Hardware — Computer Blog Cincinnati Custom-PC

Why didn’t my part last?

August 7, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Being a computer retailer, we sell a multitude of parts. We sell monitors, keyboards, RAM, hard drives, optical drives, processors, video cards, sound cards, wireless cards, power supplies, flash card, USB memory sticks, and on and on and on and on.

We produce 0% of the parts we sell. We buy parts from the manufactures, and we sell it to you.

The manufacturers who build the products include a warranty on their products. There are a few different types of warranties explained in great detail here. When we sell a part, we pass on that manufacturers warranty to our customers.

Recently the manufactures have been lowering their standard warranty. For many years it was 1 year. We all knew any new part came with a 1 year warranty. The days of the 1 year standard warranty are gone. Not only have they reduced the warranty, they have also instituted policy that makes it so that the end user has to send the part back to the manufacturer for warranty repair or replacement. While this doesn’t seem like a big change, i assure you it is very significant.

If you buy something from your local retailer and it breaks, you will take it back to where you got it. You will walk in with your receipt and defective item and expect an off the shelf replacement. The recent manufacturer policy changes makes it so that you can’t take it back to the store where you purchased it. You have to send it back to the manufacturer. That is much more hassle than returning it to the place of purchase. Many will not bother, and just buy a replacement.

My theory is, the retailer (us) has a 99% chance of sending that defective part back to the manufacturer. The end user (you) has a 50% chance of sending the part back. Less returned parts equal more profits for the manufacturers. That slight policy change probably saves them millions.

We go to great lengths to sell parts that have the best “value”. We value our parts based on warranty, reliability, track record and price. We spend generous amounts of time researching parts before deciding what to sell to our customers.

Even with that, sometime parts break. We hope they make it to the 1 year mark. If it does have a problem within 6 months, we’ll send it back and get a replacement for you. If it goes out after 6 months, you will have to send it back for a replacement. Not that we don’t want to send it back for you, they will not accept it from us after 6 months. Each manufacturer is different, but most of their policies seem to be headed that way.

I wish stuff would last. I wish you could buy something and not have to worry about having to replace it any sooner than 5 years. I hate not being able to take it back to the place of purchase.I hate replacing things i just bought period!

I know why things are cheaply built and don’t last these days. Price moves sales. It is proven that a $4.85 item will sell faster than a $4.95 item. Eventually the company making the $4.95 item goes out of business because nobody will buy their part. Either they cut corners and find a way to sell it for $4.80 or they go out of business.

Then we are stuck with the cheaply built $4.85 part.

Filed Under: Business policy, Hardware Tagged With: manufacturer, part, parts, retailer, return, Warranty

Why did it take so long for my part to arrive?

August 1, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

We had a customer who recently voiced her displeasure to me over waiting almost 4 weeks for a part! What in the world! I will find out why it took so long, and the offender will be punished! I’m so sorry.

During my investigation, I discovered that her part was ordered from china. Not much we could have done. That is horrible, and I wish we could have gotten it sooner.

75% of the replacement desktop parts we stock. 15% we can get in less than 3 days. The remaining 10% are either vendor proprietary or are only available from overseas. Since 95% of computer parts are manufactured overseas, that should not be much of a surprise.

The real waits are for laptop parts. We only stock 20% of replacement parts for those. Each laptop uses about 80% unique parts. That means your laptop may only take 1 specific part and there is no way we can stock them all. When that happens, we have to special order your part. 75% of the time, we can order from a domestic vendor. The wait for those types of parts is only 3-6 days. In the rare instances we have to special order a international part, the wait can be up to 6 weeks. Yes, six weeks.

We don’t like it anymore than our customers do. Some vendors offer expedited shipping, but all do not. For an additional $65 in shipping you can expedite a part coming from Hong Kong. Expensive. Sometimes we have to just wait………….

I personally hate having a laptop missing a $15 part that has been sitting for 3 weeks.

Filed Under: Business policy, Hardware Tagged With: delivery, Shipping, special orders, wait

Extended warranty anyone?

March 28, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Consumer electronics are in the worst possible shape these days. It seems like everything we buy is junk. No matter where you bought it, who made it, or how much it costs, we are all buying a product produced with the least possible cost, with the most corners cut. These days, the company that cut the most corners (and got away with it) wins.

Computer hardware is no exception. I currently witness more out the box failures, than ever.

