Everyone seems to have a laptop that "won't boot" or something...I've had to stop cleaning them for this very reason.
doctors, lawyers, accountants, plumbers, electricians, mechanics have figured this out, i have faith that we can too. it's really not difficult.
please stop doing free tech work for people. there is something in the human condition which will cause them to be
1. ungrateful and upset with the results of your help
2. ironically, ask for more free work
3. blame you for their own fuckups
4. have set expectations that you'll do more of it on demand.
worst of all, you cheapen the entire concept of technology work. be the change you want to see in the world.
Maybe it reminds me of myself and the help I've received after people gave up on me.
But like I said, the fallout of it often reminds me of the parent post.
Feature creep is even more of an issue when the value of your time is not quantified in some way for the client.
I have had wealthy individuals act like they are doing me a favor because I need to find the virus/malware one of their clones dowloaded from some porn site. I always give them a quote. They send me home, and then the wife calls after hubby gets to the permently blue screen, or the wheel never stops spinning.
This applies to pretty much everything - friends help friends with stuff. But there's a pretty clear tit-for-tat exchange going on. If I have a problem, I expect you to give me advice, too. So, in this way, I treat tech knowledge as being exactly the same as electrician knowledge, mechanical knowledge, and medical knowledge. If you want access to my knowledge, you have to give me access to your knowledge (and to your own network if you don't have any).