Laptop repair store dumped my laptop

beauf

Anyone is free to set up their own website and name them there

dudara

Posters - no more discussion on naming the company. Stick to the OT

dudara

D3PO

any update OP ?

Pompey Magnus

D3PO wrote: »

any update OP ?

I sent off a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner's office and I will give an update when I hear back next. I called the store and the laptop will be available tomorrow, the owner of the HDD is going into the store on Friday so he gave me the okay to give it back to them when I am collecting my laptop.

Saucy McKetchup

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

I sent off a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner's office and I will give an update when I hear back next. I called the store and the laptop will be available tomorrow, the owner of the HDD is going into the store on Friday so he gave me the okay to give it back to them when I am collecting my laptop.

Will be laptop be repaired? Is it definitely your laptop?

Pompey Magnus

Saucy McKetchup wrote: »

Will be laptop be repaired? Is it definitely your laptop?

No it hasn't been repaired, just reassembled. They say it is definitely mine but I can't be sure. I will try the HDD to see if it works, they say it doesn't though.

Saucy McKetchup

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

No it hasn't been repaired, just reassembled. They say it is definitely mine but I can't be sure. I will try the HDD to see if it works, they say it doesn't though.

If it was I'd be taking this further and not picking it up.

Pompey Magnus

Saucy McKetchup wrote: »

If it was I'd be taking this further and not picking it up.

To be honest I would love to take it further but I don't think I can really justify it. They say that what they have is my laptop and that they have it ready for me to collect, I can't prove that it isn't mine and I can't prove that the laptop was working fine prior to being dropped so I think I would just look unreasonable if I took it to the small claims court and refused to accept it.

seagull

At the very least, ask them for a full refund.

Allyall

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

T I can't prove that it isn't mine

Can't you look up your serial number online and make sure it matches?

hearny

Its a Dell machine so look for the service tag on the sticker on the base, if the sticker is gone you can retrieve it from the BIOS.

If you type it in here:
http://www.dell.com/support/my-support/us/en/19?c=us&s=dhs&cs=&l=en

you should be able to get the original spec from that including the order details, and the type of the hard drive should be on the list too, you can check if the hard drive matches up (provided you did not upgrade at any stage in between.

If you cant find the details you can PM me the Service tag and I will check.

donegal.

seagull wrote: »

At the very least, ask them for a full refund.

have you paid them any money?

Pompey Magnus

donegal. wrote: »

have you paid them any money?

No I was to pay when the job was completed. I have got the laptop back, I brought it into another repair store, got it back yesterday and they said that there was a graphics card problem, they offered to do the work but warned me that it would be a waste of money as the problem would likely recur shortly, he did say though that there was no apparent water damage or corrosion that he came across.

I tried out the hard drive last night but got up a error message saying it wasn't accessible (Data error: cyclic redundancy check). I will try again this evening to see if I can make any progress with that.

I also got a reply from the Data Protection Commissioner's office telling me that they have been in contact with the store and are reviewing their procedures for data security.

beauf

Whats the laptop model

RangeR

beauf wrote: »

Whats the laptop model

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

It was a Dell XPS M1330

.

3DataModem

If you refuse to pick up the laptop, this will not look good in the SCC.

You don't have to accept it or take it, just ensure you turn up and examine it, then reject it, then advise them in writing why.

If a service provider attempts to remedy (even if it's B.S.) and you ignore their offer, the SCC will take a dim view of this.

muffler

3DataModem wrote: »

If you refuse to pick up the laptop, this will not look good in the SCC.

You don't have to accept it or take it, just ensure you turn up and examine it, then reject it, then advise them in writing why.

If a service provider attempts to remedy (even if it's B.S.) and you ignore their offer, the SCC will take a dim view of this.

Keep up at the rear please

Allyall

beauf wrote: »

Whats the laptop model

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

It was a Dell XPS M1330, I have the specs at home alright. Never had any trouble with it before it was dropped so I reckoned it was worth repairing.

That model is included in the Nvidia Defect list. (Probably why beauf was asking)

So, maybe you were luckier than many others, to get a s long as you did.

Pompey Magnus wrote: »

I brought it into another repair store, got it back yesterday and they said that there was a graphics card problem, they offered to do the work but warned me that it would be a waste of money as the problem would likely recur shortly, he did say though that there was no apparent water damage or corrosion that he came across.

They possibly couldn't perform a reflow/reball, or didn't know what was wrong, so they <SNIP>.

I'd say it's 70/30 that it's yours (Most likely not yours), but I'd have a very strong doubt that the HD is. I'd say they <SNIP> that. I'd check the screen, RAM, Wireless Card, keyboard, power, battery, and anything else that should be working.

If you fancy giving it a go yourself to fix, you could try one of these.. :pac::D:rolleyes:
But if you do, only do so, if you are happy to admit the PC is finished.

http://hackaday.com/2011/02/24/heat-gun-gpu-reflow-fixes-laptop/

Many many videos, from ovens and hairdryers to heat guns...

If you don't fancy taking it any further/proving it's your laptop/not your laptop, you could sell all of the other parts.

beauf

With this laptop you have two choice. Swap the motherboard for the version with the intel gfx. Or do a temp fix by using a heat gun on the Nvidia chip. But you have to be careful or you'll kill the motherboard completely. Repair shops offering a professional BGA rework are a waste of money, costs half the cost of a new laptop, and it lasts no longer than a DIY heatgun.

