Man i hate some computer "techs"

[Acanthus]

Powerman4999: hey
Ultimate Smaug: Yo.
Ultimate Smaug: Don isn't here
Powerman4999: you keep messaging me when im at work, i work 3rd shift
Ultimate Smaug: Ah.
Powerman4999: alright
Ultimate Smaug: What's the password for his bios?
Powerman4999: try invalid or porsche
Ultimate Smaug: ok.
Powerman4999: if neither works
Powerman4999: reset the cmos
Powerman4999: itll clear the password
Ultimate Smaug: Oh.. fun....
Powerman4999: if you dont know how to reset the cmos
Ultimate Smaug: I know.
Powerman4999: you shouldnt be in the bios anyway
Ultimate Smaug: I'm just not looking forward to it.
Powerman4999: it only takes like 10 seconds
Powerman4999: why does he need in the bios?
Ultimate Smaug: Well.. he killed his computer.
Ultimate Smaug: Then threw it out here
Ultimate Smaug: for me to kix.
Ultimate Smaug: fix
Powerman4999: what does that have to do with the bios?
Powerman4999: couldnt you just format it?
Ultimate Smaug: It doesn't see the drives.
Ultimate Smaug: At all.
Ultimate Smaug: So I figure that I'll start with the bios settings..
Powerman4999: you checked the obvious stuff?
Powerman4999: like wiring?
Ultimate Smaug: yeah, nothing is loose.
Ultimate Smaug: or burned thorugh
Powerman4999: have you tried a format?
Ultimate Smaug: Not yet, he asked that I not if I can avoid it.
Powerman4999: if you run a windows cd and go through the format process
Powerman4999: and it doesnt see the drives
Powerman4999: then its a bios problem
Powerman4999: if the windows installer sees them
Powerman4999: or the bios sees them on boot up
Powerman4999: then its hardware
Powerman4999: theres not really much you can do in the bios besides manually disable the IDE ports
Powerman4999: everything is automatic on that chipset
Ultimate Smaug: Ugh
Powerman4999: so he actually gets into windows
Powerman4999: and windows doesnt see the drives?
Ultimate Smaug: No, he doesn't get past system checks
Powerman4999: do you know if the bios is seeing them on boot up
Ultimate Smaug: No, it isn't getting past the system check
Powerman4999: post?
Powerman4999: is that what youre talking about? it wont post?
Ultimate Smaug: Yeah
Powerman4999: youll have to reset the cmos anyway then
Powerman4999: you wont be able to get into the bios if it wont post
Powerman4999: that could be anything if its a hardware problem
Powerman4999: power supply, graphics card, memory, cpu, chipset
Ultimate Smaug: All I know is that he says it gets to the screen that shows the bios version and then stops. I havn't had time t look at it, but he didn't know the bios password.
Ultimate Smaug: But he knew that it had one and that you knew it.
Powerman4999: alright
Powerman4999: well i built it when the 9700pro came out...
Powerman4999: it was forever ago
Ultimate Smaug: It has the 9700 pro in there?
Powerman4999: yeah
Ultimate Smaug: Ah.
Ultimate Smaug: Never did find out what all was in this thing. Guess I'm going to find out.. LOL
Powerman4999: 2.8B, 9700pro, i forget the chipset, it was the 1st dual channel intel chipset., it was pretty much the best of everything out at the time
Ultimate Smaug: Northbridge?
Powerman4999: what about it?
Powerman4999: its part of the chipset, not sure what its called the intel workstation chipset that originally introduced dual channel ddr
Ultimate Smaug: Just wondering. I've been having problems latly with Mbs with that chipset.
Powerman4999: its a workstation motherboard with all passive heatsinks, there shouldnt be any issues at all
Ultimate Smaug: What brand?
Ultimate Smaug: Just an Intel?
Powerman4999: Tyan
Ultimate Smaug: Ok.

sigh...

 

[flamingspinach]

Heh Well be happy you don't have to go fix it yourself, I guess... also he only asked you for the BIOS pw, it's not like he's asking you how to fix the system, you just volunteered information...

-fs

 

[Acanthus]

Im guessing its just a hosed install of windows, it gets through the bios and detects all the drives properly, but wont get into windows.

I told them to simply install right over the current install and backup, and if they want to be safe from a possible virus that wouldve caused the problem, then to format again after backing up.

He then told me he was going to upgrade him to the ATi X900, not a typo, the "tech" said X900, no suffix. Then i said "do you mean X800?" and he said "no the 900".

