Unscrupulous Computer Salesperson/PC Problem

Principessa

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MB to the rescue. HP is Compaq or vice versa. HP bought them so again, I think she is right. Dell, then HP/Compaq.
I like Dell for their user friendliness and being pretty much idiot proof. :tongue: :redface: The problem with Dell is that their service SUCKS! I literally spent 5 hours one Saturday when I was having problems with my Inspiron laptop. I was shuffled from one offshore, useless script reading, non-native English speaker whom I couldn't understand to the next.:mad:

I have no idea what customer service is like with Compaq/HP because I have never needed to call.

njqt466 frantically knocks every piece of wood in sight for luck . . . just in case. :redface: :tongue:
 

ManlyBanisters

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Yeah I've heard kind of mixed things about Dell. There is a sale on them at the moment though www.savastore.com I'm also getting a 400GB USB drive from there for £59! Bargain.

Don't fuck about - buy a Dell from Dell of you are getting one - how can a 3rd party make it cheaper?

After reading that info geek sent me I am really tempted to think its a corrupt mbr or boot.ini. Its probably fixable by me if I could be arsed to fuck about with it. But I can't. My view since the first time it crashed was you pay £500. you expect it to work.

Fair enough - that's certainly possible - but why is the boot.ini / mbr fucking up / why is it flakey and giving you non-consistant repros? You don't want to go to a lot of hassle troubleshooting software only to find that the root cause is flakey cheap-shite hardware. Get a refund out of the fucker.

I'll just take it to him tomorrow. I don't want to fix it now and then have him be all smarmy tomorrow.

I heard Dells are made so you can't upgrade them yourself/its very hard to do so. Is that corrige?

They might be harder to upgrade than they used to be but I don't think so. I'm not really sure what you mean tho - you may break the warranty by changing shit around - and Vista bollocks probably makes it harder - Don't buy a preinstalled Vista machine if you can help it!

PS MB you make me hard tous le temps! There's a party in my pants. And you're invited :tongue:

But yes...back to the PC

Fuck the PC - tell me more about your pants, dear... :tongue:
 

SlimGuySB

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Thanks Slim. Whatever the fault, I don't think its worth even trying to fix it. I think a new machine is the only/best way to go. I'll look into Dell :smile:

PS

When this shitty comp is down I borrow a Dell. The Dells are REALLY heavy (at least compared to this emachines) - is that a sign of quality? Just wondering :D

Nah - it is a sign of a steel case! I used to have (back in the 486 days) a tower machine that required two people to lift - they put a concrete block in the bottom to prevent people nicking it!)

As far as help is concerned - always a pleasure, never a chore! Like MB, this used to be my chosen profession (or at least the one I fell into post Uni). Of course, now I'm trying to flee it as fast as possible, but I'm always happy to try and help :)
 

B_ScaredLittleBoy

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The pants...are coming off. It's time for NAKED BOY lol.

PS about the service...the Dell I use has an 'Express Service' code on it which I assume gets you dealt with quicker/more deftly. That might only be for companies though.

Slim - why are you trying to flee? If you don't mind me asking lol. I'm studying for an MCSE believe it or not (very early stages, obviously) :tongue:

And MB...je veux t'encule...dur. depuis tu...scream :wink:
 

SlimGuySB

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Slim - why are you trying to flee? If you don't mind me asking lol. I'm studying for an MCSE believe it or not (very early stages, obviously) :tongue:

Not at all - I've been in the IT industry in various roles for, oh, about the last 10 years. I've been a repair guy, programmer, software tester etc. and I'm just bored with it to be honest! It was pretty much the only thing I had discovered I was good at by the time I was pushed into choices at Uni level and so I went with it because I was pretty much expected to (it was either that or Physics). Now I'm older, wiser and IM JUST NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE! Ahem. I mean I just don't like the idea of spending the rest of my working life doing something that my heart isn't in any more. So I'm back in education and pursuing something as far from IT as I can possibly get. Of course these days that isn't saying much!

So, it's not a 'rat leaving the sinking ship' kind of thing if that is what you are worried about! It's just that I've decided to head off for pastures new :) I wish you every luck.
 

