How reputable is Geek Squad for troubleshooting hardware

[Starbuck1975]

I posted already in the MOBO and PSU forums to diagnose a problem I am having with my PC.

I also spoke with Abit technical support about my problem.

Based on the beeps emitted from my MOBO, I could have a dead video card or a bad PSU...without spare components on hand, I wont be able to isolate the problem myself.

My local Best Buy charges $60 for a system diagnostic. How reputable is Geek Squad in isolating the problem to one component.

I dont have the funds right now to build a new system, but if I can isolate the video card or PSU, I could simply replace them.

Anyone have experience with Geek Squad...is it safe to assume that they have the skills and equipment to isolate a hardware failure?

 

[stevf]

i have no idea what they would be like but -

do you have a friend that has any spare parts? does the mobo give the same beeps with the video card both in and out?

 

[NamelessMC]

Depends on which precinct you go to.

I can say, with almost 100% assurance, that if you went to the Geek Squad precinct I work at, you might find out for sure whether it's the PSU or video-card. The problem is it'd cost you $60 to find out. Any other precinct and they might charge you $199 and never find out. Too much of a gamble. Buy a PSU and test it yourself. At least that way, you can return the PSU if it's not the problem.

 

[JackMDS]

For $60 you can buy inexpensive PSU and simple Video card use them for Diagnosis, and keep them for a rainny day.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Spoke to Abit technical support again after running a few more tests. The tech mentioned that the beep code and subsequent MOBO Post code I was receiving usually means a video adapter issue.

He had me move my video card from the primary to the secondary PCI-E slot, and clear the CMOS.

I moved my video card to the secondary slot, and sure enough, my system now works again.

I assume this means my primary PCI-E slot died? Is this a warning of things to come? Is it possible for a slot to fail, but for the MOBO to continue functioning and soldier on? Or should I brace for an inevitable MOBO total failure at this point?

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975
Spoke to Abit technical support again after running a few more tests. The tech mentioned that the beep code and subsequent MOBO Post code I was receiving usually means a video adapter issue.

He had me move my video card from the primary to the secondary PCI-E slot, and clear the CMOS.

I moved my video card to the secondary slot, and sure enough, my system now works again.

I assume this means my primary PCI-E slot died? Is this a warning of things to come? Is it possible for a slot to fail, but for the MOBO to continue functioning and soldier on? Or should I brace for an inevitable MOBO total failure at this point?

That sucks! I'd try to RMA that board then. Be advised that your second PCIE (x16 I assume) only runs at 4x bandwidth NOT 16. That will really bottleneck your video card if your're doing any type of gaming.

 

[erikistired]

i would never use the geek squad unless there were no other computer stores in my town and the three closest neighboring towns. when i was working for a mom and pop store the people i decided to not hire would almost always end up at best buy or compusa. it always made me chuckle seeing one of them.

 

[JoLLyRoGer]

Originally posted by: fisher
i would never use the geek squad unless there were no other computer stores in my town and the three closest neighboring towns. when i was working for a mom and pop store the people i decided to not hire would almost always end up at best buy or compusa. it always made me chuckle seeing one of them.

QFMFT!! I've got more geek my left nut then Geek Squad - what a joke! And FWIW, Dell's tech support ranks right up there with them! Bah!

 

[FP]

Originally posted by: NamelessMC
Depends on which precinct you go to.

I can say, with almost 100% assurance, that if you went to the Geek Squad precinct I work at, you might find out for sure whether it's the PSU or video-card. The problem is it'd cost you $60 to find out. Any other precinct and they might charge you $199 and never find out. Too much of a gamble. Buy a PSU and test it yourself. At least that way, you can return the PSU if it's not the problem.

lol

 

[ch33zw1z]

Originally posted by: binister

Originally posted by: NamelessMC
Depends on which precinct you go to.

I can say, with almost 100% assurance, that if you went to the Geek Squad precinct I work at, you might find out for sure whether it's the PSU or video-card. The problem is it'd cost you $60 to find out. Any other precinct and they might charge you $199 and never find out. Too much of a gamble. Buy a PSU and test it yourself. At least that way, you can return the PSU if it's not the problem.

lol

glad I'm not the only one who lol'd at that..

 

[jackschmittusa]

I remember one of the computer mags once took a rig with a bad ide cable to several stores to be tested. Only 1 out of 10 found it (a mom and pop shop). BB, Cusa, etc. were trying to sell every thing from hds to new mbs to fix it.

