I just need to bitch ! I spent the last 4+ hours comunitacing with HP

[napi21]

about a sound connectivity problem with my computer! I always listen to Dem Radio via streaming audio, and never have a problem! In the middle of the afternoon todya, I lost the signal. OK, no big deal. It's usually the station, and I'll try another one! Noooo. No connection to anything! I kept getting messages that it was MY sound device.

I chated with 4 different techs, at who knows where. They were very nice, but after the fourth one, I sinply said, ya know what guys, I'm just going to do a system restore to yesterday when there wasn't a problem!

Camn! I missed Guy James tonight!!!

I hate outsourcing!!!!!!!

[Coyote_Bandit]

1. More than likely those tech guys were in India

I have had to talk to the HP tech folks twice in the last year (failed motherboard and failed CD burner). I asked the guys I talked to where they were and they told me they were in India.

[The Straight Story]

2. HP can be a pain in the ass, I deal with them almost daily

I also have a dl380 g2 server, dual processors, gig of ram, 6 scsi 3 hd's, and all that fun crap - but DAMN HP builds the F'ing things with a crap video card with only 8 megs ram. What is up with that crap???

I manage 4 data centers and we have our own hotline to them - and I can tell you while the service is sometimes good we have had a plethora of problems. We have called em before and told em we had a bad drive, and they ask a ton of questions unrelated to the problem. Not like we don't know what a bad drive is. A waste of time.

No wonder I prefer sun :)

[Crazy Guggenheim]

3. Have you done a system restore yet?

[napi21]

5. Yep, and all is fine now!

The only reason I was trying to find out how to fix it was because I wanted to see if it was some site I had visited of just what caused the problem.

I got the distinct impression that they ahd a list of things to try in certain circumstances, and if that didn't work, OH WELL!

[Crazy Guggenheim]

6. Run a virus and spyware scan anyways.

[napi21]

7. I run Norton complete scan every friday, and it was OK yesterday.

I don't know anything about spyweare scans. If Norton doesn't do it, I don't bother.

Is that wrong?

[Crazy Guggenheim]

8. Go to

www.pcworld.com and download Ad-Aware, Spybot and the trial version of Spysweeper. Norton is not that good at picking up pests.

[napi21]

9. Thanks. I'm doing it now. I have a question though.

I have agreed to a neilson monitor of what sites I visit, and I also do a lot of surveys. Will these scans make them go away?

I don't really understand a lot of the files when I see their names. I've gotten myself into trouble in the past by deleting some things I shouldn't have.

[Crazy Guggenheim]

10. Maybe. Just don't delete that one for now.

[cprise]

4. Try booting with a Knoppix CD -- it plays a tune on startup.

http://www.knoppix.net