Will an 8 lb sledgehammer void Compaq's warranty?

[flvegan]

Just curious, as I'm about to take said heavy object to my company laptop. This is, by the way, my second one of these little miracle machines in around 6 months.

It's almost mocking me. I start 'er up, and I get the HP INVENT opening screen (invent...yeah, invent rage, you motherf*&ker). Then, nothing but a cursor. Then, a "disk read error occurred Press ctrl+alt+del to restart" message. It's a tease. Like it's ACTUALLY going to work after you press those 3 magical keys. No, no, no...silly mortal. Like the true kick in the balls that this piece of pseudo-nesian shit is, it goes through the same motions.

Safe Mode? Not on your life it won't.

Boot from the recovery CD? Nada. Disk spins, then back to the error message.

Company tech support, God love them, working on Christmas (I called them last night), tells me that I might have to send it in for repair.

It boggles my mind that we have little robots cavorting on Mars, but working computers are a total crapshoot. 2 whole moving parts. It's Tuesday and I feel like I'm having 4 Mondays all at once.

*rant over...for now*

[wildhorses]

1. sorry to read that you are having such a crappy day

my mom has a compaq laptop :eyes:


on dialup...

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

2. Company tech support ...

Usually staffed with part-swapping monkeys, and you end up with a new disk, base installation, all your work gone.

I hope you had a recent backup of your work.

If not, get a USB converter gizmo for your laptop-sized drive, and see how much you can copy when you hook it to your home computer. Taking the drive out of the laptop may be tricky, you may need to find a manual on the web. I managed to recover all my work that way a year ago, saved me a ton of hassle. Try all that before sending the computer in.

The guys assembling Martian rover robots are not the same as the guys assembling commodity computers.

[necso]

3. There are little converter kits

that will let you connect a laptop hard-drive to a regular (compatible) computer (directly using IDE, not USB).

Using this, you may be able to extract useful stuff from the laptop hard drive, including things like cookies (be sure to copy the index) that you may not have backed-up.

I'd go with a 12-pound maul -- this gives you the choice of a splitting edge or a hammering surface.

Having options is good.

[GirlinContempt]

4. Try to make them replace it with an HP

The HPs break down a little less frequently than the Compaq's, which took over the "prettily packaged shit" part of the company on merge.

[leftofthedial]

5. I don't know about Compaq

but a spedgehammer is now the #1 most requested option with Dell computers

[LeftyMom]

6. I'm sending this thread to my sister.

She got a Compaq lappie for giftmas. :)

[musette_sf]

7. "this 8 pound hammer

it's a little too heavy
for my size, for my size"

okay, enough of the bluegrass.

i feel your pain... HP/Compaq laptop hard drives have been dying at my place of business at an alarming rate of late. many of my near and dear office mates have been so afflicted.

i cross my fingers as i prepare to boot up to monitor the incoming order queue.

[Dangerously Amused]

8. Get a Mac, baby.

Once you go Mac, you'll never go back.


Word.


:7




P.S. - I've heard a nice massage will help to get things in proper working order. I would be more than happy to massage your laptop for you.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hfojvt]

9. If I had a hammer, I'd a hammer in the morning

I'd hammer out "DANGER"! I'd hammer out "WARNING"!

Run for your life, little laptop!!!! :hide:


A big guy like you, using a mere 8 pound sledge? :wtf: Even puny I was ready to move up to a 12 pounder. :o

[flvegan]

10. I didn't want to finish it off in one whack. Besides, I thought I might

take pics/video of each smashing moment and create www.stupideffingcompaqlaptop.com

[KamaAina]

12. No, but a 12-lb. sledgehammer will

:evilgrin:

As for tech support working, do they celebrate Christmas in Bangalore? Just wondering...

[blogslut]

13. Can you look inside?

Sometimes the hard drive cards or floppy drives become dislodged with laptops.

[LSK]

14. the hard drive is dead, nothing to do with Compaq

Take the hard drive out and smash it. And then replace.