That was a bizarre little rant … another click on ignore for a bit I guess. Not for the rant, but for the abused apostrophe.
-
WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!
The hell of computer support
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
That was a bizarre little rant … another click on ignore for a bit I guess. Not for the rant, but for the abused apostrophe.
How dare you insult my prophet, Tim Cook! You must repent by standing in line of an Apple store for days to receive the next iPhone, that will be you only way to atone!That was a bizarre little rant … another click on ignore for a bit I guess. Not for the rant, but for the abused apostrophe.
Eulipian
Member
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:
View attachment 295550
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.
My solution to the descending levels of computer "support" hell is to buy everything on the Amex card. If it's defective within the warranty period I go through 1 script descent to the Voldemort "you'll have to reinstall windoz" curse. I then ask to escalate the call to an actual technician. If no fix is offered and no replacement, I call Amex and ask them to dispute the charge, because the equipment is defective and the merchant has not agreed to fix or replace it. You will typically have to send the cr*p back if the merchant wakes up and responds, but you will get your money back. But, if the merchant doesn't respond, and you've documented your dispute and provided your documentation to Amex, you may not have to send the cr*p back to cr*pufacturer/seller to get your refund. YMMV.
OK Kiddies - this ain't the thread.
Ok, but f*ck you very much for the selective quoting, Ant.
you are most welcome. If it's any consolation, I'm looking askance @Sal1950 also - not that I expect any of you to be remotely concerned.Ok, but f*ck you very much for the selective quoting, Ant.
you are most welcome. If it's any consolation, I'm looking askance @Sal1950 also - not that I expect any of you to be remotely concerned.
Haha it is actually. And I should have resisted writing the last sentence in that post you quoted.
Yes, a bit immature of me for poking fun at the ridiculousness of Apple fanboys.OK Kiddies - this ain't the thread.
It's just so so fruity, to see a grown man, camping in line of an Apple store for days to buy the next iPhone, and then take pictures of themselves to post on social media.
Then going around with so much pride is one thing, but to take every single opportunity to taunt how great their Apple products are in a competitive way (albeit in a friendly and jokingly way), especially to a general public and passer-byers who couldn't care less, is not only nuance, it's just extremely fruity. . .I mean fruity beyond fruity.
Yes, a bit immature of me for poking fun at the ridiculousness of Apple fanboys.
So why...
It's just so so fruity, to see a grown man, camping in line of an Apple store for days to buy the next iPhone, and then take pictures of themselves to post on social media.
Then going around with so much pride is one thing, but to take every single opportunity to taunt how great their Apple products are in a competitive way (albeit in a friendly and jokingly way), especially to a general public and passer-byers who couldn't care less, is not only nuance and just extremely fruity. . .I mean fruity beyond fruity.
The same can be asked of the Apple fanboys, why do you need to hype up Apple to people who don't give a crap? Why do it in such a fruity way nevertheless?So why...
But to give you a honest answer, I lack the discipline to control myself, it was a great opportunity to poke fun of Apple fanboys. I apologize, but it was fun though
Yeah, it's bananas.
Huh, I only tried to add a little humorI'm looking askance @Sal1950 also - not that I expect any of you to be remotely concerned.
AnalogSteph
Major Contributor
Apple hardware is all fine and dandy until it breaks. It tends to be riddled with poor / stupid / negligent / plain hostile design decisions that make repair a nightmare even to those with major masochistic tendencies. The level of DGAF really has to be seen to be believed... well, keeping an eye on Louis Rossmann's channel will do as well. (So their soldered-in SSDs occasionally fail, now who would have guessed that. And can you use any old flash chips? No, of course not. And the whole angle sensor business where magnetic lid sensors have worked fine for decades. Running the backlight voltage right next to low voltage data lines on flat cable so a bit of liquid damage makes your process go poof. Do I need to go on?) And they claim to be all green and eco-friendly - pure corporate greenwashing.
Lets tone that down a bit please.Ok, but f*ck you very much for the selective quoting, Ant.
Soldered in SSD's, is that a practice on laptops, towers? A bit of detail please.
I'd never heard of such a thing.
I've built my own towers with Linux OS for the last 25 years and am not familiar with the
practices in the commercial computer world.
somebodyelse
Major Contributor
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2018
- Messages
- 3,759
- Likes
- 3,067
Not sure of the timeline on soldering the SSDs but I think it started in the thin laptops then spread to the 2020 iMac among others. Then you get things like this:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ble-ssds-and-why-you-cant-just-swap-them-out/
I think they were the initiator of soldered RAM in place of SODIMMs too, in the name of making things thinner and lighter.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/202...ble-ssds-and-why-you-cant-just-swap-them-out/
I think they were the initiator of soldered RAM in place of SODIMMs too, in the name of making things thinner and lighter.
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2018
- Messages
- 6,245
- Likes
- 9,377
I'm not aware of soldered in SSD's in laptops, but soldered in ram is widespread.
PC
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:
View attachment 295550
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.
I have always had at least one Lenovo Thinkpad at hand in my work setting for at least 20 years. (I stick with them because of personal ergonomic preferences, not because of vaunted hardware toughness: as form-factors have shrunk, Thinkpads have become more fragile, just like other brands.) I always pay for their premium support contract. Not cheap, but it has always paid off. Support is not always perfect but I always get my problem solved reasonably quickly, with the PC back in the workflow. They don't hesitate to replace motherboard, display or the entire PC when it's the best solution. I am always directive with them on how to preserve data and to prevent hasty Windows reinstalls, and they've listened when possible. I have other brands in my business, but Lenovo's premium support has usually been at least as good as, or often better than, other brands.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:
View attachment 295550
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.
Last edited:
bloodshoteyed
Major Contributor
apple switched to that when they went ARM, not only on notebooks but on mac's, too
it may be present in some wintel ultra-portables, haven't had the luck of seeing one in person tho, neither in small pc's (1L class) so far on wintel, it's beyond my scope of work/interest (which is mainly in the thread name itself; you might say i've been around for long enough i found myself in the old BOFH stories...)
Sorry - I'm just being grumpy**. Too many threads with off topic irrelevances discussed to -120dB of detail.
Yes, I'm looking at you, vinyl renaissance
** actually - now I'm a granddad, I've decided I'm no longer grumpy, I'm curmudgeonly.
Right, lets move on from the Apple bashing and get back on to computer support...
I started my career in computer support in the early nineties. I had the misfortune to support Mac Classics and their stupid one button mouse, it put me off Apple for life. I gave Apple several second chances, but iTunes' desecration of my MP3 collection put the nail in their coffin!
Similar threads
