So while I was gone my roommate has a party, and now my computer is broken...

[fumbduck]

I went away for the weekend for my birthday and my friend has a bunch of his college buddies over and they have a party.

Well two of his friends sleep in my room ( we have a 2 bedroom apartment ). They were using my computer to play games and what not, but to turn it off, one of them pulled the power cord out of the power supply. This can be VERY bad, especially if the computer, any component, is doing something at the time when power gets cut off. The harddrive will not work at all anymore, it would just blue screen everytime, and now its screwed completely, even after formatting and reinstalling several times. The computer itself runs at like 200mhz, when it should be running at 1.5ghz, its very slow, so that could either be a mobo/cpu/ram problem.

I have asked them both, and they both deny touching my computer, even though others have said it was they that slept in my room and they that were on it.

Should I make them pay? How should I go about collecting money? Should I go buy a new harddrive, hand them a receipt, and demand payment?

What should I do?

 

[theNEOone]

o hell no. if that was me i'd raise fvcking hell.


=|

 

[boyRacer]

if they did use it they're partly responsible... but then you did let them sleep in your room and use your computer. that sucks.

 

[fumbduck]

Originally posted by: boyRacer
if they did use it they're partly responsible... but then you did let them sleep in your room and use your computer. that sucks.

I did not let them do anything, I was out of town.

 

[Sid59]

that's terrible. =( i hope you get vengence.

 

[EyeMWing]

You're basically screwed. I pull power cables on my shiz all the time - havn't hurt nothin yet. Somthing more sinister happened.

 

[IGBT]

Typical behavior of liars and drunks. Live and learn. How about removing the keyboard and storing the tower somewhere next time??

 

[fumbduck]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
You're basically screwed. I pull power cables on my shiz all the time - havn't hurt nothin yet. Somthing more sinister happened.

is there any legal basis that I could get a court order to make them pay, or sue them, or anything of the such.

I think maybe if I even brought up the threat they would pay. One of them is very rich and was bragging how his dad gives him 100$ a week for college.


I on the other hand am very poor and cannot afford this.

 

[boyRacer]

Originally posted by: fumbduck

Originally posted by: boyRacer
if they did use it they're partly responsible... but then you did let them sleep in your room and use your computer. that sucks.

I did not let them do anything, I was out of town.

well fvck that then... tell them people saw them in your room... and they're lying out of their ass.

 

[Ameesh]

i only let my friends use my computer, that way if they break it i know i wont have to worry about, it will probably be fixed before i even find out it was broken.

 

[richardycc]

someone probably spilled something on the keyboard.

 

[her209]

don't pay rent

 

[fumbduck]

Originally posted by: IGBT
Typical behavior of liars and drunks. Live and learn. How about removing the keyboard and storing the tower somewhere next time??

I had no clue that my roommate was having a party, otherwise I would have. I left my computer on so I could download stuff and so people could leech off of me.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: fumbduck
I went away for the weekend for my birthday and my friend has a bunch of his college buddies over and they have a party.

Well two of his friends sleep in my room ( we have a 2 bedroom apartment ). They were using my computer to play games and what not, but to turn it off, one of them pulled the power cord out of the power supply. This can be VERY bad, especially if the computer, any component, is doing something at the time when power gets cut off. The harddrive will not work at all anymore, it would just blue screen everytime, and now its screwed completely, even after formatting and reinstalling several times. The computer itself runs at like 200mhz, when it should be running at 1.5ghz, its very slow, so that could either be a mobo/cpu/ram problem.

I have asked them both, and they both deny touching my computer, even though others have said it was they that slept in my room and they that were on it.

Should I make them pay? How should I go about collecting money? Should I go buy a new harddrive, hand them a receipt, and demand payment?

What should I do?

First off, your roommate definitely shouldn't have been letting his buddies sleep in your room and using your computer without your permission.

However, i doubt them pulling the power cable caused all that damage. I do that a hundred times a day at work, and never once had anything go wrong. But it does look like they fvcked around with your computer. Find out what they did exactly to it.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: EyeMWing
You're basically screwed. I pull power cables on my shiz all the time - havn't hurt nothin yet. Somthing more sinister happened.

I concur. Pulling the power cord is no different than hitting the power switch. Something BAD happened.

 

[fumbduck]

Originally posted by: Moralpanic

Originally posted by: fumbduck
I went away for the weekend for my birthday and my friend has a bunch of his college buddies over and they have a party.

Well two of his friends sleep in my room ( we have a 2 bedroom apartment ). They were using my computer to play games and what not, but to turn it off, one of them pulled the power cord out of the power supply. This can be VERY bad, especially if the computer, any component, is doing something at the time when power gets cut off. The harddrive will not work at all anymore, it would just blue screen everytime, and now its screwed completely, even after formatting and reinstalling several times. The computer itself runs at like 200mhz, when it should be running at 1.5ghz, its very slow, so that could either be a mobo/cpu/ram problem.