B_ScaredLittleBoy

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You will be :tongue:

Anyways I'm gonna nick a monitor and a mouse and back the 'shitC' up in here...but will it stay on long enough to backup?

And MB, you is so in for it! Or 'it' is gonna be so in you! Trop belle, trop 'sexi', trop loin de moi :(

Merci pour l'aide

Thanks Slim! I was a little worried hehe. Good luck in your move from IT :)
You must be clever to be an all rounder in IT! Respec' :D

I love how this thread switches from IT to sex. They are so similar after all!
 

B_dxjnorto

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Good luck. Hopefully you'll get your money back. A friend of mine bought a computer like that several years ago. Each time we took it back they would "upgrade" something and charge another fee. I was persistent. After about eight times it was a different computer, but it also ended up costing a whole lot more. I'm pretty sure it was the motherboard. On one of the last visits one of the techs pretty much admitted as much. Why didn't they replace that first?! Money.

I still have an old eMachines that works fine. I've upgraded it to the point where it can't be upgraded any more. In my opinion, all the stuff is made in Taiwan now anyway. You just have to get a set that works well together. Sometimes Dell disables features, like the possibility of adding a high end graphics card and the like. I was in Costco - opened up a Compaq and a Dell with the exact same motherboard. The graphics card slot in the Dell just wasn't there - nothing soldered to the pins on the motherboard. Again - money.
 

B_dxjnorto

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Hard drives don't cost much nowadays. Do you have the install disks so you could put Windows back on it yourself? Buy a hard drive from newegg or somewhere and try that.
 

B_Think_Kink

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Yo.

Basically, I have to go see this guy tomorrow. My uncle bought a PC off him in June. The guy apparently 'fixed it'. 24 hours later my uncle goes back to the shop. He gets a replacement. A few weeks later that has problems too.

So now last Thursday the computer crashes. bsod comes up and the error is "Data Inpage Error...atapi.sys". I made a note of it. Then it rebooted but didn't load windows. The error then was 'NTLDR is missing'. Then I unplugged everything. Ten minutes later I booted it back up and it worked. Ten minutes later it crashed. Then the cycle repeated. About an hour after the initial crash I get back on and it works most of the day.

Next day it crashes and is basically useless for 7 out of the 8 hours I'm in the office. I take it home to test it, run a recovery console etc. I plug it in and windows loads first time. It was late at this point and I had work the next day so I just ran an SFC check. All went well.

Next day it crashed AGAIN. And was useless all day. Same errors. We took it home at the weekend. It crashed on Saturday and was useless all weekend with the usual errors plus 'please select another boot device'.

I have a feeling the errors are all related to INpage error. Which I gather is hardware related. I don't know if its the Intel Dual Core processor (think its P4) or the HD or maybe some bad RAM. Anyways, another thing that happened was after a boot it said WINDOWS NEEDS TO BE ACTIVATED. And we had to phone the helpline etc. Then when we log on the activation codes/serials for all the programs are lost.

Today it crashed again and my uncle called the guy he bought it off. What gets me is he said 'the error message is ...atapi.sys'. Then the guy said "atapi.sys? That's an internet problem." Even I knew the first time it came up it was a hardware problem.

Then as my uncle was explaining 'we have important files on C: drive' the guy said "C drive? What's that?"

Basically he's a prick. I made a log of all the crashes and errors. The machine is an emachines btw. Are they a good/bad brand? I'm guessing its made of some cheap/incompatible parts. Or maybe the guy is selling knock off machines. Another thing is the computer cost £500 and you'd expect it to work at least the 8 hours you're in the office.

This is what I want to know:

Any ideas what causes the error
Anyone have similar experiences with emachines?
*How can I induce the Inpage error*?

I really need to induce it when I take it to the shop otherwise he's going to say there's nothing wrong with it. It would make my point clearer. I'm not leaving the shop with the machine anyway but this guy is very avoidant and it would help if I could show him the error 'in action'.

Sorry this is so long but its really complicated/frequent. Plus we can hardly get any work done when it does go down since a lot of the stuff is on the C: drive and we can seldom get on long enough to be able to backup. Which you shouldn't have to do multiple times a day anyway.

