PC / Laptop Repairs

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Morning all,


I used to have a spare / part time side line of earning an income in the UK - building / repairing PC's & Laptops.

I'm happy to offer free advice on repairs / upgrades for anyone having problems with their laptop or desktop PC

In the event of your computer needing replacement parts, I can suggest the correct items for you to buy directly... then once you have them for the price of an iced coffee I'll happily install them for you.

Windows 10 upgrades - official software (computer must be running Windows 7 / Vista) I can also do.

Been here three weeks, job hunting.... now need something to "use up" my spare time :-)

You could also run the same ad on the various Facebook sites that expats use in Saigon.

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Morning all,


I used to have a spare / part time side line of earning an income in the UK - building / repairing PC's & Laptops.

I'm happy to offer free advice on repairs / upgrades for anyone having problems with their laptop or desktop PC

In the event of your computer needing replacement parts, I can suggest the correct items for you to buy directly... then once you have them for the price of an iced coffee I'll happily install them for you.

Windows 10 upgrades - official software (computer must be running Windows 7 / Vista) I can also do.

Been here three weeks, job hunting.... now need something to "use up" my spare time :-)

Please be careful.

Even though you aren't advertising a price, if a Vietnamese citizen gets wind of your plans and feels you are unfair competition, this is just the sort of behavior which can get you reported to immigration.

Thanks for the heads up... not looking to make anything out of it just fill some spare time until i find a job. Only so much day time tv and time spent by the pool

Was looking more along the lines of using it to network and meet new faces. From my point of view, feel privilged to be allowed into VN. Back home the level of friendliness you get here is sadly missing

Again thanks for the advice...

I agree with OceanBeach92107.  Your actions could lead to trouble with locals.  There is a need for a competent computer service person that foreigners can go to for advice and assistance.  Legitimatize yourself by starting a company for yourself.  Probably a LLC would suffice and for a very small amount of money, you can be established in about three weeks.   You don't need a lawyer to establish the company.  If you have friends here that have an account on staff, they might be able to assist you.  A lawyer wilol charge you a minimum of USD 500 or more.  An accountant may charge you 2 million VND.

Many foreigners are afraid to go to local shops after hearing the horror stories that abound.  Most not true, but still will make people afraid.  The large firms have IT people on staff for their foreign personnel, but most small firms and individuals are simply adrift in what appears to be an endless journey of being taken advantage of not knowing who to trust.

You would do very well by starting a computer service and consulting business for foreigners It would also be an easy market to find clients in.

Send me a personal message (pm). I might be able to keep you busy for a little while.

Just thinking here... You could set yourself up to be the goto guy for computer stuff for foreigners. You may have a chance of skirting business and tax rules by setting up a simple website in your home country and take payments for services in paypal.  So you get no income here. A grey area but affording you some plausible deniability.

Do you know where to get good parts? You could spend a couple weeks researching Phong Vu, Halo shop,  Bùi Thị Xuân computer street, Nhat Tao market etc. Seems to me Saigon is pretty limited in selection of newer parts, but if you could figure out what is available and where, you could help people with upgrades and new computers. Blog about it, share the latest news. Just thinking!

I only have macs and a linux box, but will need a new game pc for Microsoft Flight Simulator in a couple months. I'll be in touch then!

I would not try the approach of trying to set up a pseudo company trying to hide your activities.  If you are going to enter into doing business here in Vietnam,  For what you are talking ab out the compliance regulations are remarkable simple and inexpensive.  You never know where the information comes from that could hurt you; neighbors, service/cleaning personnel and just idle talk at a ba, etc.  It is just not worth the exposure.  If you get caught trying to defraud the people of Vietnam (as they see it), you are likely going to be deported and put on blacklist for many years eliminating your return to Vietnam until the blacklist is lifted.  We had a client several years ago that had a well established manufacturing business employing over 500 people.  He wanted to do a side business without the required compliance licenses and permits.  He started importing components for electrical switch gear in a casual manner that totaled close to USD 400,000, the components he was importing were also available in Vietnam manufactured locally.  He was fined and blacklisted for seven years.  His company survived, but to date after being back in Vietnam, his company is doing only about 30% of what it used to do.

