Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Computer from Hell (CFH) Part 4 - The Final Straws -

I thought I finally had a working desktop, but three days after loading my personal programs, I booting to a black screen. OOPS! After several attempts and analysis, I felt the problem was a failed hard drive.

Thus began the round-robin of phone calls but only one target - the internationally known computer manufacturer (CM). Since the CFH history in their records of my purchase, my call received immediate high tier tech support. A nice lady agreed with my analysis and offered to ship a new hard drive, but I had to format it and return the old one. I agreed - no problem.

It arrived shortly and I formatted with operating system -- but nothing else - and returned the defective hard drive. I occasionally turn it off and on. It sat unused a few weeks.

My best friend (BF) who needed a desktop and knew the history of the CFH, asked to borrow it, for a short time until she had funds for a new purchase.

We spent a day moving it between homes, setting up, and loading her personal preferences and programs. I had no faith this was a good decision, but she loaded her financial program and records.

Three days later the hard drive crashed again.

To end my agony, I made a decision to accept the fact I made the worst purchasing decision of my life and continued to throw good money after bad, to correct it.

I fired off an e-mail to the CEO of CM, regaling the saga of the CFH, with statistics, my turmoil mental anguish, and my opinion of this model line (which still exists).

A CEO representative called to see if the CM could salvage our relationship. I firmly said, all I wanted was a box and ticket to recycle the unit FREE with their customer recycling service. Although he tried, this CM action go lost in the on-line form so I gave up.

I dismantled the computer into components, sent most to an area computer club that recycles computers for sale at the Humane Society and Salvation Army. I kept memory and CD/DVD recorder/player. The case went curbside for garbage pickup--yeah, I know, but I tried to do right, but this whole sordid ordeal needed an end.

Having opened the case several times, my intermediate computer technology determined miniaturization can be too extreme. There were only two tiny fans, one on the CPU and one on the motor. All components were packed or stacked on top of each other. The unit relied on many air holes in the case for venting.

I own two laptops. Will I ever buy a netbook? Not any time soon!

  • Lesson #5: Analyze bad purchase decisions earlier and honestly consider if rectifying them is a viable option or simply it is just a BAD DECISION and move on.
Oh, I almost forgot...

  • Lesson #6: If your hard drive crashes and you failed to backup recently or never, put it in your freezer for two hours, re-connect it and retrieve everything you want, or ever think you might want before it dies again.
I found this tip on the INTERNET, didn't believe it, but decided I had nothing to lose. IT WORKS!!!

THE END ......[Luckie says 'thank goodness, maybe I will get more play time.']

No comments: