PC superstore unhinged by Linux For all you car aficionados out there, how's this for an operating system analogy from PC World? Installing Linux onto a laptop sold by the computer retail behemoth is like putting a Ford engine into a BMW, apparently. Earlier this week a mysterious PC World customer, known only by the name of Tikka, posted a story to …
I bought my current graphics card at PC world (only because it is literally 400m from my front door.) If anybody would like a laugh, I can highly recommend asking questions of the sales staff, at one stage the guy was corrected by the security guard, as the salesman had said radeon 1950's supported dx10 because they had vista ready stickers on. After that I bought an 8800gts and left.
Alternatives: a) this is one person off on a frolic of their own; b) PC World is run by the Lizard Alliance and is out to get customers.
I favour a): I use PC World in Reading a lot, mainly because there's never been a fuss over returning faulty equipment. I've never had reason to find out how good their technical advice is, but the staff have always been polite and not pushy.
As an ex-pcw support employee, this doesn't surprise me. Try and turn the customer upside down and shake them hard to see what falls out is the standard practice from a fair few of the management staff I encountered at the time.
I'm intrigued though how a hardware fault can be caused by software, but then I've also experienced similar problems with smelly delly.
Me - "This computer won't boot anymore, sounds like the heads have crashed - they're making a clicking noise"
Dell - "Have you tried reinstalling the operating system?"
Me - "No, the disk is entirely inaccessible, given that the heads have crashed."
Dell - "Can you power off and on the computer".
Me - "Well, I've already tried that and the harddrive is still clicking"
Dell - "Have you run a BIOS update on the machine?"
Me - "How does a software fix repair failed hardware?"
Dell - "Sorry sir, until you've done that, we can't do anything else"
Click...
So, how did I get to work in IT? By having to repair the problems that the support-otomotons script doesn't cater for.
So one idiot represents the whole company?
I was in a PC World store last week, and was very surprised when the staff member not only recommended Linux (i told him I was planning on running Apache on Windows) but also stated why Linux was better, he even showed me a book "Linux Bible" which came with about 5 distros on the CD. He even asked how I was structuring my PHP code and seemed adiment that I should use Linux over Windows because I could get all my patches with one command.
I want to run IIS too, which is why I wanted Windows btw :)
Surely if we wanted all their staff to be this good we'd have to pay for their wages on the prices, so we'd still be moaning?
Once Upon A Time one of my clients, who is very particular about deadlines, wanted a new pc. It was Thursday morning, and he wanted it by 10am next day. So he despatched me to PC World Staples Corner with a chap who had wheels and the company credit card. First problem was that all pc's had Vista on them (this was some months ago btw). Every sales assistant made themselves appear busy as soon as the word "XP" was uttered. Finally found a salesperson who was extreemely helpful (turned out that he was not an employee of PCW but worked for one of the concessions there). He said to go to the Business Section over there (Doh, why didn't I think of that?). Bloke in there, very helpful, said No we don't recommend Vista, XP is all we'll sell you. So far so good. Got the spec and everything sorted out, then he said "Do you want us to make absolutely sure everything is fine with your pc before we deliver it? We will unwrap it, plug it in, give it a thorough once over. Will cost £10". I knew that my client would definitely approve that - £10 for that kind of peace of mind, so I agreed. So they guaranteed delivery by 10am next day.
We were on the phone to them the following day... Only part-shipment arrived... Monitor and an Ethernet cable, but where's the Important Bit??
"I'm sorry sir, but your pc failed the pre-delivery QA inspection."
So you didn't think to immediately take another one off the shelf and try that???
Obviously not. So we had to wait till Monday for the system unit to arrive.
I used to work for PCServiceCall..... There's a large difference between 'in store' Tech Guys and the people who work in the Nottingham call centre.
In store 'Tech Guys' are employed by DSGi, Call center bods are employed by 'Crapita'. The in store bods are NOT allowed to talk to the laptop repair shop, they must go through the Crapita call centre who liaise with the repair shop in Mansfield.
In store Tech Guys are basically allowed to stick a disk in a machine and run a 'Health-Check' program which usually ends up with the machine in a worse state that before the junk was ran.......
Sometimes they might try a hand at fixing a machine, in this case they'll call the Crapita call centre and go through exactly the same diags as a normal punter.....
It's attitude city, when I was there it was 'us' v's 'them' - I still have friends who work there and the situation has degraded not improved......
