Computer troubles

[AlanHo]

A friend who has always bought computers from Evesham needed to upgrade because he is moving up to HD video and his 3 year old computer would not handle it. He is a proficient computer user - but doesn't have a clue what resides in the box or how it works.

The situation with Evesham - possibly no longer trading - meant that he needed to look elsewhere but he got thoroughly confused after visiting PC World and browsing the web for advice on what spec he should go for - let alone what brand to buy. So he asked me for advice.

I must admit that I did not relish the task - after all it is an expensive item - but that is what friends are for and I did some research on his behalf, came up with a suitable spec and priced all the components at just under £1000. However - he was not happy about a self build - even with me holding his hand - because he felt he needed ongoing technical support so he got a price from a local computer builder and repair company against the spec. They wanted £1650 which was daylight robbery.

I then recommended Cougar Computers and urged him to talk to them - which he did. He was impressed with their response and the very favourable reports about them on the other place and ordered the computer from them for slightly less than we could obtain the components.

It arrived on Wednesday whilst I was away - he saw the delivery driver drop the box on one corner and insisted he waited whilst he opened the carton to inspect for damage. However, the case was undamaged and it was well packed so he thought all was well.

When he fired the computer up he got a message telling him he needed to install an operating system - he was a tad disappointed - but proceeded to fumble his way through installing Vista from the supplied DVD. He had ordered the medialess version of Office 2007 and found that all he had was an empty box with a serial number - but no sign of the programme. A further mystery was he could not find the second hard drive and the graphics seemed not to be installed properly. He called me on my mobile with this tale of woe.

I visited him and opened the case - the build quality was impressive but I found that the SATA power and data plugs were disconnected from the lower hard drive - in fact both plugs were broken and would not stay in place. This drive was at the bottom of the case and the SATA connectors had clearly been struck by a heavy cable running across the floor of the case when the box had been dropped. We nipped down to Maplins, spent a tenner on the required replacements, fitted them and booted up the computer.

You have guessed what I am coming to haven't you. Yes - you are right - the "missing" hard drive was the one Cougar had installed all the software on - so we now had a computer with Vista installed on both hard drives. I did a bit of BIOS juggling to make sure it booted from the correct hard drive and reformatted his D: drive to get things back to normal. The graphics were now fine and Office 2007 was there in all its glory. I have now left him to contact Cougar to report the problems and for him to install his other software and transfer his data from the old computer. I have also beaten him into submission into buying an external hard drive plus Acronis and have tutored him in a suitable back-up strategy.

A few months ago I would have lacked the confidence to do any of that - but after building my own computer recently and all the research and learning that went into that I had no qualms about sorting him out.

Good innit - no need to pat me on the back - I have done it myself.

By the way - anyone in the market for a new computer should put Cougar on the list of possible suppliers.

[andsome]

A friend who has always bought computers from Evesham needed to upgrade because he is moving up to HD video and his 3 year old computer would not handle it. He is a proficient computer user - but doesn't have a clue what resides in the box or how it works.

The situation with Evesham - possibly no longer trading - meant that he needed to look elsewhere but he got thoroughly confused after visiting PC World and browsing the web for advice on what spec he should go for - let alone what brand to buy. So he asked me for advice.

I must admit that I did not relish the task - after all it is an expensive item - but that is what friends are for and I did some research on his behalf, came up with a suitable spec and priced all the components at just under £1000. However - he was not happy about a self build - even with me holding his hand - because he felt he needed ongoing technical support so he got a price from a local computer builder and repair company against the spec. They wanted £1650 which was daylight robbery.

I then recommended Cougar Computers and urged him to talk to them - which he did. He was impressed with their response and the very favourable reports about them on the other place and ordered the computer from them for slightly less than we could obtain the components.

It arrived on Wednesday whilst I was away - he saw the delivery driver drop the box on one corner and insisted he waited whilst he opened the carton to inspect for damage. However, the case was undamaged and it was well packed so he thought all was well.

When he fired the computer up he got a message telling him he needed to install an operating system - he was a tad disappointed - but proceeded to fumble his way through installing Vista from the supplied DVD. He had ordered the medialess version of Office 2007 and found that all he had was an empty box with a serial number - but no sign of the programme. A further mystery was he could not find the second hard drive and the graphics seemed not to be installed properly. He called me on my mobile with this tale of woe.

I visited him and opened the case - the build quality was impressive but I found that the SATA power and data plugs were disconnected from the lower hard drive - in fact both plugs were broken and would not stay in place. This drive was at the bottom of the case and the SATA connectors had clearly been struck by a heavy cable running across the floor of the case when the box had been dropped. We nipped down to Maplins, spent a tenner on the required replacements, fitted them and booted up the computer.

You have guessed what I am coming to haven't you. Yes - you are right - the "missing" hard drive was the one Cougar had installed all the software on - so we now had a computer with Vista installed on both hard drives. I did a bit of BIOS juggling to make sure it booted from the correct hard drive and reformatted his D: drive to get things back to normal. The graphics were now fine and Office 2007 was there in all its glory. I have now left him to contact Cougar to report the problems and for him to install his other software and transfer his data from the old computer. I have also beaten him into submission into buying an external hard drive plus Acronis and have tutored him in a suitable back-up strategy.

A few months ago I would have lacked the confidence to do any of that - but after building my own computer recently and all the research and learning that went into that I had no qualms about sorting him out.

Good innit - no need to pat me on the back - I have done it myself.

By the way - anyone in the market for a new computer should put Cougar on the list of possible suppliers.

Pat pat. :D

[-pops-]

Good for you, Alan. This demonstrates there's a lot more to us oldies than standing in the queue at the Post Office collecting our pensions and moaning.

[Irene]

Interesting story Alan. Your friend was fortunate to have someone like you to call on.

