On Wednesday 15 May 2002 11:09, Ryland Bingham wrote:
> Towards the end of the call I
> let it slip that I removed Win ME and was running linux, and the support
> person casually mentioned that part of the repair process was to wipe
> out linux and re-install Windows me.
Sounds like a malpractice suit to me :-)
Patient to Doctor: Your cure is worse than my complaint!
> In effect, if you don't want to have your system wiped and unavailable
> for 3 weeks, you lose your Warranty. I went out and spent $15 for a new
> fan, but what do I do if something major dies on me?
If you'd bought a beige-box, you (or a very local, small-time dealer) would
be responsible for fixing it all. With a name-brand, you gotta put up with
not only HPs long turnaround and reinstall policies, but you will have to put
up with only using HPs parts for some of the components.
If you lose something major, like the motherboard or video, I'd take that as
an opportunity to switch to a locally-supported beige box. Many of the
pieces of your Pavillion, (HDD, CD-ROM, any PCI cards, keyboard/mouse) will
work with it, so it's not quite as bad as having to replace the whole system
(just a case, power supply, motherboard - then you transplant the drives and
cards). And next time you have a repair, ANYONE can help you fix it within
hours, it will be cheaper, and you won't have someone wiping your drive (and
you'll get out of paying the MS tax).
I would simply accept the responsibility of do-it-yourself fixing. I've
bailed many a friend of out this kind of repair nightmare, and I build all my
own systems (not for a living, just for myself, friends and family). Just
switch to standard components, and you'll be fine. (Just like software -
switch to Open Source, and most of your downtime vanishes).
Tim
-- ------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy Jones - tim@timjones.com / tjones@tsiconnections.com Unix/Linux/Java Programmer/DBA/SystemAdmin & Brasswind Player
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