Anyways the point is that the in store guy didn't have the authorization to accept OR reject the repair, there is still a fuzzy line between the call center and the laptop workshop over who's say it is, The phone people basically tell the punter (or store staff pass the message on) if the repair is 'likely' to be chargable or not.
In this case the people with the power to decide on this repair are the workshop, not the in store tech guy or a Crapita call bod - the bod would book and the workshop would decide - the in store bloke had no business spouting any brown stuff at the customer.
As they say a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, that sums up in store 'Tech Guys'. The call center isn't much better but at least there are some decent tech bods working there (but there are less and less by the day since Crapita took over).
Funny thing is that the Crapita hardware lines are staffed by the incompetent 'new starters', most of the decent staff work on the software lines and email support...... premium software line = less calls, hardware lines = nightmare.
Now onto the 'classic' When I was there (Hello Team 1) we all got yanked into a disciplinary because we fooled one of our team into thinking he'd turned off the internet..........
The bloke sat next to him told him to go to www.turnofftheinternet.com, Then when he pressed the button we all started complaining that websites wouldn't load........... He was TOTALLY convinced he's shutdown the entire net. Quality staff there in Nottingham!
The bloke running the disciplinary (good boss btw) was trying soooooo hard not to laugh but apparently what we'd done was considered as 'victimization'.........
6 years ago I bought a Compaq Presario laptop from PC World, took it home, installed Linux and got down to work. Shortly afterwards, several keys stopped working so I took it back. I had the machine suspended so I could flip open the lid and show them the problem quickly. They refused to consider that there was a hardware problem until I shut it down and rebooted it into Windows XP which of course had the same problem. They agreed to replace the machine at that point so I booted back into Linux and shredded the whole disc (XP too) although there was nothing of any value on it.
The last thing I bought from PC World was my iBook G4 (extremely reliable, still works fine 4 years on) and I remember at the time the salesman trying to persuade me to buy a Windows laptop because OS X was hard to use. Where do they get these people?
When a tech asks you "have your tried re-installing your operating system" it should be well within your expertise to answer with a "yes" instead of a "no".
Honestly! Your liberal use of incorrect industry terminology to describe a hardware failure also causes a problem for tech's.
The I.T. support departments in PC World,Dell,HP,Currys would do little harm in supplying online training for customers educating them in proper troubleshooting techniques. It would probably save them time in dealing with mis-informed customers.
Me - "This computer won't boot anymore, sounds like the heads have crashed - they're making a clicking noise"
Tech - "The heads have crashed? Have you got collision insurance?"
Me - "No, the disk is entirely inaccessible, given that the heads have crashed."
Tech - "Inaccessible crash you say? Have you tried calling mountain rescue?"
Me - "Well, I've already tried that and the harddrive is still clicking"
Tech - "Is it trying to communicate with you? Maybe it(the SB controller) needs a BIOS update? "
Me - "How does a software fix repair failed hardware?"
Tech - "A BIOS flash isn't the same as a software fix..you say you used to work for PCW?"
Click!
Firstly...
As a former Acer techie in the Uk, Acer haven't a problem repairing any hardware defects, since its covered under the limited warranty of the user, however, had the end user decided to read their warranty which came with their trusted notebook, they would have realised that it could be done easily directly.
However, Acer don't guarantee any works carried out by any two bit company, such as PC world, since none of their "Tech Guys" actually know what they are doing.
(I personally applied for a job when desperate, and was turned down for having "Too much knowledge" <In other words, wanting a fresh school leaver, with no actual knowledge about anything relating to PCs whatsoever, other than how to turn it on> so I finally got a job with Acer).
Acer, also don't care what OS your running on your systems, since its your option to do this, hell, if you want to run 3.2 on your system, whos stopping you?! You bought it, you use it, not Acer!
So, PC world, another one against you...
However, the only thing against this, is if the fault is deemed Software related, then Acer will ask you to reimage the hdd with either the disks provided, burnt off on original boot up, or using the "One Button Recovery Mode", if the engineers see you have failed to do this, then they will recover your system firstly, and if this still doesn't work, then they'll continue replacing hardware (so again, back up your shitz before sending).
Also, PC world should completely stop offering services / repairs and upgrades, since all you'll get is a formatted system handed back to you, with very little explaination.
I once asked PC world for Printer Memory, and all they could continuously show me, was PC Ram, or Printer Ink. Of course I was only winding them up, and ended up buying a nice set of 2.1 speakers from them at £15, but still! They shouldn't hire retards.
