Constant disk errors.

[Graham Tudor]

Hi, I'm after some advice really, rather than a fix.
Here's the story....

On Monday 1st December I took delivery of my new PC.
Unfortunately, when I powered it up for the first time
there was a hardware problem with the hard drive. So, the
next day, Tuesday 2nd December, it was collected to go
back to the vendor for repair.

On Friday 5th December it was returned and all was fine.
Everything went well until Wednesday 10th December when I
powered on, only to find that it wouldn't boot into
Windows. The disks seemed fine this time, but it hung with
a fatal system error.

I called the vendor and they suggested that I use the Win
XP installation CD to repair Windows. This I did, and it
finally booted up. It ran without problems for the rest of
the day.

The next day (Thursday 11th December), under the
circumstances, I thought I'd better do a CHKDSK to make
sure all was OK. It found numerous errors, but seemed to
fix them OK. Just to be sure I ran another CHKDSK: more
errors! All told I ran 5 CHKDSKs in a row and it found
errors every time.

At this point I decided something was very wrong, so I
called the vendor. They asked, "Have you installed any
software on the PC?". Well, obviously I had, so they told
me "Well, we test all PCs before we despatch them, so the
problem must be caused by your software"!!!. They have
refused to accept any responsibility for the problem.

Since then, I have deleted, re-created and formatted the
partition and re-installed Windows, twice, and both times
the first thing I did on returning to Windows was to run a
CHKDSK and errors were found both times.

So, what do you think? Is there something that could be
causing all these disk errors? Or do you think there is a
problem with the disk that the vendor should deal with? Is
there anyway I can find out?

I'd be interested in your opinions, and any advice you can
give to help me for when I confront them on Monday.

Regards,

Graham.

 

[R. McCarty]

You didn't mention the vendor's name, but I would call &
request a refund. There is no way I would continue to use
a PC with that many faults in such a short time. Don't allow
them to do another replacement or whatever. You may end
up with a factory re-furbished unit. When you talk to them
just remind them of the "Lemon Laws".

Blaming the errors on installing your own software is BS.
Another instance of we've got your money, now you are on
your own. Return it and pick another company to buy from.

 

[Ken Simmons [MSFT]]

Hi Graham,

Based upon what you have written, I would return the system to the
manufacturer. The information you provided strongly suggests bad hardware
on a new system.

Regards,

Ken Simmons

Microsoft Technical Support for Platforms and Business Applications

 

[Malke]

You didn't mention the vendor's name, but I would call &
request a refund. There is no way I would continue to use
a PC with that many faults in such a short time. Don't allow
them to do another replacement or whatever. You may end
up with a factory re-furbished unit. When you talk to them
just remind them of the "Lemon Laws".

Blaming the errors on installing your own software is BS.
Another instance of we've got your money, now you are on
your own. Return it and pick another company to buy from.

Hear, hear! Absolutely correct. Take it back. If the company is local or
has a local shop, take it back loudly in person. Get a refund and buy
from another company that stands behind its products. To blame what is
obviously hardware failure on you installing software is outrageous.
Newsflash: software is *supposed* to be installed on pc's - why else
would we want them? I don't know where you live, but yes, if you are in
the US, there are Lemon Laws, Better Business Bureaus, etc. Don't just
let this go! Additionally, most companies give you at least 30 days to
return the goods. They may want to charge you a 15% restocking fee
which sucks, but better to be out that amount of money than to be stuck
with a computer that will never work right.

Malke

 

[Graham Tudor]

Thanks Ken

-----Original Message-----
Hi Graham,

Based upon what you have written, I would return the system to the
manufacturer. The information you provided strongly suggests bad hardware
on a new system.

Regards,

Ken Simmons

Microsoft Technical Support for Platforms and Business Applications





.

 

[Graham Tudor]

Thanks R.

Sadly, I'm from the UK, so the "lemon laws" you mentioned
don't apply. I did try to return it since they offer a 14
day money back guarantee, but - and you'll like this -
it's not available on PCs built specifically to my order.
And guess what? It was built to my spec.... I asked them
to change the LCD monitor to a CRT! Sigh!

 

[R. McCarty]

Substituting a CRT for an LCD is NOT a custom build. You
merely requested an alternate peripheral. How that constitutes
a custom build is beyond me. Maybe having to ship a different
size box meets that criteria. Unfortunately, we live in a world
where everything is limited by the little asterisks and exclusion
clauses. I wouldn't just roll over on this. If you paid with a
credit card you can contest the charge and your credit card
company will help to get the issue resolved. Personally, I would
call the highest officer of the company you can locate and talk
to them about it. Someone in that position can override all the
corporate drones that use every trick to keep your money.

 

[Guest]

Since the vendor is not doing to stand behind his product, may I suggest that you run CHKDSK and allow it to fix the errors on disk drive. I suggest this because you had not stated if you ran check disk with this option.

 

[Guest]

Yes, I had set the "Automatically fix errors" checkbox, so
the errors were fixed each time.

But each time I ran CHKDSK it found more errors.

I've been running CHKDSK repeatedly since re-installing
Windows this afternoon, and in the last 8 hours or so I've
amassed 200kb worth of bad sectors!

On the other hand, since the 2 disks in the array are
120Gb each, I think it would take over 1000 years to
completely fill the disk with bad sectors, so perhaps I'm
over-reacting! )

-----Original Message-----
Since the vendor is not doing to stand behind his

product, may I suggest that you run CHKDSK and allow it to
fix the errors on disk drive. I suggest this because you
had not stated if you ran check disk with this option.

 

[Crusty \(-: Old B@stard :-\)]

It would depend, I think, upon if they are "logical" disk errors or bad
sectors.

Logical disk errors can, indeed, be caused by poorly written software, as
well as by improper shut downs, power failures, brown outs, general program
crashes etc.

If bad sector errors, I agree with you!