Chris was fixing his neighbor’s Toshiba laptop when he discovered that the hard drive was defective. Just like how he does at his job where he is a professional computer technician, he wrote “FAULTY X” on it to indicate it shouldn’t be used again. When he sent the computer, which was still under its 1-year warranty period, in to Toshiba, he was dismayed by the reply he got back. They refused to replace the hard drive because “the label was written/torn” and “Toshiba does not cover the cost for this type of damage.” Now they $417.58 for the repair. [More]
laptops
Samsung Investigates Report Of Keyloggers On Its Laptops
By 3.31.11
Samsung is investigating after an IT consultant reported in Network World that he had found installed in two different brand new Samsung R series laptops he bought a keylogging program that could be used by someone remotely to capture his every keystroke. In response, a Samsung spokesman said, “We take these claims very, very seriously.”
UPDATE: Threatpost reports that Samsung says there’s no keylogger, the results were a false positive when an antivirus program mistakenly identified Microsoft’s Live Application multi-language support folder, “SL” folder, as StarLogger.
Man IDs, And Shames, Alleged Laptop Thief With Dance Video
By 3.28.11
A man says he has his stolen laptop back after he posted a video of the guy who snatched his laptop took of himself dancing, using the camera on the laptop. [More]
Man Gets Lead On Laptop Thief Using Dropbox Program
By 3.24.11
Ryan believes he has a lead on who stole his laptop thanks to the Dropbox filesharing program that was installed on his computer. Turns out his laptop could be just up the street from him right now. But what does he do with the IP address he got from Dropbox? [More]
EECB Gets Microsoft To Stop Dillydallying And Overnight Laptop
By 3.18.11
George was able to get Microsoft to pick up the pace and ship him a laptop he’d been waiting for for almost a month thanks to a well-crafted EECB. What I like about his is the little personal story he puts at the beginning that’s very much in line with the “praise with faint damn” approach we’ve advocated in the past. [More]
Stretch The Life Of Your Laptop Battery
By 3.10.11
If your laptop is saddled with a battery so poor that you have to constantly be plugged into an outlet, you’re missing out on all the benefits a portable computer can offer. There are steps you can take to make sure your batter lasts as long as possible before you need to replace it. [More]
Get $150 In Dell Inspiron "Deceptively Designed" Class Action
By 3.3.11
A class action lawsuit claims Dell “deceptively designed” its Inspiron laptop series to have “1) inadequate cooling systems, (2) a power supply system that prematurely fails when used as intended, and (3) motherboards that prematurely fail when used as intended.” If you had one of these laptops and paid Dell for a repair, you could be eligible for a $150 payout. [More]
Sorry, No Parts At Asus: Guess You'll Just Have To Buy A New Computer
By 2.25.11
As consumer electronics become lighter and tinier, and are assembled on the other side of the planet, we’re more inclined to replace something than to repair it. Mike’s experience takes the “ending is better than mending” phenomenon to a new level: he’d be happy to replace the unbearably loud fan on his Asus Eee PC himself, but the company doesn’t sell parts. Asus could accept the machine for repair, but no one knows how much the repair would cost, or if it’s even possible. [More]
Each Of The 8 HP Laptops I've Bought Suffer From Blue Screen Of Death
By 2.10.11
Dan made a boo-boo and now he’s blue-blue. He broke his wife’s laptop and decided to replace it with a HP DV6t Special Edition laptop, picking one up for himself too. But he’s not the only one suffering from discoloration, so are his laptops’ screens. They’re continually afflicted by the dread “Blue Screen of Death.” He’s called and complained and exchanged the laptops several times, but each time, BSOD. They’re on laptops 7 & 8 now. What’s the deal? [More]
What To Do With Your Old Laptop
By 1.28.11
Once you shove your slow, beat-up laptop aside for a newer model, you need to decide what to do with the older machine. While it’s tempting to take a baseball bat to the laptop, as the guys in the movie The Office did to the copier, there are plenty of useful functions for your digital ex. [More]
Don't Call Apple About Your Expanding MacBook Battery Unless It Explodes
By 1.14.11
The necessary but easily interchangeable pieces of a laptop, such as the power cord and any removable batteries, usually aren’t covered under the laptop’s warranty. When those items wear out or break in the course of normal use, you’re expected to replace them. When the 1.5-year-old battery to Tommy’s 6-year-old Macbook Pro overheated and began to expand, Apple representatives were sympathetic, but unable to replace the battery since, well, batteries are only supposed to last for a year or so. [More]
Netbook Freezes, I Send It Back, Get A New One, Repeat And Repeat
By 1.7.11
Brian is an Acer devotee, but says his girlfriend has been stung by a particular netbook model that freezes up on her no matter how many times they exchange it for a new one. [More]
There's No Caps Lock On Google's New Laptop
By 12.21.10
The most revolutionary feature on Google’s new laptop might not be the Chrome OS, free broadband or cloud-based computing, but their decision to leave off the Caps Lock key entirely. How else will everyone on the internet know that I am screaming? [More]
Laptop Borked By Dell Tech Gets Replaced After Consumerist Post
By 12.15.10
Angel is happy to report that after his story went up on Consumerist, Dell reached out to him and will be replacing his laptop. [More]
EECB Gets HP To Replace Laptop They Tried To Pass Off As Water-Damaged
By 12.15.10
Charlie sent in his HP Mini for repair after the keyboard and mouse stopped working. They denied his warranty repair by saying that a loose tape was caused by water damage, which, while not only unlikely on the face of it, seemed impossible to Charlie as he babies his computers like they were Fabergé eggs. So he launched his campaign on HP upper management… [More]
"On-Call" Dell Tech Takes Over 7 Hours To Screw Up Your Laptop, Makes You Miss Your Date
By 12.14.10
Angel’s patience was worn down to the quick after waiting for a on-call Dell tech to come and fix his high-end laptop, only to have the guy bungle the repair, screw up his hardware, and make him miss his date. [More]
Reach Dell Resolution Expert Center
By 12.9.10
Here’s how to contact the Dell Resolution Expert Center (REC), another place to get action on your Dell customer service issue. It’s a special internal escalations team set up to resolve thornier problems that’s been around for several years but many customers aren’t aware of. [More]
HP's Idea Of Fixing A Coupon Is For You To Buy A 2nd Laptop
By 12.3.10
Talk about buyer’s remorse. Hours after David bought a new laptop from HP with a $150 off coupon, they rolled out a $200 off coupon. HP’s first suggestion to solve this was that David should buy a second laptop at the reduced price and then return it. Excuuuuuse me? [More]
