PC World - Work done under guarantee

savingforarainyday

Very Good friend of mine has just had graphics card and motherboard replaced under warranty. Engineer left telling her to download new drivers, which she has done, but now keeps getting the message
Bad Pool Header and then shuts her computer down.

She has been back in contact with pcworld and they are saying it is now a software problem. Which yes, drivers are software, but surely if they installed the hardware they should follow the job through to ensure it is working properly. Anyone else had this sort of problem with them, and any idea what she should do.

Pcworld suggested doing a system restore, but surely if the drivers are not installed, a system restore will make b*gg*r all difference.

Any help suggestions, previous experiences.......... would be gratefully appreciated.

Strider590

It's really unfair yes....

But playing the devil advocate here, I can see why they won't mess with the software.

Firstly PCW have I believe a separate software support service.

Software is a tricky one, I was recently phoned up and asked to quote a gentleman for a new CDRW drive, I quoted for the drive and for my standard upgrades fee, but when I got there with new drive in tow, his PC was soooooo riddled with problems (virus, malware and corrupt drivers) the job turned from a simple upgrade into a full system clean taking nearly 2 hours to get the new drive working! I couldnt go back on my quote, so I ended up losing 2 hours of my day and not getting paid for them.
So imagine if they started messing with the software and found more problems!

And also, how many times do I get calls saying "hello, you fixed my PC three weeks ago and now it's got a virus, nobody has used it, so it must be YOUR fault! we demand you drive 40miles out here for nothing and fix it immeditately!". It's completely impossible to explain to some people that what you did has no possible effect on the problem they now have.
I find myself saying something like "if you brought your car to me for a new tire and 3 weeks down the line your engine blew up, would that be my fault???".

Anyway! the thing to do is make absolutely sure youve got the correct drivers....

One more thing..... and this isn't good news!!
Unless using exact replacements, I would NEVER replace a motherboard/graphics without doing a full reinstall of the OS. This is one thing that Windows really, really hates you doing.

momoyama

savingforarainyday wrote: »

Any help suggestions, previous experiences.......... would be gratefully appreciated.

Yep, easy one.

Don't EVER have anything to do with PC World. Seriously.

I stopped going when I realised that I spent more time giving tech support to the tech support staff than actually seeing to my own shopping. They will do their utmost to not refund anything. Staff are (mostly) unhelpful. Their practice of putting labels over software system requirements is obviously dodgy. Most of the "service" that they do on your PC can be done at home with ease. Windows provides you the utilities to do it. You just need to be shown how.

HoofeHearted

A friend of mine brought me his brother's laptop to have a look at. It was as Compaq Presario V6000 Laptop, which had been purchased from PC World just over 12 months ago. He had taken it back to PCW because it had developed a fault (blank screen at power on, lights on keyboard light up, but nothing else). PCW told him they would have to charge £230 to repair his laptop as it was out of the 12 months warranty (just).

When I looked at it, I did some research on the web and quickly found that this was a known problem with these laptops and HP/Compaq were extending warranties to 24 months and would repair affected laptops for free. He phoned them up and they arranged to pick up the laptop from his home a few days later.

Conclusion:-
1) PCW are numpties
and/or
2) PCW were aware of extended warranty and just wanted to pocket £230 for doing nothing other than phone HP for a free repair.

Make your own conclusions.

kwikbreaks

This is plain stupid. They were supposed to fix it under warranty and the fix hasn't worked so it's up to PCW to correct that.

Installing new hardware without also installing the correct drivers is not acceptable.

That said using the free http://www.drivermax.com/ service may get it sorted out reasonably quickly. You only get one or two driver updates per day so concentrate on getting the drivers for whatever is causing the blue screen first - there should be some text shown that can be searched on.

aliEnRIK

They should fix it but it shouldnt be too hard to sort out. Whats the graphics card?
(ps ~ I personally wouldnt touch PC World with a 15 foot bargepole)

CHR15

Sounds like they never did have a clue what was wrong in the first place.

The chances of both the motherboard AND graphics card going kaput at the same time are miniscule.
If the PSU had gone wonky and blown the motherboard, it would most likely have taken the ram with it.

Sounds like he was visiting restricted on time, so changed the big bits just in case and moved on to the next victim/customer.

Agree with above, big mistake going to PC World to sort a problem out but whats done is done.
I would call them back in to fix it, which is what they were tasked to do in the first place.

If they replaced the motherboard with a different model, it can quite easily screw things up like this (this is my guess from the info given)

Failing that, can you boot into Safe Mode (Press F8 during boot up)??

Strider590

HoofeHearted wrote: »

A friend of mine brought me his brother's laptop to have a look at. It was as Compaq Presario V6000 Laptop, which had been purchased from PC World just over 12 months ago. He had taken it back to PCW because it had developed a fault (blank screen at power on, lights on keyboard light up, but nothing else). PCW told him they would have to charge £230 to repair his laptop as it was out of the 12 months warranty (just).

When I looked at it, I did some research on the web and quickly found that this was a known problem with these laptops and HP/Compaq were extending warranties to 24 months and would repair affected laptops for free. He phoned them up and they arranged to pick up the laptop from his home a few days later.

Conclusion:-
1) PCW are numpties
and/or
2) PCW were aware of extended warranty and just wanted to pocket £230 for doing nothing other than phone HP for a free repair.

Make your own conclusions.

£230 is the standard repair fee for ANY laptop with ANY fault, it's there on the website for all to see. I don't agree that they get a free repair from the manufacturer, but it certainly won't amount to £230.

aliEnRIK

CHR15 wrote: »

Sounds like they never did have a clue what was wrong in the first place.

The chances of both the motherboard AND graphics card going kaput at the same time are miniscule.
If the PSU had gone wonky and blown the motherboard, it would most likely have taken the ram with it.

Sounds like he was visiting restricted on time, so changed the big bits just in case and moved on to the next victim/customer.

Agree with above, big mistake going to PC World to sort a problem out but whats done is done.
I would call them back in to fix it, which is what they were tasked to do in the first place.

If they replaced the motherboard with a different model, it can quite easily screw things up like this (this is my guess from the info given)

Failing that, can you boot into Safe Mode (Press F8 during boot up)??

Quite true that. PC World 'engineers' just dont have a clue

momoyama

Recurring theme here regards PC World?

HoofeHearted

Strider590 wrote: »

£230 is the standard repair fee for ANY laptop with ANY fault, it's there on the website for all to see. I don't agree that they get a free repair from the manufacturer, but it certainly won't amount to £230.

Yes, I am aware of the £230 std fee. My point is they SHOULD have known about the "known issues" with that model of laptop and informed the customer to contact HP. Alternatively, the contract (when the laptop was purchased) was between the customer and PCW. Therefore PCW SHOULD have taken on board the responsibility of obtaining a free repair for the goods that were not fit for purpose.