In this earlier post I bemoaned the fact that my main computer just stopped working all of a sudden. It would no longer come to life when I caressed it’s on switch. I’m not afraid of computers but I am leery about messing around inside them too much but with limited knowledge I guessed that either the power supply had died or the switch was broken.
I called the store where I bought this particular machine to see if they had spare parts. Turns out they don’t, were implicitly snickering that I hadn’t bought their extended warranty and turned me over to their in-house specialist group. I’m not going to name the store or the cutely named ‘specialists’. The ‘expert’ said that if I brought the machine in they would take care of it. A little prompting told me that they would just return it to the manufacturer to fix it and that it would cost me about $300. I said that it probably only needed a power supply or switch. I got the feeling that the ‘expert’ didn’t know what those were.
Fast forward – a friend offered to look at my problem and since he has spent more time with his hands inside computers than I have I was happy to take him up on the offer. I dropped the machine at his place and picked it up today. It’s working like a champ.
- Problem? Dead power supply.
- Cost of new supply? $35
- Cost of labour? Beer.
That’s the way the world should work.
Lesson learned? Stay away from pretend ‘experts’ with cute company names.
What a heart-warming story!