 

[NamelessMC]

Actually it was 4 out of 10. 1 out of 10 that actually told him what the problem was. The other 3 places either didn't tell him, made it sound really complicated and one didn't say what it was at all (Fry's), they just fixed and charged.

You have to remember that while something as simple as a misplaced IDE cable is very simple to fix, it really depends on how the person who walks up explains it.

I had one customer that SWORE to me they didn't open up their PC to check it. I spent 2 hours trying to figure out why there was no operating system on it despite the fact that the hard drive was recognized by the BIOS. Low and behold, I open it up and find the hard drive lying on the floor of the case with the jumpers all misplaced. I charged them the full diagnostic price for two reasons: They made it take two hours when it would've taken 15 minutes if they didn't outright LIE to me, and the second being that 30 minutes = $29 of my time, anything past an hour that takes less than 3-6 to fix is $60.

People are quick to criticize retail technicians when they fail to realize two things: If they wanted someone more qualified than a person with no degree with mere hands on experience, they'd have to pay that person more and that means even HIGHER prices for simple services. The second thing is that there's always more to a story than what you hear from ONE side of it.

One person was on a tech forum swearing up and down how badly he was "ripped off" by Geek Squad, until someone who "knew" the geek that helped him came out and told everyone about how the computer that was checked had P2P software, hundreds of infections, missing drivers and it was clear that the owner abused it by downloading software/music with it.

Are there some guys that work for Geek Squad that don't know jack squat? Of course. I work with a couple of them. But that's a percentage of bad people that's existent in everyone, including CUSTOMERS and regular people. People scam others on Anandtech all the time. Does that make the good people at Anandtech or everyone on the site a scammer? No. Don't make blanket generalizations or you're just as bad as the people you're criticizing, if not worse.

 

[Starbuck1975]

Abit apparently has a 2 year warranty on their boards, and the tech gave me the option to RMA. I am going to do a system backup this weekend just to be safe, and then probably take apart my system to RMA the board.

Big props to Abit's tech support...the tech stayed on the phone with me as I was moving my GPU around, disconnecting power cables and everything in between.

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: NamelessMC
Actually it was 4 out of 10. 1 out of 10 that actually told him what the problem was. The other 3 places either didn't tell him, made it sound really complicated and one didn't say what it was at all (Fry's), they just fixed and charged.

You have to remember that while something as simple as a misplaced IDE cable is very simple to fix, it really depends on how the person who walks up explains it.

I had one customer that SWORE to me they didn't open up their PC to check it. I spent 2 hours trying to figure out why there was no operating system on it despite the fact that the hard drive was recognized by the BIOS. Low and behold, I open it up and find the hard drive lying on the floor of the case with the jumpers all misplaced. I charged them the full diagnostic price for two reasons: They made it take two hours when it would've taken 15 minutes if they didn't outright LIE to me, and the second being that 30 minutes = $29 of my time, anything past an hour that takes less than 3-6 to fix is $60.

People are quick to criticize retail technicians when they fail to realize two things: If they wanted someone more qualified than a person with no degree with mere hands on experience, they'd have to pay that person more and that means even HIGHER prices for simple services. The second thing is that there's always more to a story than what you hear from ONE side of it.

One person was on a tech forum swearing up and down how badly he was "ripped off" by Geek Squad, until someone who "knew" the geek that helped him came out and told everyone about how the computer that was checked had P2P software, hundreds of infections, missing drivers and it was clear that the owner abused it by downloading software/music with it.

Are there some guys that work for Geek Squad that don't know jack squat? Of course. I work with a couple of them. But that's a percentage of bad people that's existent in everyone, including CUSTOMERS and regular people. People scam others on Anandtech all the time. Does that make the good people at Anandtech or everyone on the site a scammer? No. Don't make blanket generalizations or you're just as bad as the people you're criticizing, if not worse.

anyone who has an ounce of experience knows that 1) customers always lie about being responsible and 2) 90% of the time the easiest solution is the correct one.

you aren't helping out the geek squad here. 😉

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975
Abit apparently has a 2 year warranty on their boards, and the tech gave me the option to RMA. I am going to do a system backup this weekend just to be safe, and then probably take apart my system to RMA the board.

