laptop repair problem - what would you do?

JasperKat

Ok, guys, I need help to know where I stand on this with the shop that repaired my daughters laptop back in Jan, it’s got what looks like the same (or similar) faults again but I’m not sure what my rights are. Apologies for the long story:

Daughter’s Dell inspiron 1300 (running windows vista; I do the windows updates regularly which means I can monitor what she’s doing on it) Anti-Virus is paid version of Avast! & the last time I checked it was fully updated so it seemed to be ok.

Just after Christmas daughter turned it off after using it, turned on next day & when it was about to get to the login screen it just went black, the power & hard drive lights were on but nothing else happening. She couldn’t get it to do anything else. I tried getting into safe mode & it did the same thing.

I took it to a repair shop (place was well-recommended by some friends & family) who said they’d try to fix it, they rang a week later to say that it had viruses & needed windows re-loaded, I agreed they could do that if they’d put my daughters stuff back on it, along with Avast & I’d put our licence details in to it. Wife collected it a couple of days later & was shown the laptop working fine. Cost approx €100.

We used it for a day but found that it didn’t connect wirelessly any more, rang the shop, they were very helpful & copied a cd for us to re-install the usb wireless adapter which we did without problems.

The next day the screen turned black again when we switched it on & all the power & hard drive lights were on. I could get into safe mode ok, but normal mode was just a black screen.

Wife rang the shop again & they said bring it back, which we did that same day. 24hrs later they rang to say that the problem was that somehow it was switching to an external monitor when it logged into windows & they’d ‘fixed’ it not to do that. I collected it & argued that it was the same fault as before but they were adamant that it was a different fault & they’d fixed it ‘no charge’.

We’ve now had it back 3 weeks & it’s started poping up with virus messages in Avast! & the screen has started going black again when we turn it on, I’m not knowledgeable enough to know if it’s the same problem as when we took it in to the repair shop the first time or not.

I also don't know what to say to the shop, they've been very helpful & I'm not moaning about them, just want some advice on what I should say.

thanks for reading & any advice,
Jasper

Kensington

If the problems are because of viruses, then it is not really the shops fault. If the shop did a complete re-install of the operating system, and removed the problem, then they did fix the issue. The forgetting to re-install the drivers correctly bit aside, they have done what they have been paid to do.

When your daughter got the laptop back, if she went and re-installed all of the programs she had on it before, it's quite possible that one, or more, of those programs contain the virus being flagged by Avast! - the viruses causing the graphics issue, in which case she has unwittingly just "broken" the laptop once again. Nothing to do with what the shop did or could have done!

Anyway, what to do now! You could take it back to the shop and see will they take another look at it, but they will probably charge you for it which you can't blame them for if your daughter reloaded the virus herself. You could also list what files Avast! is detecting and post them over in the Virus & Malware Forum on this website where they may be able to suggest what the issue is, and possible fixes you may well be able to carry out yourself.

ch750536

Windows 7, chrome, windows defender, PC tools spyware doctor.
Do all updates and all scans.
Don't download ****e without scanning it.

This is most likely what people in the industry call a Id10T user error.

I have one guy I have fixed the same issue with about 5 times, he keeps doing the same thing. Car analogy of putting diesel into a petrol car.

MunsterCycling

Also known as PEBTAC!

Nody

ch750536 wrote: »

I have one guy I have fixed the same issue with about 5 times, he keeps doing the same thing. Car analogy of putting diesel into a petrol car.

Know the feeling, back when I was doing computer sales (God I've just realized this was over 15 years ago!) I had a guy buy a PC with scanner and bring it all back saying the scanner was not working after 7 days. Got it in, did a full sweep inc. removing a downloaded desktop theme, scanned a picture, brought the guy in and showed him how I was scanning a picture and that the PC was working. 3 days later he brings it back and says the scanner is not working again.

I ask him, did you see me scan a picture with you in here 3 days ago? Yes he did. Did you confirm to me that the PC and scanner was working and there was nothing wrong? Yes I did. Yet you're now telling me that after you brought the PC home again it suddently got broken? Yes it is. I go fine, sweep it again and remove everything, have the customer confirm it is working. Guess who came in after 5 days with a "broken scanner"?

To OP, to change the monitor from internal to external is usually a keyboard combination such as ctrl+F8 or similar (check in the manual for the combo). Depending on the mode this would indeed make the screen go black or not depending on how the display is set up (show only external, only internal or show both). It does sound as your daughter is downloading something or other that has viruses in it and tries to install it; I would tweak up the settings on the virus scanner to scan all downloads and have it run automatically every 24h as well. Any virus found should be quarantined (no possability to run the file) by the software at the time as well.

Now you did not say the age of your daughter but if you get virus warnings have a look at what the program is, ask your daughter to show where she got it from and tell her never to go there again or try to download that program. Also run through the system with Spybot Search & Destroy (available at www.download.com) as your PC most likely has multiple trojans installed as well. Oh and replace Internet Explorer with Chrome or Firefox instead as browser (no script add on highly recommended for FF).

Antigone05

for most monitor output changes its Fn + F5

JasperKat

thanks everyone for your really helpful replies, much appreciated all your comments & i'll be taking it back in the next few days....

Kensington: to be fair the USB Wireless adapter driver was the only one they dind't install but that's only because we didn't tell em we used one, & they did burn a cd with the drivers & tell us how to do it so I'm not compainin' about that. :-)

I'm dying to know what PEBTAC stands for?????

Nody: I'll take an even more closer look at the pc when I get it fixed & dearest daughter is 14, so maybe she's downloadign stuff as you say but she's been pretty good in the past & usually comes & asks me if it's ok to download anything. but you never know....

Thanks for all the advice
Jasper

aidan_walsh

I'm dying to know what PEBTAC stands for?

Usually "Problem Exists Between Table and Chair", a smart arse way of saying user error.

dudara

posters helpful posts please

dudara