A coworker’s mother had her PC crash. She talked to someone on the phone at HP Support and was told that she needed a new motherboard. HP would be glad to repair it for the sum of $339 plus shipping. It would take approximately 6 weeks. Jonesing for a PC, mom went ahead and just bought a new one. But she still wanted to fix this one.
The coworker came and asked for my advice on where to get a motherboard. I searched around a few places on the net and found them for this PC from $225 to $325, but from no place that I had ever heard of, so I was skeptical. I asked her to bring me the CPU and I’d look at it. Maybe it was just a toasted power supply or bad hard drive. When I got it and opened it up, nothing obvious was wrong, so I turned it on. Non system disk! I was going to do a system recover, but I better ask if there was any valuable data on the drive first.
The next day I asked the coworker, who asked her mother, who said, “No. Just make it work.” So that night I tired the system recover option. It got part way through and asked for recovery disc #3.
The next day I asked if her mom had any recovery discs. Mom did indeed have the disks, she had ordered them from HP over the phone.
Today I got the disks. There are 10 CDs, what could be on all them discs? I’ll never know. When I attempted to boot to disc #1, the system told me, “These discs are not for this series of Pavilion PCs.” Dang, I guess I’ll try and see if the hard drive is any good. I got out my WinXP CD and loaded it on the Pavilion. Seemed to take a real long time to format the hard drive, but after that Windows loaded right up. I plugged in my network cable and was on the net.
I went over to the HP support page and entered the PC’s information to see if perhaps she got the wrong recovery discs. I went through the order process until I got a part number – 34naheblu2 – and found it would cost $16.93 to mail them. The only thing on the plastic wrap around the 10 CDs I had was 5069-6299. That’s helpful.
There was a link for online chat support, so I thought I’d give it a whirl to see if they could tell me if I had the right CDs. After 30 minutes of waltzing around, I was informed that the discs I had were the correct discs. The trouble is that the PC was old and would need tattooing to accept the discs (ever hear of this?) and I had 2 options; A) return the PC and get HP to fix it or B) take it to an authorized service center. When I asked what these would cost I was told that the HP option would be $339 (where have I heard that number before?) and that the cost from the authorized service center would be up to them. The closest center is a Best Buy in Augusta, good luck with that….
Nice. HP sells you recovery discs for $17 and they are worthless unless you spend another $350 to get them to make your PC able to use them.
If the PC were mine I think it would be time to load Linux, but if I was her, I’d head out to the flea market this weekend and see about finding a pirated copy of XP (or maybe even Vista) for $20.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/07: 23
Click the more link below for the entire sordid details of the chat, misspellings and all.
4:25:13 PM – Brian Bogardus – http://ipgweb.cce.hp.com/ipgna/caller/initsessionpage.html
4:25:35 PM – Shaunte G – Welcome to HP Total Care. My name is Shaunte G. How may I assist you today?
4:25:41 PM – Shaunte G – Hi Brian.
4:25:41 PM – Brian Bogardus – Hello
4:26:02 PM – Brian Bogardus – I am trying to fix this PC for a friend.
4:26:29 PM – Shaunte G – I will assist you with that.
4:26:38 PM – Shaunte G – Please proceed with your query.
4:26:49 PM – Brian Bogardus – “They ordered the recovery discs, but when I try to boot to disc#1 it tells me that I have the wrong discs”
4:27:33 PM – Shaunte G – Could you tell me the exact message you receive.
4:28:15 PM – Brian Bogardus – IIRC: This disc is not for this system ?
4:29:12 PM – Shaunte G – Okay.
4:29:40 PM – Shaunte G – May I know why you are performing the Recovery?
4:30:23 PM – Brian Bogardus – She told me she was trying to delete AOL from the PC and it froze.
4:30:36 PM – Brian Bogardus – When rebooting it repoorted a non-system disc.
4:31:02 PM – Brian Bogardus – I have it working by wiping the HD clean and loaded my personal copy of Win XP
4:31:47 PM – Brian Bogardus – “Someone before me tried too fix it by ordering the recovery discs, but must have ordered the wrong ones.”
4:31:51 PM – Shaunte G – “Brian, I would suggest that you first format the entire hard drive and then try to use the recovery disk.”
4:32:20 PM – Brian Bogardus – The PC will not boot to disc#1 of the recovery set….
4:32:50 PM – Brian Bogardus – DOS message says these discs are not for this series of pavilion PCs
4:34:32 PM – Shaunte G – Please do not worry. I will assist you with that.
4:34:56 PM – Shaunte G – May I confirm if the model number of the computer is a350n
4:35:18 PM – Brian Bogardus – Yes. Serial number is MXK34011YN
4:36:37 PM – Shaunte G – Did you upgrade any hardware like the hard drive or the mother board prior using the recovery Disks?
