(no subject)

[daddykatt.livejournal.com]

Okay, so, because I couldnt, at the time, pay for a laptop upfront, I took the route of getting a shiny new Sony Vaio from a national lease-to-own shop. This will be the third I have gotten through them, being that I like how they operate and my credit sucks, so manufacturers dont want to offer me payment options.

Also, because i use this shop quite a bit, the manager did me a favour and got me the Vaio directly out of the box, no standard image.

Recently, the power adapter had become loose, and the battery was not holding a charge. Finally it just gave up the ghost and I couldnt boot it at all. Roughly 3 weeks of data was not backed up (I know, bad monkey, no cookie). I took it in to the shop for service, because they include that as part of the lease agreement.

Being in IT for a number of years now, I figured that they would just replace the board within warranty being that its more of a pain to replace JUST the power port, because that has been the SOP for every company I have worked for.

Also knowing that the chain has a "standard image" that they use on all computers leased through them, I made sure that the first words on the service order were "DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES RESTORE THIS MACHINE - STRICTLY A HARDWARE ISSUE" before I even described the issue itself.

So, I happily drop off my laptop, and the manager of the store submits the service request, being sure to include my request of not to restore, because I had some data not backed up.

A week and a half goes by, and I get a call telling me that my laptop is ready to be picked up. I go and fetch it, and before I leave the store, I decide to be sure it works.

I plug the adapter in, it is still loose, but I no longer have to find the "sweet spot" for it to work, so I can live with that, even though that was the reason it went in in the first place. I pull the battery and it still lives, so the power port is really okay. I pull the power and the battery seems OK as well. So I boot up windows, expecting to see my familiar Skull and Bones wallpaper.

You guessed it.

I get a "Welcome to Windows Vista" type of screen. I am pissed. I am beyond pissed. The store manager is more than a little upset.

We call the "on-call service manager"

He informs us that the Power Management System was corrupt, so they reimaged the machine.

That confuses me, because as far as I know (and I could be wrong) but MOST PMS' are NOT linked directly to the OS. They reside on the board. Most OS' have an INTERFACE to them, but as far as I knew the OS was not the master control for it.

And here is where I get REALLY confused... how does a loose power port on the laptop equate to a bad PMS?? That is the one that really boggles my mind.

So I talk to the "Service manager" and find out that he has only been a manager for about 6 weeks, and has only been with the company for about 6 weeks... before that we was a project manager for an engineering company. So he has no IT experience at-friggin-all, and he determines that a loose plug is the OS fault?!?!?!?

I take it in for a hardware issue and I get back a hardware issue with a fresh OS on it.

I am impressed.

I am now waiting on paperwork from the store... The store manager is just as pissed as I am about this, and he is willing to refund me all my money because of it. I am just going to go take that money to buy a mac... at least their customer service can tell a hardware issue from a corrupt OS.

Comments

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

Had a keyboard issue with a Toshiba laptop [the apostrophy key broke off the third day] and took it to the service center for warranty repair. I, in the presence of thier service manager, removed the hard disk because I didn't not trust them to do something stupid like reimage the disk because it's SOP to the trained monkeys.

I am just going to go take that money to buy a mac... at least their customer service can tell a hardware issue from a corrupt OS.


Don't count on it. Those "geniuses" are usually not.

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

Amen, sister. Unless the hard disk *was* the problem, but then I'd probably just replace it since I keep regular backup images of all my drives, now that storage is cheaper than dirt.

[daddykatt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I tried to yank the drive, but on the Vaio's it is damn near impossable to get to without voiding the warranty

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

Right, I recall some Vaio's [at least the older ones] tucked the HDD in under the keyboard and you had to disassemble the whole thing just to get at it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/hub_/]

well, it is a vaio. The only thing Sony still knows how to make are TV. And even that I start to wonder...

[gholam.livejournal.com]

For the reference, in ThinkPads, all it takes to remove the hard drive is 1 (one) screw.

