What equipment and software to take on house calls?

[JeremyL]

I have been doing some house calls to friends to do some work on their comps and I am thinking about doing this for people other then friends also. My question is, what all would you take on calls to people houses and businesses (ie software and hardware).

The things I have listed are:
Laptop
Norton Ghost
External CD-RW for backups
Tool Set for simpler hardware work
Extra cables (RJ-45 & RJ-11)
A few extra Nics and Video Cards

Of course things like a new operating system to install would be discussed on the phone so some things are call specific depending on the initial telephone discussion.

Is there any diagnostic software you would recomend to take? Any other software or hardware?

Thanks
Jeremy

[Colonel Sanders]

RAM sticks! 2 sticks of 16MB EDO RAM, 1stick of PC133, stick of PC 2100, and a stick of Rambus. I don't do house calls, but I would carry those along.

Logan

[Toaster]

Hello folks,
This depends soley on your capabilities.
That is, how well you "understand" computer equipment.
I do some work for local stores and my "kit" includes a few items stores may not have on hand such as:
1. Various boot disks of varying O/Ss.
2. An ISA video card. (an absolute "gotta have")
3. Thermal paste.
4. A known reliable ATX P/S. (An Aztec of course)
5. A mulimeter.
6. A simple "house wiring" tester. (for grounds and mis-wiring)
7. A "post card" (a clever device shows post codes on seemingly dead systems)
8. A PCI and AGP vidcard of known compatability.
9. Various nylon stand-offs and brass stand-offs.
10. assorted screws and other hardware.
11. A "problem report", a sort of Q&A for the system under repair.
12. Know how to use "Debug" and how to read HEX addresses.
13. Know common device addresses/IRQ/memory usages.

There are actually more then this which is dependant on the system "type".