Okay, fine, I'll be the dumbass.

[apocalypsos]

So I got a call back from the HP rep.

The good news -- My laptop does not have a cracked LCD. My laptop has a temp sending out email updates for it who accidentally sent me an update telling me that I had a cracked LCD when what I really have is spill damage.

The bad news -- SPILL DAMAGE? ARGH. *headdesk* (On the other hand, I can't remember ever spilling anything on it or near it. I've nearly spilled stuff on it, but somehow I don't think a few drops really count. *hands in air*)

So they're sending it back without repairing it because it costs about seven hundred bucks just like a cracked monitor would, and I'll just work around it until I can afford to buy a new computer, which should be the day after NEVER EVER EVER at this rate.

Le sigh.

Comments

[unanon.livejournal.com]

Duuuuuude. :( That sucks. Makes me wish Fed Ex HAD busted the LCD screen so you could have had them pay for repairs.

Bah.

[cavalaxis]

Maybe you could get them to drop it before they sent it back.

And I still smell a rat. I think I'd remember spilling something on my pc bad enough to damage it...

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

Doesn't take much to gunk up a laptop keyboard, though, those keys are very tiny.

OTOH, anything that isn't Cola won't damage the motherboard (and 700 bucks, that's a motherboard replacement, at least I should damn well hope so).

If it were my laptop, I'd get out my Set of Good Screwdrivers and the digital camera, and take the thing apart (the camera is to take pictures of which screw goes where). Once you have the motherboard free you can basically just rinse it off under the tap and then let it airdry for a day or so.

I fully appreciate that the willingness to take $1000 pieces of equipment to bits at a moment's notice makes me a bit of a freak.

[elsmoka.livejournal.com]

so here is ho geeky I am: My first thought: Harry Potter reps call?? LOLZ

But that really suck about the spill damage. :(

[scary-being-me.livejournal.com]

That sucks.

Is it possible someone else spilled something on it?

I'd take it to someplace that does free estimates and have them confirm the spill damage.

[rebbyrebs.livejournal.com]

TMobile is trying to stick that lame ass excuse on me as well. I had problems with my connection on one of my phone, mind you, the other one worked just fine. They had me send it in and they will try to figure out what was wrong. Labeled it with Liquid Damage. Didn't even bother to look past the liquid damage. I called and told them I never had the phone near any liquid to cause that much damage. They charged me $100 just because the liquid damage wasn't covered under my warranty.

Pissed me off.

[gretazreta.livejournal.com]

Can you get a second opinion? Because I think that sounds kind of dodgy to me. Especially if you never spilled anything once.

I had a cell phone die of that once - but then I spilled a whole big bottle of diet coke in my bag. I think you'd notice if you had spilled enough on that... especially if you didn'tnotice the lcd thinger before you sent it.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's a tech guy at work who I think I might be able to get to take a look at it if I ask. Plus, my mom has a friend whose husband can check it out.

It just sounds odd from the way she described it, too, because she said it would cost seven hundred and fifty bucks to fix the spill damage (like, seriously?), but if I spent something like two hundred bucks on another two years worth of warranty or something they could fix it for free. So, wait, it's not covered by warranty now but it is when I give you two hundred bucks? Yeah, whatever.

Screw it. I'll take it back and get a second opinion.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

$750 sounds like either a motherboard or a screen replacement, depending on where they say the liquid damge has gone. I think I missed this somewhere, but what were the symptoms that caused you to send it in?

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

The USB ports weren't working. One wasn't registering anything hooked up to it at all, and hooking anything up to the other one made it freeze it up.

[corruptedjasper.livejournal.com]

Huh. Distinctly odd behaviour.But that's definitely a motherboard issue, and the only thing "service" people these days can do is swap out bad components, so that explains why the putative repair is supposed to be so expensive.

On the plus side, at least it doesn't make the thing completely unusable, on the minus side it's very *usable* either, like that.

One thing you could try is downloading a knoppix CD image (linux that boots off CD), and see if the problem persists -- that way you quickly eliminate software as being the possible source of the problem.

[random-serious.livejournal.com]

SPILL DAMAGE?

They don't fix that? damn. You should buy some lottery tickets, or something. And, discontinued models, the machines they use as store examples are... not cheap, but more affordable; so maybe you should look into those? Good luck.