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

then 6 others, then detach it from the sticker.

*using R31*

[gholam.livejournal.com]

Still way easier than sony. I read it somewhere that on some early ThinkPad, circa '95, they had a widespread issue that caused keyboard failures inside warranty period, and on that specific model, it took something like 4 hours to replace the keyboard. All ThinkPads after that one were WAY easier to service.

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

I had an R31 as well, and had to replace the hard drive. I don't remember it being difficult.

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

Dunno why, but every toshiba/hitachi drive seems to fail in it. I might go SSD when prices drop.

[random-c.livejournal.com]

Mine stays with me even if not. I don't trust them not to go poking through my data.

THIS.

[jecook]

At the last place I worked at, one of the laptop users had a 'soda' incident with their machine. Since we had accident coverage on it (it was a dell in a corporate environment), I called up support and arranged to have the machine sent out for work. I stressed to the support staff on the phone, however, that I was keeping the hard drive due to HIPPA requirements. Never got any flak from them at all.

Granted, this was a dell, and the hard drive trays slide out after one or two screws. This is why you rarely see Viaos in a serious corporate environment.

Re: THIS.

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

Well, that, and their inability to keep the same components through a model run, or to have a fully functional docking solution, or to in any way not be a general pain in the ass.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

I want to run around and ask them their IQs. "Hmm, only 116 you say? FALSE ADVERTISING."

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be interesting if a MENSA membership were a prerequisite?

[fixerkitty.livejournal.com]

Heh, maybe. But then you run the risk of bumping into a MENSA member that may have brilliant book knowledge but is also unable to tie their shoes, count change, or make themselves a can of soup. :/

[daddykatt.livejournal.com]

I have always had good interactions with apple techs that are not my wife.

if the laptop breaks I know she can fix it ;)

[ashonaut.livejournal.com]

Don't count on it. Those "geniuses" are usually not.

Bingo. When my then-11-month-old iPod's drive began to fail, I took it to the Genius Bar with an appointment, and the guy there assigned to "help" me admitted that he knew next to nothing about computers and had only been using Apple machines for six months. He took an obviously-dying drive and tried restoring it on a Mac running iTunes for half an hour before admitting that no, that wasn't changing a damn thing from what happened when I did it on my XP machine.

[falnfenix]

if he was that uneducated, he wasn't an Apple Genius. there's actual training and certification involved with the position.

[historychick49.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

Yeah, I can say from personal experience that Apple's customer service is excellent.

[hel]

You might try GetDataBack or some other data recovery software, depending how important the data was. Some or all of your data might be salvageable, as I doubt they securely wiped the drive before writing the image.

[daddykatt.livejournal.com]

yeah, they still have the laptop, and are "trying to make it right" but i doubt it will happen... nothing on there is TOO vital, but I would like to recover it if I could... ya know, pictures of my kid and all that... but my big fear is that they just swapped drives and the old one is just lost in the aether

[hel]

Ah, if they've still got it, they're probably just reimaging it over and over, hoping the data will magically reappear. (who, me, a cynic?) I hope it works out tho.

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

Not sure about Apple being awesome at CS. They top the rankings, but honestly it's the best of a bad group. Anything is better than the chat bots at HP!

[daddykatt.livejournal.com]

I dont know about that... I would take HP over Dell

[lunatic59.livejournal.com]

Buy from Dell Small business, not from the consumer line. You get Tech's who a.) know what they are doing, and b.) speak English as thier first language.

[cheezemeister-x.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The XPS line of product is ok too, but stay away from Inspiron and Dimension lines.

[jecook]

*nods*

I have also had remarkable good sucess with dell's chat feature, oddly enough. If the person on the other side can read and comprehend standard english, it works out pretty good.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Dell onsite is better than depot, and you can cut through the level 1 stuff on the first call if you take time to get the minimal certification. This is generally opening the tech docs in one window and taking timed quizes on them in another window, and there are a few ways to sign up cheaply or free.