If you stay very small you might get away with it.  If you start having customers bring computers to your house, if you start importing components limited to computers, if your lifestyle is more than the foreign transfers will support you will be noticed.  Vietnam is a great country to live and work in, I would not risk losing that.

drailton wrote:

I would not try the approach of trying to set up a pseudo company trying to hide your activities.  If you are going to enter into doing business here in Vietnam,  For what you are talking ab out the compliance regulations are remarkable simple and inexpensive.  You never know where the information comes from that could hurt you; neighbors, service/cleaning personnel and just idle talk at a ba, etc.  It is just not worth the exposure.  If you get caught trying to defraud the people of Vietnam (as they see it), you are likely going to be deported and put on blacklist for many years eliminating your return to Vietnam until the blacklist is lifted.  We had a client several years ago that had a well established manufacturing business employing over 500 people.  He wanted to do a side business without the required compliance licenses and permits.  He started importing components for electrical switch gear in a casual manner that totaled close to USD 400,000, the components he was importing were also available in Vietnam manufactured locally.  He was fined and blacklisted for seven years.  His company survived, but to date after being back in Vietnam, his company is doing only about 30% of what it used to do.

If you stay very small you might get away with it.  If you start having customers bring computers to your house, if you start importing components limited to computers, if your lifestyle is more than the foreign transfers will support you will be noticed.  Vietnam is a great country to live and work in, I would not risk losing that.

A bit over dramatic considering he just wants to do a few repairs from home. Worse case scenario would be a fine from the green mafia, deported or blacklisted would be highly unlikely.

As I said, keep it very small or take the risks.  It all depends on where you are located and who reports it to the police.  I saw a Filipino wife get deported that lived down the street from us in d2 for doing alterations on cloths.  She was just trying to help the neighbors, but someone with power obviously complained that she was taking away work from locals.  Over dramatic.  Not in her shoes.

A possible solution is to team up with a small local computer repair shop and work under their registration.

drailton wrote:

As I said, keep it very small or take the risks.  It all depends on where you are located and who reports it to the police.  I saw a Filipino wife get deported that lived down the street from us in d2 for doing alterations on cloths.  She was just trying to help the neighbors, but someone with power obviously complained that she was taking away work from locals.  Over dramatic.  Not in her shoes.

A possible solution is to team up with a small local computer repair shop and work under their registration.

Ok, I must not have been around these unfortunate souls for the last 15 years.

Since I moved to Vietnam, it has been my experience that it is difficult to get people to offer assistance that is not solicited, but very easy to get criticized without understanding what they are criticizing.  Never the less, I find living and working in Vietnam to be one of the best places I have been - mostly due to the people.  This sounds conflicting, but it is not.  One problem that we have had is the more visibility you get, the more chance that something unexpected will come at you.

Was originally thinking just a way to fill my time while "job hunting"
but it has got me thinking why not try and make a small business out of it

Luckily wifes brother works for the government so might be a useful source of information on how to "avoid" getting in trouble with the locals and immigration

anyone else set up a small business ??  if so what is the process and time scale ??


thanks to everyone who has contributed so far :-)

Jlgarbutt wrote:

Was originally thinking just a way to fill my time while "job hunting"
but it has got me thinking why not try and make a small business out of it

Luckily wifes brother works for the government so might be a useful source of information on how to "avoid" getting in trouble with the locals and immigration

anyone else set up a small business ??  if so what is the process and time scale ??


thanks to everyone who has contributed so far :-)

Ask Drailton, his intro says he has done setups in Vietnam.

try PC optimization software

Jlgarbutt wrote:

anyone else set up a small business ??  if so what is the process and time scale ??

For a little over a month now, I've been helping an acquaintance, a French-Brazilian passport holder, opening a restaurant in VT.  About 5 years ago, he set up a company and used that to open a Mexican restaurant there (as well as a 5-year investor visa and TRC).  As he moved to VT and wasn't able to open a branch of that business here (he doesn't have the address in Saigon anymore), he has to start all over again.

His new Latin American and Spanish restaurant will be under one individual, a Vietnamese, owner.  "Family/household business" (Hộ kinh doanh cá thể) is the most simple way to open a small business in this country.   