The nvidia chip is flawed. It will fail eventually. Some people have fixed it 3 or 4 times. If you get 6 months to a year out of it each time, that's not bad. The M1330 is a 6 or 7yr old laptop at this point. Its done well to last you this long.

That said the OP said originally "it had fallen on the floor and wasn't powering on" so general the Nivida cards don't fail like that. So maybe something else is broken, and its beyond repair regardless of what you do with it.

zarquon

beauf wrote: »

With this laptop you have two choice. Swap the motherboard for the version with the intel gfx. Or do a temp fix by using a heat gun on the Nvidia chip. But you have to be careful or you'll kill the motherboard completely. Repair shops offering a professional BGA rework are a waste of money, costs half the cost of a new laptop, and it lasts no longer than a DIY heatgun.

The nvidia chip is flawed. It will fail eventually.

There is an alternative solution. I did a reflow on my old m1330 by baking the motherboard in the oven at 200 degrees for eight minutes. I then reassembled and added a new copper shim and thermal paste on the gfx chip. The laptop never gave another problem after that.

Allyall

beauf wrote: »

With this laptop you have two choice. Swap the motherboard for the version with the intel gfx. Or do a temp fix by using a heat gun on the Nvidia chip. But you have to be careful or you'll kill the motherboard completely. Repair shops offering a professional BGA rework are a waste of money, costs half the cost of a new laptop, and it lasts no longer than a DIY heatgun.

The nvidia chip is flawed. It will fail eventually.

+1
The intel board would probably cost around €70 - €80, and I'm guessing + €50 to put in. (I didn't search too much for the board.)

Or could buy this as "Buy it now" for €105 delivered. (You may get cheaper, again, I didn't search.)

Thing is, I would still claim a Hard drive from them.

There is no water damage/corrosion to the laptop, and the hard drive you have is unnassociated with the Nvidia defect.

beauf

zarquon wrote: »

There is an alternative solution. I did a reflow on my old m1330 by baking the motherboard in the oven at 200 degrees for eight minutes. I then reassembled and added a new copper shim and thermal paste on the gfx chip. The laptop never gave another problem after that.

Thats the same thing as the heat gun, only you have to dismantle the laptop to to do it. The effect is the same. Though you run maybe a higher risk of damaging the motherboard. On older laptops like the Dell 9400 the gfx is on a separate board, so you don't have have to bake the whole motherboard.

I dislike putting it in the oven as the fumes are brutal. You'd want to clean the oven out very well after that. An alternative is a portable camping oven you can do outside, like the Halogen one in Aldi for €30, set the timer for 10mins. Job done.

Mine lasted a year the first time. Still going well the second repair. Thats an extra 18 ish months out of it.

BWSMG

that's unbelievable i would demand a replacement , the "corrosion" seems a bit dodgy to me , hope you get it sorted

Allyall

zarquon wrote: »

There is an alternative solution. I did a reflow on my old m1330 by baking the motherboard in the oven at 200 degrees for eight minutes. I then reassembled and added a new copper shim and thermal paste on the gfx chip. The laptop never gave another problem after that.

Hadn't seen your post. I have seen the Oven trick, and I know of at least 2 people who swear it works brilliantly. If i ever get the chance, I'm going to try it out myself.

Doge

Is it against the rules to name and shame?

Couldn't see anything in the charter saying you couldn't.

I can understand you may want to wait until the outcome before naming the company.

There are far too many gangsters out there in the PC Repairs business from my experience, and they should be shutdown.

Its a shame we don't have a program like Watchdog in the U.K.

I heard everything from companies stealing RAM sticks from customers to charging to "replace" broken hard drives that were not broken in the first place.

mrskinner

Where do you live Pompey?

Axwell

waveform wrote: »

Is it against the rules to name and shame?

He was already told by a mod not to name and shame.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

waveform wrote: »

Is it against the rules to name and shame?

Couldn't see anything in the charter saying you couldn't.

I can understand you may want to wait until the outcome before naming the company.

There are far too many gangsters out there in the PC Repairs business from my experience, and they should be shutdown.

Its a shame we don't have a program like Watchdog in the U.K.

I heard everything from companies stealing RAM sticks from customers to charging to "replace" broken hard drives that were not broken in the first place.

Read Mod post #86. And keep in mind that a poster has just tonight said that they <SNIP> the OPs HDD!

zarquon

beauf wrote: »

Thats the same thing as the heat gun, only you have to dismantle the laptop to to do it. The effect is the same. Though you run maybe a higher risk of damaging the motherboard. On older laptops like the Dell 9400 the gfx is on a separate board, so you don't have have to bake the whole motherboard.

I dislike putting it in the oven as the fumes are brutal. You'd want to clean the oven out very well after that. An alternative is a portable camping oven you can do outside, like the Halogen one in Aldi for €30, set the timer for 10mins. Job done.

Mine lasted a year the first time. Still going well the second repair. Thats an extra 18 ish months out of it.

Heat gun didn't work for me so i tried a more drastic measure which worked flawlessly.

yopy

Came across the thread this morning.. I have never heard the likes. What a sham of an operation these idiots are running.