CD RW Drive Damage

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

My daughter purchased a Gateway Desktop and has been using it for about a
month, even though she bought it around Christmas time. The R/W CD drive
stopped working so she called tech support. I can't give details about the
failure because I have not seen it myself. However, in the course of trying
to resolve the problem with tech support, my daughter mentioned that her son
powered off the system once without doing a shutdown. It was running Windows
XP. Once she said that, the tech support person said that caused the damage
to the drive due to a "power surge" and it would not be covered under the
warranty. They are sending her a another CD drive for about $200. My
question is this: What is the possibility that powering off the system
without a shutdown would damage the CD drive itself? I have powered down my
Gateway and my Dell systems many times over the years without a proper
shutdown and never had a component failure. I suspect Gateway was just
looking for a reason not to honor the warranty, and that comment my daughter
made gave them the reason not to honor it. Charles Ranheim

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

First, the odds of a power surge caused by powering down the system are
miniscule. Yes, Gateway was just looking for a reason not to honor the
warranty, and that comment my daughter made gave them the reason not to honor
it.

Second, $200 for a replacement CD-RW is a price bordering on extortion. There
is NOTHING special about the CD-RW in any Gateway desktop. Call them up and
cancel the order, or refuse to accept the shipment when delivered. If need be,
dispute the payment of $200 via the bank holding the credit card presumed to be
used for the payment. You can buy a good quality name brand CD-RW (Sony,
Hitachi, Liteon) for $50 max these days. If need be, CD burning software can be
gotten to be compatible with the new drive. Assuming XP is the operating
system, no burning software would be needed... Ben Myers

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 00:56:13 GMT, "cranheim" <cranheim@prodigy.net> wrote:

>My daughter purchased a Gateway Desktop and has been using it for about a
>month, even though she bought it around Christmas time. The R/W CD drive
>stopped working so she called tech support. I can't give details about the
>failure because I have not seen it myself. However, in the course of trying
>to resolve the problem with tech support, my daughter mentioned that her son
>powered off the system once without doing a shutdown. It was running Windows
>XP. Once she said that, the tech support person said that caused the damage
>to the drive due to a "power surge" and it would not be covered under the
>warranty. They are sending her a another CD drive for about $200. My
>question is this: What is the possibility that powering off the system
>without a shutdown would damage the CD drive itself? I have powered down my
>Gateway and my Dell systems many times over the years without a proper
>shutdown and never had a component failure. I suspect Gateway was just
>looking for a reason not to honor the warranty, and that comment my daughter
>made gave them the reason not to honor it. Charles Ranheim
>
>

 

[Scott]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

cranheim,

$200 for a CD-RW is highway robbery. Most of the time, I can buy a
name brand 52x CD-RW at Office Max for $19.99 after rebate. I've
installed many of these in various sytems, and they're compatible with
every Windows OS out there.

Scott

cranheim wrote:

> My daughter purchased a Gateway Desktop and has been using it for about a
> month, even though she bought it around Christmas time. The R/W CD drive
> stopped working so she called tech support. I can't give details about the
> failure because I have not seen it myself. However, in the course of trying
> to resolve the problem with tech support, my daughter mentioned that her son
> powered off the system once without doing a shutdown. It was running Windows
> XP. Once she said that, the tech support person said that caused the damage
> to the drive due to a "power surge" and it would not be covered under the
> warranty. They are sending her a another CD drive for about $200. My
> question is this: What is the possibility that powering off the system
> without a shutdown would damage the CD drive itself? I have powered down my
> Gateway and my Dell systems many times over the years without a proper
> shutdown and never had a component failure. I suspect Gateway was just
> looking for a reason not to honor the warranty, and that comment my daughter
> made gave them the reason not to honor it. Charles Ranheim

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

I have to apologize for the type of drive I specified. It looks like it is a
DVD R/W, not a CD R/W, which would make it more expensive. However, it still
seems unusual for the drive to go bad because of a power off (pushbutton)
without a shutdown. As it stands now, my daughter talked to Gateway again,
and the new person did not think the abnormal power down caused the problem.
They cancelled the sending of the replacement drive (at her expense) and
want to get a second level tech to do some more problem determination. This
will have to be postponed for another week because my daughter will be out
of town on vacation. She just started using this system and has not even
hooked up a printer to it yet. I think the failure is just part of "new part
fallout during "initial burn in".I will let you know how this turns out when
I have more information. Thanks for all your help. Charles Ranheim

