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Originally posted on May 25th, 2003

Michael Dell brings out the best in his customers.

Dell takes a quantum leap backward for one of it's customers..

One day in March 2003 a gentleman arrived in my store asking me if I couldn't recover some data off a broken laptop. I told him I'd give it a try and then he hoisted up a bad of parts.

The entire bag of parts were that of a fairly new Dell Inspiring Laptop that started out a fine looking machine but somehow it got in between two stubborn personalities. One being a inept Dell Customer Service Rep and the other my new client who's name will remain private.

Apparently, my client called Dell up to help him get his laptop to boot up. My naive client innocently believed everything Dell computer said in those flashy ads in the magazines and TV about "the best computer tech support" and thought it would be just a few moments of phone time to get back to being a productive user again..

Well after 4 hours of phone time, my client soon discovered that after all those cryptic commands, dozens of reboots, and acting like a proxy inept technician not only did Dell reformat his hard drive and lose all his data, but it still wouldn't boot up..

This left my client so infuriated that he had no other option other than to take the laptop out in the backyard and murder his Dell Number 1 laptop! Using a common hammer, he proceeded to pound his laptop into the earth taking his frustration out on Dell and the number 1 customer service ranking (according to most magazines..)

That's were I come in.

After calming down and thinking about what he had done his needs soon shifted to data recovery.

GNetTek Note: Uhhhhh HUH, Have YOU Backed Up Your Data?

• Laptops are a different story.
• Today's Laptops pack a LOT of computing power in a very small package.
• Electricity encounters resistance as it moves through a circuit. The faster it moves the more resistance and so more heat. EVERYTHING that happens in a computer is based on electrical pulses and microscopic transistors. (Essentially an On/Off Switch)
• Cpu's are faster and therefore run hotter, Memory runs faster and therefore hotter, Hard Drives are faster and therefore run hotter, Front Side busses on the motherboard run faster and therefore hotter
• Poor cooling design in a laptop sometimes combined with users who give no thought to the effect of sitting your laptop on a pillow or in the grass cause overheating and a slow inexorable breakdown of components.
• There is a reason Laptop Cooling Pads Came on the market!!!!
• Most Common Laptop Repairs:
  • Runs On Battery / Won't Recharge (A Broken Laptop Power Adaptor Jack is a Cheap Part but it requires HOURS of Labor to do a Complete Breakdown of the laptop, desolder the jack, solder a new one on, reassemble and test so it's most charge about $300.00-$400.00 We now do these ourselves for $99.00. Conditions Apply, See Our Power Jack Page.
  • Screen Bad / Not Working (There are a plethora of possible problems here but most common is a broken screen usually from dropping the laptop, leaning on it, dropping a pile of books on it etc. Other things can and do go wrong but panel replacement is most common and can run from cheap to very expensive.)
  • Hard Drives (Drop it, beat on it, heat build up, DID YOU BACK UP YOUR DATA?)
  • Laptop seems to start then suddenly shuts down (Heat Sinks These can get clogged and in conjunction with inoperable cooling fans can cause major thermal issues. If you've left it too long it can get very expensive. Usually if the tech is already in there it's a good idea to replace the assembly anyway as most of the cost in working on laptops is labor so bite the bullet and pay the extra cost as long as he's in there)
• Repair Costs on Laptops Run Roughly 60% Labor and 40% Components and neither are cheap. Labor costs a lot simply because it takes a lot more time to disassemble, repair and reassemble laptops than it does desktops so if a tech is in there and suggests replacing a component "while he's at it" , listen to him or her.