# Driver Hell & HP



## Platinum (Jul 21, 2006)

So here at work yesterday I had to reinstall WinXP Pro on one of the machines. After installing it, some drivers were missing (video, audio, and NIC). So, I download them all install them, only to find the NIC drivers don't work. Now bare in mind, I couldn't download from the machine I just installed WinXP Pro on because I can't access the internet (the reason for needing NIC drivers obviously). So I had to burn CDs with the drivers on them. So after searching for different drivers, I find them and again, no luck. 

At this point there was only 1 driver left, a wireless driver which I obviously do not need so I gave HP a little call. Finally I get someone on the phone from the UK. 

Now I'm an American, and his accent was fine, but he was talking so damn fast WITH the accent I couldn't understand him! I felt like a moron, working in the IT dept. of my office and I can't even follow his damn directions! So I sit on the phone with him for awhile. He's telling me to try this, and try that (everything I had already tried). And throughout the call he says "hold on one second please," probably to call his buddy in a nearby cubicle to ask what to do next because he had _NO_ idea... He tells me to download this file, that file, oh and the one that doesn't even support my NIC too. He goes to the Intel site, finds drivers for it, and they still don't work. So finally, my buddy I work with comes over and says "try this CD." I put it in and BAM! It works!!! Go figure! So I ask him where he got them from, and of course... the Intel site!




!!!

So at this point I'm just fed up with this guy on the phone because he doesn't know what he's doing. This is his job people... troubleshooting... and he can't even find a driver! Something that takes 2 minutes, left me on the phone for 2 hours. And his explanation as to why the drivers on the website didn't work: "Our website is under maintainance." Yea... figured as much, just make excuses for your lack of computer knowledge.

Total Phone Time: 2 hours
Total Time (inc. time I spent before I called): 2.5 hours

That's right people... it took 2.5 hours to do something that should normally take...... 2 minutes.

I'm sorry for this rant against HP, but it just frustrated me so much I had to let you all know! And guess what. After that phone call I had to sit on the phone with Brother (manufacturer of some of our printers) because one of our printers had an error we couldn't get rid of. After an hour on the phone with them, I had to hang up because I couldn't sit at the computer connected to the printer (she was in her office, so I couldn't just kick her out).

So... the moral of the story? Tech support...


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## ReverseFluxx (Jul 21, 2006)

Hahaha, that's the reason why I never have and never plan on calling tech support in my life.


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## Bobo (Jul 21, 2006)

Well what do you think this computer forum exists for?


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## Arm_Pit (Jul 21, 2006)

You should have just bought a PCI card for 5$ instead, they almost alwyas work with jsut plug and play rather then the intergrated. PLus if it didn;t it would have come with a CD


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## Platinum (Jul 21, 2006)

ReverseFluxx said:
			
		

> Hahaha, that's the reason why I never have and never plan on calling tech support in my life.


Sometimes you just don't have a choice man...



			
				Arm_Pit said:
			
		

> You should have just bought a PCI card for 5$ instead, they almost alwyas work with jsut plug and play rather then the intergrated. PLus if it didn;t it would have come with a CD


Yes, while that is very true that's not the point. The point is I have something, so it should be working. I'm not going to go out and buy a card if I have one, it just shouldn't have taken that long. But at that point, I just wanted to get the damn thing to work, I ended up being really rude to him at the end because I was just so fed up with his nonsense.


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## OvenMaster (Jul 22, 2006)

I had problems with eMachines when my combo burner wouldn't recognize CD-RW's as eraseable. I'd tried everything I knew, reinstalled softwares, drivers, reconnected hardware, all of it, and assumed I'd have to send it back for warranty service. So I get on the blower with a tech guy (very polite, btw) who tells me to do what I've already done. I explain that I've already done all that, but I go through the motions, taking two hours, and finally he says, "Gee, I guess you'll have to send it in for depot service." DUH! No $hit, Sherlock! Thank God I got my PC back fixed and in one piece.

I guess tech support people aren't trained to deal with people who know anything about PCs. 

Tom


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## DCIScouts (Jul 23, 2006)

Yeah, tech support people assume you're a moron, but I can empathize working in retail; there's a lot of dumb people...

Anyway, what's the problem with your Brother machines?  Maybe we can help there...


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## Platinum (Jul 24, 2006)

Well, the first problem was it said we "Change Drum Soon" so we changed it. The error message didn't go away. That's when I called Brother, got taht taken care of. Now that the change drum soon message went away it just wouldn't print. They had me print an Activity Report for it but it doesn't say a whole lot...


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## Nini (Jul 30, 2006)

Haha lousy support huh? thats a first,,,lol


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## tdeath101 (Jul 31, 2006)

lol computer morons trying to teach computer masters lol what will they think of next..


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## Platinum (Jul 31, 2006)

Yea, not to mention they are very condescending. They tell me to do something and I explain "Yes, I know. I have done that... twice" and they tell me to do it a gain anyway and to follow them as they tell me what to do. Just makes me want to hang up, but that wouldn't get my problem resolved.


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