[AT] OT: netcook/laptop problems (was Re: Drag line engine ID wanted

[pga2 at BasicISP.net]

As many of you guys know, I work in the US repair center for Acer/Gateway/eMachines.
Some of the units we get for repair have been to Best Buy, aka Geek Squad for repair
before we get them. These units come in with a variety of complaints from "hard drive
bad" to "motherboard bad", etc. Nine times out of ten, probably more, the problem has
been badly mis-diagnosed by the "Geeks". Usually it turns out to be a simple problem,
much like the touchpad being too sensitive. I don't like touchpads and use a USB mouse
with my laptop. Mine is old enough that FnF7 turns off the touchpad. We used to see
a lot of laptops come in saying the touchpad was inop., and a FnF7 would miraculously
fix it. Of course, since we have outsourced our support line to India we have a lot
of problems that could've been fixed over the phone show up for repair.

Phil



--- mikesloane at verizon.net wrote:

From: Mike Sloane <mikesloane at verizon.net>
To: Antique tractor email discussion group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Subject: Re: [AT] OT: netcook/laptop problems (was Re: Drag line engine ID wanted
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:27:34 -0500

As it happens, this fancy HP laptop (a "Dv7") had a "Best Buy" sticker 
on it, and I am left to guess why anyone would discard a $700+ 2 year 
old laptop, unless the nice folks at Best Buy told them that it would 
cost more to fix the problem than the unit was worth. On this machine, 
there is a little button above the touch-pad, and pushing it disables 
the touch-pad (a LED changes from white to red next to the button). When 
I did that, the keyboard problems all went away! I feel (just a very 
little bit) guilty about fixing the problem so easily, but I don't know 
the identity of the PO and have little sympathy for them if they were 
willing to discard a perfectly good machine without getting a second 
opinion as to the problem and how to fix it. This isn't the first 
discarded computer I have encountered with a Best Buy sticker on it that 
turned out to have only very minor problems that were easily fixed.

I just wish all my tractor related problems were so easily dealt with...

Mike

On 11/17/2010 11:13 AM, charlie hill wrote:
> Let me know how it works out Mike.  I'm trying to be much more deliberate in
> my "keyboarding" to see if that helps.  One thing,  I bought a notebook of
> the same manufacture but not exactly the same model from Best Buy  and set
> it up myself.  I never had a problem with it.   It ended up having an
> internal problem and I took it back.  They were out of the model I had and I
> took the similar one in exchange.  They had already had their Geek Squad
> guys do the set up on this one up and I can tell from the tones it uses to
> indicate certain actions that the kid that set it up thought he was being
> cool.  I suspect it has a lot of secondary functions set up in it.  They are
> fine for advanced users with nimble little fingers but maybe not so good for
> a 60 year old with fat hands.
>
> Charlie
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Mike Sloane"<mikesloane at verizon.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 10:49 AM
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
> Subject: [AT] OT: netcook/laptop problems (was Re: Drag line engine ID
> wanted
>
>> I agree with Howard. I was having a similar problem with a fancy HP
>> laptop I rescued from the dumpster - the only thing wrong with it was
>> that it was doing random odd things while I was typing, including having
>> the cursor just wander all over the place. Just for the heck of it, I
>> plugged in and used a regular keyboard, and the problem went away
>> immediately. I am going to see if I can disable the touch-pad (I use a
>> regular optical mouse, not the touch-pad, so it won't be any loss).
>>
>> Mike
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