More confusion than you can shake a stick at!

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Will members please not confuse the title Computer Technician with something that is completley different,

A Hardware Engineer!

A Computer Technician is some-one that will go to an ailing P.C. and once he has (usually in a competent manner), diagnosed the fault will swap the offending piece of hardware.

A Hardware Engineer Is someone that is capable of taking the said faulty piece of hardware, and then either repair or modify the board down to it's component level and get it working again.

Although within the throwaway society that we live in today such things as modems, ram sticks etc, etc. are not worth the attention of a Hardware Engineer, there are many expensive and unique boards especially designed to do particular jobs in various branches of the electronics industry for controlling production lines etc. these are what a Hardware Engineer is employed to service and repair.

In comparison to the Computer Technician it is a highly skilled and very intricate occupation and only employs the time served electrical, electronic and mechanical Engineers!

[SPUGGIE J]

I can build a £1,000,000.00 server and replace dodgy bits as well as diag down to component level. Does that make me a sado?

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Originally Posted by SPUGGIE J

I can build a £1,000,000.00 server and replace dodgy bits as well as diag down to component level. Does that make me a sado?

No it makes you one of the few competent people that can do a job without having to shout too loud about it!

[West Ender]

My late husband started off as a hardware engineer (when your average computer would fill a small room) then became a software engineer and analyst as well. He combined all 3 fields in his work. He had done an electrical engineering apprenticeship before he joined the RAF where he got HND in Electronics. When I asked him once how he would describe his job he said, "Oh just say I'm in computers." and his mantra was, "Well, you have to know where to kick it."