Sunshine's Experimental Space

Even though I blog in English, it is not my native language. My native language is Frisian. What, Frisian…aren’t you Dutch? Yes, I’m Dutch but also Frisian. Bi-lingual by Birth :P

For all those who do not know how Frisian sounds, or are just plain curious, here’s a clip:

This song is used by Omrop Fryslân during this Summer (Summer hit 2008).

Why do I blog in English? Simple really, it’s THE International Language!

With these past posts about my computer you might be wondering: what does it look like?

There you have it, my (main) workspace..yep in the living room!

So I brought my computer in yesterday to have them replace the Seagate harddisk with a Samsung F1 750GB 32MB SATAII and the memory with 800mhz DDR2, all of which they should have put in in the first place (would have saved them loads of time/work and me quite a bit of stress, time and agro too). They also managed to recover the data from my D: drive and put it back too!

I was to have my computer back end of the day yesterday or beginning afternoon today..well it was slightly later (end of the afternoon) but at least all is well now.

I’m happy, no more stress, all is as should…now back to my usual doings.

So yeah, finally Thursday evening my computer was ready and waiting for me to pick it up. Ready? Hmm didn’t turn out quite ready yet.

The DVD drive was replaced already when I got told my Vista Ultimate Disk was damaged, which explains why they could install from DVD’s in that drive, but apparently they had used my Vista disk to test the DVD drive and that’s how it was said to be damaged. They what!? Yuhuh they used a for their customer valuable disk to test the DVD drive, would you do that? I sure wouldn’t! But well ehh altho quite scratched, which they claim was already so when they got the disk from me (not true), my Vista disk appears to be still working. Vista Ultimate was also installed again on my harddisk. So what isn’t ready? What’s the problem?

Problem 1: no trace of my workspace data (drive D:), had they not backed that up too? When I went to ask today they said they’d look at my broken disk again to see if they could access it.

Problem 2: I now have a Seagate HDD instead of a Samsung F1, which rates lower in the Windows Experience Index (WEI). It ranks 5.7.

Problem 3: Instead of 3GB DDR2 800mhz memory they placed 3GB DDR2-667 (333mhz)! Again this ranks lower than what I had, it ranks 5.3.

This is not equal to the system I had, so of course I can not agree to this. I was promised an equal system back! I had a system with a WEI of 5.5, in which all scored a perfect 5.9 except the memory which ranked at 5.5 (lowest subscore determines the final WEI), so I want that back! Is it so hard to understand that I want the same components back in (brand, mhz etc.)? So yea I went back to complain. They had put in another brand HD because they couldn’t get a Samsung one and the memory must have been a mistake. Now I got to take my computer back in next Wednesday to get what I was promised..a Samsung F1 HD as I had and 3GB of 800mhz memory. Having spent ages to get all as I wanted again on this system (Vista settings, software) I asked if this time they were going to clone my disk so I would not have to go through all that again…they said that would be done.

So in the end I’ll get all back as was (minus most likely some data loss), but what would have happened had I not went back to complain? What if I had not checked (ohh how I love SIW). Undoubtedly I would have been left with a lesser system…

On Tuesday morning June 3rd lightning struck and damaged my modem, TFT and brandnew (March 2008) PC.

Specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
3GB RAM Crucial DDR2 800Mhz
VGA (Point) Nvidea GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB
Recom Power Engine 450 ATX
Asus P5K motherboard
Samsung F1 750GB 32MB SATAII
Samsung DVD-RW 20x
Internal cardreader 3,5 inch
(OS: Vista Home Premium NL)

Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 931 BW

Of the above only the computer casing, processor, VGA and the cardreader survived. Lucky it didn't directly hit at our house but at my backdoor neighbours (only backyard inbetween so 10-15 meters away max.), so I got off with only these damages where they had fire coming out of the wall sockets! They have loads more damage, no person or animal got hurt in the incident *phew*. Also it's a good thing we got insurance but still....

When it happened I was quite shaken/stunned wondering "now what?" I had no means of communications besides my mobile phone. Fist to call is my bf at work, he came home. Next was to bring my computer to the store to be checked out, we have one really nearby but it isn't open till afternoon.... So what next, call insurance agency! As what they need from me, they need expert damage report from computer store. Once I have that I can call back and he'd fill in a damage form and sent that off with the damage report and copies of my original invoices. Next was to send txt messages to some friends so they'd know what happened to me and not worry about me not being online...

Things never go as fast as you want/wish for and in my case...repairs are taking much longer than needed. My modem is hired so I got a new one from my ISP within a week, no problem there. Computer is another story, it was to be ready yesterday but when I arrived at the store I was told there had been a delay in delivery for some parts, those got delivered just the day before so I got a promise they start workin on my comp that afternoon. Delay in delivery, yea right...I know for a fact they didn't even order the parts till last Friday (been in and out of the store several times to either talk stuff over or bring stuff in) whilst they knew what was needed since the Saturday before already! At 5:30 PM I get a phonecall, they need my VGA Card driver CD. No problem, I bring it over right away, the store is just across the street anyway. I saw my computer being worked on but to my surprise they had put Vista Home Premium NL back on instead of Vista Ultimate EN 32-bits that I gave them to install.

Ultimate you say? Yes, I got Vista Ultimate SP1 English 32 bits (promo cd) from Kip (LiveSide). I was over the moon (and of course thanked Kip many many times) when he sent me that as now I had an English OS, meaning no more being last in line when there's a new SP and even more important: the ability to test software that will work on English OS only! As you all know, beta testing is a large part of my existence. I got promised they will put Vista Ultimate back on as it is a genuine version, I also reminded them that if they'd put back Home Premium I'd have to do an install all over again as you can't upgrade when the languages differ. So what went wrong there? They told me my Vista Ultimate CD was so damaged it wouldn't install! Well I delivered it in perfect condition, I installed from it only once and it went fine then! So if it's damaged then it happened whilst it was in their possession! Knowing my DVD drive was to be replaced to I asked if that had been done as otherwise it might be my DVD drive (reading errors) instead of the CD at fault. It had not been replaced, but they been installing from other CDs and that went OK The CD was in possession of the boss and not there at that time so couldn't check..they'll look at it again.

I also reminded to put back the backup they made of my hd and to my surprise the one working on my PC knew of no such! Turns out the guy who made the backup was a student who no longer works there. Great communications eh, what ever happened to using a piece of paper on which one puts date system brought in, what's wrong and what needs be done? I would have done that if I were them and have the person workin on that system write down with date what has been done to it already, so that incase anybody else needs to take over there can be no misunderstandings...wanna borough my organisation skills?

So you can understand I'm quite frustrated/angry/stressed out at the moment. I surely hope my PC is ready this evening when I go back there and that they didn't damage my Vista Ultimate CD...

At least I can be online for lil bits on my old comp which I modified (save disk space) and moved upstairs when I got my new one, so that's better than nothing. Insurance stuff is out of the way now too. I gotta hold on for a lil bit longer....

It is not at all in my nature to complain or rant esp. not in public but well this just got a wee bit...I just had to get it out of my system...