chance it will break down within a year is high. No, it will run clean and relatively silent for now, it has a couple of months extra but it will start working erratically, give blue screens, or just fail completely."

While I was telling her all this she had straightened her back, becoming very imposing, but I kept to my beliefs about replacing the complete pc. Even if she now wouldn't hire me and my mistress would become mad, I couldn't say anything else. I stopped talking, she hadn't said a word. I kept silent, having said what I needed to say. She remained silent. I had to fight the urge to once more explain the stuff I had said, but I kept my mouth shut.

FInally she nodded and answered me.

"Okay, you convinced me. You get the job. Tell me, what is your idea."

"Okay. I think I would need to know how many PC's are present, then I can make an estimate on how much time and money it will cost. I can bill per hour or think of a fixed price for everything. That last option would be easier. And well, with a fixed price I feel confident to ask the help of a friend of mine."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this is kind of a gray area. But well, it's this. I have a friend and she helps me with my company sometimes. She's had some troubles because of her autism and she's actually a drop out from school, can't work in a normal job like a supermarket or store. She's easily overstimulated.

So she's currently on a form of welfare trying to crawl up. She's good at computers, quick learner. But the problem is, if I pay her via the books and with taxes, everything she earns is subtracted from her welfare-check. And if she earns too much, she loses part of the welfare because she's apparently able to earn money.

But not only the welfare, also housing, expenses and a couple of subsidiaries, she needs them. So I have taken on some jobs for her, I collect the money and pay her the salary and no money is withdrawn on her welfare."

"Okay, I understand, Kinda gray indeed. Well, let's say, I hire you for a job, we agree on a fixed price, the job is done to my desire, then I don't care who did it. If she breaks stuff, you're responsible. But what if something happens to her? That's my problem."

"Yes, well, if the computers are not in the factory's but in the offices, she's just visiting."

"Okay, you two thought about it. Well, let's just think about it. But I want to meet your friend first. Is she available on, let me look, ehm wednesday, I'll be working at home, yes. Wednesday at eleven 'o'clock?

Alone, I want to speak to her without you nearby, understood. And I'll send you by e-mail the total number of desktops we have, maybe I can even find out the age of them, mine's not the oldest but absolutely not the newest. I prefer to replace machines in the offices with newer ones and then move the old to the work floor. Any advice on that?"

"Well, that's smart. Maybe it's best to estimate how many machines you want to replace, then we can first place those in the office, then clean the older ones and use them to replace the ones on the work floors?"

"Good idea. Okay, have your friend bring the estimates, if she's gonna do the work I'll talk numbers with her. I want an all in price for work and a separate for all the materials. In about two weeks she can start cleaning.

I must compliment you, at your age, your own company, good job, and I like it that you want to help someone. At your age I wanted to start my own company, but I got pregnant instead, well, after that I still got my own company.

Now, raising a company and a kid, two different types of sport but still, demanding. Well, I'll see your friend on Wednesday."

With those words she told me the conversation was over. I stood up, gathered my tools, shook her hands once more, what a powerful grip, and I walked out of the door.

In the car I phoned my mistress and told her how it all had gone. She congratulated me on the offer I received and she looked forward to the next meeting. When I reviewed how it all had gone, the meeting between Suzanne and Miss Amalia was just a formality for the job, but a real important meeting for Suzanne nonetheless.