Getting Rip Off

[strawberry]

I have consistantly been having problems with my PC, and I've started to get the impression that the techies seem me coming. a PC green horn we will make a couple of thousand out of this fool. I think these guys do a course and a good part of that is ''how to rip off the green horn and how to recognise the green horn''

The last guy has a look at my PC and tells me OK Khun Joseph you need a to install a new game card (update). He forgot that only 2 weeks before he had install a new game card. This one will handle any game you want to play he tells me and 2 weeks later tells me I need to update again. I look over the last 3 techies I've had and all of them ripped me off.. I can't send e-mail through my OE,

My HP printer won't print or even install now the damned sound system won't work

and now have to go and find another techie. Had I known that computers were going to cost me so much I wouldn't have got one in the first place. People spoke of PC's being user friendly. Thats garbage. Perhaps its not the computer but rather the people I ask to update it and it seems that finding an honest and competent person to to fix them is near to impossible. I read what you folks write and quite frankly I don't understand the language.

Perhaps one needs to live in the city to get get decent service, here in the middle of a rice paddy makes it more difficult. but living in the middle of a rice paddy is not a place where one ought to be without a PC.

Regards Tottally Frustrated Khun Joseph

[12call]

And your question is?

[liberiosyah]

YeaH in Bangkok,Anything you buought as a foreighner you will get ripped off....Espieciealy the Computer you bought in Bangkok...If you buys a Custom made Pc make sure they show you the parts are taken out from a sealed box....And you will have to look the way they install your pc..do not let your eye off them...And for your info...if you intend to get 1 PC you can have it ready installed in 1hour...

[stumonster]

mate,

this is the place to ask for help with technical problms with your computer.

when you ask for help, please give as much information about your system as you can.

for example - what operating system are you running(winXp,win2k,win98 etc)

what processor you have, how much ram .

right clicking on my computer and selecting properties will give you much of this info.

we are not sure what you are talking about when you say game card? do you mean video card?

and what game is it you are trying to play?

your sound problem? do you have a sound card or is the sound on the motherboard?

and your HP printer? is it a USB model or parrallel? does the power light come on when you plug it in?does it make any noise when you plug it in?

more specific info about your problems, and there is many knowledgeable people on this board who can give you help.

and thais will get a better price than youu because thay know how to phrase the request for a price reduction much better than you.

the bottom lline is if you wish to use a computer way out in the boonies you will have to learn a bit about them.

[Firefoxx]

Since game port cards aren't sold anymore, I take it that "game card" refers to the video card. It does seem strange that a tech would get you to change a vga card twice within two weeks.

It doesn't really matter where you are... it doesn't reduce the chance of getting ripped off. If you're in a metropolis, you just have more choices, and some of them might cheat you, some might not.

One thing about buying a PC: The less you spend, the more you will have spend down the road. Example: Get a cheesy CPU with a cheap heatsink, and chances are you'll end up with a fried CPU. Get a cheap case with lousy ventilation, and chances are your whole system will go kaput. Get a cheap video card, and chances are it won't support that new game you oh-so-want-to-play. Get a cheap mouse, and it will have to be replaced within the year.

I'm not saying that you should splurge and get the ultimate CPU, ultimate video card, and take out a second mortgage to pay for the whole shebang. What I mean is that you shouldn't skimp and opt for the bottom of the pile.

Not that you are specifically doing this, but these days I see too often that people are just going for the absolute cheapest they can find, without caring what's inside, and without realizing that it will cost them later on.

[Crushdepth]

A few of the recent 3d games need pretty high spec video cards in order to play them, what was the game that required the upgrade ? Also, what video card did you have before / get now ?

Anyway, maybe if you can start with one hassle at a time we can help you sort a few things out. How about the email ? Which internet company are you using ?

And just out of curiosity, which rice paddy do you live in, by the way ?