I have asked them both, and they both deny touching my computer, even though others have said it was they that slept in my room and they that were on it.

Should I make them pay? How should I go about collecting money? Should I go buy a new harddrive, hand them a receipt, and demand payment?

What should I do?

First off, your roommate definitely shouldn't have been letting his buddies sleep in your room and using your computer without your permission.

However, i doubt them pulling the power cable caused all that damage. I do that a hundred times a day at work, and never once had anything go wrong. But it does look like they fvcked around with your computer. Find out what they did exactly to it.

I talked to my friend who works for Thortek (www.harddrive.com) and he said its usually not a problem unless the harddrive or any other party is under serious use, as cutting the power could cause the needle to scratch the fast spinning harddrive or whatever, or the laser to burn, something along those lines.

 

[fumbduck]

In the manual for mobo it says pulling the powercord from the computer as a means to turn off can cause damage to the motherboard and/or your hardware.

 

Small claims court. Also put a padlock on your door nex time you leave for the weekend. Check your Bios. I have had motherboards freak out when not properly shut down and change to the reset settings.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: fumbduck

Originally posted by: Moralpanic

Originally posted by: fumbduck
I went away for the weekend for my birthday and my friend has a bunch of his college buddies over and they have a party.

Well two of his friends sleep in my room ( we have a 2 bedroom apartment ). They were using my computer to play games and what not, but to turn it off, one of them pulled the power cord out of the power supply. This can be VERY bad, especially if the computer, any component, is doing something at the time when power gets cut off. The harddrive will not work at all anymore, it would just blue screen everytime, and now its screwed completely, even after formatting and reinstalling several times. The computer itself runs at like 200mhz, when it should be running at 1.5ghz, its very slow, so that could either be a mobo/cpu/ram problem.

I have asked them both, and they both deny touching my computer, even though others have said it was they that slept in my room and they that were on it.

Should I make them pay? How should I go about collecting money? Should I go buy a new harddrive, hand them a receipt, and demand payment?

What should I do?

First off, your roommate definitely shouldn't have been letting his buddies sleep in your room and using your computer without your permission.

However, i doubt them pulling the power cable caused all that damage. I do that a hundred times a day at work, and never once had anything go wrong. But it does look like they fvcked around with your computer. Find out what they did exactly to it.

I talked to my friend who works for Thortek (www.harddrive.com) and he said its usually not a problem unless the harddrive or any other party is under serious use, as cutting the power could cause the needle to scratch the fast spinning harddrive or whatever, or the laser to burn, something along those lines.

Your friend is wrong. First, the hdd is always spinning. Second, no, the needle won't 'crash' into the platter or scratch it. If the needle can handle 10,000+ rpm spins and stay only a few atomic lengths above the platter, what makes you think simply cutting the power off quickly will do anything to it? If that were so, you'd think there would be more problems with sudden blackouts or people tripping the power.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: fumbduck
In the manual for mobo it says pulling the powercord from the computer as a means to turn off can cause damage to the motherboard and/or your hardware.

That's just standard disclaimer. Pulling the power cable does the exact same thing pushing the power button did on old AT systems - interrupt AC power to the PSU. And that does exactly the same thing as the rocker switch on the PSU. And that does exactly the same thing as a power outage. Computers are designed to survive power outages (Now voltage spikes are another issue - but pulling a power cord will not cause one)

Pulling the power cord can, however, be damaging under normal circumstances IF and only IF the PSU is not up to standard and employs a connector with the hot lead at equal length to the other two. I am not aware of any electronic parts manufacturer making connectors of this style with the pins configured in this way - as it would also be dangerous to whatever equipment to plug it in with this style of connector. Hence why they aren't manufactured.

 

[fumbduck]

Originally posted by: RickyRoma
Small claims court. Also put a padlock on your door nex time you leave for the weekend. Check your Bios. I have had motherboards freak out when not properly shut down and change to the reset settings.

I've done everything I think I can, reset the bios in everyway, formatted the harddrive quick and regular, even put it in another computer, still didnt work.

Bios only recognizes it like 20% of the time.


They must have done something else, but what?

 

[mchammer187]

i trust my roomates but not everyone that comes into the apartment so my door is locked when i am gone

if you share a bedroom than you are kinda screwed but IMO if you have your own room you should lock it when you're gone

 

[Adul]

small claims court.

GET A PASSWORD on your windows XP machine.

Make your roomate and the 2 friends pay for replacement parts.