Getting my computer fixed

[XMuppetSB]

Earlier this evening, I took my computer to the Geek Squad at Best Buy to have it worked on, because my computer had been crashing just about every day lately. In this case, I kept getting the blue screen of death. It will take about a week for them to repair my computer, so until I get my computer back, I'm using my iPad to access the internet.

[Brasel]

For future reference to you and anyone who needs a computer repair, local computer shops are almost always significantly cheaper than Best Buy's Geek Squad. Additionally, local computer shops tend to have technicians that have more and better experience working with computers. A guy from a local computer shop will normally try to actually troubleshoot the problem to find what is causing it, then fix it. Geek Squad will just reload Windows. Take a look online for local computer shops if you don't know where yours are.

[XMuppetSB]

For future reference to you and anyone who needs a computer repair, local computer shops are almost always significantly cheaper than Best Buy's Geek Squad. Additionally, local computer shops tend to have technicians that have more and better experience working with computers. A guy from a local computer shop will normally try to actually troubleshoot the problem to find what is causing it, then fix it. Geek Squad will just reload Windows. Take a look online for local computer shops if you don't know where yours are.

Back when I had my old Windows XP fixed one time, I took that thing to Geek Squad. Of course, the computer I'm having repaired right now is a Windows 7. But anyway, I bought a new hard drive for them to install, and the next thing they need is the startup disk. I gave them 3 disks that say HP, but if those don't go to my computer, then I' have to call HP to send me a replacement disk.

[rock_nog]

I'm still burned on Best Buy when it comes to tech because years and years ago, God this must've been 2001 or 2002, I purchased a video card for my computer from them which was defective. Not a huge deal, not their fault, but here was the specific defect - the card itself was not properly attached to the metal backing plate. Something went wrong and the card was attached to the backing plate at a noticeable angle. What this meant was, with the plate screwed onto the case, the card literally could not go into the PCI slot (yeah, this was back when not all computers had AGP slots, but that's neither here nor there). Anyway, if you didn't screw the plate to the case, you could kinda jerryrig the card into place, and it worked just fine, but since it wasn't secured, and the plate was still off at an angle, the card would pop out of the slot at the slightest jostling (I mean, you close the door to the room, that was enough of a vibration to cause the card to pop out of place). Took the card back to Best Buy, tried to tell them of the problem so I could exchange it, but they wanted to test it to make sure the card was defective, otherwise they'd charge a restocking fee. I watched them try to install the card, struggling to jerryrig it into place, and then told me there was nothing wrong with it and that I'd have to pay the restocking fee. I was outraged over this - I had just explained that the card works, the problem isn't the card, but the fact that it's improperly attached to the backing plate, and that even though it works, because it doesn't fit right, it's easily jostled out of place. All they said was, "Well, we turned the computer on and the card works just fine, so clearly there's nothing wrong with it." I mean, I was sitting there pointing at how the plate was at an angle, but they just kept saying that it worked because the computer turned on.

Long story short, this led to hours of telephone tag to Best Buy management to try to get the issue resolved, but they kept saying the same thing the tech people at the store said, until finally some supervisor or something agreed to refund the card without charging a restocking fee. It was just mind-boggling, though - the defect was plainly visible just taking the card out of the box, and yet there was such hassle to get a return. Ever since then, I just can't stomach the thought of dealing with Best Buy. Sorry for this tangent of a story, just any time I see the name, it sends me flying into a rage.

[XMuppetSB]

Well, my computer has been fixed and I got it back today. Since my old hard drive crapped out, they didn't back up any files from it. However, I copied all my files to an external hard drive before I took my computer to have it fixed, and so I've been copying those files onto my new hard drive. Either way, I'm glad I finally have my computer back, and I'm quite surprised that it only took them 5 days to get my computer fixed.

[XMuppetSB]

Status update: I got my new hard drive installed last week, but it has seemingly already crapped out, and now I can't even get my computer to start, so I'm going to take it back to have it looked at again, and if they can't fix it again this time, then I'll have no choice but to get a new computer instead. What's even worse, I think there might be something else wrong with it besides the hard drive, because even when I tried putting the recovery disks in the disk drive, that didn't work either.

EDIT: Well, I just took it back in this evening. This time, they're going to do a system restore, which should be finished no later than Saturday. I just hope they can get it fixed this time.

EDIT: We'll, they're taking longer than expected to start working on my computer.

[XMuppetSB]

Well, it's over. Both the new hard drive and the processor have failed, and thus, my old computer is officially dead. Oh well, time to get a new one instead. So in conclusion, I'm going to get a refund on the hard drive.
UPDATE: Got my new computer now.

[CaRmAgE]

I had a very similar experience with my old computer. The problem is probably the motherboard, not the hard drive. In my case, a bunch of capacitors failed. If you look at your motherboard and some of the capacitors look like they're bulging on top, then they've gone bad. I would agree with getting a new computer, since replacing capacitors is more trouble than it's worth.

Of course, this is just a guess based on your updates.

[ctrl-alt-delete]

Can you tell us exactly what the computer does when you attempt to turn it on? I know it's been replaced, but that was probably unnecessary.

[XMuppetSB]

My old computer kept crashing on startup and telling me to select a boot up device. But yeah, if I were to try to start it up again, I probably wouldn't see anything but a blank black screen, since the hard drive had to be removed. Nonetheless, I got the refund on that hard drive, but I got my refund in cash.