The business license was submitted this afternoon and will be ready for pick up on Tuesday (3 working days).  After that, he needs to record with the tax office and request a food safety certificate.  In the meantime, his employees will need medical exam to submit with the Food and Safety form.  That's just about it.

The biggest part of the time was spent on rent negotiation, setting up WiFi, buying furniture, painting, renovation, finding food and drink distributors, etc.  OTOH, the more important part (the paperwork) will not take long.  As I mentioned above, it just started today and he should be able to open by Aug 8.  Very little expense too (100k for license).  The government has been making things much simpler and bringing the cost down to 90% less. 

The alcohol license is no longer a requirement when one wants to serve alcohol in one's restaurant.  The law changed just a month ago.  Restaurant owners now must be completely responsible to what they serve and how much they serve.

Don't need software to reduce performance drop off. Modern windows PCs and laptops used SSD instead of the old mechanical hard drives.

And applewxs do suffer the sake.issues after time if they are using HDD

Before anyone follows a link on here to download software free or paid for be very careful to check the source out... If it's free is usually comes with some unwanted extras, malware, spyware or adware. If it's paid for and you don't know the source you could easily be handing your bank card details over to someone to empty your account for you

Cheers, Jigarbutt.
You are a kind and helpful guy!

I've had some weird audio issues with Win 10 and a Thinkpad X-240. Also at the PC Shop. (They swapped parts, now 8 GB RAM went missing and a 2nd battery appeared out of the blue).

For all of you, I recommend replacing hard drives with a SSD. Big bang for the buck!

There is an amzing "service mentality" over here. While back home, friends have been ripped off shamelessly, where a dead HDD was the obvious issue and they just took hundreds of Euros for the "repair".

Family bought a silly PC configuration, with limited max RAM etc. My next notebook or PC will be bought overseas. Or have you found top brands for fair (second hand) prices?

One shop first replaced the keyboard, then offered to buy my Thinkpad X-240 for less than the charge for that keyboard job One lives and learns. (Another business tried to report "dead mainboard / toasted CPU". Complete b.s., of course. I swapped SSDs there and then and voila, it booted just fine. 

Handing over a high specs computer might be risky. Do you watch while someone is working on your machine?

KruChris wrote:

Cheers, Jigarbutt.
You are a kind and helpful guy!

I've had some weird audio issues with Win 10 and a Thinkpad X-240. Also at the PC Shop. (They swapped parts, now 8 GB RAM went missing and a 2nd battery appeared out of the blue).

For all of you, I recommend replacing hard drives with a SSD. Big bang for the buck!

There is an amzing "service mentality" over here. While back home, friends have been ripped off shamelessly, where a dead HDD was the obvious issue and they just took hundreds of Euros for the "repair".

Family bought a silly PC configuration, with limited max RAM etc. My next notebook or PC will be bought overseas. Or have you found top brands for fair (second hand) prices?

One shop first replaced the keyboard, then offered to buy my Thinkpad X-240 for less than the charge for that keyboard job One lives and learns. (Another business tried to report "dead mainboard / toasted CPU". Complete b.s., of course. I swapped SSDs there and then and voila, it booted just fine. 

Handing over a high specs computer might be risky. Do you watch while someone is working on your machine?

I have seen some dodgy stuff here, lots of excuses why you need to do this and change that. I think for the most part they have been told to try and upsell so they make more money for the store. At the end of the day doing that sort of thing gets bad publicity and loses customers.

Better to be honest and upfront . Memory upgrade is super easy and cheap to do, even on a tricky laptop is half an hour at most. PC's are even easier.

SSD, best comparison is like going from a ford fiesta to a Ferrari interns of performance. One of the best and most cost effective upgrades anyone can do. If you need to keep your data you can clone the drive in about an hour... If not a clean install takes less than half the time.

As for watching someone work on my equipment.. I never trust anyone else with my computer's. In the event I work on other people's equipment they are welcome to watch and ask questions.

Glad you got your laptop sorted.. the missing memory could be a RAM module needs re-seating  - the my do work lose over time especially in portable devices.