The hell of computer support

[amirm]

So I bought a high-end Lenovo 9i laptop earlier this year. After some use, I noticed that there is some kind of time out that causes the task bar to dim and with it, corrupt it with whatever text that is above it. This is what it looked like:

As you can see, it is quite annoying. I spent a ton of time searching online but only found a hint or two and nothing definititive.

The laptop comes with some fancy warranty support. So I opened a ticket with them a couple of weeks ago. Someone calls me early in the morning and wants to troubleshoot. I give him access and he updates the BIOS. System boots and he says, "now we have wait 24 hours for the changes to take effect!" I tell him that is crazy and that there is no way that change needs 24 hours to do anything. He says no, and that is that and hangs up. He was supposed to call me back next day but never did.

So I put in a note in the ticket complaining. I get a call again. The new person spends an hour running diags, reinstalling graphics driver, etc. Naturally none makes a difference. His solution? Full reinstall of windows! I tell him it took me weeks to configure this machine and that is super painful to do. He says there is no other option. So here I go blow up the install and start fresh. The next day they call me back. But before I can respond, they close the ticket saying I didn't pick up the phone!

Frustrated, I find out myself exactly what is causing the bug. There is an OLED display protection setting in Lenovo control panel that is supposed to dim the task bar to avoid burn in. By default it is off. If I enable that for N number of seconds and wait that much time, bam, the display corruption occurs. Clearly this is a software bug in the hack for this feature. Figured this would be quick to resolve now. File yet another ticket and get a call today. 2 hours on the phone with all the same bios reset, display reset, etc. Heck, he even wanted me to enable him to remotely take pictures of the laptop to prove that it had no physical damage!!!

After this long and frustrating call I am assuming he will now file a bug report with Lenovo. But no..... He is organizing a visit from a tech to fix the hardware!!! I tell him this is crazy as this is not a hardware problem but he says there is no other option. I asked if the tech would bring a new laptop. Answer, no! That he brings parts to swap. Can you believe this? Now I have to sit at home until this person shows up to perform this "fix." Imagine the expense on their part to do all this which is guaranteed to not fix anything.

Of course he told me that the tech may have to do a reinstall of Windows again.

How broken can the processes at these companies be to not allow for possibility of a simple bug report? I asked the support guy why he won't acknowledge that this is not a bug and his answer? No one has reported one so it can't be a bug.

 

[Doodski]

Sounds frustrating. Like calling Hewlett Packard looking for parts. I telephoned them and it took several hours and nearly 2 weeks to get a price on a CRT for a oscilloscope.

 

[amirm]

Sounds frustrating. Like calling Hewlett Packard looking for parts. I telephoned them and it took several hours and nearly 2 weeks to get a price on a CRT for a oscilloscope.

Oh, you remind me a story with them too. I bought a keysight (same company as HP) scope and it came with a cracked probe. The scope itself was perfect. Call them for warranty support and they say I have to ship the entire scope to them! I kept explaining only the probe is broken but no, they want the whole scope shipped to them at my expense! Wasn't worth it to send it so I live with it. Worse yet, they tell me their warranty starts from when they shipped the unit to retailer, NOT when I bought it! Crazy.

 

[Doodski]

Oh, you remind me a story with them too. I bought a keysight (same company as HP) scope and it came with a cracked probe. The scope itself was perfect. Call them for warranty support and they say I have to ship the entire scope to them! I kept explaining only the probe is broken but no, they want the whole scope shipped to them at my expense! Wasn't worth it to send it so I live with it. Worse yet, they tell me their warranty starts from when they shipped the unit to retailer, NOT when I bought it! Crazy.

That's just bizarre about the warranty. HP is a bit of a liberty taker. The company takes the liberty to invent stupid rules, procedures and is very regimented and scripted I found. I gave up on that oscilloscope. For the several hours I was on hold and being transferred around and I could have made enough money performing repairs that would pay for it.

 

[Curvature]

How broken can the processes at these companies be to not allow for possibility of a simple bug report?

Great question. Does it say something about the economics of these companies?

 

[Doodski]

Great question. Does it say something about the economics of these companies?

I think it says a lot about the arrogance and business model and acumen. HP and Lenovo are big enough to do whatever they want.

 

[voodooless]

Sounds like standard tech support… just checking off items from a list, never mind the outcome, there is always a new list if the previous one fails

I would have stopped them at the BIOS update already. That’s just silly.

ChatGPT seems to know what is going on:

To disable the feature that causes the taskbar to dim and wash out the text above it on your Lenovo laptop with an OLED screen, you can follow these steps:

1. Right-click on the desktop and select "Intel Graphics Settings" or "Graphics Options." This option may vary depending on the graphics card installed on your laptop.

