[ubuntu-uk] Linux mysteriously broke my computer!

[Rob Beard]

Quoting Alan Pope <alan at popey.com>:

> Hi Alec
> On Thu, 2007-11-01 at 14:55 +0000, Alec Wright wrote:
>> I phoned Evesham tech support, and they immediately said it was a
>> windows driver problem. When I told him it didn't have windows on it,
>> but had Linux on it, he put me on hold for a few minutes. When he got
>> back, he told me that he couldn't fix the HARDWARE problem because it
>> runs Linux. He told me to reinstall windows and phone back... Well
>> that's gonna be fun when it cant stay on for more than five seconds...
>>
>> Just thought you guys might be interested
>
> I had a similar issue some time ago. I have a Dell XPS laptop which
> started to exhibit some screen corruption during the boot screen (the
> Dell logo you see before the OS starts).
>
> I called Dell and the guy told me to re-install the video driver. I told
> him that the problem occurred prior to the OS loading. Despite me
> explaining that this problem happened before the drivers were loaded
> they still had to follow their script.
>
> I hung up and called back a while later and told them that I had tried a
> "different driver" (which I had - I tried the nv driver rather than the
> nvidia driver in xorg). I also took photos and made them available on my
> website to show that the issue isn't a software one.
>
> They eventually invoked maintenance and I got an engineer out to fix the
> machine (which involved replacing the video card on the laptop).
>
> I have also reported a problem with my Mesh desktop PC which were
> hardware problems. They also asked me to do windowsy type things which I
> either refused or lied about.
>
> The fact is that these people are not setup to support Linux. As such
> you sometimes need to be creative and very very careful what you say.
>
> http://popey.com/My_Sick_Dell_Inspiron_XPS_Gen_2_Laptop
>
> Cheers,
> Al.
>

It's so frustrating that they go through these lists.  I've often  
called Dell with problems and they've asked me to do all sorts of  
tests, as you say Al, just lie about it.  Considering the amount of  
Dell machines I've seen exactly identical problems on I'm wise to what  
they ask me to do.

You'd think these companies would get some more clued up tech support  
staff though and not treat us like complete dummies.

Rob