We’ve just found a tech repair service worse than the Geek Squad. [More]
computers
ASUS, I Just Want My Computer Back From Warranty Repair Hell
By 11.10.10
Rob really, really liked his ASUS laptop. He kept it clean, treated it kindly, and loved it very much. Yet the display mysteriously broke…sort of… and it began crying rainbow LCD tears when it was only six months old. He sent it in for repair, and the company first told him that the repair would take three business days…then fourteen. Rob would really, really like his computer back. [More]
Flash Drives Are Deceptively Perfect For Viruses
By 10.6.10
Over the past few years, some of the world’s most dangerous and daring computer viruses have originated on infected USB drives. One even got into the computers inside Iran’s largest nuclear power plant, even though it’s not connected to any outside network. See, what makes flash drives such an ideal host is that most people don’t think twice about sticking one in their computer. [More]
Track And Recover A Stolen Laptop With Prey
By 9.24.10
Lifehacker has a great tutorial on how to use the free software called “Prey” to track and recover your stolen laptop or Android. What’s cool is that the program can silently locate the laptop via triangulation and take pictures and screenshots, or you can more aggressively lock the computer down and send whoever is using it various warning messages. [More]
Steve Jobs's Flamewar With A College Student
By 9.20.10
Usually we praise a CEO for responding directly to customers but Apple’s Steve Jobs has made a hobby of talking tough to those who email him at sjobs@apple.com. In the latest case, because she couldn’t get a quote out of the PR department, a college journalism student took him to task. So he took her to hers, saying “Our goals do not include helping you get a good grade” and “Please leave us alone.” [More]
Best Buy Repairs Laptop With Fried Motherboard By Replacing Hard Drive, Removing Operating System
By 9.20.10
The Geek Squad service timeline for Stephen’s $1300 Asus laptop went something like this: ship it off for repairs, get it back in an even more broken state and missing all data, be forced to buy a $35 disk from Asus to prove to Best Buy that the problem is their responsibility, then finally find that something went missing during the first repair. Stephen eventually just asked for his money back on his ruined laptop, but the best he could get was store credit. [More]
Dell Accused Of Cutting And Pasting Text, Withholding Emails, In Defective 11.8 Million PCs Suit
By 8.13.10
Dell is accused of providing altered and incomplete emails from among its top execs, the latest turn in a lawsuit that alleges the computer maker of selling and then covering up 11.8 defective PCs. [More]
HP Happy To Fix My Computer For Free After I Took Them To Small Claims Court
By 8.6.10
Do you have a defective computer that the manufacturer refuses to repair? Emmanuel has some advice for you: take ’em to court. Facing a constantly rebooting laptop, he tells Consumerist that HP was only willing to fix it if he paid a $225 fee. Unsatisfied with this solution, he filed in small claims court, and the company offered to fix it for free. As long as he drops the case. [More]
HP Won't Repair My Out-Of-Warranty Laptop — Do I Fight Or Bail?
By 8.4.10
R would like to press HP to fix his broken 3-year-old laptop because he’s found forums on which several other users have experienced the same breakdown, but feels skittish about fighting because his computer is long out of warranty. He’d like to test the Consumerist waters to see which way he should go. [More]
Security Patching For XP Service Pack 2 Ends Today
By 7.13.10
If you’re still using Windows XP SP2, you’re about to be on your own. Today Microsoft releases its final security update for Service Pack 2 (the 32-bit version, at least). [More]
IKEA's Blue Screen Of Death
By 7.8.10
Snapped this picture last night at my local IKEA of a blue screen of death afflicting their product finder kiosk. Since it’s IKEA, they also expect customers to do their own tech support. [More]
Use Your Obsolete Computer To Grate Cheese
By 7.3.10
While Vince “ShamWow” Shlomi might think slicing cheese with an Eminem CD is the ultimate in repurposed tech, MacForce has one-upped him big time. The tech consulting company is out with a video demonstrating how the Apple PowerMac G5, launched in 2003 as a $2,000 workhorse computer, is now better suited to working as a humble cheese grater. [More]
7 Things Ex-Geek Squad Employee Wishes Every Computer Novice Knew
By 7.2.10
Not all Geek Squad technicians are ex-Domino’s delivery guys trying to siphon porn from your computer, some of them actually have a heart. This guy gal does, and it keeps breaking over and over again as he she sees clueless consumers queuing up to pay for service for mundane computer issues they could have prevented with just a teensy bit of know-how. Perhaps that is why she no longer works there. In any event, he she sent us a list of 7 different money-saving tips he she wished every computer owner knew. Most Consumerist readers probably know them, and most Best Buy customers don’t, so send this on to your Aunt Gretchen and lose Geek Squad some business: [More]
Court Docs Reveal Dell Sold Computers It Knew Would Fail
By 6.30.10
Seem Dell has a hell all of its own. Newly unsealed court documents show that Dell sold computers knowing they would go kaput. The documents reveal that Dell sold nearly 12 million Optiplex machines between 2003-2005 with leaky capacitors that caused problems in 97% of the cases in over three years. Leaky capacitors lead to device failure, and can even cause the computer to become ablaze with fire. [More]
USB Typewriter Turns Ancient Object Into Something Almost Useful
By 6.15.10
If you’re a computer user of a (cough, cough) certain age, you may think the IBM Model M is the only real keyboard and everything else is a poor imitation. If you’re of an even hoarier vintage, you may wax nostalgic for your trusty Underwood. Well, wax no more! The USB Typewriter is here, and it will take your century-old doorstop and turn it into a keyboard for a newfangled computer faster than you can say Jack Robinson!
54,000 More HP Batteries Recalled
By 5.24.10
Hewlett-Packard doesn’t just make props for cringeworthy feature length commercials; the company also sells batteries that sometimes catch fire. A year ago HP recalled about 70,000 bad batteries, and now it’s added another 54,000 to the list. [More]
Beware Best Buy Computer Price Hikes
By 5.24.10
Donald says Best Buy is sticking it to uninformed customers by advertising computers at higher than regular prices and passing them off as great deals without quite calling them sales. [More]
