O/T: computer question

nailshooter41 · 2012-03-07T05:45:14+00:00

I just got a new laptop, delivered today. One big problem; the boxwas crushed. The monkey men of UPS did their best impression of theold Samsonite commercial and really mashed it.(NO advice needed on how to proceed with a claim, informing theshipper, documentation for the vendor, damage claim numberassignments, photographic evidence, etc.)I am really concerned that this machine could have been damaged,although it seems to be performing OK. I have a 72 hour window inwhich the vendor will send out a new one without charging my accountas an emergency replacement if I need one.I am looking for a program like the old "Burn In" and "PC Test" thatwe used to use that is for Windows 7. Those programs tested allmemory sectors, HD sectors, and did hours of read/write exercises,cache filling and dumping and CPU tests. You wound up the programsand let them go, and a few hours later you had your results.I can't find anything like that for Windows 7, and want to test ALLaspects of this machine within my "emergency replacement" time framewindow.Anyone have any suggestions? A program that you have personalexperience with or know someone that has used it successfully?Thanks -Robert

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nailshooter41 14 years ago

Thanks to everyone for their replies. I have been using the crap out of the machine and it seems to be in good order. Still testing, and looking at read/reread/write/testing software to make sure it is OK. So far so good. ED P. a special thanks to you. I got to thinking - hey, I should call MY buddy in the shipping business and let him look over this box and get his opinion. Ed, you were close without even seeing it. My pal Larry has been in and out of the shipping business for about 20 years as a pilot/loader/handler, jack of all trades for several cargo shippers, like a private label UPS, UPS, DHL and has even flown and loaded packages for FedEx. Working for a private carriers, he has handled mountains of packages for them.

Larry immediately came to the conclusion that the box was indeed crushed, not dropped. He inspected for impact damage, punctures, localized compression (new term for me - that means large impact over a large area such as a large damaged corner that caused stress over

25% of the length) and other things.

Sherlock Larry further concluded that the entire box had been compressed due to the corners showing parallel compression folds up the sides on all four corners in exactly the same fashion in exactly the same places. With the amount of compression, the tape popped, tearing off the thin skin of corrugated box. As he pointed out, the tape itself was not cut, torn or separated, just torn off the box top itself where it had adhered.

We were able to replicate this action in my living room by pushing the box against the wall. It folded perfectly along the damage folds in the box when I compressed the entire face of the box against the wall, which he assured me was the box performing as it was designed to do. The box popped open because they did a crappy tape job ( Jeez... were they running out of tape when they mailed this to you? was his comment) and the tape tore off the top layer of paper on the corrugated box because the box was average or less quality.

We put the box that held the computer itself (undamaged)back into the shipping box, and there was about 10" all the way around the computer box when inside the shipping box. They didn't use the best packing material (some kind of wound paper that was about a 6" tube about 15' long, but it did its job. His conclusion was that there probably wasn't any damage at all, that someone didn't see the box when loading and mashed some other freight against the box. I felt 100% better when we were able to recreate the mashing at will.

Tiger Direct has been princely about this, and told me that they would extend the replacement window to 30 days. I have a one year accident policy, as well as a TWO year parts/labor one way shipping on this machine. I intend to test it unmercifally, get a backup service and put it to work. One unknown click, one hiccup, on pixel goes bad, and this machine is gone.

So Ed, thanks for your post in particular. I appears that you were right on. And I had that great resource a phone call away and didn't even think to call him about this problem until you mentioned your long experience in the freight business. Larry was able to peel me off the ceiling, and now I can concentrate on getting this machine to work.

Robert

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Leon 14 years ago

Snip, Snip

Larry was able to peel me

Wasn't that what you were concerned about??? Send it back LOL.. ;~)

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Larry Jaques 14 years ago

+1, although with the inner box showing no damage whatsoever, I'd be a whole lot more relieved, too, were it my package.

-- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened.

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chaniarts 14 years ago

if you bought it with some credit cards (amex for one), they double the manufacturer warrantee. keep the receipt with your credit card statement with the shipping paperwork to get them to honor this.

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whit3rd 14 years ago

Why? You didn't buy the box, you bought the computer. And, if it isn't visibly physically damaged, and has normal disk/screen/keyboard functions, why would you want to test things (like memory) that AREN'T particularly likely to take stress/shock damage?

Discard the packaging and enjoy the computer; life's too short to agonize over imaginary problems.

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HeyBub 14 years ago

He bought the computer at retail from Tiger Direct. People who do that do not think like most of us.

