Keeping this intricate equipment in good working order is the job of he computer service technician. Most computer service technicians are assigned several clients, depending on the technician's specialty and the type of equipment to be serviced. Workers with several accounts must travel from place to place to maintain these systems and to make emergency repairs. In some cases, more than one technician will share an account and service different parts of a system. In other cases, an experienced technician may be assigned to work full time at a client's installation in order to maintain all phases of that operation.
Some technicians work in central facilities where equipment or components are brought for service.
For example, they routinely adjust, oil, and clean mechanical parts of printers and sorters. When computer equipment breaks down, technicians must quickly find the cause of the failure and make repairs. To locate the cause of failures, technicians run special diagnostic programs that pinpoint malfunctions. Fixing the equipment may take just a few minutes because most repairs merely involve the replacement of malfunctioning components. To correct an electronic problem, for example, the technician would replace the circuit board indicated by the diagnostic program.