So, I'm leaving Friday night for college. Yes, my beer-bong is packed. However, my poor mother has to live with this man (I've unofficially disowned him as my father, since I hate his every breathe. It's okay, it's a mutual feeling!) who, when surfing the internet and downloading gigs upon gigs of porn (It's heterosexual porn, too. It's gross!) and, you know those little pop-ups "Do you want to trust such and such software from So and So company?" Yea, where you're supposed to click NO, since, it's, you know, probably malware/spyware/viral?

He clicks yes. And then says my Final Fantasy XI game (Or, in ignorant prick speak, "that stupid game that you spend money on") is the source of them. I am forced to point out, dear reader, that I did indeed alert this poor excuse of a hand-job that a company such as Square cannot allow their games to run like a Windows operating system. They, unlike Windows, do not have the pleasure of a monopoly.

So. I use my Tablet. It's all him. As I said, I leave Friday night. Well, afternoon, I get there that night. My poor mother knows not how to wipe a hard drive. I find it very simple. Insert original system discs, and go. However, HP has (which has apparantly lead to a class action law suit) done away with their system discs, and stores the required system files on a hidden partition. This is not news to me. I discovered this myself several years ago, when this particular idiot did this before. And promptly complained about all his porn being gone. Can you hear that? It's the world's smallest fid- ah crap, it broke. Oh well. So. It irritated me, but I saw it as a nice advantage. No system discs to keep track of (something I find hard to do, at times). However, it turns out, I was quite mistaken when I believed it was that simple.

Last time, I was able to get onto the main OS, and access it via the proper programs. All well and good. However, to the emotion distress involved this time around, I went in and ran Norton Anti-Virus and LavaSoft's spyware program. After deleting 36 malware, 240 spyware, and 68 viruses (note, this is only HALF of the viruses on the hard drive), the explorer.exe program was corrupt. Great.

So, I ran it in Safe Mode. Yay, the partition I hate is working. So, I set about - aw crap. You can't access THAT particular program, you can only access the stupid alternative that doesn't delete anything, but installs the now-gone settings from a previous state. Useless. I then am forced to e-mail HP tech support. Something I rarely do.

Below was my quick synopsis of what the problem was, and stated the exact fix I believed and desired. Quick, clean, and easy. Just tell me how to access the program I need to access via the bios (which I knew could be done!).


Okay. Simple, right? I bolded tow important things. The time it was submitted, and where I stated my *self-righteous moment* educated belief.

Now, I got an e-mail from "Nicole" at Tech support, stating simply, she "need time to research some information, and will e-mail again."

Here is where I feel insulted. And the actual problem here.



Bolded is the flippant insult. Can anyone say "PRESS F10 AT THE BLUE SCREEN"? Seriously. I don't need your hypothesis here. I'M DAMN WELL AWARE WHAT MY E-MAIL SAID. I'M DAMN WELL AWARE WHAT IS WRONG, WHAT THAT ERROR MESSAGE MEANS, I TOLD YOU WHAT IT MEANS, AND I TOLD YOU WHAT NEEDED DOING. I DON'T NEED A DAMN THESIS PAPER ON IT. TELL ME TO PRESS F10 AT THE BLUE SCREEN.

That aside, many people will wonder, "WHY didn't you call HP's TOLL FREE tech support line?"

I refer you to http://www.illwillpress.com/vault.html , and the one concerning "Tech-Support". Once I got this irish guy, who must have been a rarity as he was sober, but very helpful. Last time I needed a wipe, they had moved their support to Canada. I talked to some grand mother, very sweet, kind, polite, and realized I knew wtf I was doing, and didn't need to be walked through like a child. I just needed the f10 at the blue screen.

However, I refuse to be told to press some arbitrary key sequence by a man who wears a dot and a diaper on his head. End of story.






Rant done. This said, I've now written my mother instructions (very basic, step-by-step instructions) on how to do this for future reference. Including how to reinstall all of the necessary programs. While we do not see eye-to-eye, I dare not subject another human being (well, maybe that jack-ass she lives with) to Hindu Tech-Support R US.

In conclusion, I give a big *flip* to HP, and their god-damn-fuggin-super-secret-mofo-hard drive partition. I'm GLAD you lost that damn class action law-suit. And I'm against stupidity-filed lawsuits. But you deserve it.

I don't see what you are getting upset about. It is common practice when working for a help-desk to speak in the simplest of terms and walk them through every click. This is done because, without talking to you, we don't know how much you understand of computers. Treating everyone as if they don't know, but being polite about it(which that email was), saves everyone a headache.

HP's customer support has been rated the best, every year, and most companies barely give you anything. In your case 90% of companies wouldn't have done anything for you, as by installing programs that are infected you have techincally voided your warrenty.

As for the hidden partition, this is actually a very smart thing to do. People, expecially your average customer, will(and do) lose those discs alot. Doing it this way saves them the time of having to wait for a new one. If you want the disc, you can write/email them requesting one and they will gladly send it. How do I know this, I'm one of the guys that fix your computer when you send it in(well, for customers in Asia atleast).

Um.. they helped you out, you have instructions for the future for your mother in the future, and everything is fine now aside from your files being gone. What's the problem? They're going to talk down to you and make sure everything is as thorough as possible because, in most cases, you have to inform someone how to fix something as if they were a novice to prevent further e-mails and to provide the best customer service as you can. It might have annoyed you, but not everyone knows what's going on with their PC.

And yeah, I agree with Hajamin on the hidden partition. It's really easy for the average person to lose/misplace discs and it makes things extremely easy for those that may need to get the usage of their PC back as soon as possible. I'd rather do that than wait a few business days/weeks.

Meh. It just bugs me. Weep. Frustration. I haaate being talked to like a two year old. S'all.

S'my only frustration. And, I'm not knocking the hidden partition. I love it. I just hate arbitrary bullshit to get to it. I like it when I don't have to dig through piles of their stupid papers and find the booklet, which says to call HP. Die!

Meh. <3 HP. I know, they're great. But. Grr. I hate being talked to like a child!

The point of this thread:

I'm an angry, spiteful person, and HP has excellent customer service, even if they're cruel and unusual methods of idiot-proofing makes me feel insulted.

And my files aren't gone. I yanked anything I left on that comp off via safe mode.

I hate it in most situations too.. like work.

So.. I guess I can't blame you. I'm just less inclined to make faces at tech support (Well, no.. not really. One website did piss me the off and then another today...).

Somewhat on topic, but.. you have fun at college! Stay away from the crazy girls.

You mean the crazy guys, don't you...

The problem with the hidden partition is when the hard drive gets so corrupted you can't access the hidden partition at all. Once this happens, and you have a computer that's past it's support clause (Sony is notorious for this) you have to pay for those restore cd's. As for HP, sorry, they bought Compaq, Compaq is blah. HP has been spending quite a bit of money on consumer research regarding its current offerings and website. I recently reviewed their website through a research panel, and I'm sorry to say, their computers are still way to bland to be priced what they are.

I build my desktops. I'll tear out the body of a nice old tower, and work from there.

This tablet was free (for me). Me Mom-Mom (DON'T MOCK ME. I'LL CUT YOU!!) bought it for me.

And, it's funny. Innocently make a myspace, and I get mobbed by guys going to the college if I do "hook-ups". I'm running out of witty responses.