Woes (laptop)

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Mp4

Mp4

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well my mother bought a laptop from a retail outlet (purple)
Like 7-8 years ago, Acer Aspire 5735 and she had been paying for a service called KnowHow all of this time and a few months back the laptop started getting a graphics issue flickering, blank screens / gets stupid hot/ Battery kaput. So for the first time used it 2-3 months back. And 7 days later had the laptop back and said the hard drive had been replaced as they found and error and resorted to factory settings.

So said to my mum get shot of it after forking out £700 over the time wasn't worth it for the service and as its old not worth paying for.


So what happens this week ...

Screen goes blank from boot :( and doing some Google it's a common issue with the screen.

Do we have a leg to stand on with the KnowHow? Since we no longer use the service?
 
How much was she paying per month? Because if it was remotely close to £10, that could have funded a new laptop by now. Each to their own, but I normally go for a 3-year warranty, then if it's still in good nick after that, I sell it then get a new machine with 3 years warranty. And so on.
 
Think she was paying like £7 a month or something

And she's said 28/02/2015 it was repaired

Yeah it's sickening when looking at it now :(


Now she wants a new laptop or a 2 in 1 setup

All she does it browse the web and types letters and the occasional game
 
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If they replaced the hard drive then it must have failed during testing as a competent test would have been ran regardless of what the laptop was booked in for.
 
For sure not fixed as the screen is now dead
And after saying it overheats and flickers.

All they did was replace the hdd which wasn't an issue anyway and never mentioned it.
But know it's a precaution and in there t&c etc.
 
Ouch - £600 over 7 years then. If your mum can afford it, I would backup her data first, then sell the laptop as spares and repairs. Use the proceeds towards a new mid-spec £600 laptop with a warranty to give her peace of mind for the next 3 years. I believe that most full systems on OcUK (desktop and laptops) come with a 3-year warranty by default.
 
Thanks Pawn I think we shall do that.

Shall take a look at the site in a sec.

Any recommendations would be handy 7 years behind with laptops :) hahha
 
This is why I made sure I went with her when my Mother decided to buy a laptop from the land of the purple shirted wallys. You could tell by the look on their faces that they didn't much like me informing my Mother that all the addons (AV suite and this sunscription to their 'care plan') that they tried to get her to sign up to were useless and a complete rip-off.
 
Throw laptop in bin. Buy new laptop for around £200. Move on with life.

OcUK General Hardware forum provides a better service than any Purple Shirted scam, and for free too!
 
Nearly 6 months down the line from repair... quite possibly a different issue... you cancelled the insurance and now want it repaired for free?

Joke? right?

That insurance seems a bit silly... don't do that again... put the 7 quid a month in a savings account and buy a new laptop in a few years.

If the issue didn't re-occur for 5-6 months after "repair" then while it's possible to be a re-occurence... it's less likely than a different issue.

If it was the same issue getting progressively worse and it was a genuine problem with the screen... then a hard drive replacement would not have fixed it unless they somehow managed to shake a cable back into place or something, lol.

If it was the start of the screen failing... then the issue would have certainly continued following a hdd replacement and wipe/restore.

If it was GPU... same.

If it was over-heating... then I suppose it is possible that that took time to re-occur. She may easily have loaded a load of software on the PC that had it idling on an old OS using a high processor percentage, creating heat. Such an old machine will be ridden with dust inside and the thermal paste will not be as efficient as it used to be. When it came back with a clean install, there may have been much less running in the background and so it took a lot longer to see the over-heating re-occur.

But even if the last option is true... it's 6 months later and the laptop is so old it's going to be riddled with dust. You could have taken it back if the insurance was still valid...

Buy a new one :p
 
Btw if you buy from the purple place again they are currently trying to get all customers to pay £40 odd to update the laptop to Windows 10 for you.

All the stock still comes with Windows 8.1 installed but all the demo models are running Win 10.

Bit cheeky really as you don't see the product you are buying in a way.

For general home use just get something with an i3 and 4GB or more memory, can get something nice for around the £350 mark.
 
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