I was informed by one of the "technical sales" guys in our local PC World that Vista is based on Linux...
This was when I tried to find a copy of SuSE in the store (having bought it previously there) because I was having problems with my broadband and couldn't therefore download it. I told him I was looking for SuSE because I wanted to remove Vista from a recently purchased (from there) laptop because Vista is useless (having tried it for several weeks). I was told that Vista is the future, it's all they stock now and, anyway, it's based on Linux so you're getting the best of both worlds.
I just informed him of his error, and walked out of the door laughing....
... cracked hinges are most usually not covered by warranty only where there is no sign of a cause (for ex if the lid's been smashed down or something) - occasionally over tightened screws can cause this.
Unlikely Linux has caused this - i think the story is confused slightly, really. As for the warranty situation - the machine is warranted for one year against defects caused by poor manufacture eg a hard drive failure. It is likely the fault will need to be investigated using the OS supplied with the PC - Linux does not void the warranty, but it might make it more difficult to achieve a warranty repair (normally, you would be required to install the supplied OS for any diags on the machine, in any case it might be probable to reinstall even if you are using the supplied OS to eliminate software - for example if you have no sound but have installed Linux it may be the sound driver for Linux is the problem not the hardware of the PC so it would be tested on a clean Windows install as imaged at the factory to prove it's a driver or whatever).
The situation with SOGA actually protects less than you think - in that outside the six month period of reversed burden of proof (within which, it is down to the retailer to prove it wasn't faulty at time of purchase) it is down to the buyer to get a qualified engineer's report to prove that the item was faulty when purchased - if it is considered so, any costs are refunded doing so as well as a free repair under SOGA - the store does have the right to send it off for assessment in this case to the TechGuys workshop to investigate the cause of the fault and repair it, or prove it was caused by misuse in which case if the laptop is one week or ten years old it's not covered either by SOGA or by the warranty on the machine.
No point in slagging off PCW, any retailer, Linux, Windows or anything else.
...sometimes they have some really good discounted prices, specially when they're trying to dump kit they have overstocked and is getting a tad out of date. And, you don't have to wait for deliveries then drive across town to the shittylink or parcelfarce depot to collect the stuff you paid £5 or more postage for.
To the OS Jihadis - I use both Windows and Linux for each of their relevant strengths. The only people who need their heads tested are the Apple Fanboiz, regardless of the merits of OS X, why the hell would you pay such a ridiculously inflated price for what is generic PC hardware these days.
Their Linux desktop had a Via motherboard chip (low power and performance) and they wanted £200+ for them. I offered £50 and the saleman agreed (I went back the next week and had the other at the same price).
They had a "friendly" custom front end to Linux (really pointless and badly made). I put a bit more RAM in, put FreeBSD on it and used it for a few years, then gave it to someone. I gave the other to my brother-in-law after a format and install (SuSE?)
The sales staff had no training on the OS, they told me it had been intended to sell it to newsagents and small shop owners as a cheap machine for accounts.
For £50 it was OK once formatted.
Neil
... the guy probably got pissed off trying to get the video / audio / wifi / modem / bluetooth or some other such hardware lacking linux driver support working and chucked it at a wall, breaking the screen hinge.
I'm with PC World on this one, Linux is a right load of shite!
Yeah, if you've got nothing better to do with your life than recompile kernels and other such fucking about, then go-ahead, knock yourself out. Personally, I can't be arsed.
As for open source software? Why bother? Thanks to Russian and Chinese hackers, I've got access to proper commercial software packages that have been built with multi-million dollar development budgets - all for free.
Linux? MY ARSE!!
I also worked for the for The TechGuys call centre and can tell you that not only are the call centre staff and store TechGuys completely different but I can remember being told that we had been banned from PC World Nottingham! It turned out that an entire team from the call centre (Team 3 as I recall) had chosen to spend part of their DSGi funded "team day" following PC World Nottingham staff and their customers around the store pointing out every mistake the staff made.... I'm not entirely sure how they all still had their voices the next day, they must've been pretty hoarse from that much talking!
I used to work for one of the busiest PCW stores in the UK (Junction 9 M6) I started out quite happily as christmas staff, and after being pushed and told I was good at doing technical jobs (I am qualified - although it was wasted at pc world)
I found myself in a world of not being able to see a repair through... Not being able to complete healthchecks on time (stick a disc in and run it my ass - they still hadnt got it workin when i left!)
