Is this a rip-off?

underthetides

Hey,
would just like some advice from those in the know out there!

My dell Inspiron 1545 crashed the other day and, after a long phone call to PC World, I was told that Windows Vista needs to be re-installed. I have all necessary disks to reinstall it myself, but am not confident enough to do so in case I mess it up. Also don't really have the time, so I thought I'd ask my local laptop shop if they could do it for me.

They said it would cost eighty euro for them to re-install it for me, even though I'm providing the disks for them to do it. I'm no expert, but this seems really extortionate to me. Then again, maybe I'm wrong.

Would just like to know how much I should expect to be charged for such a service to see if it's worth my while shopping around.

Thanks!!!:D

Alanstrainor

The price seems pretty standard i suppose. But like you say yourself, it's easy as pie to do your self. It wont take long, most of your time will be spent waiting as it does the install itself. There's not too much you can do wrong really. There are plenty of guides online that you can print off before you do it to talk you through the steps.

coldfire1x

Try it yourself first. What the worst can happen? Your laptop has crashed anyway.

As suggested above, its really simple.

If you still want to go to PC world then come to me and I will do it for half price

Just joking, there's plenty of people around here who can help with your queries. Give it a go.

karltimber

where are you in the country and someone might help out.

€80 for loading a disc - a bit much. It's a business so thats prob standard but for folks like us - a bit steep indeed.

k

Overheal

They arent charging 80e for the disk theyre charging 80e for the time and labor.

Im no pro and ive never worked IT for money but yes, thats about what I would expect to charge for an OS reinstallation. Why? Because a) Its profitable b) It sways anyone with even a modest amount of technical know-how, or the ability to use the Internet and c) Those who can't, or won't, are the most bothersome type of people imaginable, and the proceeds would go to the hair transplant from explaining three too many times what email is. Much higher and - yeah, youre getting a little greedy for 1-2hrs work.

80e is not targeted at the IT Savvy consumer. Its targeted at the IT Illiterate. If I wanted to get the business of the IT Savvy I would have to work for cookies and leave a free copy of Lemmings on the desktop of every computer I fixed. The Business model is targeted at the consumer who is afraid to do this stuff themselves. Thats it.

But like I said, its enough money to where if you think you are capable of learning, you will learn how to do this yourself. Because: its piss easy. Back up your data and then go nuts.

horse7

r u in dublin

Alanstrainor

horse7 wrote: »

r u in dublin

no txt spk pls

underthetides

Thanks for all the help!

I think I'll give it a go myself this evening. As coldfire said, what's the worst that can happen? I'll come back here if I get stuck

underthetides

Well, I'm stuck already.

The reason why I couldn't start Windows in the first place was because I kept getting stuck on the 'Microsoft Corporation' loading page, with the green bar.

I'm following these instructions for re-installing windows:http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=339949

But after Step One I'm getting stuck on that darned loading page again. I'm not getting as far as the language/time etc options screen. Argh!

What can I do?:(

Alanstrainor

underthetides wrote: »

Well, I'm stuck already.

The reason why I couldn't start Windows in the first place was because I kept getting stuck on the 'Microsoft Corporation' loading page, with the green bar.

I'm following these instructions for re-installing windows:http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=339949

But after Step One I'm getting stuck on that darned loading page again. I'm not getting as far as the language/time etc options screen. Argh!

What can I do?:(

It could be a hardware problem. I'd be thinking it could be the hard drive. If you go into the boot menu i think there should be a hard drive diagnostics tool in there somewhere that should tell you.

underthetides

Turns out I was just being impatient; everything is now re-installed successfully! Thanks so much to everyone for the encouragement, you have saved me €80!

Just wondering as to what may have caused the laptop to crash initially though. I was just surfing the net on Chrome, with three tabs open (three reliable sites - Meteor, Facebook, TCD) and Chrome froze, ctrlaltdelete wouldn't work, and I was subsequently unable to get past that cursed Microsoft Corp loading page. I had antivirus and antispyware installed...what could have caused this?

coldfire1x

underthetides wrote: »

Turns out I was just being impatient; everything is now re-installed successfully! Thanks so much to everyone for the encouragement, you have saved me €80!

Just wondering as to what may have caused the laptop to crash initially though. I was just surfing the net on Chrome, with three tabs open (three reliable sites - Meteor, Facebook, TCD) and Chrome froze, ctrlaltdelete wouldn't work, and I was subsequently unable to get past that cursed Microsoft Corp loading page. I had antivirus and antispyware installed...what could have caused this?

Good to hear that

I have never used Chrome, Firefox does the trick for me.

Its really difficult to pin point the cause of software crash. It may have something to do with Chrome or it may be some other process thats running in the background.

Hope you have installed all the drivers (you can check in device manager) and the antivirus / antispyware.

saywhatyouwish

When I reinstalled vista to make a dual boot i needed to download the drivers because my cd wouldn't work. so this is where you can download what you need:
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/downloads/index.aspx

If you're not sure what drivers you need you can let your laptop search for them itself from device manager in control panel. Just right click on any problems found and search for updates online.

good luck!

underthetides

Fantastic guys; thank you so much!

One more thing: how reliable and safe is Chrome compared to other browsers? I really liked it overall but am reluctant to start using it again after this catastrophic crash; I'm delighted to have my laptop up and running again but at the same time, I have lost everything, including all college essays; not something I want to happen again!

coldfire1x

Although I have never used it much, Chrome is a good enough browser.

As I said before I use firefox and it works like a charm, never had any problem. You can give it a try as well.

Now that you have saved some money, its time to invest that in an external harddisk and setup regular backup. Some of them comes with their own backup software as well. I would suggest to get one of the portable ones.

unnameduser

€80 sounds about right. I have to agree with overheal on his points.

You would get the same reaction over in motors forum if we were talking about paying for a car service. It is always an "easy job" when you know how, and someone out there is going always going to do it for cheaper.

I.T. repair centres are there for people who can't or won't fix their own computers. And thankfully when things go belly up a reputable repair centre can cope with it - unlike the everyday user. Sometimes a little knowledge can be dangerous.

That being said for €80 one would expect the data to be retrieved beforehand (presuming the disk is OK), all windows updates, and anti-virus to be installed.

OP you will get all the help and assistance here to complete the re-install - best of luck.