Reader Katy, whose laptop had disappeared into the black hole that is the HP repair department, writes us with an update. HP sent her computer back, but it’s still sort of broken. She’s going to work with HP to get the laptop fixed under warranty (so she can give it to her brother), but she’d had enough and went out and bought a Macbook.
Katy writes:
I got a voicemail on the 15th saying that my HP wouldn’t ship until the 29th. That is when I decided to bite the bullet and purchase the macbook that I wanted. I get paid every 2 weeks, so on the morning of the 16th I came into work early to purchase my macbook online before I started work at 9. I got the confirmation email at 8:30 from Apple. At 9:30 I got an email from HP saying that my computer had shipped the day before. I received my HP that afternoon. It works, but is still having problems with the screen blanking out and with freezing up. I was supposed to get start up disks sent with it as well, and that never happened. I will stay in touch with both the case manager that somewhat worked with me, and the contact that I got from you guys to make sure I get the warranty that was promised to me. The HP will go to my brother, so at least it will have a good home and not be a pain in my ass anymore.
Thank you once again for the help!
Ah yes. Capitalism.
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Take this coming from someone with 15+ years doing Mac and PC setup, installation and tech support – you did the right thing in getting a Mac.
Myth – Macs are more expensive.
Not when you count what your time is worth and what the resale value is like.
Macs – very, very few worries about viruses and pop-up, adware, spyware, etc.
“There are a million different “Setup” files in every Windows installer.”
Maybe not a million, but usually 2 or 3. Which is the right one? Some installers auto-launch. Some don’t. Some have icons to indicate it probably is the right one to use, some don’t. After it finishes – what did it install and where? Oh wait – you will need to enable logging to possibly find out and that’s…a registry hack.
Anyways – I’m sure you’ll love your Mac…!
“I love how HP dicks people over, and people say “i’m switching to a Mac!”
There are other brands out there you know…’
HP, Dell, Gateway what’s the difference? They are just box assemblers
slapping together parts. The real problem is Windows. Just look at Vista ME.
What a dismal failure. Buying another PC just gets you more the same
hassles.
If you need Windows for a certain piece of software, just buy a Mac and
install Windows on it and/or run Windows through a virtual machine. Then you
can either boot up from Windows like any other PC and run it at full speed,
or you can boot Windows up inside of Mac OS X and run it in a window with a
small loss in performance.
Plus, Macs are full featured. No stripped down budget hardware that you’ll
be replacing in two years. Mac are useful for much longer because they come
fully load, which is why they start at $1000. Plus, you get a better
operating system.
No viruses.
@sir_pantsalot:
That’s a longstanding AOL suite (for Windows) bug that (I think) relates to sending e-mail with inline attachments. It’s been awhile since I had to deal with anyone using the AOL suite on Windows within my family, but it’s definitely an issue with the suite software on their end being terrible.
Anyway, to add another Mac tip, get an external FireWire hard drive and the paid version of SuperDuper. You can set it up to create a bootable copy of your laptop hard drive on the first run. Then, you can periodically have SuperDuper only update files that have changed (an option in the paid version). If you do it regularly, it’ll only take a few minutes for each update. That’s helped me backtrack from a few bad software/OS updates in the past while still having full access to my files.
Or, if you’re afraid you won’t remember to backup regularly, set the external hard drive up with Time Machine. It won’t be bootable, but you can still boot off of your system’s restore DVD and use a utility on that to restore your system from Time Machine.
Thnk you OP, ChipMcDougal, for the tip. I was thinking about buying an professional printer / plotter. I will definitely think twice about buying from HP.
I’ve had a Compaq C300 laptop for well over two years now, and aside from having a crappy battery that was replaced within a few days after a phone call to tech support – and an over-heating issue (that for some reason was cured when I decided to replace the hard drive). It heated to the point of automatic-shutdown.
Other than those two quirks, I haven’t had any real problems with it. Granted, I run Ubuntu on it. Uninstalled windows. And format every other month. Maybe 98% of the world is having issues, and I must be that other 2% that is relatively content with it.
I initially misread the headline as:
UPDATE: I Am Fed Up With Bic And Bought A Matchbook Instead
@BlackFlag55: On buying a printer: I know this is probably admitting my stupidity but I look at cartridge prices before I commit to a printer. The printer I currently have is a Canon and the cartridges are $6 for a black and $16 for color.
The printer isn’t top of the line but I can print whatever I want. I started doing this when I was a freshman in college because inevitably I will run out of ink at 4 am when the term paper is due at 9. So I know that I could scrape up $6 to run to Wal-Mart. (I’ve since stopped shopping at Wal-Mart.)
But does anyone else buy a printer in this fashion?
@jeblis: I agree with this. I went to a friend’s house who had recently bought a Mac and he had about 25 of those little white disks all over his desktop. I was horrified!
After I showed him what he was SUPPOSED to do he couldn’t believe it was so simple. He was also wondering why Apple would allow him to clutter his desktop in that fashion.
I had to get used to the Mac just being easier. It took time for me to “unlearn” everything I needed to know just to use my PC.
@baristabrawl:
If by “easier” you mean less intuitive and confusing, then yeah it is. (in this instance)
Trujunglist – hell yeah Disk Warrior. And Tech Tool Pro.
This is exactly what happened to me with two $3000 Sony laptops and Best Buy’s Geekless Squad service over the course of a couple of years… i finally gave up and bought a Mac.
@baristabrawl: I’m honestly at a loss when the disc image window says, in lettering that takes half the window, “Drag application to the folder you’d like to install.”
Sweet baby Jeezus. Maybe Apple should bring up a series of windows, with dialogs, allowing you to “change” this, “change” that, set 1 of 5 configurations, verify your choice, scan your hard drive, tell you what version of OS you have (telling you to upgrade to OS X Premium for the ULTIMATE Mac experience, then confirm everything in a separate dialog via an alert asking permission.
Then have a flashing window with an arrow telling you, “Drag it here. NOW!”
Ewww. Sorry moving from an HP to a Mac is NOT an upgrade. But then again when you have a hardware problem you will have to go to a store and hope a “genius” can fix it. Goto the Small Business store at Dell and get a completecare warranty and get the upgrade to Goldcare. Yeah Dell is a one of the big companies but I’ve found that warranty set to be the best. They came out to my house and replaced my motherboard and powerbutton after my infant son threw up into my laptop. Two days I was back up and running.
The OP should, unless she really hates her brother, send the HP on a one way trip to the dumpster. They are just not worth keeping. It will NEVER work right and will just make your brother angry at you.
HP sucks. They keep outdating every product (printer, scanner, etc.) when operating systems change (e.g., vista) so you have to buy new ones.