Foo - Laptop Repair, and the doctor office syndrome

You know how you can have this aweful cough, painful back issue, knee that suddenly gives out, but when you go to the doctor it seems to instantly vanish for the time that you are there? It would appear that my laptop has the same issue. It is currently in to the repair facility for the fourth time. It was supposed to be the trip that confirmed that the problem exisited, and that would force the warranty people to replace the unit. However, it seems that somewhere between my door and theirs a miracle occured and it is suddenly cured of it's main illness. So I have no option but to have the laptop returned to me, if in fact, it does work, then I suppose life will be happy and I can actually use it. However if it comes back to me with the issue remaining - I here by state that I fear for the ear drums of the repair facility staff. It will not be pretty.

What's exactly happening on your laptop?

The primary issue has been with the power button. You probably read my previous laptop repair rant (and think it was you who recommended me looking at an IBM Thinkpad for my next one).

Basically the power button isn't functioning properly. Or at least it wasn't, according the the repair people it is now. I think they replaced the part again personally. Laptop is an HP ZE4200, the power button would take several seconds (as in 5-8), or several tries, to do anything. Sometimes pushing it at the right angle would help, other times pressing it over and over would be the trick. First two repairs were done by one shop, no changes to the power button that I could detect. Third was to another shop. After the third repair it was a lot worse, I mean minutes of trying to get it to work. I sent it back to the same repair shop to confirm the issue, and I suspect in fear of loosing business from the warranty company they did *something* to fix it and now states it works. Or it just suddenly decided it was going to work, I honestly have no explaination.

What really irks me is I now look like an idiot (or a guy trying to defraud the warranty company) for sending it in demanding a new laptop for an issue that has now disappeared. However before sending it in for the last time, I did take it to the store where I purchased the laptop from (and where I used to work) and demonstrated the issue to two of the Managers.

- note there has been other issues such as hard locks occuring during high hard drive access that has never properly been duplicated while in the hands of the repair facility. Mainly because it happens periodically (2-3 times a week max usually, though I have had it happen 2-3 times in a night while trying to instal windows and/or service packs.

It's called demonstration syndrome, and it applies to all aspects of life. It is twofold:

A problem that reliably exists in a (system, person, object, etc) will mysteriously vanish when you attempt to demonstrate the problem for someone who can fix it, and

A (system, person, object, etc) that behaves perfectly at all times will suddenly develop a crippling problem when you attempt to demonstrate the normal (correct) behavior in front of someone important.

Ahhh, quantum problems :D

Update... computer arrived back... and indeed the power button did work EXACTLY as it did 8 months ago before this nightmare started. Maybe the problem all along is that after 2 years of being carried in a laptop bag and getting the occasional bump that it needed to be shipped across the country the right number of times to ge the 'anti-bump' it needed to be fixed. *sigh*

HOWEVER - once again the right mouse button is 100% dead. I can press it till I'm blue in the face (or red for that matter) and it does nothing. I'm now going to a local repair shop to have it worked on (why in the world MaxAssurance didn't TELL ME THERE WAS AN AUTHORIZED REPAIR FACILITY 4 MILES FROM MY HOUSE TO BEGIN WITH!!!!) No time to get it over there till thrusday.

/part of my rant for the day. Thanks for listening...

One of my roommates is having a problem with his laptop. His USB ports, or the devices using them, occaissionally don't work for a short period of time. He has a warranty on it, and has already sent it in to get it looked at one time. They tested it, said it was fine, and sent it back to him. The laptop is still having problems though. He called the manufacturer today and tried to demand that they replace the motherboard or the whole laptop. It's pretty hilarious, he is getting so pissed off because he can't use his wireless keyboard, mouse, or printer. He freaks out when he has to stop playing Everquest for 5 minutes. I think his parents are going to buy him a brand new $2400 desktop to replace this thing, just because the USB ports don't work every now and then. So f 'in annoying, I can't stand him any longer :mad: Hmmm, I went from talking about laptops to talking about how I hate my roommate.

I think you needed to rant a bit too. Let it out dude, it's ok.