computer repair from Hell

[alcattle]

It started about Thanksgiving. I think there was a power surge. (note to self: get a good surge protector) The computer went black and did not want to reset. I went to bed. Next day, I try to start and get a little ways and the system errors out in the DOS like loader screen. Basically it could not find the hard drive. Tried a couple things with no luck. So I figured to take it to the shop.

Take it in and the next day they call and say it was working fine, cleaned up some things and so on. I pick it up and take home, same problem, won't boot.

We take it back a week or so later, and this time the problem happens to the shop folks. Says the HD is getting old (1 year or so?) and I need to replace it. I bring it home, order a new drive from Newegg and wait. Comes about 5 days later, so I put in the drive. Nothing happens. Back to the shop. We took the XP disk but they needed the key. Next day we take them that. No luck.

Now they say the MB and CPU are fried. OK I agree to replace/upgrade those. Wait 3 weeks, no word so I call. Turns out the parts had just come in and they were waiting for the guy to come in to put the stuff together. Wait another week, so they call and turns out the PSU does not have the correct output for the MB. I thought I had a PSU but that one did not have the 8 pin either. So now I am waitng for the new PSU to come in.

Someday....I will box :rolleyes:

[jettzypher]

wow...thats a long timeline just to get a computer fixed. maybe find a better shop?

[Yamio]

Either you live in a small town where this kind of thing does happen, or you took your machine to a bunch of nincompoops. In any case, I agree with Jettzypher in that you need to find a better shop.

[Owltoid]

Wow, you must have a nice computer to spend all this money trying to fix it! At some point it may be better to salvage the parts you think work and start fresh :(

[Freddie]

Unfortunately everything in life is like this. Be glad it happened with a computer repair shop and not a doctor. :)

[alcattle]

I don't think the Seattle area rates as a small town. Sometimes I have my doubts ;(

I was hoping to build a new system this year. These repairs end up being what the new box would of had except the Vid card. The 8800 is next to go, probably for a 4850 1G.

No I won't go back to this shop, if I had time, I will fix it myself.

[Starbuck_Jones]

Outside the fun of building your own. I cant see a reasonable reason not to go with a major PC manufacturer these days and just spend the extra $200 to max out the warranty on them. Abuse the hell out of it and get a new one every 4-5 years when the contract is up.

In all honesty there was prolly nothing wrong with your computer to begin with. If you had a power outage and on post the Hard Drive was no longer seen there's a good chance all that needed to be done was clear the NVRAM and perform an automatic IDE detection and let the system reacquire whats attached to it. Your power supply will blow out 1000 times before anything else will if you truely had a power surge. That and what youve told us so far about your experience to me conferms that your getting milked.

[Kaynin]

thats some weird shop.

When a computer is borked, the best way (for a shop, or for yourself if you got the equipment) is by replacing potential baddies with a temp new or working piece of equip. Always starting from PSU->MB->CPU/RAM/Cards in slots/HDD's, etc.

Suppose the PSU is borked, it could very well have a malicious effect on just about any card in your comp. :P



Whomever attempted to fix your PC sucks. :P

[Clanked]

I would agree that you are getting hosed.

I can't think of any case where your computer would be able to give you warning errors, if both the MB/CPU were bad.

[alcattle]

I got the computer back finally. Bill was $960. That includes the Q6600, a P45 MB and an Antec 850W PSU. They also added some to install and test things. It was running in the store as I paid. I don't have time to try it out during the week. I might go ahead and upgrade vto 8 GB RAM and Vista 64. Still thinking about a new graphics card but that has to wait for the bank account to recover from the damage. You're right, I will never go there again. I should have fixed it myself or just scrapped it out and upgraded the left overs.

[elsegundo]

$960 could have gotten you a new computer... i7 for that matter.

sorry about the bad luck.

[jinx08]

$960! Ouch!
They really must have seen you coming a mile off!
It's like when you have a car which you become attached to. You eventually get to a point where you have spent so much on repairs that you may as well of scrapped it, but for some reason you just keep throwing money at it! (Not talking from personal experience honestly)! *kicks wheel*

[alcattle]

I brought it home. It was working great at the shop, all perfect and everything working.

I decide to put in 8 gigs of RAM, and try it out. No signal to monitor. Sheesh.

Any ideas? I will not take it back to the shop. ggrrgrrr :cursing:

[Sajuuk]

Does it work without the 8Gigs at the very least?

EDIT!


$960 could have gotten you a new computer... i7 for that matter.

sorry about the bad luck.For 970 dollars I got-

4 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832127005 (Wrath)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835118045 (Socket 1366 clip for my fan)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131346 P6t Deluxe Mobo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231223 6Gb DDR3 1333
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817994063 2.5"->3.5" HDD converter (I be lazy!)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202 i7 920
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227372 30Gb SSD.


I think you got hosed.

[alcattle]

Thanks for reminding me, I do want an I7 system. But I need this one to work first. I will try changing the RAM. And check the MB manual (yea I am that desperate ;( )

[elsegundo]

and you're thinking about bringing this back to the shop?


wtf is wrong with you???

take out the ram and use it like normal. save your money for a better computer. return the extra ram you bought. this computer has caused you almost 1k in repairs and you still want to have it around? i dont understand.

[alcattle]

no way. I will fix it myself, with any help I can get off the forums.

Yes, next step is go back to the original RAM, and check that. One idea given on Tom's was the new RAM needs more Voltage to run, so I have to be able to get into BIOS. So I will look on the Corsair site and check. step two is change that setting and try 4 gigs of the new RAM. Slow process when you have no time to work on things.

[elsegundo]

ok great!! for a second i thought you were actually considering going back there.

[daviddoran]

Be careful overvolting the RAM. I did it, but only because I am overclocking, and bought ram that could take it. Find out how much voltage your ram can take, and dont go above it. Just go up a little bit at a time.

[alcattle]

I put the old RAM back in the system and it is running fine. Not sure if I should install Vista 64 now or play around with the new RAM. Right now all it has on the HD is XP. WoW is a few more steps away :(