4:37:34 PM – Brian Bogardus – I have done nothing and assume that the person before me did nothing as well.
4:38:11 PM – Brian Bogardus – Mother Board looks like it belongs in a 3 yr old PC (not new)
4:38:20 PM – Shaunte G – Okay.
4:38:45 PM – Shaunte G – “Brian, do you have the computer with you now?”
4:38:55 PM – Brian Bogardus – We are using it to chat.
4:40:08 PM – Shaunte G – “Brian, would you be able to format the hard drive using the Windows XP disk?”
4:41:03 PM – Brian Bogardus – That is how I have it running now. I formatted the HD and loaded XP with my copy of the software froom my home PC.
4:41:13 PM – Shaunte G – Okay.
4:43:59 PM – Shaunte G – “Brian, may I know why you need to use the Recovery CD if the computer is working fine?”
4:44:57 PM – Brian Bogardus – “Because this is *my* copy of XP and it will need activation, but it is already activated for *my* PC.”
4:45:34 PM – Brian Bogardus – I’m sure the woman who owns this PC would gladly pay another 20 vucks for the Recovery discs.
4:45:53 PM – Brian Bogardus – But I want to make sure she gets the right ones this time.
4:47:19 PM – Shaunte G – I can understand your concerns. Could you tell me from where you purchased the Recovery Disks and do you have the case ID or the part number of the disk?
4:48:27 PM – Brian Bogardus – I was told they were purchased by calling HP. I have the set of discs in front of me. The only identification is a bar code on the plastic wrapper with the numbers 5069-6299.
4:49:33 PM – Shaunte G – Please be online for five minutes while I check for the details.
4:49:41 PM – Brian Bogardus – OK
4:49:46 PM – Shaunte G – Thank you.
4:54:10 PM – Shaunte G – Thank you for being online.
4:54:34 PM – Brian Bogardus – “I, reading a book.”
4:54:45 PM – Brian Bogardus – Waiting
4:55:40 PM – Shaunte G – “Brian, since the computer is old, it would require tattooing of the hardware.”
4:56:13 PM – Brian Bogardus – I’m not familiar with that phrase.
4:56:25 PM – Shaunte G – Tattooing in nothing but making you hardware compatible for the Recovery disks to recognise.
4:57:01 PM – Brian Bogardus – “OK, what doo I need to do”
4:57:23 PM – Shaunte G – “As the computer is an old model, it will require tattooing so that the Recovery Disks can work fine for the computer. The Recovery disks provided to you is the correct one.”
4:57:40 PM – Shaunte G – You have two option in order to resolve the issue
4:58:00 PM – Brian Bogardus – They are?
4:58:27 PM – Shaunte G – 1. Either send the computer for a paid bench repair 2. Send the computer to the Authorized Service Provider
4:58:43 PM – Shaunte G – Please let me know which one would you be comfortable with?
4:59:16 PM – Brian Bogardus – How much will this cost? So I can relay the information to the owner.
4:59:41 PM – Shaunte G – I will let you know that.
5:01:16 PM – Shaunte G – “The paid bench repair would cost you around, $339.00 where the entire defective items will be replaced and the computer will be as new as it was bought.”
5:02:54 PM – Brian Bogardus – What about the Authorized Service Provider?
5:03:44 PM – Shaunte G – If you provide me the ZIP code and the region/area then I can assist you to locate the nearest Authorized Service Provider
5:03:55 PM – Brian Bogardus – 29803
5:04:16 PM – Brian Bogardus – “Aiken, SC/Augusta, GA”
5:04:48 PM – Shaunte G – Thank you.
5:05:08 PM – Shaunte G – The nearest Authorized Service Provider is:
5:05:23 PM – Shaunte G – “Augusta GA (Store 507) 3667 Walton Way Ext Augusta, GA 30909 Phone: 706-733-9155 Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00am-9:00pm Sun 11:00am-7:00pm”
5:05:55 PM – Brian Bogardus – Will the cost be similar ~$300?
5:07:23 PM – Shaunte G – I would not be able to say you the price. You would need to contact them. The Stores name is Best Buy.
5:07:58 PM – Brian Bogardus – Thank you. I will pass this information along to the owner.
5:08:14 PM – Brian Bogardus – Will a copy of this chat session be sent to my email address?
5:08:43 PM – Shaunte G – If you wish then I can do that for you.
5:09:12 PM – Brian Bogardus – “Yes, it would be helpful.”
5:09:40 PM – Shaunte G – I will do that for you.
5:10:04 PM – Brian Bogardus – Goodbye