A few months back, I purchased a brand new microwave and it could came with a 30 day warranty. This wasn’t some off-brand model either. This was a nice, expensive ($200+) convection type microwave oven. I was very upset that the company only had 30 days worth of confidence in their product. Before I settled on that particular item, i went from store to store reading the different warranty’s with different models. 80% only had a 30 day warranty. I couldn’t find a single microwave with a (what i did consider standard) 1 year warranty. I wasn’t upset at the retailer, they don’t set the warranty policy, the manufacturer does.

Why was I surprised? In my own industry I have watched as the not so standard 1 year warranty has gone away. Very few items come with a 1 year warranty anymore. The ones that do, it takes so long to get a replacement, you may as well just buy another one anyway.

2 years ago we started tracking data on how difficult and lengthly the return process was for various manufacturers. Using that data, we begun carrying parts from manufacturers who had the best warranty and return policies. This has allowed us to maintain a 6 month warranty on all new parts.

The second part about any warranty is the “who administers the warranty” portion.

Consider this hypothetical scenario. You purchase a new refrigerator. The retailer tell you it has a 10 year manufactures warranty. Great! We’ll take that one, deliver it on Monday. Your new appliance arrives on Monday, they set it up, and it works great. Works great for 2 years anyway, and now it leaks and doesn’t keep your food cold.

You call for repair service. You are informed you must take it across town to have it fixed. You call the “authorized repair center” to see how long it will be. They tell you a week or so, longer if they have to order the parts. Wh#!@$! What do we use until then? They have no idea, and neither do you.

That story has a somewhat happier ending than one in where you have to ship it off for service. (There are no authorized repair centers local to you.) Never paid to ship a 250+ pound object? It isn’t cheap. You are tempted to drive it there yourself.

What a headache. Unfortunately the same can apply to computers. You go into one of the big box retailers, and you buy a PC. When it needs service, you can’t take it back to where you purchased it. You have to call the manufacturer (Dell, HP, Sony, IBM, Gateway, Toshiba, etc) They will tell you how and where to get service. On some models, as an add-on you could have purchased in-home repair service. They send someone to you house and fix it there. Not all vendors offer that. For the ones that don’t, you have to ship your PC to them for service. It’s not as much as shipping a fridge, but what do you use in the mean time?

In the future, before you purchase anything, ask who does the warranty work. See if you have to ship it off, or can you bring it back to the place where you bought it.

Custom-PC services what we sell. If you bought it from us, you can bring it back to us (If it is still in warranty) 6 month warranty on all new parts. Feel confident that you will be taken care of when you buy from us.

Filed Under: Business policy, Hardware Tagged With: policy, returns, Warranty

My computer is too loud!

January 13, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Sometimes a customer’s only complaint is about the noise level of their computer. Usually our customers computers don’t work at all and this can be a welcomed detour from the usual repair issues.

The main culprit is often times a noisy fan or a noisy few fans. Usually the bearings are going bad. ( More than you need to know about bearing here).

Some PC fans have temperature controlled speed sensors. When the system starts to overheat, the fan speeds up until the temp comes down. Pretty much the same way some car’s cooling systems operate.

Sometimes a loud fan means the system is not cooling itself properly. This applies to desktops and laptops. The cooling system may be too dirty, or filled with pet hair. (Happens quite often)

As computers become faster and faster, they also generate more and more heat. About 6 years ago, the simple heating fix was more fans or more faster fans. The faster the fan, the more noise it makes.

Starting about 2 years ago, there was a slow switch to larger fans that spin slower. A big fan moving slow, can move as much air as a small fan moving fast. Slower fan=less noise.

If your computer is too loud, come see us. We can make your bedroom a quiet or office place again!

Filed Under: Hardware Tagged With: cooler, CPU fan, desktop, laptop, overheating

Laptop DC jacks, what a mess

January 9, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

One of the more costly repairs for a laptop is a loose or broken DC jack. Be it bad design, or bad users, these things are very fragile. They don’t last long no matter what name is on your laptop.

Most DC jack do not have enough internal reinforcement to meet the demand caused by movement of the power plug. Quite often the DC jacks simply fail under normal conditions. After a year or two of usage, the thing just comes loose. The issue that upsets customers the most is when the laptop gets dropped and the plug jerks the DC jack loose. (ouch) In rare cases, the jack was not installed well by the manufacturer.

So what do you do?

Most repair places will only offer to replace your motherboard. While that does work, its the most expensive option. However, it’s also the option that will probably last the longest. The second choice is to re-attach the DC jack to the motherboard. That usually saves you a few hundred dollars.