Amongst my technical duties was ensuring that the place looked tidy despite being a working area, dealing with typical dumbass questions at the counter from people who should quite frankly not be allowed within 500 ft of a computer, missing my lunch break and ensuring everyone else had theirs on time, doing meet and greet (MEET AND FUCKING GREET HELLO WELCOME TO THE STORE) for 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours if the sales people couldnt be arsed doing it, and also selling PC's and advising salespeople on "whether this pc is capable of playing games".
I occassionally picked up a screwdriver, but usually had to quickly put it back in its protective sleeve before the managers noticed id actually been doing my job, or face the wrath for not being a multitasking person, god forbid I should sit down whilst I am installing a graphics card in a £200 machine sold to someone to play Doom 3 and Quake 4 at 300fps, rant over.
PC world sucks, they sell 15p USB cables to the public at £15 a pop, and I still have access to reports that I really shouldnt have access to showing the cost price of every item they sell, its appalling. Ask for discount.
Screw PC World!!!
I had a custom-speced Mesh laptop, a real powerhouse and paperweight combined. When it's display got a bit too loose for comfort, I sent it in (under warranty, of course) with a prepackaged mobile AMD that I asked for them to install. Sure enough, they called me up to give me a long list of what wasn't wrong with it in frighteningly graphic detail (I don't think the guy was a tech but he'd obviously been reading a script because it almost sounded like complete nonsense, although I'm not in hardware and don't know nearly enough about the internals of these boards in these things but I did do as much research with the motherboard's documentation as possible and it didn't fit - among other things he'd given me the wrong spec for the RAM) and he told me that I could either pay £600 for the repair, £120 for a return delivery including the dismantled machine or just let them bung it on the heap for destruction. At the time it was my fastest machine, so I was a bit torn. I gave it a bit of thought, called back an hour later convinced (after talking to a few more knowledgeable friends of mine, some of whom had seen the monstrosity in question) that I was clearly being ripped off, and told the attractive-sounding lady to kindly tell her manager to stuff my laptop where monkeys shove bad nuts. I will, of course, never by from Mesh again. I know they're quite well-renowned for their quite-alright desktops, but they've already brewed their hatred in me for them and for all companies like them and for all the employees who care more for their pockets than customer satisfaction. A pity, because the smaller shops and one-man ventures never seem to get the publicity they deserve for doing just that, and not finding any excuse to quit on the job for pay at any opportunity. I think PC World is the worst example of that nowadays, although ironically my best machine, my server of Vintage Linux class C98 era, is working to this day in fine form. I also know Mesh have been investigated for this practice, so I'm clearly not wrong about it. Between times, I have in my area seen compitent guys just doing their thing and doing it well for me and at good rates, and now my desktops get the occasional service they need from people I can trust. And now, apart from the crappy quality of today's hard disks, I'm happy with the desktops of three distinct ages sitting atop my desk connected to a KVM and giving me power beyond my wildest dreams. Well, alright, my second wildest dreams ... ;-) I still don't know who to trust in the making of laptops, though. If Dell is quality, do I have to talk to their technical support at all? I don't think I'll do custom-made again ...
Cheers,
Sabahattin
Forgot to mention: yep, Linux and Windoze represented, with a spare that has partitions ready and waiting to host both. Amd64 (awaiting something again), Pentium IV, Pentium II. You've got just one guess which of these machines runs Linux exclusively. Tip: it's a server. A server made by PC World. :-)
And isn't it funny how many anonymous postings this thread has managed to accumulate? :-)
Cheers,
Sabahattin
Penguin Worrier, you do realise you just admitted to:
1: Copyright theft
2: Being unable to get Video, Audio, WiFi, Modem, Bluetooth Etc. working under Linux
3: having only a passing familiarity with the English language
4: Being unable to make what you think is a point without resorting to profanity
You should apply for a job with PC World immediately, You're DSGi material!
I was going to point out how little Penguin Worrier understands linux but then he used the f word and told the world he's a thief so that's OK then!?!? Mr Worrier you really are PC World material!
Although I do appreciate that anything DSGi arouses strong emotions, often from employees and especially former employees, this is a public forum and Mr Worrier isn't the only one using foul language, let's keep it family friendly please.
"I dunno about the Porsche engine/VW analogy though, whilst it would increase response times, I am inclined to think control issues would rear their ugly heads..."
Yeah, but it was an Acer laptop, so the build quality of the control devices probably lead to control issues anyway.