I just bought five Dell desktops for $100 (total). If one or more of the desktops act a little funny, well, no great loss.

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Doug Winterburn 14 years ago

Well, if one or more does act "funny" like my wifes old Dell, it may well be a result of bad electrolytic capacitors. Her PC started hanging with no other indications. I opened it up and six or eight of the electrolytics were bulging out the top. Sent the MB to these guys:

formatting link

it back for under a hundred bucks with every electrolytic on the MB replaced. Been working great now for almost a year where it was hanging every few hours before.

Apparently, the chiwanese have been shipping electrolytics for all kinds of devices that were like many of their other products.

I also had a rocketfish wireless speaker receiver fail for the same reason. I may try to see if I can replace the bad caps myself as I already hard wired the surround speakers.

The cheapest components to produce the cheapest product doesn't always pay off for the consumer.

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CW 14 years ago

He bought the computer at retail from Tiger Direct. People who do that do not think like most of us.

I just bought five Dell desktops for $100 (total). If one or more of the desktops act a little funny, well, no great loss. =============================================================

486's

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Bill 14 years ago

Please help me translate that last sentence.

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HeyBub 14 years ago

Good point. I salvaged a 36" LCD TV that had bad capacitors. For about six bucks worth of replacement caps and a couple of hours with a screwdriver and soldering iron, the TV is as good as new.

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HeyBub 14 years ago

Uh, okay. Sorry for the "whoosh" factor.

It seems to me that most participants here are interested in price. A new computer costs, well, a lot and often you're paying for the newest technology that's not really necessary.

Used, last year's model, computers can be had at a significant bargain, sometimes on Craigslist, often you have to search around.

I got my used computers from a chap that buys them in bulk from Dell and others. These used computers are generally those that have come back off lease to banks and other large companies.

Last time I was there he had about ten large pallets, stacked five feet high, with 15" CRT monitors. In this country, you can't GIVE away a 15" CRT. His monitors, however, were going to Nigeria. He told me he expects to net about $25 each.

Point is, there's a thriving market for used equipment: CRT monitors to Nigeria or two-year old desktops to me.

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Ed Pawlowski 14 years ago

Necessary to some. A guy at work is specing out a new computer. He is in the $1800 range with a fancy graphics card, Quad processor, lots of memory, etc. He needs it to store some music and pictures and his wife can check here Facebook page.

Not to mention that he is also looking for the absolute lowest price, no matter the quality of the components.

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J. Clarke 14 years ago

He's looking for a status symbol. A quad core machine with 8 gig ram, a terabyte of disk, and a reasonably fancy video board can be had from Best Buy for about 800 bucks.

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Leon 14 years ago

286's

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Leon 14 years ago

NOT ME! I am just itching for Festool to come out with a computer. ;~)

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Larry Jaques 14 years ago

Yeah, just trade in that old house you're living in for one, complete with internal dust collection and Festool green LEDs.

-- Inside every older person is a younger person wondering WTF happened.

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Swingman 14 years ago

Been buying "certified refurbished" laptops from Dell's Outlet store for about twelve years now with good luck. Three years ago, for the first time and for a nominal price, had to replace a motherboard in one after three years of use, but that laptop is still trucking in the office as a multi-media only machine. The others were donated to charity when they got long in the tooth and are still running last I heard.

Generally stick to their higher end XPS models and buy one that is still in production, but was returned for one reason or another. I usually save around $400-600 for the latest technology and spec's ... enough that the last one was easily paid for from what was saved on the previous three.

That said, Dell is not putting the quality in their laptops that they once did. Although the last one, just a few months back, an XPS 15 502x, does not have the fit and finish that the older ones exhibited, but it still runs like hell with it's 64bit OS and Core i7 processor, and hooked to a 24" monitor and SpaceNavigator, makes a helluva general office and SketchUp machine.

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Leon 14 years ago

The old house I am living in is 1 year old last Christmas.

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Bill 14 years ago

Thanks for explaining. When I purchase, I stay at least a year behind the newest models--and I use the stuff until I have decent reason to replace it. I have found the strategy a good one for cars too!

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Ed Pawlowski 14 years ago

My first computer was an 8088 with two 5 1/4" floppies. Eventually added a 30MB HD for about $300 and that was in the 1980's. Another upgrade was the 24 pin printer over the 9 pin.

My Pentium 90 was about $3500, but I did spend the extra $300 for the

17" monitor. That was over the cost of the 14" base model.

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