Wherein I explain just what the deal has been with this new computer thing...

I've mentioned my new computer, usually in the context of problems with it, multiple times here, but haven't provided much in the way of details. Four of my posts in this new blog and ten (I think) posts back when I was using LJ. But nothing comprehensive even though the "saga" has been ongoing. To be honest, I kept thinking that soon I would have it resolved and could tell the whole story in retrospect. But it keeps dragging on. So here we go...

I expressed my intention to not get anyone a damn thing for Christmas because I was going to spend a bunch of money on a new computer for myself: probably a laptop. Despite that, some people insisted on getting me Christmas presents. I am that loved. Well, my dad set aside a newspaper with deals from Fry's. I didn't really know how much I was going to spend. I figured maybe $1,000. Maybe more. Maybe less. One of the computers advertised looked pretty nice. When I went with my mother to Costco we found the same model of computer for more money, so that evening (December 18th), my parents and I went to Fry's. One thing that became apparent was that even though I wanted a nice laptop, I wouldn't really even have to pay as much as $1,000 for one if I didn't want to. I was used to my old computer (still am). And it's been so long that even the cheap laptops are superior in every way to my old desktop.

Well, maybe not every way. How long do the new laptops last? Five years? This computer has been going strong for a decade or so. Sure, it doesn't do streaming of video content very well and the right speaker sometimes stops working, I'm on my third keyboard, and I've had to replace the power supply once and a hard drive cable once. But you know what? It works.

Anyway, at the store there was some frustration with my dad trying to take over everything, but eventually I ditched him long enough to get some help on my own. Pretty soon, I was introduced to what looked like a good deal. It was on a "manager's special" shelf or something. Basically, it was the last one of this particular model (Pavilion dv6) that the store had, so they were selling it at a discount. Because of that, it was available for the same amount of money as other computers that weren't as good. That was the idea anyway.

My parents decided to get my a carrying case for Christmas. While Dad and I were with the sales clerk getting everything ready for my purchase, Mom was looking at every single carrying case. We finished up and she was still there. Dad went through a couple and for some reason found one that he decided to make a pitch for. Opening it up and showing us the nice features that it had and explaining why it was better than the other ones. We were sold by his pitch, and then for some reason he wanted to look at other ones. Eventually, they bought it. And it turned out to be the last one of that particular model of carrying case that the store had. But so far the carrying case has worked out great. The computer, on the other hand...

It didn't come with a box. Apparently the box had been destroyed. I did get a big manilla envelope with the battery, AC adaptor, papers, etc. Also included was the UPC sticker from the original box, which I could use to get my mail-in rebate. And there was a printout for me to order the upgrade to Windows 7 through a program called HP Upgrade or something.

When I got home, the first thing I did was get on my new computer and attempt to order the upgrade. It was then that I ran into my first problem: the website had a tool to automatically detect the eligibility of my computer. I got a message that my serial number had already been redeemed. What the hell? So I sent the company an email about it.

Either later that night or sometime the next day, the computer crashed on me. I disregarded it as some fluke. I might have gotten the blue screen that time, which came with some text about, "If this is your first time getting this message, just reboot your computer" or something. But then it didn't stop crashing. Two or three times it crashed while I was playing chess, so I thought it might because of the chess program.

I never got a response to my email, so I called Fry's to ask them about the situation. The guy there didn't ask for any further information once I told him that it was about the upgrade. That was HP's deal. I'd have to pursue it with them (or return the computer). I called the number from the website where I was getting the message about my serial number being redeemed. Even though the site and the automated message when I called the phone number both prominently used the term HP Upgrade, this company was not actually a subsidiary of HP. They were a subsidiary of Bertelsmann actually.

The first time I called, after being on hold for a long time and then providing a bunch of information, I was directed to call HP, as my information didn't match what they had for my serial number. The person acted like HP had given out the same serial number for two different computers or something. I called HP. I was put on hold for a long time. The guy there took down a bunch of information. He advised me that HP didn't even have the discs for the upgrades and wasn't actually handling that program. He offered to give me the phone number of Arvato, the company that was actually doing the upgrades. I told him that Arvato were the ones who directed me call HP in the first place. He gave me a service ticket number in case there were further problems with the issue and said that next time I called Arvato, if they directed me back to HP, I should ask to speak to a supervisor immediately.

