computer question

[soonerinabilene]

I bought a laptop a little over a year ago from best buy. I bought the product replacement plan after being told that if anything goes wrong at all with my computer, bring it in, they would pull my data off of it, and transfer it to a new one. Voila, new computer with no hassles. So i get home yesterday and turn my laptop on, and the operating system (which is vista) will not load because it says my activation key is invalid. It says I have a counterfeit copy of Vista. Which is bs, because it came preloaded with Vista. So I go to best buy and say hey, I paid the extra 250 bucks for you to fix anything that goes wrong with my computer, here it is, do what you gotta do. The Geek Squad guy looks at it and says, sorry, cant do a thing for you. You have to call Microsoft. So I call microsoft, wait for 45 minutes, get someone who barely speaks english, tell him whats going on, and he says since it came preloaded with Vista, I need to contact Gateway, because it is a Gateway computer. So I call Gateway. Wait for 20 minutes. Explain what is going on. Gateway guy says nothing they can do. Call either best buy or Microsoft.

Im trying to keep my cool with it, and am going to calmly go to best buy when they open and try to get this fixed. My question is, what in the world would cause my computer to all of a sudden say windows is not a valid version. And no, there is no porn on my computer. I only use my work computer for that.;)

[OKLA21FAN]

and the rest of the story......

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080212-victim-54-million-best-buy-lawsuit-stupid-but-necessary.html

best buy is da debil! especially with their 'extended warranties'

[tbl]

The bigger question is: why did you buy the extended warranty? Don't EVER buy those from Best Buy or any other company that offers them. If the product is a piece of crap that will go out within a year, the standard warranty will cover it and any warranty beyond that is pretty much pointless.

If I were you and I DID pay the $250, I wouldn't leave that store until they fixed the computer; period.

[King Crimson]

sounds like the Best Buy geeks are the one's who ought to be calling Microsoft and Gateway for the "activation code".

[BajaOklahoma]

i bought a Dell computer almost four years ago, with the warranty. One of the few warranties I've ever bought.
They replaced the RAM multiple times, the power supply, the power adaptor in the laptop, the motherboard several times, and the video screen. They finally replaced the computer in January 07 with a bigger, faster model. And I extended the warranty. win-win.

Go back to BestBuy and talk to the department manager, then the store manager. Keep going up the chain of command until they either fix it for you or replace it.

[Partial Qualifier]

Can you post the exact error message here?

[soonerinabilene]

Can you post the exact error message here?

Im at work right now, so i cant post a screen shot but when I start it tries to load windows, and then a security window comes up and says:

'You have entered an invalid activation key. This may be a result of counterfeit software. To see if you have a valid version of Windows Vista Home premium, choose one of the following three options:

1. Click here to BUY a product key from Microsoft
2. Retype your activation key here(which I tried by typing the key that is on the windows tag on the bottom of my laptop, and it did not work.
3. Call your computer manufacturer

I called best buy and explained what is going on. Talked to Geek Squad manager. They looked up my plan, and noticed that I have bought several items from them in last couple of years(Tv, ipod, camera, xbox360) and told me to bring it back in and they would look more indepth at what they could do. At least they are now offering to look at it. What I want to know is why this happened to begin with. The microsoft guy asked if I made any major changes to it in the last month, and besides switching from Trend to AVG for virus protection, I havent done anything.

[yermom]

how much data do you have?

i'd be ****canning Vista right about now...

[soonerinabilene]

how much data do you have?

i'd be ****canning Vista right about now...

Ive got about 40 gigs of music, pics, and family vids, and then about 10 gigs of work related art files like coreldraw and photoshop files. The music im not worried about, cuz its all on my ipod also. I am worried about losing everything else. They told me at best buy even with my plan, they would charge around $400 to back up that much data for me. Normally, I could do that myself, but im not sure how to if I cant even get my computer to start up in any kind of mode. Im sure as hell not going to pay them that much to do it though.

[OKLA21FAN]

Ive got about 40 gigs of music, pics, and family vids, and then about 10 gigs of work related art files like coreldraw and photoshop files. The music im not worried about, cuz its all on my ipod also. I am worried about losing everything else. They told me at best buy even with my plan, they would charge around $400 to back up that much data for me. Normally, I could do that myself, but im not sure how to if I cant even get my computer to start up in any kind of mode. Im sure as hell not going to pay them that much to do it though.

a bac up solution if you have access to another putor is to get an 'HD enclosure', pull the lap top HD, put the HD in the enclosure, plug HD enclosure into 2nd putor via the USB port. and then you should be about to back-up all your data on the laptop HD. no jumper setting changes or anything.

windows should be able to recognize the HD and you should be able to just drag and drop files to the 2nd putor.

at least that way you have your data moved.

HD enclosures run about 25 bucks and that would be the 1st thing Best Buy would try will they are screwing you.