I dont like this guy working on my PC its like hes dr nick performing surgery on one of my children

"The Knee bones connected to the something, the somethings connected to the red thing, the red things connected to my, wrist watch... uh oh"

 

[Imyourzero]

I love when you tell people what you've built, and they critique it like they could have done sooo much better with other componets just because that's what they've read about or that's what they would have preferred. You know, the know-it-all types that think they should be a CEO at a major computing firm just because they know how to install a PCI card. :roll:

 

[Thor86]

Originally posted by: Acanthus
"The Knee bones connected to the something, the somethings connected to the red thing, the red things connected to my, wrist watch... uh oh"

LOL!

 

[Stark]

why would you password protect the bios?

man, you're just asking to be tied to that system for the rest of its life.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Stark
why would you password protect the bios?

man, you're just asking to be tied to that system for the rest of its life.

I didnt trust the owner of the PC with the bios voltage settings, memory timings, or hell, anything in the bios.

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: Thor86

Originally posted by: Acanthus
"The Knee bones connected to the something, the somethings connected to the red thing, the red things connected to my, wrist watch... uh oh"

LOL!

I laughed too hah.

 

[NesuD]

I hear ya. I have a friend who picked my brain on a good cost effective system configuration then he went out and had his father inlaws buddy build it for him. Well it wasn't to long and all kinds of things were going wacky in it so everyday at work He would be quizzing me trying to figure out what was wrong with it. I finally told him he needed to call the guy that built it since from the sound of it he didn't do something right. Well guess who wouldn't return their phone calls. Finally he asked me to come and look at it. I get there and it is reporting an unmountable boot volume so I fixed that then told him he should install SP1 as that had a fix to correct the unmountable boot volume issues in XP. He said he tried but it wouldn't install so I tried it and guess what. The original builder installed a bootleg copy of XP pro using the blacklisted FCKGW key. I was wondering why he had XP Pro on it. Any how we got him all legal with a copy of home problems solved. Well about a year later he calls me and says it is acting up again could i check it out for him I says sure. I get there open it up and see it has a different motherboard and burner in it. I asked who swapped the board since i was positive he couldn't have done it. He said his wifes sisters boyfriend who is majoring in computer science told them the board was a bad one and talked them into changing it (which is pretty funny since the old board has been running great in my youngest boys box for 6 months now with no problems) he gave me the old board after i fixed it again. Well i start checking it out and find it is running pretty hot so i shut it down and pop the heatsink. The idiot just stuck the heatsink on there with the old used TIM (Amd retail cpu and heatsink). So I cleaned it all up applied a little AS and put it back together temps were much better but it was still running like crap so I started disconnecting things until i narrowed it down to the new burner which was flat out bad. It was wigging the system whenever it was connected so that got tossed. He said it was like that from the day this guy put it in there for him. The guy didn't even do a clean install when he switched the boards (went from a via chipset to an Nforce2 chipset). It has been my experience that original installs on via based boards don't migrate well to different chipsets. So we burned it down and did a full clean install. Problems solved once again. worked out good for me made a hundred bucks and got a perfectly good Gigabyte kt266 board to drop my old Athlon 1.33ghz chip in for my youngest boy to use. Best part is I didn't build any of it so anything that dies is someone elses problem. I figure in about 4 months i should get another call from him when he lets someone else screw with it. I told him look everytime he calls me it is to fix what other people screw up. Don't let anyone else touch it. If someone trys to tell you something check with me first. we'll see if he does.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: NesuD
I hear ya. I have a friend who picked my brain on a good cost effective system configuration then he went out and had his father inlaws buddy build it for him. Well it wasn't to long and all kinds of things were going.....

I could have barfed on my screen and it would have looked better than what you just typed.

But yeah, that same thing has happened to me too. You tell the person NOT to let anyone else touch it ('cause they have the terrible luck of picking the most inept people to work on their computers who always break what you've just fixed.......like installing 14,000 different spyware programs or forgetting to install device drivers, etc.).....and then you always get that call a few weeks/months later. "Yeah, hey, listen, I just let <insert_douchebag_here> work on the computer and now the intarweb is broken."

*all in good fun*

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2

Originally posted by: NesuD
I hear ya. I have a friend who picked my brain on a good cost effective system configuration then he went out and had his father inlaws buddy build it for him. Well it wasn't to long and all kinds of things were going.....

I could have barfed on my screen and it would have looked better than what you just typed.

But yeah, that same thing has happened to me too. You tell the person NOT to let anyone else touch it ('cause they have the terrible luck of picking the most inept people to work on their computers who always break what you've just fixed.......like installing 14,000 different spyware programs or forgetting to install device drivers, etc.).....and then you always get that call a few weeks/months later. "Yeah, hey, listen, I just let <insert_douchebag_here> work on the computer and now the intarweb is broken."

*all in good fun*

This is exactly why i passworded the bios even though they could just reset the cmos if they wanted in bad enough anyway.