Big props to Abit's tech support...the tech stayed on the phone with me as I was moving my GPU around, disconnecting power cables and everything in between.

good to hear that. i used to swear by abit boards back in the p1/p2 days, but they don't seem to have the same quality these days. glad to hear they are taking responsibility tho.

 

[Starbuck1975]

This is my fourth or fifth Abit board, and the first I have had to potentially RMA...they did seem to have a fairly straightforward and very knowledgeable approach to troubleshooting problems.

I will probably RMA at this point...no use holding on to a defective MOBO if it is under warranty...of course the whole disassembly is a pain in the neck, but worth the effort given the alternative of a new build.

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: Starbuck1975
This is my fourth or fifth Abit board, and the first I have had to potentially RMA...they did seem to have a fairly straightforward and very knowledgeable approach to troubleshooting problems.

I will probably RMA at this point...no use holding on to a defective MOBO if it is under warranty...of course the whole disassembly is a pain in the neck, but worth the effort given the alternative of a new build.

yeah you probably don't want to wait til something else goes bad and possibly takes other hardware with it if the whole board decides to crap out.

 

[accguy9009]

I would avoid the Geek Squad at all costs. I believe they even had some pervert working for them that did something creepy like watching some teenage girl undress while on an on site call, allegedly. Do not let a Geek into your home!😀isgust;

 

[blueness]

Originally posted by: accguy9009
I would avoid the Geek Squad at all costs. I believe they even had some pervert working for them that did something creepy like watching some teenage girl undress while on an on site call, allegedly. Do not let a Geek into your home!😀isgust;

Lol ... nice hard core fact driven mud slinging there. Sheesh... my cousin's brother told his friend's sister that she saw them do something wrong.

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: blueness

Originally posted by: accguy9009
I would avoid the Geek Squad at all costs. I believe they even had some pervert working for them that did something creepy like watching some teenage girl undress while on an on site call, allegedly. Do not let a Geek into your home!😀isgust;

Lol ... nice hard core fact driven mud slinging there. Sheesh... my cousin's brother told his friend's sister that she saw them do something wrong.

http://www.slashgear.com/geek-...-in-the-act-124754.php

pwnt?

 

[CZroe]

OP: My firend had very similar issues recently. Believe it or not, despite the error codes, a bad IDE cable was at fault. Because his problems were all apparent before the HDD controller was even active or looking for drives, he had no way to suspect that. He wouldn't have been able to troubleshoot that without access to my spare parts (s478 CPU, DDR, AGP video cards, etc). Have you trued selectively disconnecting your IDE/SATA drives? Another friend of mine had a bad WD SATA Raptor drive that would crash the Windows installation process installing to a different drive (blue screen at random places during the install) even when the SATA controller it was connected to was disabled in the motherboard BIOS.

Originally posted by: fisher

Originally posted by: blueness

Originally posted by: accguy9009
I would avoid the Geek Squad at all costs. I believe they even had some pervert working for them that did something creepy like watching some teenage girl undress while on an on site call, allegedly. Do not let a Geek into your home!😀isgust;

Lol ... nice hard core fact driven mud slinging there. Sheesh... my cousin's brother told his friend's sister that she saw them do something wrong.

http://www.slashgear.com/geek-...-in-the-act-124754.php

pwnt?

No, because it's not like that has anything to do with what makes Geek Squad good or bad. It's not like that was sactioned/encouraged/allowed bahavior or anything.

 

[0roo0roo]

geek squad is part of best buy who are known for being shady.
no onboard video?
bad psu generally means no boot or simply crash

 

[erikistired]

Originally posted by: CZroe

Originally posted by: fisher

Originally posted by: blueness

Originally posted by: accguy9009
I would avoid the Geek Squad at all costs. I believe they even had some pervert working for them that did something creepy like watching some teenage girl undress while on an on site call, allegedly. Do not let a Geek into your home!😀isgust;

Lol ... nice hard core fact driven mud slinging there. Sheesh... my cousin's brother told his friend's sister that she saw them do something wrong.

http://www.slashgear.com/geek-...-in-the-act-124754.php

pwnt?

No, because it's not like that has anything to do with what makes Geek Squad good or bad. It's not like that was sactioned/encouraged/allowed bahavior or anything.

well no. the post mentioned the scandal, the reply was some sarcastic junk about it not being true and no facts being posted, my reply linked to a news story about the scandal.