Like all things, you get what you pay for and most “re-attachments” never last as long as the original job from the factory.

Why you ask?

These PBC (printed circuit boards) are built by machines. Doing it by hand is not likely to match the precision accomplished by machines.

We usually try to re-attach the DC jack when it can be done. Sometimes the PCB is damaged, and a new jack wont fix the problem either.

Then its either a new MB or a new laptop. Windows 7 is a nice upgrade anyway!

Filed Under: Business policy, Hardware Tagged With: DC jack, Laptop repairs, Motherboards

How much of a powersupply do you need?

November 22, 2009 By admin 2 Comments

Most computers come with a 230-350 watt power supply. That doesn’t mean it uses 350 watts, but that is the max it can provide. So how much does your computer need?

A typical computer will use about 70-1oo watts. How much you actually need depends on your hardware requirements. Don’t think for one minute you need a 1500w power supply.

Add up all the various power requirements from the various devices and see what the total is. You can also get one of those in-line watt meters and see how much power your pc is using.

How much does your computer cost to run? Let’s say you have a big high-end computer and you leave it on 24/7. That’s about 200 watts x 24 hours x 365 days/yr = 2,890,800 watt-hours, or 2891 kilowatt-hours. If you’re paying $0.14 per kWh, you’re paying about $245 a year to run your computer. (ouch)

Let’s say you have a computer that’s less of an energy hog, and it uses about 105 watts, and you to turn it off when you’re not using it. You use it for two hours a day, five days a week. That’s ten hours a week, or 520 hours a year. So your 105 watts times 520 hours = 54,600 watt-hours. Divide by 1000 and you have 55 kilowatt-hours (kWh). If you’re paying 14¢ per kilowatt-hour, then you’re paying $7.64 a year to run your computer. Big difference huh?

Having trouble convincing someone to switch to a LCD? A typical 17″ CRT uses about 80w. The same size LCD uses about 35w. No matter how much you use your monitor, an LCD saves you 43% every month. Depending on the cost of power, it can pay for itself in under a 2 years.

Filed Under: Hardware Tagged With: Effeciency, Power, Savings

Is your wireless secure?

September 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

These days almost everyone with a laptop has a home wireless network. Wireless is great. Allows us to surf the internet from almost anywhere in the house. We can add multiple wireless devices, laptops, pda’s, cell phones, zunes, printers, etc. We can take advantage of all the connectivity with no wires!

Most routers are shipped with the wireless security off. That means you can easily connect all your stuff to it with no passwords and no fuss. Problem is, so can anyone else…..

Many of us know people who “borrow” other people’s wireless signals. Some places let you borrow it for free. Certain restaurants, hotels, bars, colleges, and even some cities provide free WIFI service. Do you want your home internet service to be a free WIFI hotspot?

That’s exactly what you have if you have not added security to your wireless network. Anyone and everyone can jump on and use the service you pay for for free. While that may sound like a nice thing to do, it is very dangerous to your computer and your wireless network.

Someone who is connected to your network can do all kinds of stuff to it. They can find out what type or router you have, and make it so they can get on and you cant. They can see all the shared resources you have on your pc’s and can go so far as to take over your pc. If you think a virus from the internet is bad, it pales in comparison to someone attacking you from INSIDE your network.

So what do you do? Set up security on your router. Don’t know how? Read the manual. Don’t want to know how, hire someone to do it for you. You’ll be glad you did.

Filed Under: Hardware Tagged With: Security, WEP, WIFI, Wireless, WPA

What do I do with all my old junk?

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

As we continue to purchase technology, the time will come when it is time to dispose of the old stuff. We can only hold on to so much before we run out of room in our homes and businesses.

Most area municipalities do not offer a recycling program for computer parts and accessories. You can check with your state EPA to see who if anyone will properly dispose of your old equipment. Some states have programs to recycle computer equipment. In some places it is mandatory to do so.

There are places that may pay you for your old stuff. Some of the bigger companies actually “recycle” computers. They extract the precious metals and reuse them in future applications.

You can donate your old computer to a charity like Goodwill, or the Salvation army. May be a tax write-off as well. Custom-pc will take an old computer off your hands. If it is a Pentium 4 or newer.

If you are going to dispose of an old computer, make sure it has been cleaned of all personal data. There are two ways that this can be accomplished. Custom-pc offers a complete data wiping service. We will delete your hard drive using an approved DOD (Department of defense) method. This ensures that your drive is clean and ready for donation / disposal. If you are donating your computer to us, the DOD formatting is free.