[SleestakSooner]

Sounds to me like a Microsoft automatic update issue. If you purchased it at Bestbuy and they provided the Operating System already installed and did not give you a valid copy of Windows Vista then it is their problem IMO.

If I were you I would begin to raise my voice and start demanding that they fix the problem... the more they refuse the louder I would get in front of all the other customers. That tends to make them less likely to blow me off.

[shaun4411]

just get a valid key the college kid way - illegally. crackspider.net is a good place to start.

[yermom]

Ive got about 40 gigs of music, pics, and family vids, and then about 10 gigs of work related art files like coreldraw and photoshop files. The music im not worried about, cuz its all on my ipod also. I am worried about losing everything else. They told me at best buy even with my plan, they would charge around $400 to back up that much data for me. Normally, I could do that myself, but im not sure how to if I cant even get my computer to start up in any kind of mode. Im sure as hell not going to pay them that much to do it though.

i don't know how comfortable you are with Linux, but a Linux live CD, like Ubuntu, Knoppix or Fedora could get you into your computer with network access (there are Windows apps that will do this, but the one i know isn't free)

$400 is a total ripoff for that service if you are just talking data and not applications and settings, etc... especially if you already bought that warranty

[Widescreen]

You bought it from Best Buy. Therefore they have to fix the problem. Don't let them give you the run-around.

[StoopTroup]

Call em an tell em they better fix or else.

[soonerinabilene]

Im leaving to take it up there now. Wish me luck.

[def_lazer_fc]

i worked tech support at a software company for a few months and got a call from a guy wanting his auth code for windows. obviously we don't have it b/c we are a software company. (we got a lot of people calling who wanted tech support for everything from wanting us to fix their digital camera to help with their scanner.) anyhoo, so this guy had purchased his computer from bestbuy and had vista installed by geek squad (bunch of dumb bastards!!). so i tell him that he could prob just talk to them and they would be able to give it to him. he had tried that but told me that they said that since he paid cash, there was no record of him purchasing it, i.e. he got ripped off. i felt so bad for the guy, b/c he was an older gentleman and obviously didn't know much about computers.

what was the point of this post? oh yeah, geek squad can suck my balls.:mad:

[yermom]

Geek Squad, Best Buy, Gateway, all things to avoid when it comes to computers...

[SleestakSooner]

Im leaving to take it up there now. Wish me luck.


Geek Squad, Best Buy, Gateway, all things to avoid when it comes to computers...


Good luck

I concur, build your own or buy a Dell dude!

[yermom]

i'm not really even that much of a fan of building your own, unless you really know what you are doing and have lots of spare parts lying around

[Ruuuuuufus]

considering this thread is about a laptop, building your own is a tad more difficult

[yermom]

yeah, it's thread creep

i mean, if you are talking laptops, you should just go Apple ;)

[Widescreen]

i'm not really even that much of a fan of building your own, unless you really know what you are doing and have lots of spare parts lying around

Agreed. I just do it because it's fun (yes, I'm a dork) and because I like to be able to choose all the components.


Geek Squad, Best Buy, Gateway, all things to avoid when it comes to computers...

But the Nerd Herd at Buy More is awesome.

[yermom]

ask for Chuck

[soonerinabilene]

So I get up to best buy with laptop in hand and talk to the geek squad manager I had called earlier. He looks at it and says he has no idea what he can do to fix it. I say, well, I paid 300 bucks when I bought the dam thing for you to do just that. There was a customer at the register next to me buying a computer, and the salesperson was pushing the replacement plan on her. I said loud enough for them to hear that it looks like the replacement plan was just a waste of money since you arent willing to try anything. The manager sees what Im trying to do and says, well, let me call microsoft for you and see what else we can do. I go look around for a bit and come back, and he says that they will reload vista on my computer for me. I said I could do that myself, I just dont want to lose anything. He said they would back it up for me and he would only charge me the standard $99 fee, even though I had more than 9 gigs to backup. I said how about you back it up, and dont charge me a dang thing since I paid 300 extra( customer was still there filling out her info for the replacement she decided to buy). He sees that he is not gonna win on this one, so says ok, he will do this since I have been a loyal best buy customer. Said it should be ready tomorrow. I feel really lucky that its gonna get taken care of at no cost. I was really thinking this was gonna be a long, bad ordeal.

[SoonerJack]

I bet that is that last lappy you buy from Best Buy!

I did buy Applecare for my son's video ipod and with seven months left on it, they replaced it bc he was losing pixels in the display. I also bought the applecare for his macbook and they have fixed two minor cosmetic defects with no questions, no hassles, no shipping charges, and no headaches.

[King Crimson]

i almost bought a Toshiba lap top a few months ago from BestBuy/Circuit City but read too many similar type issues with other consumers (customer service, out of the box problems, etc.)....that i couldn't do it in good faith...even though for my simple needs (travel, some presentations, fit in my carry-on bag, etc., nothing fancy) it was a pretty darned good value. and, i was leery of vista.

[GottaHavePride]

Maingear.