[francois]

hi'

it's so easy to get a regular unsatisfied customer to come back over and over as soon as they see that you don't know a thing about computer

my advice would be this :

you want a computer, go with a friend who knows computer stuffs and speak a good Thai.

or have it build by a farang techy that you know for his skills on tech issues

don't be angry, you have been fooled, and may I say, you're the only one to blame

don't take it bad, it's just a simple game for Thai techies

may be they smell the money you were ready to spend on this

good luck

francois

ps: anyway, we are all ready to help you out of this if you wish

[Nam Kao]

Joe, the more they fix it, the more "broke" its going to become

[siam]

Hi,I have learnt the hard way so many times over the years,You get what you pay for,Unless you are a expert in any one field and can build it yourself from parts,

A friend said to me the other day"Look at that Dell £375 inc of monitor,but what the heck is inside of it,plus there's a £30 delivery charge,and if it goes wrong you have to phone a high rate number to get advice at £0.50 min,

I use my computer about 16 hours a day,between the family,SO went for a good one,With all the back up with internet online service as well,

Try find a farang or better still someone here will help.

2 cards seems very strange,surely the first one was under warranty,Did he take it from a box with a sealed silver bag?Sounds like you are getting inferior parts,

[kabal1234]

Look, no offence to thais - love em dearly - but I'd never go to some panthip guy for a computer problem/advise... never. If you don't have a clued up friend, there are many people on this forrm who can help... it may require a little extra effort on your behalf, but you'll save baht.

[Highwayman]

Joseph, can l suggest if your internet connection is still working to post your problems as new topics e.g.

• Printer problem
  
• Game problem
  
• Outlook e-mail problem
  

Then someone who knows something about a particular problem can direct their answer better.

As Stumonster suggested, provide some details so people here can try and help you. Many people here are happy to help out but you have to help yourself a little as well.

[strawberry]

Hi All

thanks all of you for your posts, figured I might get answers telling me I was a whingeing basket.

i'm in the Pichit rice paddy about 1 hours drive north of Nakhon Suwan.

My main problem is that I know nil about this stuff. before coming to Thailand I'd lived about 10 years out side the elect. grid. took me a long time to learn how to adjust a colour TV, 4 years ago I decided that I'd buy a PC and friends in Aust. suggested that I buy a compaq as I'd get good after sales service. No true,at least not in Thailand. I complained and that didn't go down very good. for reasons I won't go into here it seemed better for me get rid of the compact and go for something else. Its enough to say that they became very vindictive at my complaints.

This PC went very well until a few months ago when I got myself a stack of virus's,because I went on to a dirty web site. Its since then that I started having problems. I couldn;t get rid of the virus's myself so took it to a local techie.

The video card I have is NVIDIA Geforce Fx520

Have XP Pro version2002 SP2

registered to illusion MS

Computer AMD Athlon

XP 2000+ 125 GHZ

and I have 256 MB RAM

Couiple of friends say I ought to buy a new PC and that I can get for about 10 - 15 thousand

I was down in Bangkok 2 weeks back and saw PC in Pantip starting at around 27000. I'm in the process of trying to get enough money to build a house for my family here and that kind of price is out of the question at this time.

The games I've been trying to play are Doom 3 and I have actually play about 25% of the game on this PC as it is now but is now telling me my PC does not measure up.

My sound was OK before I went to Bangkok but when I came back it no longer worked and now tells me I have no audio device.

When I went to Bangkok it was to get a exchange my hard drive when I came back took it to a teckie locally and then couldn't get email on my OE.

The printer problem started after I took it to a local shop to have it refilled and after I tried to update it at HP website.

This PC has been reconfigured 5 times this year and I have always had a problem reinstalling the printer which is the hp deskjet 3500 series.

I also have a problem with the wires connecting my head to my fingers but I hope I have made myself clear and thankyou. Joe

[Firefoxx]

Doom3 is one of the most demanding games out there. Pretty much all of the specs of your system are not up to par. The VGA card that you have is only one notch from the bottom of the pile, so getting it to play Doom3 is not going to be pleasant.

No audio device means that either your system doesn't know where the sound card is. That means that either the sound card somehow got unseated or the tech forgot to reinstall drivers.

Your friend is not giving you good advice when he says to get a new computer for 10-15k. For that price you would get lowest-bidder specs similar to your current PC, and will probably require just as much maintenance. 27k is more like it, and I think 20k would get something pretty nice (as long as you don't get a monitor.. use the old one). Like I said, the more you're willing to pay, the less often you'll end up with junk.