Porsche engine in a VW Beetle is a pretty damn close match in this case :-)
"Thanks to Russian and Chinese hackers, I've got access to proper commercial software packages that have been built with multi-million dollar development budgets - all for free."
You DO realise the risk that 'warez' poses to you computer don't you? A good proportion of it is infected with keyloggers and other spyware with the sole aim of getting hold of your personal details.
I sincerely hope that said Russians and Chinese warez DO report all of your bank details back to their masters and they strip you of every penny you own.
What an absolute asshole!
Actually, you're not an asshole. Assholes are useful. You're more akin to what comes out of one.
The story doesn't specifically name anyone from PC World as saying this, so is it just an attempt to troll for comments?
Given their relative market share, I'd say surely the analogy should be the other way around, although, because idiots like 'Penguin Worrier' still seem to think that the average Linux user might have compiled their kernel (or indeed anything) from source code, then perhaps the analogy would be better if it was to say it was like taking a stock-standard Mondeo and fitting a hand-built, custom V-8 supercharged nitrous engine, with a big shiny bit that sticks out throught the top of the bonnet in it, lik that thing Mad Max used to drive.
No one actually compiles anything from source, on the average Linux box, however, so it's actually a false analogy, intended to maintain the myth that Linux is some sort of backroom boffin's operating system. Much as I'd like to think I was some sort of boffin, I actually recognise that I'm about as intelligent as Penguin Worrier, over there - just better informed about the world, and less scared of what I don't know about.
this is a bit rich coming from PCWorld.
PCWorld, the concept of IT shopping is great, until you actually get there and you realise, the execution is, er, shocking.
I'm not going to get into a Linux / MS debate [but Linux IS better] but this 'linux is crap' attitude from PCWorld is symptomatic of the closed off mindset that allows MS to keep it's near 100% retail monopoly.
PCWorld : pah.
If "Tikka" uses Linux, then he is either a techie or one of the "new breed" Linux desktop users (those who can see it's faster, more reliable, and is not only free but has all the apps you need, also free, installable at the touch of a button). If he falls into the latter group, he can be forgiven.
If he is a techie, he is a stupid techie. Everyone knows that PCW pull stunts like this, and that they dont know anything about computers. He would therefore not be a techie, but one of those users who think they are techies. You know, the ones who would try to tell BOFH what's wrong with something, and would trip and bang their head on the corner of a computer case 64 times :)
At the risk of starting an avalanche, they sell end of line Apple hardware at ridiculously low prices. I got a PowerPC Mac Mini for peanuts when the Intel models came out, and a 12" 866Mhz Powerbook for slightly larger peanuts because it was a clearance model. Having said that, the sales assistant insisted that the instore techs rebuilt the Powerbook before they gave it to me as it had been on display, despite my assurances that I could do it myself. When I picked it up, it had been rebuilt, with a user account of 'mrgreenwood' - I suppose the concept of user accounts was all rather unfamiliar to them.
As well as the normal personal experiences of PCW comptence (Do you sell network hubs? Er, I think we've got some USB hubs...) my most memorable impression of the group was being in a queue in Dixons behind an elderly gentleman who was trying to return an MP3 player, which the staff were refusing to accomodate owing to the fact that it was not faulty and had been opened and apparently used. From what I could ascertain, the man was virtually blind and listended to a lot of audio books. Having heard about these new fangled mp3 players he'd gone into Dixons to learn a bit more (you feel sorry for the guy already, don't you). He'd later left the store with a shiny new MP3 player, only problem was the technical expert hadn't thought of mentioning you actually needed a computer to connect it to, which the gentleman didn't have. I walked out in disgust.
Neal Stephenson did the analogy thing best in his essay "In the Beginning was the Command Line" (reproduced here: http://artlung.com/smorgasborg/C_R_Y_P_T_O_N_O_M_I_C_O_N.shtml ) - scroll down to "MGBs, Tanks and Batmobiles"
As for the "newbies love windows" thing: After both XP and the OS Recovery Partition failed on my wife's PC-World-bought machine, and I refused to pay them £50 for replacement install media (£50 for software we already owned, the robbing ^"£&*^s) I installed Ubuntu and the machine's back up and running and our kids (and, more importantly, my technophobe-but-I-love-her wife) are happily using it to do everything they used to do and more, with less trouble and better performance than they ever had under XP. For free. My flabber is still gasted to this day...