Thanks! Really need some help since I'm going to bed soon and in the morning I'm going to the shop.
When I googled the error code I got this:
ATAPI.SYS BSOD 0x0000007A & 7E


I recently experienced a similar problem. As it turned out,
my video card was not fully seated in the motherboard slot.
I would recommend carefully removing each piece of hardware
from it motherboard slot, then reinstall, making sure it is
fully engaged in its respective motherboard slot. Also, make
sure all electrical connections are secure and no wires are
touching the RAM modules
 

B_Think_Kink

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And this:

Some types of malware camouflage themselves as atapi.sys, particularly if
they are located in c:\windows or c:\windows\system32 folder. Thus check
the atapi.sys process on your pc whether it is pest.
Download and run Security Task Manager for verifying your computer's security.
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/in...l?ref=file.net

Also, check for unsigned drivers:

How to Use Driver Verifier to Troubleshoot Windows Drivers
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244617/en-us

How To Verify Unsigned Device Drivers in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308514/en-us

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For more information about Alcohol 120%, visit the following Alcohol Software Web site: http://www.alcohol-soft.com/ (Alcohol Software Product homepage - Alcohol 120% and Alcohol 52%)
•DAEMON Tools

For more information about DAEMON Tools, visit the following DAEMON Tools Web site: http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/announcements.php] (THE DAEMONS HOME)
 

SlimGuySB

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Thanks Slim! I was a little worried hehe. Good luck in your move from IT :)
You must be clever to be an all rounder in IT! Respec' :D

I love how this thread switches from IT to sex. They are so similar after all!

Or smart enough to move on before they realise I'm not ;o) Thanks for the wishes :)

God, I hope they aren't alike! PC's don't like you inserting things into slots which aren't specifically designed for compatabiliy! Also sex isn't something I ever want to get away from ;)
 

B_ScaredLittleBoy

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So anyway I thought I posed this but maybe not? I just booted up to try and back up the drive and I got the error:

A Disk Read Error Has Occured :mad:

Anyway I shouldn't have to fix all these errors or have the PC never or very rarely turn on. It's going back to the shop tomorrow morning!
 

ManlyBanisters

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B_ScaredLittleBoy

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I'm so tired bebe! :(

Fuck this I'm goin to bed. I'll get up around 9 and finish backing up and shit/trying to get it to work :mad:

Before I go to sleep I'll wank (en francais?) over your beautiful face and your brilliant bosom :cool:

*rub rub*

lol night everyone! *collapses*
 

Osiris

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Thanks Slim. Whatever the fault, I don't think its worth even trying to fix it. I think a new machine is the only/best way to go. I'll look into Dell :smile:

PS

When this shitty comp is down I borrow a Dell. The Dells are REALLY heavy (at least compared to this emachines) - is that a sign of quality? Just wondering :D

I never understood that. When I was doing IT for a huge company, I got a hernia upgrading 500 desktops and 250 Inspiron (Old leadweight ones I might add). I swear they have a compartment they put a 2 stone brick in on every machine. I took a month off after that upgrade and spent most of it in a spa.

I like Dell for their user friendliness and being pretty much idiot proof. :tongue: :redface: The problem with Dell is that their service SUCKS! I literally spent 5 hours one Saturday when I was having problems with my Inspiron laptop. I was shuffled from one offshore, useless script reading, non-native English speaker whom I couldn't understand to the next.:mad:

I have no idea what customer service is like with Compaq/HP because I have never needed to call.

njqt466 frantically knocks every piece of wood in sight for luck . . . just in case. :redface: :tongue:

AMEN!! Great machines, piece of piss customer support. I once had to deal with a level 2 tech at Dell because the machine would not boot, hit power, blink, 1, 2, 3 seconds... OUT! Called Dell and the tech goes. Well boot and hit F5. I said it won't boot, the motherboard is obviously gone. He comes back with. OK, Let's boot and press F10. So I tell this non-foreign I-got-my-certification-from-a-crackerjack-box moron...

"STOP READING THE DAMN SCRIPT, ESCALATE THIS AND SEND A TECH!"

He then says...

"I think you have a hardware failure of some sort, we'll get a tech out."

After that my boss allowed me to carry a hip flask. This is also why I bailed on IT and started selling wine and doing catering for a living.