WEST CHESTER TWP. - Technology has been a fascination for Huy Sam since he was a boy, and the hobby is now a successful business as well.

Sam, who re-located to the United States from Vietnam at age 20, opened LaptopOnCall in 2006 after offering electronics repair services through the Internet for about a year, he says.

Today, with several technicians on staff, he repairs thousands of laptop computers, televisions, desktop computers and game consoles each year, even offering pick up and delivery service. His business had more than $500,000 in revenue last year, and he expects growth of 30 percent this year.

"Demand is very high right now," Sam says. "Instead of spending money on a new (laptop), they spend half the amount and repair it."

Sam arrived in the United States in 1998 with his parents and his sister after years of struggle with immigration processes. Despite a language barrier, he enrolled at the University of Cincinnati and earned a degree in computer engineering.

Sam, however, credits his success to many years of tinkering with whatever technology he could get his hands on.

"I could spend hours just playing with a light bulb and a battery just trying to figure out how it worked," he says of his earliest memories of childhood.

In grammar school and high school in Vietnam, Sam received numerous awards for technology research. He invented a robotic toy, an irrigation system run by sensors and an alarm system for a baby's diaper that lets a parent know when the baby needs changing, he says.

One of the most valuable skills he learned early on was how to repair a mother board, the technology at the heart of electronics systems.

That skill has saved customers hundreds of dollars they would have spent on new mother boards on computers, televisions and games, he says.

Jody Smith, co-owner of My PC Repair in Springfield, says his shop sends at least 100 computers a year to LaptopOnCall because of Sam's skill in repairing mother boards.

"I'm very confident in their ability," Smith says. "If the repair is down to the component level, then we send it to him."

Ann Barnes, owner of Quality Electronics Inc. in Hinesville, Ga., says she, too, sends her most difficult repairs to Sam.

"They have been able to repair the mother boards when we have not," she says. "They have always been awesome."

Sam says 90 percent of his repair work comes from such businesses across the country, who find him through the Internet. Only 10 percent is from local individual electronics customers.

To grow his business, Sam says he is attempting to win area corporate accounts and attract more large electronics retail outlets as customers.

He would like to double in size in the next two years and eventually open a chain of stores nationwide.

And he'd really like to get back to inventions.

"I have no time right now," he says. "But I would like to have more time to spend on inventing things. I enjoy that."