HCHTech
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 4,213
- Location
- Pittsburgh, PA - USA
I did something pretty stupid the other day, so who doesn't like those kind of stories?
This was a new customer, a 3-person attorney's office. I was there for the initial walk-through and discussion of their needs, etc. We had a very nice meeting and got along well. At the end, almost on my way out of the door, the owner asked me to take one of the computers to install an SSD and Windows 10. He had purchased it used "from a buddy of mine", who had removed the hard drive. It was an 27" HP business All-in-one, about 3 years old. I'm sure you can hear this coming a mile away.
Failure 1: I didn't turn the damned thing on in his presence before taking it
Failure 2: I didn't give him my usual speech about used equipment (unknown problem history)
I said "Sure - piece of cake" or some similar drivel. I told him about how much it would cost and he carried it to my car.
This office is less than a mile from mine, so it was a short trip an I carried it myself to the bench where I did the SSD install and Windows install the next day.
As soon as the Windows install displayed something full screen, I saw it. The whole image "shimmered".
Failure 3: I didn't stop right then, although, in retrospect, Failures 1 and 2 meant this failure didn't really matter.
So I knew this was probably a hardware issue, but decided to power through and try some different video drivers or refresh rates to see if I could make the problem go away. You guessed it, none of that helped. The issue does seem to cycle better and worse, it's not constant. I'm sure this is a problem with the backlights = it's junk. Awesome.
In this case, I'll bet that turning it on and seeing BIOS text wouldn't have shown the problem, so I might have made the same mistake had I turned it on. I would have had to boot it to linux to get a fullscreen graphic. I could have used Parted Magic, I guess. Anyway - Don't Do What I Did!
So, I call him once I've fully painted myself into this corner, and he agrees to pick it up and see for himself. I turn it on for him and he says it doesn't look too bad, he'll take it back to the office and see how it goes. I get an email a couple of hours later that it has gotten much worse and is unusable. From this email, it is clear he has the [correct] mindset that "you were the last person to touch it - so it's your fault.". I can't disagree with him there.
So, I responded that a) it certainly could have been damaged before I got it, and b) Did he ever turn it on and see a good fullscreen image, and c) he's right - I was the last person to touch it. I asked him to send me a receipt for his purchase price. We'll see how it goes, but I think I just bought myself a junk all-in-one.
This was a new customer, a 3-person attorney's office. I was there for the initial walk-through and discussion of their needs, etc. We had a very nice meeting and got along well. At the end, almost on my way out of the door, the owner asked me to take one of the computers to install an SSD and Windows 10. He had purchased it used "from a buddy of mine", who had removed the hard drive. It was an 27" HP business All-in-one, about 3 years old. I'm sure you can hear this coming a mile away.
Failure 1: I didn't turn the damned thing on in his presence before taking it
Failure 2: I didn't give him my usual speech about used equipment (unknown problem history)
I said "Sure - piece of cake" or some similar drivel. I told him about how much it would cost and he carried it to my car.
This office is less than a mile from mine, so it was a short trip an I carried it myself to the bench where I did the SSD install and Windows install the next day.
As soon as the Windows install displayed something full screen, I saw it. The whole image "shimmered".
Failure 3: I didn't stop right then, although, in retrospect, Failures 1 and 2 meant this failure didn't really matter.
So I knew this was probably a hardware issue, but decided to power through and try some different video drivers or refresh rates to see if I could make the problem go away. You guessed it, none of that helped. The issue does seem to cycle better and worse, it's not constant. I'm sure this is a problem with the backlights = it's junk. Awesome.
In this case, I'll bet that turning it on and seeing BIOS text wouldn't have shown the problem, so I might have made the same mistake had I turned it on. I would have had to boot it to linux to get a fullscreen graphic. I could have used Parted Magic, I guess. Anyway - Don't Do What I Did!
So, I call him once I've fully painted myself into this corner, and he agrees to pick it up and see for himself. I turn it on for him and he says it doesn't look too bad, he'll take it back to the office and see how it goes. I get an email a couple of hours later that it has gotten much worse and is unusable. From this email, it is clear he has the [correct] mindset that "you were the last person to touch it - so it's your fault.". I can't disagree with him there.
So, I responded that a) it certainly could have been damaged before I got it, and b) Did he ever turn it on and see a good fullscreen image, and c) he's right - I was the last person to touch it. I asked him to send me a receipt for his purchase price. We'll see how it goes, but I think I just bought myself a junk all-in-one.