"Scott" <golden@uslink.net> wrote in message
news:40CFCDC7.A8C5408A@uslink.net...
> cranheim,
>
> $200 for a CD-RW is highway robbery. Most of the time, I can buy a
> name brand 52x CD-RW at Office Max for $19.99 after rebate. I've
> installed many of these in various sytems, and they're compatible with
> every Windows OS out there.
>
> Scott
>
> cranheim wrote:
>
> > My daughter purchased a Gateway Desktop and has been using it for about
a
> > month, even though she bought it around Christmas time. The R/W CD drive
> > stopped working so she called tech support. I can't give details about
the
> > failure because I have not seen it myself. However, in the course of
trying
> > to resolve the problem with tech support, my daughter mentioned that her
son
> > powered off the system once without doing a shutdown. It was running
Windows
> > XP. Once she said that, the tech support person said that caused the
damage
> > to the drive due to a "power surge" and it would not be covered under
the
> > warranty. They are sending her a another CD drive for about $200. My
> > question is this: What is the possibility that powering off the system
> > without a shutdown would damage the CD drive itself? I have powered down
my
> > Gateway and my Dell systems many times over the years without a proper
> > shutdown and never had a component failure. I suspect Gateway was just
> > looking for a reason not to honor the warranty, and that comment my
daughter
> > made gave them the reason not to honor it. Charles Ranheim
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 (More info?)

$200 for a DVD R/W is still pretty high, though not quite highway robbery.
Worst case, figure $125 or $135 for a good one bought at retail. And maybe
less.

In the meantime, the latest gw2k person is talking some sense. Odds are VERY
slim indeed that a power off type of shutdown can kill a drive. With Windows
abysmal reliability plus trojans and worms locking up machines, people have to
do it all the time.

DO NOT ship the system back to Gateway. Get them to send you a replacement
drive, assuming that the box is still under warranty. One of my clients sent a
system back to gw2k for warranty service and they scrubbed the hard drive and
reloaded the operating system. This is a fairly standard practice in the
industry for name-brand warranty service. Don't ship it back unless she does
not care about any data on the system... Ben Myers

On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 01:27:29 GMT, "cranheim" <cranheim@prodigy.net> wrote:

>I have to apologize for the type of drive I specified. It looks like it is a
>DVD R/W, not a CD R/W, which would make it more expensive. However, it still
>seems unusual for the drive to go bad because of a power off (pushbutton)
>without a shutdown. As it stands now, my daughter talked to Gateway again,
>and the new person did not think the abnormal power down caused the problem.
>They cancelled the sending of the replacement drive (at her expense) and
>want to get a second level tech to do some more problem determination. This
>will have to be postponed for another week because my daughter will be out
>of town on vacation. She just started using this system and has not even
>hooked up a printer to it yet. I think the failure is just part of "new part
>fallout during "initial burn in".I will let you know how this turns out when
>I have more information. Thanks for all your help. Charles Ranheim
>
>"Scott" <golden@uslink.net> wrote in message
>news:40CFCDC7.A8C5408A@uslink.net...
>> cranheim,
>>
>> $200 for a CD-RW is highway robbery. Most of the time, I can buy a
>> name brand 52x CD-RW at Office Max for $19.99 after rebate. I've
>> installed many of these in various sytems, and they're compatible with
>> every Windows OS out there.
>>
>> Scott
>>
>> cranheim wrote:
>>
>> > My daughter purchased a Gateway Desktop and has been using it for about
>a
>> > month, even though she bought it around Christmas time. The R/W CD drive
>> > stopped working so she called tech support. I can't give details about
>the
>> > failure because I have not seen it myself. However, in the course of
>trying
>> > to resolve the problem with tech support, my daughter mentioned that her
>son
>> > powered off the system once without doing a shutdown. It was running
>Windows
>> > XP. Once she said that, the tech support person said that caused the
>damage
>> > to the drive due to a "power surge" and it would not be covered under
>the
>> > warranty. They are sending her a another CD drive for about $200. My
>> > question is this: What is the possibility that powering off the system
>> > without a shutdown would damage the CD drive itself? I have powered down
>my
>> > Gateway and my Dell systems many times over the years without a proper
>> > shutdown and never had a component failure. I suspect Gateway was just
>> > looking for a reason not to honor the warranty, and that comment my
>daughter
>> > made gave them the reason not to honor it. Charles Ranheim
>>
>
>