What a Day - PC

[fuse04]

Just had to share this with you folk...sorry for the rant

Up really early (for me), 7am, made a drink and turned the PC on....oh, dear...corrupted system32 file....computer dead....really dead

As I type this it is 16.55 and following a whole day in front of the computer without a break, talking to a range of 'support' staff, being shunted from Techinical support and software support (you already know how this works!), the computer is mended

However getting there was a challange to say the least. On the inital "repairing" windows XP, there were some driver errors, no internet. The 'expert' support people informed me we had to reformat and reinstall new version of XP; told me to back up the Drivers folder. Did that and things were even worse and despite previous assurances all would be fixed.

A couple more times on the phone and they said the only option was for them to email me the drivers (a very useful suggeestion given the computer could not connect to the internet!). So previous advice was rubbish and he would not even put me through to the supervisor...all in a meeting (again we all know how that works!) and that only software support could help, who in turn directed back to hardware, back to software...think you follow!

Mostly off shore support centres, there was one guy who ignored every question I asked.....I suppose there was no prompt on the screen!...numerous times I had to interjet and say "excuse me I just asked you a question". Apparently the Ethernet card driver is stopping me form getting to the internet, aksed me to remove USB to see if there was a green light...i said I had never seen a green light from a USB port (not sure about green but I was seeing red!)....found out later that USB connections do not use Ethernet card anyway

Found one guy who seemed to know his stuff (at $1 per minute of course) and basically the repair had worked but given bad advice re need for install and follow up driver issues.

At least the PC now works, can use the internet, however I

have a headache
no music files on PC but loas on Ipod!
need to reload all my images and games
have a USA set up on my keyboard hence $
and await a very large telephone bill !!!

I am going to lay in a darkening room with sweat tea and then hit the takeaway and the drink

Some advice stay away from this company...for crossword fans the clue is Wire - - - -

Rob

 

[emily1982]

Oooo been there done that. I ended up taking mine into a shop otherwise i personally would have thrown it out of the window!!

 

[natalielongstaff]

what a nightmare im not surprised you have a headache !

 

[jjk]

oh what a nightmare,poor you

 

[The Fetherstons]

nightmare

 

[jen_uk]

What a nightmare!

 

[fuse04]

funny you should say that because there were times.....I have the say the most frustrating thing is not so much the computer broke, these things happen....its the complete lack of control one has with overseas call centres.

Anyway, logged on again and it is still working, three days off work, might have just secured DVc points for next year...things are looking up

Oooo been there done that. I ended up taking mine into a shop otherwise i personally would have thrown it out of the window!!

 

[Goofyish]

You should think about getting an external disk drive to use as a backup and then get Norton Ghost to create an 'image' backup of your hard drive. Then if something like this happens you just restore the good working image.

For this to work well you need to partition your hard drive into c: and d: drives. All your system files and os go onto the c: drive and all your data (photos, videos, documents etc.) go on the d: drive.
That makes restoring your system files easier and also makes backing up your data easier as well.

 

[fuse04]

You should think about getting an external disk drive to use as a backup and then get Norton Ghost to create an 'image' backup of your hard drive. Then if something like this happens you just restore the good working image.

For this to work well you need to partition your hard drive into c: and d: drives. All your system files and os go onto the c: drive and all your data (photos, videos, documents etc.) go on the d: drive.
That makes restoring your system files easier and also makes backing up your data easier as well.

thanks for the advice Tim, much appreciated.Had been meaning to get an external drive but hadn't got round to it...Doh. I don't know much about partitions and the such but the last support guy I spoke seemed surpised that the folk who 'talked' me through the reinstall "did not set up a partition for recovery"...sounds like what you were saying.

Rob

 

[tennisfan]

You should think about getting an external disk drive to use as a backup and then get Norton Ghost to create an 'image' backup of your hard drive. Then if something like this happens you just restore the good working image.

For this to work well you need to partition your hard drive into c: and d: drives. All your system files and os go onto the c: drive and all your data (photos, videos, documents etc.) go on the d: drive.
That makes restoring your system files easier and also makes backing up your data easier as well.

This is what I have had done after having a corrupted system32. It is an extra internal HD which will only be connected to backup if a problem occurs.

I use my external HD to back my laptop up.

What a nightmare fuse04, i'm glad a friend of the family deals with my pc problems.