| December 1998 - Vol 2 Issue #6 |
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I bought a budget computer and I'm still paying for it...seven months later! I had a small computer that I traded one of my paintings for. It was okay...got me online to do email, and provided a word processor, but that was about it. And when I would try to do anything elaborate, it would crash. I needed to upgrade...fast! I made a lucky sale at an artshow, which allowed me to look for an inexpensive computer. This year, prices have been dropping drastically, and a friend told me about a computer store {Micro Center} that had real good prices. I checked them out and they had one {their house brand, PowerSpec} that suited my needs for $599! I got it, but after using it awhile, it started doing weird things {running slow and crashing a lot} and diagnostic tests were giving weird readings {166Mhz chip was reading at 57 Mhz}. Took it back, they said nothing was wrong with it. Mr Nice Guy that I am, I put up with a dozen trips to Micro Center in 9 weeks {and they have just one store here, 35 miles from where I live}...each time I noticed a lot of people in the service line with PowerSpec computers. One employee even admitted that that particular model PowerSpec had bad motherboards. Finally, it crashed so bad, they had to admit there was a problem! |
By this time I was fed up. I contacted the store manager, explained what I had been going through for
9 weeks, mentioned I worked in television and had a colleague that wanted to do a story on my
"adventures with Micro Center",
and I suggested they exchange the computer, only upgrade to the next model {to compensate me
for time and money lost, plus the fact the upgrade had a different brand motherboard and chip}. He agreed!
Well, the upgrade was better...not only in the chip, but a bigger hard drive and faster modem! Everything was great for 4 months, then suddenly the hard drive crashed...and when I rebooted, the computer couldn't find the hard drive! I took it back because it was under warranty, they determined the hard drive was bad, but because of the warranty they had to replace the drive with the same model - which they had to special order! 8 days later I got it back and started re-installing everything on the new drive. Four days later it crashed...same thing, it couldn't find the hard drive. I took it back, and explained that "maybe" it might be something else causing the problem, not bad hard drives. The service person, said they ran tests and determined it was a bad hard drive. ANOTHER 8 days went by, and I picked up the computer. This time I decided to re-install one item a day, to see if something else was causing the drives to crash. Continued on back page… |
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In this issue: page 1 - Myhr's Message page 2 - Caption Competition, Schedule & Addresses page 3 - "Myhrcutio" page 4 - Merchandise page 5 - Trek Against Aids page 6 - "The Back Page" is your page |
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ADDRESSES: To e-mail Jamie: - myhr@flash.net (now closed) To e-mail Sue - suehaley@zetnet.co.uk Website: - http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/suehaley/myhr.htm Lots of artwork and photos plus soundbytes and much more... |
for submissions for the March newsletter will be 16 February 1999 |
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Up coming Cons and Artshows
1999 Feb 19-21 ………VISIONCON, Springfield, MO (guest) Mar 25-28 …….. AGGIECON, Texas A&M Univ. (guest) Apr 17-18 ………ICON, Bloomington, IN (*guest) Jun 4 - 6 ……… A-KON, Dallas, TX (guest) Jul 16-18 ………KINGDOM BY THE SEA Orlando, FL (guest) Aug 26-29……… CONUCOPIA, Anaheim, CA {artshow only} * = to be confirmed |
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Denice Morgan would like to thank everyone for the warm letters, cards and emails. She would like to say that the change is working well for her and she is doing good. |
Humble and heartfelt apologies to our valued Charter Member Melissa Prideaux who has received no newsletters for more than a year and never once complained!! Only a gentle enquiry brought this dreadful oversight to my attention recently.
Please forgive me Melissa :-( - Sue |
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You Get What You Pay For …continued
I've had it now two days. Today I reconnected the SuperDisk drive {a special floppy disk drive for doing backups and archiving}...they forgot to reconnect it when they installed the new hard drive. About an hour into my work, the computer crashed, and upon rebooting, couldn't find the hard drive! Same problem, only this time I had a good idea what the culprit was. I opened the case, disconnected the SuperDisk, rebooted, and everything worked fine {well, everything except the SuperDisk!}. So, it was a hardware conflict that was causing the crashes, not bad hard drives...I figured out the problem, and I'm not a trained technician!! |
Oh, by the way, it was that same service department that had installed the SuperDisk drive in the first place.
So, be careful when looking at budget-priced, house brand equipment, be it computers, stereos, whatever. And if you have a Micro Center where you live, go there for software, accessories, or books...DON'T go there for hardware or service. 'course, I do have to thank them for one thing...education. I sure learned a lot about computers these last 6 months!!! Myhr |
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Jamie : Myhr : Sue Haley : Jackie Hunt : Karen Quattlebaum Chris Haley : |
''an artsy fartsy kinda guy''
One year on Myhr is seven years on Jamie!! Co-ordinator and Editor Executive Producer (& Distribution) Producer (Merchandise) Preafrooder ;-) |
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