Refilling an inkjet printer is really not recommended unless you'll be using the printer to print very often. It can mess up the printer if you don't know what you're doing, and may just cost you the printer itself. Seeing that you're not very tech-savvy, I say stay with normal cartridges (by HP or otherwise).

With so many problems, your best bet would be to find a friend to help.

[stumonster]

I will be a bit more optimistic than firefoxx

first things first.

go and get spybot search and destroy from http://security.kolla.de/

and adaware from www.lavasoftusa.com/

they are both free, and will allow you to be sure your computer is clean of any <deleted> that might cause problems and slow it down.

next you might want to get the free antivirus program from www.free-av.com

then either switch on your inbuilt firewall or download the free firewall at www.zonelabs.com (recommended) .. get the free one , not the trial one.

after several restarts, you should then go to http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp and get the latest drivers for the video card, just select geforce,win2k/xp cause one size fits all.

your sound issue, if ithe sound chip is on the motherboard and it is not a seperate sound card ( if the speakers plug in next to the usb ports it is probably onboard ) may require you to switch off the sound in the bios and boot then switch back on in the bios and boot again and see if it reinstalls.....we can get to that in later posts.

first I suggest you d/load the above programs and drivers and install them.

and get back to us with the results.

[strawberry]

Hi Stumonster,

I've done all that you suggested. now able to play doom 3, and even got some of the saves from when I was able to play before. When I exit the game and return to desk top it takes bit of time to normalise. Perhaps that was what Firefoxx was talking about. That my PC wasn't up to scratch.

I haven't got sound so I need to do something about that. i think I didn't explain about when the sound went off' The new hard disk was installed and I used the PC for about a week before the sound stopped. You will need to explain what bios means. Been racking my mind to try and think about this

There was a stack of garbage in my PC and those programs you recomended took care of it.

Mate many thanks for your assistance.

Regards Joe

[Crushdepth]

That weird delay in returning to your normal desktop is normal, I think. My computer does that too and its fairly fast etc. If you had audio before then its probably just a matter of changing some configuration setting to get it going again. I'm guessing a bit here but you could try looking in:

start => settings => control panel => sounds and audio devices

Can you see any audio devices listed in there ?

[bkk_mike]

For the sound - there are a few possibilities for it suddenly to have stopped working. Even for the tech-savvy, the first two here are the more common...

First - check that you haven't inadvertently left it in mute... (Just stating the obvious).

Go to Control Panel

in Category View

click on Sounds, Speech and Audio Devices

then click on Sounds and Audio Devices

then on the advanced button on the first tab

Check the Mute's are all unchecked, and that the volume bars aren't at the bottom...

Next - check that the speakers are plugged in to the right sockets. If it's the motherboard sound, then the sockets are probably colour coded, and the colour of the line out (where normal stereo amplified speakers should be attached) is light green. (Similarly a microphone plugs into the red one).

If they're not colour coded, then the line out should have something like ((())) with an arrow pointing out to the right from the centre as a symbol next to it.

If you're using more than 2 channels, or a digital out, you'll need to check your manuals.

Third option I can think of is if your using an added sound card which supports digital audio. However, you then have the possible issue of it having been inadvertently set to normal audio (which doesn't work to digital speakers), or digital audio (which doesn't work with normal speakers).

If you have a digital-capable sound card, you should have a separate entry for it (like AudioHQ for the Audigy) on the control panel (maybe only visible in classic view).

The last couple of possibilities are definitely more likely to have happened when people were "working" on your PC.

First is that a cable inside has become disconnected... (not going to be the problem if the sound stopped working 10 days after you got it back).

Last thing I can think of is that the sound devices have somehow been disabled...

Best option here is (since your sound isn't working anyway), is to try and find out what the hardware is (f you had your PC built in Thailand - the likelihood is all the manuals / disks / etc. got given to you in the motherboard box. which gives you a nice easy place to see what your motherboard is. (the box it came in). You can then go to the manufacturers website and download updated audio drivers...

Then, from device manager (Control Panel - Category View - Performance and Maintenance - System.. Then click on the Hardware tab, then device manager...)

Click on Sound, Video and Game Controllers, and remove anything that shows up with a question mark in that section (that will force Windows to reinstall the driver next time you boot up...)

