Getting my PC fixed...

Sunday, October 17



My taskbar is showing black little boxes instead of black little icons. I mean to have my PC checked out. One of these days.

Monday, October 18



My PC blacks out or resets by itself. Uh-oh. This doesn't look good.

Tuesday, October 19

I asked my good friend and churchmate James Uy(we've known each other since Grade 2 when we used to play Sikyo and Chippy-chippy) to help me bring my PC to a service shop to have it fixed.

Eventually I chose Qnet because they offered to reformat my PC for only P300. And they sell the hardware I wanted to buy to upgrade my system.

At the end of the day I also paid P200 to install Norton Antivirus 2003 and Photoshop 7(they don't have Photoshop CS). They said what caused my PC to have problems was lack of memory. Their technician Arnel Bravo sold me a 128Mb SDRAM card for P1700, giving me a 6-month warranty. They installed Windows XP because they said it's better than Windows ME. I had to buy another modem because my D-link modem has only a Windows ME driver. They sold me an internal modem for P380. I needed to get online for my work so I surfed in their net cafe for P33.

James carried my CPU home for me. Mom was pleased to see our PC using Windows XP. When we tried to get online tho we could barely open any websites, and more importantly, we can't install any messengers, because the net is slower than ever. And it's STILL blacking out and resetting itself!

Wednesday, October 20

Okay, the primary reason the PC is important to my family is because we use it to chat with our dad in China, who feels homesick with every day our PC is STILL not fixed. So we now realize the modem they sold us simply won't do. They said it's because of the ISP, suggesting I try THEIRS because it's faster daw. But I'm not convinced since they can't even connect with it because the lines are always busy.

Yeah right. We've been using Pacific Internet's E-VOLVE for ages. It's never as slow as when we used your brand new modem!

So yeah, I had to bring my CPU back to Qnet. James is too busy to help me this time so I carried it myself, transporting it by tricycle.

My deadline for a HK strip was that day so they installed Photoshop 7 in one of their PC rentals which I used to make the latest strip and email it to HK. When I'm done I paid P120 for the rental and I'm told that my system can't handle Windows XP so they installed Windows 98 instead. THIS time they told me my hard drive is the problem and I have to buy a new one. They sold me a Seagate 7200rpm 40Gb for P3750 to replace my old 2002 Seagate 5600rpm 40Gb. They said backing up my drive D: would take time so I have to leave it in their shop overnight. I coldn't sleep that night worrying about my poor battered and abused CPU.

Thursday, October 21

I paid for the new hard disk, wondering what they've done to my old one, and took it home to see that they installed desktop themes and activated the Undersea which made water sounds every time I click open a freaking window. Consuelo??? They also installed Hangaroo, Milyonaryo, Whip the Worker, and tons of other such games. But they forgot to install the Norton Antivirus I paid them to install. And yes, same net problems applied as the day before, if not worse and slower. They also said there's something wrong with my motherboard's capacitors.

Friday, October 22

Fed up and getting helplessly suspicious, I brought my CPU to MSC service center just to get a second opinion. I told them to be careful not to touch anything as to prevent any possibility to void my warranty, but to tell me what the state of my CPU really is.

I took comfort in their confirming that thay have the same diagnosis with my motherboard, and even opened up my CPU to show me where the capacitors are, so I can actually see them leaking out. They were admittedly iffy about all the shit I went through with Qnet though, and even helped me compose questions and requests to help my PC get fixed by Qnet. They also said I should definitely have asked to keep my old hard drive.

I agreed to their recommendation of getting a motherboard with DDRAM while returning the SDRAM I bought from them, because they said SDRAM is near to getting phased out. They let me use their phone to call Qnet. We were all surprised when Arnel Bravo said he doesn't want to accept the SDRAM back because he already bought a new one with the money I paid him. The MSC guys told me I should because they've looked at my SDRAMs. One of them is dated 2003 while the other has NO date at all. I insisted they take back the SDRAM because I'm buying the motherboard and DDRAM from them anyway.

I also told them I'm returning the internal modem because it's too frustratingly slow, and I'm buying their external modem which they priced at P1600. They said the motherboard and 256 DDRAM would be about P7000 and I have to wait until Tuesday 2pm when the hardware comes in because the ones they have in stock then are all reserved. They said they'll call me as soon as the hardware arrives.

Tuesday, October 26

I called at 2pm to be told that 'they will see' if there is any for me, because they said I didn't file a 'formal order'. I asked if it would be ready to be installed into my CPU tomorrow morning. They said their technicians will not be available tomorrow because they are going to be sent somewhere else to work on 17 PCs.

They said they'd call me 3pm. It's past 6pm now. I texted Arnel Bravo but he never replied.

I apologize to all my clients. Now you know why I can't work on my PC. I get online by Net cafes now.

Hayyyy if only my PC is something like THIS instead:


UPDATE:
Wednesday, October 28

Last night I texted both Arnel Bravo and Rommel, their Qnet marketing guy. Twice.

I finally got a reply this morning from Rommel:
"Ting gud am,c romel 2 of qnet,bukas dw pede m dala unit sbi ni bravo."

Hayyyy, wish me luck guys ;)