Researchers have proposed a new method for detecting trojan viruses embedded into hardware chips by using voltage detectors that “sing out” in a different frequency when they’re used on a tampered circuit. [More]
laptops
Michael Dell Replaces High-End Laptop Previously "Fixed" With Black Marker, Crumbs
By 11.4.11
Jeremy’s 3D Alienware gaming laptop from Dell didn’t work right from its first bootup. It had blue screens of death and the video card needed swapping out. When he sent it in for repair, he got it back with crumbs in the keys, and a crack on the side someone tried to hide with black marker. When we posted his story on Consumerist, we gave him CEO Michael Dell’s email address to go tell his story. Now Jeremy writes that after he emailed Mr. Dell, the CEO intervened and made sure Jeremy got a brand-new laptop, along with a free memory and CPU upgrade. [More]
The 4th Replacement Laptop HP Sent Me Doesn't Work, Either
By 10.27.11
John bought a rather nice HP laptop for his business, and it would be nice if it would work. Ever. Every time they boot up one of the replacement machines HP has sent, it crashes. They’re now on laptop #5. [More]
Only Samsung Has The Power To Reinstall Windows On Your Laptop
By 9.16.11
When the hard drive of Joseph’s Samsung laptop began to make clicking noises, he thought it would be simple enough to make a backup image of his hard drive, install a shiny new solid-state drive, and put the backed-up image on his new drive. This didn’t work, and he’s stuck without Windows on his drive. Now he yearns for those long-ago days when computer manufacturers actually shipped copies of the software installed on computers with those computers. [More]
Alienware Laptop "Fixed" With Black Marker, Food Crumbs
By 9.2.11
Jeremy’s 3D Alienware gaming laptop from Dell hasn’t worked right from its first bootup. It had blue screens of death and the video card needed swapping out. Then when he sent it in for repairs, he got it back with food crumbs between the keys. The side panel was also cracked, and someone had tried to hide the crack by coloring it in with black marker. [More]
$250 Laptop Turns Out To Be Made Of Paper
By 9.2.11
Two women bought what they thought was a laptop for $250. Upon opening, it it turned out to be a packet of paper wrapped in black tape. [More]
Toshiba Considers Using Your Laptop Mouse 'Abuse'
By 8.24.11
Even though his Toshiba laptop is less than a year old, Toshiba won’t repair the touchpad of Justin’s computer. He doesn’t think that he’s done anything out of the ordinary with the machine, but Toshiba insists that the button won’t work because of “accident, misuse, abuse, neglect, improper installation, or improper maintenance.” They’re happy to sell him an extended warranty that will cover the repair, though. [More]
EECB To Sony Turns Lemon Laptop Into New Laptop
By 7.28.11
Aaron’s Sony VAIO has failed a few times too many. He faithfully sent it back for repair or had a technician visit his home four times, believing Sony’s promise that the repairs would fix the issue. The last time, it failed during finals week at his college on the East Coast. Sony’s repair depot kept the machine for a month, yet the issue still wasn’t fixed for good. The laptop is now out of warranty, but Aaron had the law on his side. He launched an executive e-mail carpet bomb to some Sony contacts, copying Consumerist. The next day, he heard back from two different people at Sony, offering him a new machine comparable to the one that had failed him. [More]
Fighting For A Working HP Laptop For 8 Months
By 7.25.11
Try as they might, HP just seems to be incapable of getting David’s repair right. When repairing his wireless card that was damaged in a previous repair, they broke the motherboard. Fixing the motherboard, they broke the screen connector. And so on. Even the replacement computer they gave him started to fail, and then they failed at fixing that correctly. This ridiculous dance has been going on for 8 months. [More]
Best Buy Replaces Deaf Bed-Bound Girl's Laptop After Holding It Hostage
By 7.22.11
After the story of a deaf and bed-bound girl whose laptop had been bouncing back and forth between Best Buy Geek Squad repair for 3 months went up on Consumerist, the ambassador for Geek Squad City, Randy Ratliff, reached out to help. “The buck stops here!” he said in his email. And of all the many who say that, he’s one of the few to mean it. He investigated the issue and now Jenni’s sister has a new laptop. [More]