2. In the graphics settings window, look for a section related to "Power" or "Power Settings."

3. Within the power settings, you may find an option called "Display Power Saving Technology" or something similar. This feature is designed to reduce power consumption by dimming or adjusting the display in certain scenarios.

4. Disable the "Display Power Saving Technology" option or any similar setting that might be causing the issue.

5. Apply the changes and close the graphics settings window.

Note that the exact steps and options may differ based on the specific model of your Lenovo laptop and the graphics card driver installed. If you can provide more specific details about your laptop model and the graphics card, I can provide more accurate instructions.

Additionally, it's worth checking if there are any specific power-saving settings in the Windows Control Panel that might affect the display. You can access the Control Panel by typing "Control Panel" in the Windows search bar and then selecting the corresponding result. Look for power options or display settings that might be causing the issue and adjust them accordingly.

If the problem persists or you can't find the appropriate settings, you may need to consult the user manual or contact Lenovo support for further assistance.

There also is an official support page for it:

Taskbar may display same color as foreground image after enabling the Taskbar dimmer from “OLED Power Settings” - ThinkPad - Lenovo Support US

support.lenovo.com

 

[GD Fan]

Calling corporate tech support is always the last option. Which seems to be their intent as well.

 

[radix]

 

[delta76]

typical tech support. 1. try restart. 2. try reinstall. 3. repeat

 

[Curvature]

This is far too real for me to laugh.

 

[BeeKay]

Same as the playbook some(?) insurances seem follow. Deny any claim when a customer(!) tries to file a case. A couple of them will surrender so that’s already in their pocket. Pathetic companies.

 

[voodooless]

@amirm, how is the OLED panel? I hope it’s not one of those lentile pixel layout screens? That would drive me crazy unless the resolution was a lot higher.

 

[Doodski]

Same as the playbook some(?) insurances seem follow. Deny any claim when a customer(!) tries to file a case. A couple of them will surrender so that’s already in their pocket. Pathetic companies.

I worked as a roofing inspector/estimator for a summer and most of the insurance companies would approve hail damage claims within a few days with supplied pictures of the damage and some well written emails on behalf of the home owners. But Wawanesa never approved one. Out of several hundred+ files between 3 of us we had not one approval from that insurance company. It became very obvious they where just denying claims because they could. Go ahead and sue me Wawanesa and explain the situation for the court to see what service you provide for paying customers! Surprisingly many home owners where very loyal to that company and when I told them we where not interested in their claim because they never approved claims the customers insisted I try anyway... I tried but no success.

 

[dougi]

Sometimes it is good if you pay lots. I had a temporary HP server running some software to support a trial of new broadcasting technology at the main broadcasting site in Sydney. New year's eve at a party, late, got a call from the operations centre that the broadcasting service had gone down. Struggled in on new year's day (it was only a trial with no set SLAs), a holiday, and determined the server had some duff memory. Called the number on the side of the server, expecting nothing. Came and replaced the memory the same day on the holiday!

 

[delta76]

Sometimes it is good if you pay lots. I had a temporary HP server running some software to support a trial of new broadcasting technology at the main broadcasting site in Sydney. New year's eve at a party, late, got a call from the operations centre that the broadcasting service had gone down. Struggled in on new year's day (it was only a trial with no set SLAs), a holiday, and determined the server had some duff memory. Called the number on the side of the server, expecting nothing. Came and replaced the memory the same day on the holiday!

of course. all companies know that enterprises are where their money is.

 

[GXAlan]

I find that most of the companies have really dropped in performance over the years. For Windows PCs, my VAIO laptops have the most reliable but the US arm of the company is inconsistent in what they actually bring over to the US with standard US keyboards.

Right now Japan has 13th Gen. VAIO SX while the US doesn’t.

 

[antcollinet]

User to user forums are nearly always more effective than tech support right up until you need a hardware fix. I always check out the related user to user forum before making a significant purchase. No good forum, no purchase.

 

[Blumlein 88]

User to user forums are nearly always more effective than tech support right up until you need a hardware fix. I always check out the related user to user forum before making a significant purchase. No good forum, no purchase.

THIS.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Oh, a decade or more ago, in cases similar to this, when I knew they were asking illogical procedures that had no chance of working. I would wait a bit pretending to do it and do nothing. In time you might get somewhere this way, but I never caused any trouble for myself doing this. Having a brother and friend who worked some IT support jobs gave insight into what is going on. At too low a level they don't have options, and have to keep asking you to do the same useless activities. So you normally have to get it kicked up one or two levels of support where everything is not scripted. Then you have a small chance of success.