For those who don’t trust that method you can permenantly damage the hard drive with a handy sledge hammer. Make sure you bang it up real good. When the internal shiny silver parts are broken up, you are pretty much set.

Have fun!

Filed Under: Hardware Tagged With: disposal, donations, Recycling

Need a good Laptop?

August 4, 2009 By admin 1 Comment

Its back to school time again. The most wanted things this year are laptops. Every day we gets tons of calls asking do we have any (of course the answer is yes!).

Buyer beware, not all laptops are created equal. We make the choice to only sell high quality refurbished laptops. We don’t have any of the $99 or even $199 used laptops.

Why you ask? If you sell junk, you will lose customers. No matter how low the price is, if the quality is low, they will not buy from you ever again. Companies survive on long term happy customers, not fast quick sales.

So you are looking for a laptop for yourself or your young student. Here are the things you should look for in a used laptop.

Warranty – how long is it, who does the repairs, what does it cover? Try and avoid anything with less than a 30 day warranty. Find out if they fix it where you purchased it, or do they send it out to be repaired. It will determine how long it takes (how long you are without your laptop).

Speed – How fast will it be? The faster the better, within your budget. I would look for laptops with at least a 1Ghz processor. A Centrino or Mobile type processor if you can find one.

Storage space – How many files can you save? If you don’t download music or movies, you usually will not need anything bigger than a 30Gb hard drive. If you do download large media files, look for a laptop with a bigger hard drive. You can also get an 250GB external hard drive for around $60 these days.

Memory - How much can I do at the same time? Ram can be more important that processor speed in some cases. Look for a laptop with at least 512Mb of ram. If you have XP with SP3, get 1GB or more. You’ll be glad you did.

OS – which Windows version should i get? Personally, anything above Windows 2000 is OK. That being said, most new software complains if you don’t have XP or better. Choose the one that you like.

Connectivity – Wireless, 56K Modem, Ethernet, Blu-Tooth? Get a laptop with built in wireless if you can. You can also add a wireless card to any laptop running 2000 or XP. If you see a laptop that doesn’t have a Ethernet or modem port, run! If you find a used one with blu-tooth, that’s nice, you may find a use for it later on in life.

Screen size – 12, 14 , 15, 17? How good are your eyes? Its your choice. Larger screens are easier to read, but are heavier.

Power and battery – do not buy a laptop without a working battery unless its dirt cheap. Laptop batteries can be expensive. A used laptop should get at least 30 minutes of run-time. Make sure you get a charger as well, and make sure it works.

Optical drive – DVD, CDRW, CD-ROM. Make sure it has some type of cd drive. If you want to burn cd’s get one with a cd burner. If you like to burn DVD’s, get one with a DVD burner. If you like to watch movies, make sure you will be able to. You will almost always need a optical drive at some point, do not buy one without it.

Following these should give you a pretty good idea of what to look for. You can find our list of used laptops here

http://www.icustom-pc.com/referb

Filed Under: Hardware

My surge protector didnt protect anything!

July 2, 2009 By admin 4 Comments

A nice lady came in the other day with a expensive surge protector she bought from a big box store. She wanted to know why after she spent all that money, does her PC still need a new power supply.

Most people think a surge protector will protect your pc in the event of a storm of lightining strike. That is most certianly false. They probably didnt lie to you when you bought it, you just didnt know what you were buying.

A surge is another name for a power spike. Its when the voltage in the wires exceedes whats its supposed to be (115v in U.S. homes) for a short period of time. Surges happen all day and night in homes. Everytime the ac comes on, fridge starts running, or garage door goes up. Those motors put an instant strain on the electrical system evey time they start. That can either lower the voltage on the line or cause it to go up depending on other appliances in the home.

Today’s sophisticated electonics require a constant voltage to operate. Whenever the voltage changes, electonics have a hard time regulating the power it needs to opertate. That can cause things to break down early or blow up.

A surge protector tries to level out spikes. A good one may even prop up a low voltage condition. If the spike it too much it should send the overage to ground (which is why grounding is important).

Some of the el-chepo models are only glorified extension cords with a power light. They offer no spike protection at all.

So why didnt yours work for that lightining strike? A typical power surge is 10-25 volts. A lightining stike could be 50,000- 250,000 volts. There is no way some $20 piece of plastic is going to stop lightining.

They do make systems that protect from lighting strikes, and cost several thousand dollars.