Man Wrests Free Repair From Acer's Claws
By 7.21.11
Acer is infamous for its inferior or nearly non-existent customer service. Long are the annals of history filled with the tales of those who have thrown themselves against Acer’s ramparts and disintegrated on impact. But reader PW shares how he was able to get his 6 months out of warranty Acer laptop replaced after it died. The secret is to look for the email address with .tw after them. That’s right, email addresses leading back to the mothership in Taiwan. [More]
Best Buy Holding Deaf Bed-Bound Girl's Laptop Hostage Since May
By 7.13.11
Jenni’s sister is disabled and bed-bound, and her laptop is her portal to the world. So when her HP laptop had to go in for repair, it was a big deal. It was an even bigger deal after the Geek Squad spent over a month dickering with the repair and while it was in their hands, the warranty ran out. Now Geek Squad won’t give it back unless the full out of warranty price is paid, and HP says it’s not their problem, it’s Geek Squad’s. Meanwhile it’s been almost three months and Jenni’s sister has no computer. [More]
HP Gives Gal Warranty By Accident, Knows It, Lets Her Replace Laptop Anyway
By 7.1.11
Donni is totally stoked! She bought a refurb HP laptop that kicked the bucket after its 90-day warranty expired. She gave up hope but then HP randomly sent her an email asking her if she wanted to renew her warranty. Donni called them up and they scratched their heads and said, yeah, that shouldn’t have happened, but they went ahead and let her get the warranty and replace her laptop anyway. For this reason, Donni is very happy with HP. [More]
Buying Laptop At Best Buy Ends In Misery And Failure For All
By 6.13.11
All Rob wanted to do was buy a laptop at his local Best Buy for the price shown on the website. As we know, sometimes this can be a bit of a problem. What followed was a comedy of errors as the guys in the khaki pants try to foist off on him a display model laptop that doesn’t even have the right battery. When Rob gives up and orders one directly from Best Buy with in-store pickup, it turns out to be defective. The experience of then trying to get a straightforward refund is then equally defective. Go big blue! [More]
Dell Makes Good For Man Whose Life They Wasted 400 Minutes Of
By 6.1.11
After Bill’s story of spending 400 minutes in Dell Hell to get his dead laptop replaced went up on Consumerist, Dell gave him a call [More]
Man's 400 Minutes In Dell Hell Could Cost Them Millions
By 6.1.11
By pissing off this one customer, Dell may have lost millions of dollars. Bill is a corporate account holder and a consultant who makes recommendations to Fortune 500 companies on how to spend their IT money. Usually he recommends Dell, but after his trip to Dell Hell, that will no longer be the case. [More]
Laptop Thief Caught Thanks To Spy Program, Twitter, And Eventually, The Oakland PD
By 6.1.11
After Joshua Kaufman’s Macbook was stolen from his apartment in Oakland, he notified the police. Due to budget cutbacks, Oakland PD don’t respond to many non-violent crimes anymore like burglary, grand theft, and car wrecks, so initially they couldn’t help him. Then Josh activated a tracking program on it called Hidden. Like other similar programs, it gave him real-time remote access to his computer, letting him take pictures using its webcam and capture screenshots. He set up a Tumblr to post them, his story went viral, he gave the tracking info to the police, and they ended up trapping the thief and getting the laptop back to Josh. [More]
How (And Why) A Pack Of Twitter Vigilantes Recovered A Stranger's Stolen Laptop
By 5.13.11
A guy was able to hunt down his laptop after he lost it by using a program that gave him remote access to it, tracking its location and taking screenshots of the person who was using it. He even got the guys name after watching him log into Skype. Problem was the laptop was in New York City and the owner was traveling in Canada. So he began live-tweeting his predicament and the Twitterverse rose up and rescued his laptop. [More]
