=?Utf-8?B?TWF0dDMyMA==?= added these comments in the current
discussion du jour ...
hi malke, yes i have an hp and just uninstalled it to try it
out and your right! thanks for that, at least i know what it
is now! these newsgroups are cool!!! so much better than
asking the manufacturer! I asked dell the other day, they
remotely connected, couldnt find a problem and asked me to
back stuff up and do a clean install !!!!! ( which i didnt )
cheers malke u are top!
Manufacturer tech support isn't, meaning their goal is to get you
off the phone as quickly as possible so they can "help" someone
else. So, more often than not, they'll tell you to run their
config CD to repair your system. What they almost never tell you,
though, is that it will destroy everything on your C:\ partition
and may even take out any extended partition(s) you may have
created. They do this because it is the fastest way to fix
neophyte problems.
As to HP, I would've asked them, not Dell, first for exactly the
reason you state - Dell cannot detect an HP problem by remotely
taking control of your PC. What I'm sure they did was simply
check THEIR implementation of Windows.
I have on occasion, when I still had newer HP printers, either
used on-line or phone tech support and found it reasonable. Not
great, but then, I don't think all that much of most tech support
staffs. It isn't that I'm bashing any companies, it is that these
people are trained on a specific set of issues and they have
either a book or a KB that they're searching as they talk to you.
Which is why they ask you to do such idiotic things, that's what
their KB said to try first. So, one has to start polite, get a
little assertive and get increasingly assertive if you find
you're talking to some twit who has no real technical knowledge
and has no clue what you're asking about.
Plus, many/most SW and HW houses now off-shore their tech support
to places like India and the Phillipines, to name just two, where
the techs speak English but not American and certainly NOT
technical. Long way around a short notion: it helps if one knows
themselves what is basically going on before they call for tech
support from anyone, and resist doing anything at all dangerous
to your system, no matter what silliness they may engage in.