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On Tue, Oct 25, 2005 at 06:42:07PM +1000, Russell Davie wrote:
> On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 08:44:49 +1000
> Michael Lake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > James Purser wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2005-10-24 at 13:28 +0000, l cheung wrote:
> > >
> > >>Get a life, get a power book. :)
> > >
> > > Yes but can you return OSX?
> >
> > It's a good idea to keep OSX on it as a small partition that can be booted
> > by default for the first year.
> > If you have to return the machine under warranty the techos at Broadway
> > (thats where the
> > Apple service centre is) will then be able to boot it and run their
> > diagnostics. You'll get
> > it back with your Linux untouched. Otherwise they will have to do a new
> > install and wipe
> > your Linux.
>
> ooooo, never thought of that...
>
> good point
I don't find it a very good point at all...
Hard drives are completely interchangeable and there is absolutely zero excuse
for the official hardware service centre not to have a special hard drive that
they drop into the machine for doing diagnostics. Moreover, they can swap your
hard drive into a different machine that does a sector read/write scan to
prove the hard drive is working correctly and they can do that without damaging
any of your data. They can even boot off a special disgnostic CD or off a USB
device or off a network device. If Apple don't provide such boostrap options
to their service centres then Apple clearly show no commitment to their
customers. If Apple do provide the option and the service centre can't be
bothered using it then time to look for a better service centre.
I can remember boot floppies for 486 machines that provided extensive
diagnostics
in just a 1.4M image (including keyboard test). I first saw one about 10 years
ago. The quality of computing services available to the consumer has gone
downhill.
--------------
I recently had to deal with the official Sony service centre in Lane Cove with
regards to getting a warranty repair for a Sony Vaio doorstop, which had some
sort of fault in the keyboard controller. Their first answer to pretty much
anything that they can't obviously diagnose is "software error, probably a
virus or something, warranty does not cover software". I even got the guy to
shut it down, remove the hard drive and boot it with no hard drive and the
keyboard problem was obviously still present (because the constantly repeating
key was causing a steady beeping noise). Then he starts with "maybe you spilled
something on this" and after that doesn't get a good response he goes back
to the tried-and-true "must be a software problem, probably a virus".
The only option he gave was to completely wipe the drive and reinstall from
the original CDs before he would even consider taking the machine in for
repair. I'll also point out that this laptop has only ever run MS-Win-XP and
the install was already the standard default Sony install with a bunch of
additional software added afterwards. I tried booting off a Linux CD and found
that exactly the same keyboard fault manifested in Linux as well so I'm 100%
sure it is NOT a software problem and sure enough after a reinstall from the
original Win-XP CDs the fault is exactly the same.
Basically, the reinstall is just their way of inconveniencing you and giving
you a few hoops to jump through. It is utterly unnecessary and smacks of
the unprofessional buffoonery that is typical in the computing industry and
especially typical of anything sold with a Microsoft operating system.
I'll also point out that the typical Apple user doesn't no squat about what
is and is not possible so the probably get fed just the same line of junk
because they don't know any better.
Now I have to wait at least a week to get the machine back and then put in
a good two days work reinstalling all the applications, reconfiguring the
settings, etc, etc. just because Sony don't see a priority in providing
diagnostic tools for their equipment.
Sony do sell some decent equipment now and then but their attitude to the
consumer is, "You pay money now and then #uc% off".
--------------
Frankly, I would be very very happy to find a manufacturer selling laptops
WITHOUT any hard drives at all who would take the laptop back for warranty
repair WITHOUT any hard drive and actually do their job and repair the
hardware or give you a replacement machine. I would know I'm not paying any
software tax and I could get a decent machine that does what should do.
- Tel
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