If none have "?"s then the sound thinks it's working..., or as suggested earlier it's been disabled in the Bios...

To get into the Bios - you need to press a key (or a combination of keys) when the PC is booting up, before it starts loading the operating system. - the most common ones are F1 (if it's an AMD bios, since you're running an Athlon), or the DEL key. Other fairly common possibilities are ESC, F2, CTRL + ALT + ESC but there are other options (check your motherboard manual).

All Bios's are different, so you may need to search around, looking for anything that suggests it disables/enables the sound on the motherboard... But be careful, as if it also had onboard graphics that you're not using, you don't want to to turn those on...

If it is a bios setting, you should be prompted for the drivers when you boot up again after turning them on...

[joka]

to go into bios, you must start tapping delete as soon as you turn on the on button... then a blue or black screen will come up which will be totally unfamiliar looking, unless you have seen a computer in DOS mode (disk operating system).

in this screen you can make choices on how your mainboard operates, and many other system adjustments.

[strawberry]

Hi All,

I've found my sound. As I was looking through my drawer of PC things I find a CD with VGA Driver Sound Card Driver written in ink. Rememebered it came when I had this PC put together. That was over a year ago. Put in the PC and it now gives me sound.

Can anyone tell me how the sound could have gone. Every thing I did previously to find the sound the PC tells me no audio. The only thing that happened was when I was away was that my daughter tried to use the printer for her school work and the printer wouldn't work. But she didn't touch the sound.

My next problem is that I can;t send or receive email on my Outlook Express. I had gone to Bangkok to take adventage of the warranty on my Hard disk and also bought the XP with SP2 disk. I took it all to the local techie but when I got home I discovered I couldn't use IE. This guy has done this to me before and didn't know how to fix it, which is why I haven't gone back to him. If I can't fix it here, on-line I will go to Pichit to get the techie to fix it.

Many thanks to all who have send in advice its much appreciated

Regards Joe

[lemon]

it sound like either your sound card driver had become corrupted in some way or had been accidently deleted or something...in any case it sounds like you have successfully reinstalled the driver (a driver is essentially a set of instructions telling the operating system how to deal with hardware)...

re OE u might first wanna check that your password and user name are entered correctly...u can do this by clicking Accounts then selecting ur email account and clicking properties & re-type ur password...

[stumonster]

joe,

to use an email client ( outlook express, pegasus mail , popcorn ) you need 4 pieces of info. login name , password , pop3 mail server address and smtp mail server address.

you need to tell us the bit that is after the @ in you email address and who your isp (internet service provider ) is. who you dial up to access the internet.

in tools--->accounts you should see an entry that is your default account, hightlight it and press edit , then make sure the info is in there.

if you give us the info we can tell you what to put in the pop3 and smtp fields.

[strawberry]

Hi Stu,

loosing my OE also happened about 6 months ago after I got it back from the techie and he couldn't fix it so I took it to the Pichit Techie and he fixed it.. I was with csloxinfo,but have let it expire so now I can't get to their web mail. I'm now using TT&T to get on via my yahoo. After the local techie installed the new hard disk I was unable to use OE and this is the 2nd time this guy caused this. I'm a bit unhappy with csloxinfo. So I'm looking for another ISP. I don't know if out here in the provinces I can get another ISP. It seems I might need one as I can't send out photo's or documents because anything I try to send out goes straight to my OE and that is as far as it goes.

I try using TT&T to send mail out via OE but it won't go.

I am thinking that the info you are asking me for I will first need to have an ISP.

Am I correct in assuming this ?

Regards Joe

Ps the zone alarm andantivir guard are working fine. The Doom 3 is playing like3 a beauty

[phazey]

The pause going back to the desktop are dll's (system librarys) etc moving from swap (virtual) memory into system (real) memory. I get it on my system, albeit i have 1GB of ram - with that much i can disable virtual memory for a significant speedup (warning: this will break some apps ie: photoshop).

