Just had pc fixed

Bassmansam · 7 Apr 2009 at 16:12

Hi guys, i've just had my PC fixed, it wasn't posting at all after i manually turned it off .(put it into sleep mode on vista which the pc never tends to recover from )So it wouldn't post , fans and lights would come on , no activity from the hard drive(activity light not coming on). So some guys from a shop came round and they called me earlier saying i had corrupted files on the HD by turning it off manually . This is costing me £120, surely the BIOS would display? Am i being ripped off?

z0mbi3 · 7 Apr 2009 at 16:13

Where are you posting this from now? If it's from another computer I'd say you were ripped off as we probably could have talked you though what to do.

ConnectionFX · 7 Apr 2009 at 16:17

the computer should respond with or without a hard drive. it will allow you to enter the bios. it sounds like your being ripped off.

redeye_uk · 7 Apr 2009 at 16:22

Bassmansam said:
So some guys from a shop came round and they called me earlier saying i had corrupted files on the HD by turning it off manually . This is costing me £120, surely the BIOS would display? Am i being ripped off?

Im in the wrong job!

Sounds like you're being ripped off. Try asking them what was 'really' wrong with it.

LukeTW · 7 Apr 2009 at 16:33

ConnectionFX said:
the computer should respond with or without a hard drive. it will allow you to enter the bios. it sounds like your being ripped off.

This.

Bassmansam · 7 Apr 2009 at 17:50

Im back on the pc that was fixed now. Was on my other pc. Damn i should have got you guys to talk me through it. The guy said when i put the pc in sleep mode , i then turned it off manually (beacuse sleep mode in vista never seems to respond , put it in sleep mode by accident) apparently this corrupted files on the HD. Still he wouldn't explain why i couldn't get into BIOS.

ins0mn1ac · 7 Apr 2009 at 18:36

Haha, crooks!

Andrew G · 7 Apr 2009 at 18:47

Did he say what he did to resolve it though? Complete reinstall?

Bassmansam · 7 Apr 2009 at 18:55

No he didn't say, I still have all my files that i had previously. On the invoice it sais , reconfigured BIOS, and repairing corrupt files.

Dano · 7 Apr 2009 at 19:09

Bassmansam said:
No he didn't say, I still have all my files that i had previously. On the invoice it sais , reconfigured BIOS, and repairing corrupt files.

Nice, they just charged you £120 for about 15 minutes (if that) actual work, I'd be having words if I were you.

gamesaregood · 7 Apr 2009 at 19:13

sounds like a bios reset and checkdisk to me

Bassmansam · 7 Apr 2009 at 19:57

Whats this corrupted harddrive files stuff about ? :s, we did have a power cut i thought it might of been that. For future reference how would i reset the BIOS?

benjo · 7 Apr 2009 at 19:59

Bassmansam said:
Whats this corrupted harddrive files stuff about ? :s, we did have a power cut i thought it might of been that. For future reference how would i reset the BIOS?

Clear the cmos. It's as simple as moving a jumper on the motherboard

daniel_bourton · 7 Apr 2009 at 20:09

bad times

z0mbi3 · 7 Apr 2009 at 20:31

Dano said:
Nice, they just charged you £120 for about 15 minutes (if that) actual work, I'd be having words if I were you.

If that's what they charge and the OP agreed to pay it then there's no ground for "having words". OP has learnt his lesson and will come on here next time.

Bassmansam · 7 Apr 2009 at 20:36

z0mbi3 said:
If that's what they charge and the OP agreed to pay it then there's no ground for "having words". OP has learnt his lesson and will come on here next time.

Correct.

matt100 · 7 Apr 2009 at 20:42

z0mbi3 said:
If that's what they charge and the OP agreed to pay it then there's no ground for "having words". OP has learnt his lesson and will come on here next time.

almost a fair point although their diagnosis is a load of ****. Manually turning off a PC doesn't or at least shouldn't corrupt files and even if it did it wouldn't stop it from POSTing because thats all stored on the BIOS chips.

It doesn't go anywhere near the hard drive until it tries a full boot, you should be able to get into the BIOS without a hard drive at all.

My guess would be either a BIOS reset or maybe a static discharge, either way no ethical reason for £120 and certainly not the load of rubbish they've fed him as a diagnosis.

Dano · 7 Apr 2009 at 20:45

z0mbi3 said:
If that's what they charge and the OP agreed to pay it then there's no ground for "having words". OP has learnt his lesson and will come on here next time.

Regardless of his agreement or not he was probably (and it is only a probably unless more details are known) ripped off, there is no excuse for companies or individuals to knowingly overcharge for a service and as such there is every reason to go and 'have words' about a) what exactly was done and b) their over the top charges if indeed it was something as simple as a BIOS reset/configure and chkdsk.

Ignorance is not an open invitation to be taken for a ride by anybody or any company and it has been proven time and time again.

Bassmansam · 7 Apr 2009 at 21:12

It's a custom pc aswell (not like im a total noob that they seem to think i am with the diagnosis they gave me), my friend put it together for me but was unavailable to have a look at it. Maybe i should have had a look at it , but it cost 800 so wasn't to keen on potentially frying any components. Im surprised they didn't give me a better diagnosis though. Ah well i've learnt my lesson(an expensive one at that).

z0mbi3 · 7 Apr 2009 at 21:18

matt100 said:
almost a fair point although their diagnosis is a load of ****. Manually turning off a PC doesn't or at least shouldn't corrupt files and even if it did it wouldn't stop it from POSTing because thats all stored on the BIOS chips.

It doesn't go anywhere near the hard drive until it tries a full boot, you should be able to get into the BIOS without a hard drive at all.

My guess would be either a BIOS reset or maybe a static discharge, either way no ethical reason for £120 and certainly not the load of rubbish they've fed him as a diagnosis.

The thing is if they can't justify the price of what they've done for him and were just looking to rip him off then they'd have made up a load of things they needed to do to justify the £120. They've probably got rates that they follow, a minimum a charge +corruption fix +bios reset, that sort of thing. I'm not saying it isn't extortionate, but if you're running a business and people agree to these prices then you can't really blame them imho.

You jump to the conclusion that they'd fed him a load of crock over the diagnosis, but to me (going solely by the invoice that is) it looks like they reset the bios, found file corruption on boot, repaired it and then carried on. For all we know they might of done a proper deep scan of the hard disk to check for errors and they might of even backed up his files prior to running chkdsk.

Granted I'm probably placing too much faith in whoever he took the machine to, but it's entirely possible they do the above as a matter of course and that their rates dictate that price.