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We make no secret of the fact that we're not the biggest fans
of the "Big Box shifters", but that's not entirely true, as a large portion of
our business is the repair of PC's, we're grateful that they provide plenty of
business for us :-)
Often the work we have to do on such machines can cause
headaches not just for us but for their owners too.
Here are some examples of the problems caused by system
manufacturers/builders not adhering to the standards we believe should be
followed, these are all items encountered in our own workshop.....
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PC Type |
Packard Bell iMedia 5064 |
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Problem |
Machine would not turn on. |
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Remedy / Notes |
A fairly simple and not uncommon fault, this machine required a new
power supply unit (PSU). A simple enough task, but with many Packard Bell
machines (such as this one), its a little more expensive then usual. Why? Well
in their wisdom (or attempts to shave a few cents of the manufacturing price -
you decide) their PSU's have an external 12v power connector for the speakers.
This means they do not have to supply a separate PSU for the speakers, whilst
this saves you a wall socket which is handy, it does complicate circumstances
such as this when replacing the PSU. You must either source a genuine
replacement or if fitting an alternative unit (which is normal practice as it
will generally be cheaper, quieter and more powerful) an additional PSU for the
speakers must now also be purchased.
Either way, this unusual deviation will cost more to rectify than on
conventional machines with industry standard PSU's. |
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PC Type |
Dell Dimension range |
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Problem |
Customer wants a floppy drive fitted |
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Remedy / Notes |
Actually, we've been asked to fit floppy's to these machines several
times, as the customers either didn't realise Dell did not fit them as standard,
or they had refused to pay an outlandish price for Dell to fit one originally.
Unfortunately we can't fit them at a later date any cheaper. Why? Because not
only do Dell no longer fit a floppy drive unless the customer requests and pays
extra for one, but they also often leave out all the required support structure
inside the machine. Fitting one later means you have to go to Dell to buy the
correct brackets to enable fitment within the case.
Its actually easier and cheaper to pay the extra upfront than try to fit
one later.
This is yet another example of how a bargain basement machine can become
more expensive in the long run. |
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PC Type |
Dell Dimension 1100 |
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Problem |
Poor quality graphics when gaming & a generally noisy machine. |
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Remedy / Notes |
In all fairness this machine is simply not suited to gaming, primarily
due to its poor graphics capability. Despite the customer having specified 1GB
of RAM and a 2.8Ghz P4 CPU, the gameplay was worse then on the customers
prior AMD Duron 1.2Ghz machine using the same old games!
In order to boost the Graphics we had to fit a new graphics card, easier
said than done, despite being a new machine it lacked any PCI-E or AGP slots
(Both are industry standard slots for graphics cards, with AGP being rapidly
phased out), this meant we had to source a PCI graphics card. Whilst we managed
to achieve the desired quality, we could have achieved even better quality at a
lower price if the machine had offered PCI-E or even AGP slots.
As for the noise levels, the customer has decided to simply live with
it, as the cost of changing the standard noisy PSU and fan (coupled with the
cost of the new graphics card) was simply too much.
It would have been cheaper and better to have had a properly designed
gaming machine custom built in the first place, rather than buying this
Dimension cheaply and then trying to adapt it to suit.
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PC Type |
Dell Optiplex GX1 |
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Problem |
Dead Machine, diagnosed as a faulty power supply |
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Remedy / Notes |
Fitting a new power supply should be simple, but not on some Dells as
they are wired differently, and they often use non standard sizes, we had to
source a second-hand power supply for this one. Had we been able to fit an
industry standard part (ATX), the customer would have paid approx 1/3 of the
final price to have it fixed, plus it would have had a brand new PSU fitted
instead of a second-hand one..
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PC Type |
HP Vectra VEi8 |
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Problem |
Dead Machine, diagnosed as a faulty power supply |
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Remedy / Notes |
A similar story to the Dell above, no problem with the wiring this time,
but the physical size of the PSU fitted, meant we could not replace it with a
standard one, luckily we had an old one in stock for this machine so the final
bill was not expensive, but if we had needed to source one, it could easily have
doubled or tripled the cost of the repair for the customer. |
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PC Type |
Packard Bell (unknown model number) |
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Problem |
Machine running slow and crashing frequently, customer wanted to
reinstall windows and return the PC to an "as new" state, however it would not
accept the Packard Bell recovery disks! |
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Remedy / Notes |
Here is a prime example of why we hate these recovery disks. In this
case we discovered that the recovery disks first task was to check it was being
used on the correct machine. In this case the memory (RAM) had previously been
doubled to increase the PC's performance. When the disks determined that the
machine was not exactly 100% as they expected to find, they simply refused to
allow the system to be restored. No meaningful error message was displayed to
tell you of the problem, it simply refused to work!
If it had been a situation whereby, for example, a CD-ROM drive had
broken and been replaced with a newer one, we would not have been able to use
the recovery disks without sourcing an exact match for the original drive. This
would no doubt be difficult to source (the PC was a few years old) leaving the
customer with little alternative, but to purchase a new retail copy of windows
and start from scratch!
Luckily we were simply able to remove the extra RAM and proceed
normally. |
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| PC Type |
Packard Bell (Old-model, unknown model number) |
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Problem |
This customer had a rather old, but perfectly serviceable PC, and wanted
to upgrade the internal 33.6K modem to a faster 56K one. |
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Remedy / Notes |
On the surface, a perfectly simple task. Just one problem, Packard Bell
in their wisdom fitted a combined modem and soundcard to this machine. Strange
to say the least. Ordinarily we would be able to get around this by adding the
new modem alongside the original, but there were no free slots available! An
external modem was the only solution. This decision by Packard Bell to use an
unusual combination card ultimately doubled the owners cost to upgrade their
modem, plus forced them to add an additional items of clutter to their home in
the form of an external modem, the necessary power supply and additional cables
Had the machine been fitted with conventional, separate modem and soundcards
(and of course a motherboard of sufficient standard to support them) this would
had been a simple and far less costly upgrade. |
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