Computer repair in Calgary, at your door

The shop is in the Wentworth area of West Springs, out past 85 Street SW on the west side of the city. It's the drop-off point for anything that needs the bench, and it's open every day of the week from ten until six.

Getting here

From the west side it's straightforward off Old Banff Coach Road or 85 Street SW. From further in, Bow Trail runs west out of the city centre and connects through, and from the north or south the west leg of Stoney Trail drops you close. The nearest CTrain stop is 69 Street SW on the Blue Line, which is a short drive east of us rather than walking distance.

What to bring

• The machine, obviously, and the charger, because a flat battery hides half the symptoms
• The model number if you have it, or just bring the laptop and we'll read it off the base
• Your sign-in details if the fault is something we need to reproduce after logging in
• Any error message you can photograph before you come, because they rarely happen on demand
• The external drive it backs up to, if you have one, so we can check the backup is real

You don't need an appointment to drop something off, though a quick call first means we can tell you whether the part you're likely to need is on the shelf. Walk-ins are welcome and always have been.

After you hand it over

We write down the fault in your words as well as ours, because the way a machine misbehaves for you is usually more useful than what it does on the bench. Then it gets looked at properly, and you get a phone call with what we found and one flat number. A call, not an email you have to chase.

Nothing starts until you say go. If we open it up and find a second problem, which happens, you get another call before anything else is done, not a bigger bill at the end. Occasionally that call is us telling you the machine isn't worth the money, and you can collect it without paying anything.

When it's finished you get it back with a plain explanation of what was actually wrong and what was done about it. If there's something you should keep an eye on, a battery with a year left in it, a drive that's fine now but has some miles on it, you'll hear about that too. Not as a sales pitch, just so nothing surprises you in six months.

Plenty of shops advertise same-day and quietly mean same-day diagnosis. Worth being clear about what we mean, because the difference matters when you need the machine back.

Same-day here means we can usually get to you or start on it the day you call, and that most repairs are finished that day. Most, not all. The honest breakdown looks like this.

Usually finished the same day

• Virus and malware cleanups
• Drive upgrades and the data transfer that goes with them
• Memory upgrades, where the machine has sockets
• Cooling service, cleaning and fresh thermal paste
• Wi-Fi, printer and new-machine setup visits
• Screen and battery replacements where the part is a common one we hold

Depends on a part arriving

• Screens for unusual resolutions, high refresh gaming panels, and bonded touch assemblies
• Batteries for less common models
• Anything for an older or rarer machine where the part has to be sourced

Takes as long as it takes

• Data recovery, where rushing is the one thing guaranteed to make it worse
• Board-level diagnosis, which is slow work
• Intermittent faults that only appear once every few hours

You'll be told which of the three your job is on the phone, before we have your machine, not after. Calling before noon gives you the best chance of a same-day slot for the simple reason that the day fills from the top.

Windows and Mac, laptops and desktops, every mainstream brand and most of the ones that aren't. If it plugs in, ask us.

Brands aren't interchangeable when it comes to repair, though. A Dell publishes its service manual and part numbers, so ordering the right screen is a lookup, not a guess. A Surface is glued rather than screwed, so the same crack costs more to put right. A ThinkPad expects to be opened; a thin ZenBook doesn't. Knowing which one is in front of us is most of the job.

The brands below have their own page covering the faults we see on them specifically, what can and can't be upgraded, and when a repair stops being worth doing.

Desktops get the same treatment whether they came from a shop or somebody built them. Custom machines are often easier to work on, because every part is a standard part rather than a proprietary shape that only fits one chassis. If you want something built rather than fixed, we do that too, with honest advice about which components change what you do and which just cost more.

The honest limits are worth stating as well. We aren't a phone repair shop, though we do rescue photos and files off phones and tablets that won't start. We don't touch anything still inside its manufacturer warranty when going back to Apple, Dell or Microsoft is clearly the better deal for you. And there are machines where the right advice is to stop spending, which you'll hear plainly, not after the invoice.

You have real choices in this city, and it's worth knowing what each type actually is instead of picking on whoever ranks first. People commonly weigh us up against names like Memory Express, ProFix, PC Medic and Computer Doctor, so here's the honest shape of it.

Retailers with a service counter

Memory Express is a computer retailer with stores in Calgary that also takes in service work. The obvious advantage is that parts are in the building, which is useful for a desktop upgrade. The trade-off with any retail service counter is that the person who takes your machine in is generally not the person who works on it, so what you explain at the counter has to survive the journey to the bench.

Multi-technician repair shops

Calgary has several established independent shops with a few technicians and a front desk. They can carry more stock and cover more hours than one person can, which matters. The same hand-off applies: you describe the fault to one person and a different person diagnoses it.

Manufacturer service

Going back to Apple, Dell or Microsoft is the right answer while a machine is under warranty, and we'll tell you so instead of taking the work. Out of warranty it changes, because manufacturer service tends to replace whole assemblies where a targeted repair would do, and on an older machine that maths often stops making sense.

What's different here

CompuTech is one person. Mo takes the call, does the diagnosis, does the repair and hands it back, so nothing gets lost between the counter and the bench and you aren't re-explaining the fault to a third person. We also come to you, which most of the alternatives don't, and the diagnosis is free whether or not you go ahead.

The flip side, stated plainly: one person is one person. We aren't open at two in the morning, there's no counter staffed while Mo is out on a job, and if a repair needs a part nobody in the city has, we can't conjure it. If what you need is a big operation with a queue system, one of the others is a better fit and we would rather say that than waste your afternoon.