[mix-hyenataur.livejournal.com]

as long as you stay away from the DV and ZD series.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

at least their customer service can tell a hardware issue from a corrupt OS.

Heh...I used to do tech support for Apple. Don't know if they still have them on contract, but a few years ago when I was there, if your call got routed to the wrong office, you stood a very good chance of getting someone who couldn't tell a hardware issue from an OS issue. Specifically with the iBook logic boards, some of the screens would go black when adjusted back and forth because of wires being pinched- a VERY obvious hardware issue. For a while there, I was getting callbacks a few times a week when someone would tell them to archive and install a screen going black when it was moved.

(These all seemed to come form the same office- they were in Ohio, an outsourcer. I had an online friend at the time who actually worked for that company as a QC. What she told me about the people in her office consistently confirmed my suspicion that these folks didn't have the sense the gods gave a moldy dishrag.)

[tauren-wardrums.livejournal.com]

The only reason a power jack could conceivably be responsible for a bad PMS is that the jack arced and a power surge corrupted it instead of destroying the mainboard like it's supposed to.

[laptop-mechanic.livejournal.com]

One of the first lessons you learn with laptops is Never, EVER EVER buy Sony. Second lesson you learn is: Do not hand over a machine with data on it you care about if you don't have it backed up, because reloading a machine is pretty much the first step on everybody's troubleshooting tree, just to make certain you're working from a good software build.

VAIOs are garbage. Deliberately designed to be hard to service. Under the skin they're Rube Goldberg laptops. Get yourself a nice T series ThinkPad or a Dell Latitude, you'll be much better off.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

And as part of the second lesson: always keep up-to-date backups somewhere other than the computer itself, because there will come a time when a hardware failure makes it impossible to access the data BEFORE having to take it in for repair.

[hisamishness.livejournal.com]

I see Vaios like Party Girls... Pretty and Recreational, but Totally Batshit Crazy once the honeymoon phase is over and you actually have to do something more complex than power it on.

[jimpossible84.livejournal.com]

I 2nd that - I've been using refurb. (ex-corporate) Dell Latitudes exclusively here for years, I can get em cheap, usually with some of the 3yr onsite warrantee left, they're easy to service and easy and cheap to get parts for! Plus most generally run Linux well, which is what I use exclusively now.

[leetmasterjames.livejournal.com]

Thats total bull. I actually repair the bad jacks and the only time I even bother booting the system after ive finished the repair (unless the client needed something specific) is to boot to windows to see the battery indicator. I let it charge to 100% and call it good IF the jack is no longer loose. The charge to 100% is actually a good test ive found as a very rare full still weren't perfect and the battery had trouble charging till I touched the jack up. If I did get to the OS and there was a problem id get clearance before changing stuff.

On top of that if we so much as go near a reinstall situation we image the drive. Even if they have nothing on it we tell them we do a full backup just in case and delete it a few weeks later. We dont charge for the backup (unless they need data) but ive had too many situations where I said A and they heard B.

On the plus side depending on how the image dropped onto the drive its possible the data is recoverable, I see systems that were "repaired" by Best Buy all the time like this.

[kekewy.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be too sure about the mac thing. A good friend of mine is a mac user and every time she's needed to have hers fixed, the additude of the techs there was "Well we could fix it... or you can buy a new mac!" She's gotten the same treatment at two different stores in two different states.

[amynnah.livejournal.com]

:(

I'm sorry you lost all your data... and that sucks.

Lesson 1. Keep all your important crap backed up. I have 7 DVDs worth of music, JUST music, backed up. Not to mention logs of old, amusing RP IMs, one of my sites' HTML code on Notebook, old movies, my favorites, hell...my entire profile which has survived 3 computers and 4 OSes.

I never trusted any of my PCs in the hands of paid repair guys. If there's an issue I can't fix myself, I talk to friends who know how to do it, for advice, and, after fumbling through it, take it to them with payments of booze and sushi, plus my company. :)