I called Arvato back, was on hold for a while, had to provide my information again, and then got a completely different answer about the problem: my case would have to go into escalation. This would take 10 business days or something. And because of the holidays (this was on the 22nd or 23rd), this meant even longer than it normally would. Eventually, I got a response to my original email, which was pretty useless.

In the meantime, it became apparent that my computer would crash intermittently. I looked up the display driver that was named on the blue screen, but my brief searches on Google didn't return anything conclusive. What I did notice was that this display driver (atikmdag) seemed to be specific to Windows Vista. So I reasoned that once I got my upgrade, I would sidestep whatever the problem was. Different display driver would mean no more display driver error.

I got my rebate check from HP long before I got another response from Arvato. This gave me a more favorable impression of the one company than the other, but don't worry, I would have issues with them later too. Anyway, Arvato required that I send them a scan of my receipt (easy, as I was going to school by this time and GRCC has scanners in the library) and a picture of the sticker on the bottom of my computer (or the UPC from the box, but I'd sent that in for the rebate). My dad turned out to be a total flake about getting one stupid picture, and then when he did send me one, it came out poorly, which was because of the glossy plastic over the sticker. Arvato responded to this by whining in broken English (apparently no one in the company has much proficiency with the language) that the serial number was illegible in the photograph I'd sent them. It wasn't, but it was rather blurry. Fortunately, my mom got a clear picture. Arvato sent me my discs.

Both of the emails I got confirming my order addressed me as Grant Smith. The rest of the information was all mine. But the name was "Grant Smith." My name is not Grant Smith. Grant Smith is not my name. I called them about it. I was told to disregard those emails. Fine. Just some oddity. Well, not exactly. I'd have just assumed that Arvato was incompetent (since they seemed to be), but this was not the first time in my life that I'd seen the name. Grant Smith was familiar. I'd actually mentioned this, although not the name, on LJ. In the manilla envelope, not all of the papers seemed to be mine. In addition to my stuff, I had a rebate receipt and a "personal merchandise tag." Both had the name "Grant Smith" on them. The plot thickens. There was also the instruction manual, which had been marked up in pencil and highlighter, possibly by this same person. But both documents bearing the name also listed the model of computer as being a completely different one from mine (hdx16). It seemed like too much to be a coincidence, though.

Arvato never actually got my name right in those emails, but the "track your order" information did use my name, so I dismissed that issue. I got my discs, upgraded my operating system, and...

...proceeded to write a post here chronicling these events, but didn't get very far before the computer crashed. This time, there was no blue screen. Instead, the screen would go black, then it would go back to normal, but with a message near the task bar that the display driver "ATI Radeon Family" had timed out but successfully recovered. And then the screen would go black again, and then I'd get the message again. And this loop continued until I manually shut the computer down.

So I'd been blaming Windows Vista the whole time, but really this seemed to be a hardware issue. I called HP tech support. They had me run a "primary hard disk self test" in the BIOS. That took a while, but eventually came up with "hard disk test fail." I called back and told them my result. Predictably, they concluded that the hard drive was defective and that the display drivers were just indicating that. They shipped me a new hard drive, with prepaid postage for me to send the old one back. I installed the new one and shipped the old one back. But the new hard drive was blank. I put Windows 7 on it. Of course, the copy of Windows 7 I had was intended to be an upgrade. So it worked, but it was bare bones. No software. And the computer didn't come with any CD's containing software. So when the computer did crash once during my examination of this situation, I, in what now seems an incredible display of sheer stupidity, disregarded it. After all, this was a new hard drive, so surely the old problem was no more. I didn't try to use the computer after that anyway, because it had no software. I had already called HP and they placed an order for me to receive Windows Vista System Recovery discs.