256mb is rather entry level - consider moving up to 512mb for a nice little speed boost.

anyways hope your problems clear up - and as always the TV-Techies will be on standby

Cheers

K

[stumonster]

"A busstation is where a bus stops. A trainstation is where a train stops... ... I have a workstation."

ok..yes you need an isp to use email that way through outlook express.

your yahoo email address should be fine now they allow 100 meg of space. Just forget outlook express.

you outlook is set as your default mail client, you should be able to find a setting in it that you can turn off. also if you want you should be able to export your address book to a text file from which you can just copy and paste email addresses to yahoo as you need them.

maybe you should also think about turning away from internet explorer as your main web browser and try firefox...free at www.mozilla.org..there have been a few threads discussing this browser...do a search and read a few comments.

You might also want to stop internet explorer from being your default browser.

[taxexile]

what a great thread this is.

strawberry has gone from an angry and disillusioned pc user to repairing his own system with some good advice and help from the posters with hardly any patronising, sarcasm or taking the p1ss.

lovely stuff.

[bkk_mike]

Hi Stu,

loosing my OE also happened about 6 months ago after I got it back from the techie and he couldn't fix it so I took it to the Pichit Techie and he fixed it.. I was with csloxinfo,but have let it expire so now I can't get to their web mail. I'm now using TT&T to get on via my yahoo. After the local techie installed the new hard disk I was unable to use OE and this is the 2nd time this guy caused this. I'm a bit unhappy with csloxinfo. So I'm looking for another ISP. I don't know if out here in the provinces I can get another ISP. It seems I might need one as I can't send out photo's or documents because anything I try to send out goes straight to my OE and that is as far as it goes.

I try using TT&T to send mail out via OE but it won't go.

I am thinking that the info you are asking me for I will first need to have an ISP.

Am I correct in assuming this ?

Regards Joe

Ps the zone alarm andantivir guard are working fine. The Doom 3 is playing like3 a beauty

How are you connecting to the internet without an ISP? i.e. Surely the number you're dialing to connect to the internet is your ISP...

I think all you need to do is change the settings in your OE to use the smtp/pop3 server for the ISP you're connecting to.

i.e. If it's TOT, I think the values are:

mail.totonline.net

smtp.totonline.net

[stumonster]

just another thing before we let this thread disapear into the nether regions of thai visa.

please make sure you run spybot, adaware and avirguard every 14-30 days and use the update feature to d/load the new ref files.

[strawberry]

TAXEXILE

I expected to have some abuse and its a real pleasure to have people take me seriously and not be put down.

HI STU

The reason I like to use OE is that I can do my mail before I go on line and then send it all at once. I know there is another way to do it, Through Micro Soft Word but I haven't been able to work that out. I don't know about in the more populated areas but out here in the straw ( as opposed to sticks). I keep on getting cut off and find that a nuisance.

I'll go and check totonline and Mozilla

Many thanks for your advice.

Regards Joe

[stumonster]

new tip mate.

open any folder( my docs is fine) and in a free bit of white area right click the mouse and go new-->text document this will create a blank text doc to type in....give it a name, double click on it to open it, and type in your email. save it.(alt ->f->s) then using the mouse highlight all your text( hold down left mouse key and drag from beginning to end of text). then right click in the blue area and select copy( or ctrl + c ). this has copied the text to the windows clipboard ), then when you are online with your yahoo,hotmail , gmail etc you just put the cursor in th email field and right click and select paste ( ctrl + p ) and the text will be pasted from the clipboard to where the cursor is.

I have a short cut on my taskbar that goes to a text file called notes.txt, which I use to copy and paste snippets from websites, emails, instant messaging etc.

You can only have one item at a time on the windows clipboard, though there are third party applications that allow you to have more.

the print screen button on your keyboard will take a screen grab( exactly what is on your computer screen ) and copy it to the clipboard, just open paint and paste to it, then crop and save as a jpeg.

[Abandon]

I'm British, live in Bangkok, speak Thai, and know a bit about computers. My feeling is that very few people will truly try and rip you off. Most of the problem is incompetence. Thai's have a 'easy fix' solution -

for software - reinstall windows

for hardware- buy a new component

If you bought and assembled the bits, it will take time to get it all running together smoothly. PCs require a long learning curve. High end games require powerful components. Porn web sites will screw up your system (pun intended).

As for being ripped off. Don't assume malice for what stupidity can explain.

What the ###### are the 'boonies' anyway.