Journal glh's Journal: Back from the computershow.. the nightmare contiunues 1
Ok, so those of you reading my past journal entries know that I went to the Dayton Computer show. On the positive side, I got to meet up with FortKnox for a little bit-- twas good seeing an old friend again. (Hope you had better luck than I did, Josh!).
Another friend I was with found a great deal on a barebones system through a company named "Alvio" that is based in Cleveland. I thought I'd try and bargin with the guy and see what I could get. I basically ended up getting a very similar system with less hard drive, ram, and an upgraded aluminum window case. All for about the same as what I could get it through various sites on price watch, so I was pretty happy. The guy promised my friend and I to have the systems built by 3:30 (I had to get back to Toledo by 7 for the MudHens game).
Well we go back to the booth at 3:20 or so to see how things are going. Apparently, the guy was having "issues" with my friends computer, saying he thought something was wrong with the power supply. However, he said mine was just about done. I noticed he was putting it in the wrong case, and I mentioned something to the salesman about it. "Oh, we still have to get to yours, come back in a little bit" is what he told me. Then he muttered something in Russian to the technician. I figured everything was OK, and I'd check back in about 10-15 minutes.
So I check back around 3:45. By this time I'm getting a little ansy because I wanted needed to leave by 3:30. The guy tells me that they were still having problems with my friends computer, but mine was done. After giving me the case box, I opened it up to find out sure enough the thing was in the wrong case. So I tell the guy "this is the wrong case, and I mentioned something about it earlier. Now I have to leave and I don't have time for this. I'm going to have to cancel it unless you can let me take it home along with the case I want". He goes on to tell me he needs the case so he can't do that, but he'd love to give me a mouse for my troubles. I tell him I don't need a mouse. There is silence for a few minutes, and in the mean time the technician is pulling my components out of the case.
The sales guy looks at the hard drive that was just pulled out of my case. He offers to upgrade my hard drive to 60GB for my troubles- apparently noticing that the hard drive in there was 60GB when in fact I was supposed to get a 40GB. I told him that'd be fine, (I would have just felt guilty with a bigger hard drive than what I paid for). I told him I really had to leave, and he offered to let me take the case and I could build it myself if I was OK with that. I told him sure, why not.
So my friend and I have our computers now, and we're making our way for the parking lot. I tell him I want to check my components to make sure I got the right ones. I then find out that the video card they gave me was the wrong one (a lower version). I take the card and CD driver over to them and ask them for the correct card. They have no problem with that and do a swap. My friend also got the wrong card put in his, but his system is already assembled and he doesn't want to take it out. So he gets a "keyboard upgrade" and seems to be pretty happy with that. I check over the HDD, ensure that its a 60GB. Everything else looked pretty good.
We get back to Toledo and I head out to the mudhens game (we left after the 7th inning as they were up 14 to 1). When I get back, I have a message on my machine from my friend who also bought the system. "Guess what, I ended up getting your 40GB hard drive" (he was supposed to get a 60GB). I'm thinking that they ended up switching some of the components with my friend, and I ended up getting the stuff that "wasn't working quite right". He wasn't real happy about that and was going to call them first thing in the morning.
Well I go to bed that around 11:00 or so without even messing with my parts and trying to build the system. I vowed to never touch computer parts when I'm tired ever since I fried a floppy drive several years ago because I plugged it in a pin off (luckily it is difficult to do this now days).
So I get up at about 6:15 the next morning and go to work. I get everything put in the new system- motherboard (already had the ram and cpu on it), hard drive, video card, cdrw, lan card. I take it down to "the dungeon" and plug it in. Guess what happens? NOTHING. Absolutely NOTHING.
I'm thinking "maybe I just have something plugged in wrong" so I go over everything. It's all plugged in properly. Try the power on again-nada. Then I think "Great, bad power supply." I only wish I was that lucky! I connect my new power supply to my old computer, and it powers on just fine. That can mean only one thing- the motherboard is DOA. Sure enough, I unplug EVERYTHING on the stinking board except for the power supply and the CPU (because I couldn't get the clip off) and try to power it on. I should at LEAST hear the fan on the power supply running. Yet, I get nothing. Nada.
I make a couple of calls to the Alvio. They're not opened of course. So I ended up sending an email about it.. and that brings me up to the present.
Obviously, I am not happy about this whole situation. Fortunately they are in Cleveland so any problems I can quickly ship it to them. I'm just wondering how this whole thing is going to pan out... I'll keep the updates coming. I guess I shoulda stuck with mwave....
Update:
I verified that the board is in fact DOA. Thought it may be that the powewre supply wasn't good enough, but took it to a local computer store and the guy tried a few other power supplies and a different cpu. Sent a couple of e-mails and left a message. Hopefully I will hear something Monday. By the way, I also enabled the comments
Yikes... (Score:1)
I ended up finding a deal for an AMD Duron 1200 + MoBo for $90, then got memory for $40 (my bro lended me the extra $20). I haven't put it in yet, but now I'm very afraid...
Sorry I didn't stop and say goodbye, but I started getting a call every 5 mins from the wife, so I had to go, or get nagged to death.
BTW - (I dunno if I already told you this) My brother noticed a guy, and says to me "I think I know that guy", and I ask "which one?" He says "The short fat guy with the long grey beard" (he was serious, and didn't realize that described 80% of the people there)