I'll certainly keep Cougar in mind for future reference.

btw: what did they say about the damage?

[Alan2273]

Well done Alan.

What pops says is right on the button.

[andsome]

Good for you, Alan. This demonstrates there's a lot more to us oldies than standing in the queue at the Post Office collecting our pensions and moaning.

I have mine paid into the bank. :D

[rong]

How often in the past has he used "ongoing technical support" as I noticed that he used you this time but did not have the confidence to let you build it, I hope you charged him the £50+ an hour for your time.

[catgate]

SplendidI.

think you only need another one now for a Black Belt.

[AlanHo]

I'll certainly keep Cougar in mind for future reference.

btw: what did they say about the damage?

I understand they were very concerned about the way the courier handled the package and will be taking it up with them. They were willing to have the computer back for a complete check-over at their cost, but my friend feels that it is working OK and this is not necessary. Cougar have assured him they will place the incident on record and will attend to any problems that do reveal themselves in the coming months - but consider it unlikely. They did tell him that the SATA plugs are quite flimsy and they do have occasional problems with them.

Interestingly - Amtrak delivered his previous computer from Evesham - and dropped it from the van onto his drive. It was so damaged, Evesham had to rebuild it into a new case.

It must be quite a problem for computer suppliers to get their product delivered to the end user undamaged by careless courier firms.

[catgate]

It must be quite a problem for computer suppliers to get their product delivered to the end user undamaged by careless courier firms.

I think is is not only computers. It is anything that can be put into or onto any form of transport,

Over the last few years I have had two PC cases from CCL, delivered by DHL, a complete PC from a chap in Scotland, via Amtrak a monitor from a firm in London,(via DHL ?), a Sony car radio/tape player, via Farcel Post, a motorcycle fairing with the screen smashed in transit, via Farcel Post, a 5 burner Hob from Screwfix, all of which had to go back. The latter had "DO NOT TREAD" writ large upon it....right next to two great new muddy boot prints, under which the stainless steel had buckled.

The chap from DHL told me that most of the damage is caused in the depots, where there priority is getting stuff out, no matter what. He told of one occasion when he discovered a box with broken glass rattling about within before he left the depot. When he told the depot manager he was told that his job was to deliver parcels, not check them, just go and deliver it.

I have come to the conclusion that if all the packaging was abolished, and the driver and other people handling the goods could see them, the damage would be far less frequent. There are millions of pounds worth of goods transported every day with little or no packaging, and the removal men seldom have a problem !

[AlanHo]

A few weeks ago I ordered a small electrical component from Screwfix - it was about as big as a video cassette.

I was flabbergasted to find it arrive in a cardboard carton roughly 24" long x 18" wide x 12" deep. It was sticky-taped to the bottom of the carton which was them filled with polythene balloon strips. I could see no logic in the packaging method - it was 95% fresh air.

The component was damaged and had to be returned because, as luck would have it, something had struck the carton right where it was taped. You could have dropped an elephant on it from above - but the couriers managed to find the weak spot.

Some time ago I bought a 42" LCD TV from an internet supplier 120 miles away. They had the model I wanted in stock but stated that delivery would take up to 10 days and I would be notified the day prior to delivery that it had been loaded. They explained that they now did their own deliveries and made up economic loads for each area.

It arrived in a medium size transit van about 4 days later and I had a chat with the driver and his mate. They told me that the company had previously used normal parcel carriers but the losses and damage had been horrendous - so much so - their insurance premiums had rocketed. The delivery guy was self employed and dedicated to delivering TV's and other stuff for the company. He covered a 200 miles radius.

By the way catgate - your adventures in returning damaged stuff could be the script for your next series of little stories.

[catgate]

By the way catgate - your adventures in returning damaged stuff could be the script for your next series of little stories.

I have just sat down after, I hope, completing one of those silly "it should never have happened" series of events, the last of which started about five years ago. I shall writ it in the next couple of days as a separate post.

[Irene]

Interestingly - Amtrak delivered his previous computer from Evesham - and dropped it from the van onto his drive. It was so damaged, Evesham had to rebuild it into a new case.

Clearly, a delivery service to avoid!!

[Mike567]

You say that Cougar are good, but would you think they are £650 good.

What I have noticed is a lot of machines are only good because of their custom cases, especially like dell its just a normal computer yet the way it is arranged is really good but I can't say I would fork out the extra money for a dell over a custom build.

[-pops-]

I'll continue to build my own for as long as my eye sight/arthritis will let me. When that time comes, my elder granddaughter is now very proficient as putting computers together (she's done six, I think, now).

I would never buy another commercial machine.

[AlanHo]

You say that Cougar are good, but would you think they are £650 good.

What I have noticed is a lot of machines are only good because of their custom cases, especially like dell its just a normal computer yet the way it is arranged is really good but I can't say I would fork out the extra money for a dell over a custom build.

I'm not sure what you mean by £650 good.

My friends computer was more than that but cost a little less than buying the components from EBuyer and a great deal less than one of similar spec from Mesh etc.

I am not sure you are correct that Dell is just a normal computer. My son has a Dell desktop - he looked into upgrading it with a faster processor, more memory, better graphics, new motherboard etc - but found that his motherboard was special to Dell and standard parts could not be fitted.

[andsome]

I'll continue to build my own for as long as my eye sight/arthritis will let me. When that time comes, my elder granddaughter is now very proficient as putting computers together (she's done six, I think, now).

I would never buy another commercial machine.

I never have bought a commercial computer. my son gave me his old one for my first, and I exchanged it for a second hand home built one when it expired. My present computer was built locally and has given excellent service for about 4 or 5 years. My daughters Evesham has never to my mind been as good as it should be, and friends have also had mixed results with commercial builds. :D