I had to call tech support again when Windows 7 wouldn't seem to let me uninstall it or wipe the hard drive so that I could use my new discs. I got help with that, and had Windows Vista once more. My computer was back to the way it had been when I first got it. Well, Microsoft Office seemed to be gone. All of the other programs I'd actually bothered to use were still there, though. I made a mental note to ask about the Microsoft Office thing. And then the computer crashed, of course. Blue screen, blah blah blah, atikmdag.sys, blah, blah, blah. So I called back again. This time, the guy helping me had me upgrade to Windows Vista Service Pack 2. I was skeptical that this would work, because I'd already upgraded to Windows 7 and still gotten the error, but he assured me that there was also a service pack upgrade for Windows 7. Whatever. Of course, once that upgrade was done, and it took quite some time, the problem was still there.

I called back. I should not have done that. It was already past 11:00 and I was behind on schoolwork. But I did it anyway. Now, I want to note here that although I was frustrated with the fact that the problem was still there, I had been quite patient and cordial throughout this whole thing and every time I called, the person on the other end of the line was polite and clearly made an effort to work with me. And then along came this fucker. He had me use HP's website to give him access to my system. I thought this was a good sign, because it was something new, but what he did was check the display drivers. What? How could that be it. I'd already told him that I'd had this problem in two operating systems on two different hard drives. And so when the display drivers turned out to be up to date, he became somewhat rude and kept insisting that they were fine. "So what, then, is the problem." The computer crashes. "The display drivers are fine!" Yes, I know that. But when the computer crashes, the blue screen says that atikmdag.sys timed out. "That's a display driver. The display drivers are fine!" I don't know if he had poor Enlgish communication skills, was being obstinate, or was just plain dumb. Somehow, the computer never crashed during the four hours or so that he was accessing it. I became very tired. And he kept trying to sell me Norton Antivirus 2010. Had I been more awake, I would have quickly become irritated by these attempts, but instead I just kept politely declining, which seemed to invite more attempts to sell me the damn thing.

Of course, the problem wasn't solved by anything he did. It was still there, the same as always. He had offered to schedule a follow-up call, though. Instead, I called back in the evening, and this time immediately ran through what steps had already been taken, hoping that this new person would either have a solution or have HP take the computer in for repairs, as I was getting sick of spending hours on the phone not having my problem fixed. He ran some diagnostic stuff, but nothing came up. One new thing we tried was using safe mode and diagnostic mode and seeing if the computer would crash while in those modes, but it never did. Of course, that didn't mean that it wouldn't. Such is the problem with an intermittent error like mine.

Well, that was Wednesday. Thursday I was too busy to do anything about the computer. But this afternoon, after getting home from school, I called HP again...

So, you've been having problems with display drivers.
No, that is not what I have been having problems with.
Oh, then what's the problem?
Well, the story keeps getting longer every time I tell it, but here we go...
Wait, I found a shit ton of notes on your case and I guess you've called us a whole lot of times without your problem actually being solved.
Yes, I sure have.
Let's check if the BIOS is up-to-date. Hard to get anything done if it isn't.
Hm, I can't. I'm still in diagnostic mode from last time.
Okay, well here's how you go back into normal mode...
Alright, here's what it says about the BIOS
Yeah, that's up-to-date. Well, this is definitely a hardware problem.
I thought so.
We'll have to take it in. Standard free shipping or expedited that you pay some money for?
Free.
Alright. Remember to back up your files.
LOL I don't have any, as this computer hasn't been working.
Oh, right.

Alright, so it wasn't exactly like that, but close enough. She also gave me the idea of running the test on the hard drive again to see if it was a coincidence that I had both this problem and a bad hard drive or if this problem is some sort that might have messed up the test on the hard drive (i.e. the motherboard is screwed up and it caused a false positive on the test). I actually did that just now and it turned out that it was a coincidence: I got a hard disk test pass this time.

Also, I noticed that in the marked up manual I got, which may or may not have once been in the hands of Grant Smith, bits about problems with display and the computer not responding are rather ominously noted, but then a lot of stuff is marked up. Still, I wonder about that...