And would anyone like to hazard a guess as to how much crudware has installed itself on the machine in question in the intervening few months? Anyone?
Back in the old days of 56k dial up in 1999 I bought my first copy of SUSE Linux 6.1 from PC world!! Last time I was in there you could still buy various Linux's in their boxes.
At my work (Particle physics) all high performance computing is done on Linux. Ask IBM what they run on their supercomputers?
At home I have, amongst others, an old AMD 800 MHz which takes 10 minutes to boot XP, want to open word - you might as well put the kettle on. Running Linux it is fast and reliable and will probably go and go for years yet.
Sure, Vista needs a BMW engine to crawl along at 30 mph, if so then Linux is a Ferrari. My old AMD box is a write off in XP, but in Linux its a reliable runner that will get you from A to B without breaking down and you won't get car-jacked in the process.
OS = car engine, wtf?
Why not just talk in real terms? I mean, you are working in PC world and a guy comes in with a laptop running on a linux variant. do you (a) condescend to him using various anologies "...you see, a computer is like a car..." or (b) recognise a geek as a geek and explain in real why you cant support hardware controlled by non-standard OSs?
...Which I do understand to an extent - the wrong sequence of instructions could cause undue stress on components and there are so many flavours of *n*x and home brews or various cores and kernels out there - how could you possibly keep track of which ones have stable disk r/w management, which ones mess up the power management. And if you go down that road then you've got overclocked processors with cooling systems never intended to support them and allsorts of hot rod sw/hw combinations put together by geeks of varying skill levels! I have to grudgingly admit that I can see where PC world is coming from here! - but that said, common - a broken hinge???
The car engine/OS analogies are making me want to stab people.
However: Richard Vivash posts about buying an Apple from PC World. I remember that nearly every Mac I've had from PC World has been defective or troublesome in some way, and we can thank DSG and Apple for that.
My first iMac had a misaligned case.
My 12" PowerBook had a fault no-one could work out.
My first eMac had a faulty screen.
Every other reseller I've used has been fine - I like Jigsaw, but I've used main dealers and Cancom (for new stuff, their refurbs are horrifically overpriced) before.
The partial answer to this was that PC World often sells Apple "B" stock as new. They want the B stock because they want a higher margin - Apple clearly don't see PC World as that valuable, as I'm sure they would be more helpful given better retail support - and as such, I will never buy an Apple product from DSG (which extends to buying iPods in Comet instead of Currys - I find Comet's staff more helpful anyway).
If you want an Apple, try John Lewis if you're not going to buy online or in an Apple store. They have excellent warranty backup - the sales staff aren't great but the products are fine, so if you know what you want, they're a good point of purchase.
Time for a snooze I think. All the Linux geeks are posting here and putting me to sleep. Why are they so anal about crappy Linux? Who really cares whether they use it or not?
A nice example is the person (anonymous of course, who would want to put their name on a post supporting Linux?) who wrote "I'd reverse the analogy myself". My goodness man, go get a girlfriend and drink some beer.
By the way, Linux is utter utter rubbish and is for fat sweaty bearded nerds with glasses like Clark Kent.
Needed a motherboard and some other bits urgently and went to my local PCW and got all I needed. Came back to the office and built it - "beep beep beep" some messing about and it looked like the stick of RAM or the m/b, so a trip back to the store with it all in the case and explained to the instore tech the situation - he "actually" understood what I was going on about. Then the moment he saw the light! He went off and got another board and stick of ram and said, lets plug it in and try the ram first if not swap out the board. Well I nearly shit my pants! Someone in PCW who could do something. So we swapped the ram "beep beep", a few tools and some bits later and the board swapped out and working with the original ram - even did it on a little table by the techy area. No one seemed to notice (or care) and it was all fixed on the spot. (Well I had to do some of the donkey work!). So I think if you find the right person who has a clue and cares just a little then you could be in luck.
Oh and a BMW m30 6 all day long. Really ALL DAY!
I thought the average linux user would be more "tech" or "PC savvy" and would know that you can buy cheaper/better PC gear from pretty much anywhere else.
I've been in IT for years, I'm a programmer and have built and repaired more PC's that I can remember.
The one time in my life that I have been into PC World (as I needed parts desperatly) the PC World sales adviser (who wouldn't just let me buy what I KNEW I needed) was talking to me like I was a retarded 6 year old.
if you are planning on installing linux on your PC / Laptop, then surely you would buy it from somewhere reputable
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