(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.