How many Americans understand the Hardware in a Computer?

[johnnymk]

5%, 10%?

Of all the people I know personally, only three are capable of building a computer from scratch. And the rest of them don't have a clue.

[MikeD]

5%, 10%?

Of all the people I know personally, only three are capable of building a computer from scratch. And the rest of them don't have a clue.

Your numbers are probably accurate, but...

How many need to understand the hardware? PC's are fairly reliable these days (at least the off the shelf stuff the average consumer buys), and costs are so low that replacing one is not a huge financial burden.

[DarkFury]

Yeah... this kinda is a moot point.

Just like I don't need to know how to build an engine in order to drive a car...

Now where the problem comes is from people who don't know how to properly operate a computer... <Hit Any Key to Continue> "Where is the ANY key"... :hmm:

[MikeD]

Now where the problem comes is from people who don't know how to properly operate a computer... <Hit Any Key to Continue> "Where is the ANY key"... :hmm:

Hey, that's job security for us LAN Admin / Tech Support folks! :)

[Merlin]

Now where the problem comes is from people who don't know how to properly operate a computer... <Hit Any Key to Continue> "Where is the ANY key"... :hmm:
And no matter how many time I hit the <SHIFT> key nothing happens.

[DarkFury]

Hey, that's job security for us LAN Admin / Tech Support folks! :)
Exactly. :thumb:

[ooBaKeep]

Fixing my car and building pc's is my guy's domain. I'll stick to shoe shopping. :wavey2:

[le_stick]

Hey, that's job security for us LAN Admin / Tech Support folks! :)

You mean there is no "hit any key"!!! holy darn...i did not know that.
No wonder, key board after key board I replace and still could not find that darn key......:)

[Kevster]

You mean there is no "hit any key"!!! holy darn...i did not know that.
No wonder, key board after key board I replace and still could not find that darn key......:)

When I was filling in for our network admin at my old job, I had one 'problem' user that kept bugging me with nonsensical issues that were 99% user error. The 'any' key issue came up once so I spent about 30 minutes one evening fashioning a plastic button-cover for switch power button. I colored it red with sharpie-pens, and had on the front in big, black lettering, the word 'ANY'.

The 'ANY' button worked as designed 2 days later. My boss at the time thought it was hilarious, was wondering why he hadn't thought of it, and then told me I could not ever do that again.

[shocky123]

If we're talking about what percent of people we thought could build a computer from scratch.... I'd say maybe closer to 5-10%... or rather, how many would actually build a computer from scratch as opposed to 'could build one' (which includes finding all the parts, buying them, putting it all together, and possibly fiddling with an OS to finish it up).... I'd say maybe 5% of Americans would be able to do that.

What might be more interesting/intriguing IMHO would be how this percent compares with that of other countries. Maybe someone could find some figures on that?

~Kyle

[hapoo]

building one isnt all that difficult, and doesn't mean that the person actually knows anything about computers. I could print out a list of stuff a person would need in a computer and have them assemble it. Its more of a spectrum than a clear cut line. I know so many people who do stuff with computers that i would never expect them to know about and yet they can't do some really simple things.

[zippyjuan]

I am an example of someone without much computer knowledge built their own comp. I was using WebTV (MIcrosoft Internet TV or whatever they call it now- if it still exists) before that which allows you to surf the net (very slowly) and not much else. Some of the people on this site helped me get it going. It was not as complicated as I feared it might be. It was scary the first time I hit the power on button- wondering if it will work or smoke. January of 2003- and I have only had to replace a hard drive that went bad (and I also added some more memory).

[Grimm]

I think about 1/2 of my friends could build a computer. But I know that my friends aren't typical.