Travel Fans
Go Back   Computer Juice Computer Hardware General Hardware Chat

Register

 Default 

Is this a reasonable price or a scam?




Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old 11th Mar 2008, 15:24
New Member
Posts: 3
 
My friend went to get his bad computer (2 year old dell) checked out at a computer store. The guy at the comp store said his Dell motherboard went "bad". He said It is a rarity for computers that are only a couple years old but it does happen. Sometimes within 6 months. He said it will cost him:
$125 for a motherboard that is compatible for his computer.
$95 to back up all his files in the harddrive and
$80 for all the labor of checking his computer, and installing a new motherboard.

Now he wants to know, does this guy sound reasonable OR Should he bring it to Geek Squad at Best Buy?

  #2  
Old 11th Mar 2008, 15:32
Moderator
Posts: 2,986
 
Sound a bit steep if you ask me... What was wrong with the PC? A motherboard can't "go bad" without showing any obvious signs.
__________________
serverguy

__________________

My System: Eclipse

Processor(s):
Intel C2D E7200 OC'd @ 3.
Motherboard:
Asus P5Q Pro
RAM Memory:
OCZ 8GB 800Mhz
Graphics Card(s):
Saphire Radeon 4850
Sound Card:
Onboard
Hard Drive(s):
Vast
Optical Drive(s):
Sony al cheapo one.
Case / PSU:
Antec Three Hundred
Cooling:
Arctic Cooler 7 Pro, 3 ca
Network / Internet:
Andrews Arnold Bonded
Monitor(s):
Dual 19" LCD
Operating System(s):
XP SP3
  #3  
Old 11th Mar 2008, 16:45
Donor VIP
Posts: 653
 
hi m8
you say the pc was "bad" what exactly do you mean?
not starting? crashing? taking ages to load? overheating? or what?
give a bit more detail then we might be able to help you a bit more
__________________

My System: redden137

Processor(s):
amd opteron 165 o/c
Motherboard:
asus a8n sli deluxe
RAM Memory:
2gb corsair xms pc3200 platium
Graphics Card(s):
8800gts o/c
Sound Card:
creative soundblaster 4
Hard Drive(s):
1x 80 gb 2x 250gb
Optical Drive(s):
1x sony dvd ram drive 1xphillips dv
Case / PSU:
700w moduler psu
Cooling:
air
Network / Internet:
Monitor(s):
22in widescreen
Operating System(s):
xp pro
  #4  
Old 12th Mar 2008, 04:20
Donor VIP
Posts: 3,165
 
Hmmmmm. ...... $80 labour charge doesn't seem too bad, but $95 for copying data from one drive to another sounds a bit steep. I would want to kow a bit more on exactly what he is going to do for the $95, as the existing HDD should boot up just fine if he is simply changing the mobo for an identicle one.

The $125 for a Dell board may be right, as there will be little choice of supplier, but we would need to know the Make/Model of the PCto check this out.

I guess it depends on how much his data is worth to him ..... if it's critical stuff, then pay the money, but remember ... very few outfits will guarantee integrity of data and they may manage to botch it and lose it all anyway.
__________________

My System: Home Build

Processor(s):
AMD 64 x 2 Dual Core 5200
Motherboard:
Asus M2V Rev 1.
RAM Memory:
4gb
Graphics Card(s):
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GS
Sound Card:
5.1 Reatek On-Board
Hard Drive(s):
250 gb SATA & 400gb SATA
Optical Drive(s):
Pioneer 110 x 2
Case / PSU:
Stock / 550w Silent
Cooling:
Stock
Network / Internet:
10/100 Nic / 20MB Virgin
Monitor(s):
Fujitsu Siemens 22" TFT W
Operating System(s):
Windows 7 x64
  #5  
Old 12th Mar 2008, 04:28
Administrator
Posts: 10,254
 
It depends what the original fault was.

If it actually needs the mobo then it's about right.
__________________

Visit our sister site
- Travel Fans
__________________

My System: Hybr!d

Processor(s):
AMD Turion 64 x2 TL-64 2.
Motherboard:
HP nForce 560
RAM Memory:
2GB DDR2 PC2-5300
Graphics Card(s):
Nvidia 7150M Onboard Inte
Sound Card:
5.1 Onboard Integrated
Hard Drive(s):
250GB 5400RPM SATA300
Optical Drive(s):
18x CD/DVDRW-DL ATA
Case / PSU:
Stock HP
Cooling:
Stock HP
Network / Internet:
10/100 Nic / 10MB Virgin
Monitor(s):
17" WXGA+ HD Widescreen
Operating System(s):
Windows 7 Ultimate 32Bit
  #6  
Old 20th Mar 2008, 04:33
Donor VIP
Posts: 188
 
1: I agree with everyone else. You should give us the details of the fault.
2: If you're being told that the problem is something as serious as the motherboard, it pays to have a second opinion.
3: I also agree with Dave: if it is indeed the motherboard that is at fault than what they are charging is not cheap but it doesn't seem overpriced either.

Cheers:
Chris.
__________________

My System: Willy Wonka's Polygon Factory

Processor(s):
Core 2 Duo E8500 2x3.16Ghz 1333GHz
Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-EP35 DS3R Socket 775
RAM Memory:
4GB Micron PC-6400 (800Mhz)
Graphics Card(s):
XFX 8600GT 256Mb DDR3 540Mhz
Sound Card:
Onboard 7.1 Sound
Hard Drive(s):
400GB Samsung / 36GB Raptor (x2)
Optical Drive(s):
Optiarc AD-7200D 20x DVD-RW (x2)
Case / PSU:
Cosmos RC-1000 / Arctic 600W PSU
Cooling:
Zalman CNPS9700 / Noctura NC-U6
Network / Internet:
Onboard
Monitor(s):
Samsung 2232BW 22" (x2)
Operating System(s):
Win-XP (SP2)
  #7  
Old 20th Mar 2008, 06:18
Banned Member
Posts: 164
 
$300 to fix an old computer is pretty bad. I'd say to just get another computer. you say it was quite old so why not just get another pc. From what I hear it won't need to be new or top of the range. Or he could even get a second had one.
  #8  
Old 20th Mar 2008, 06:20
Banned Member
Posts: 164
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Desertfish View Post
1: I agree with everyone else. You should give us the details of the fault.
2: If you're being told that the problem is something as serious as the motherboard, it pays to have a second opinion.
3: I also agree with Dave: if it is indeed the motherboard that is at fault than what they are charging is not cheap but it doesn't seem overpriced either.

Cheers:
Chris.
I agree, get some other people to have a look and get some info on it.
Reply

Register

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Weird Emails - Possible Dating Scam robina80 Off Topic Discussion 12 30th Oct 2009 14:13
Email - How to know if it is a scam hopthwoks Virus, Spyware & Security 59 2nd Apr 2009 15:36
Is This a Scam? - Hard Drive Data Recovery PCI Card pete21 General Hardware Chat 14 19th Feb 2009 17:41
Leamington man loses $150,000 in Nigerian scam evilfantasy Off Topic Discussion 17 31st Jan 2009 04:03
The Software Awards Scam evilfantasy General Software Chat 1 23rd Aug 2007 16:18
Thread Tools



Translations Powered by Powered by Google
Arabic Bulgarian Chinese Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Finnish French German Greek Hebrew Hungarian Italian Japanese Korean Latvian Lithuanian Norwegian Polish Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Spanish Swedish Taiwanese Thai Turkish Ukrainian

Copyright ©2006 - 2010 Computer Juice.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2010 Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. SEO by vBSEO ©2009, Crawlability, Inc.