04/20/19 MY TRIP THROUGH PC HELL

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MY TRIP THROUGH PC HELL

I may be computer-literate, but I recognize my limitations. So when it came time to add a second hard drive to my Gateway 2000 Pentium, I asked a friend to handle the installation. Never mind that my new Western Digital drive was ''easy to install.'' That's what the box said, anyhow. It took my pal four hours of flipping switches and connecting cables before the mission was accomplished. Or so we thought.
My new hard drive was a ticket to a PC hell that took me weeks to escape. The experience showed me how far the industry still has to go to deliver complete customer satisfaction. Sure, makers promise technical support. But some of the people who were supposed to help me at Gateway, for instance, dished out wrong or conflicting information. And the help they did provide was peppered with such technojargon as ''bus mastering'' and ''BIOS.''
INTERNET AID. At times, folks in trouble can get help via the Internet. Programs such as Oil Change, Norton LiveUpdatePro, and TuneUp.com notify you of software updates and bug fixes available in cyberspace and can download the files onto your system. Utilities programs--including First Aid 98 from Cyber-
Media, Norton Utilities from Symantec, and Nuts & Bolts from Network Associates--can help curb system crashes. But I needed a live expert.
The first thing I noticed after adding the drive was that my modem started misbehaving. I could use the device to dial America Online.
But my computer thought the modem was already in use when I tried phoning Microsoft Network or CompuServe. I attempted to resolve the problem by visiting the support area at Microsoft's Web site (table). But the remedy prescribed did not work. The MSN techies I reached by phone were unable to resolve the issue, either.
That led me to my modem maker, Zoom Telephonics. After dispatching an E-mail via AOL, I got a quickie response that was of no help. When I reached a Zoom rep by phone, I was told the modem was indeed working properly; it did, after all, dial AOL.
My frustration mounting, I got back on the horn to a Microsoft Windows 95 specialist. His kind of pay-per-incident support costs $35. After a couple more hours exhausting various possibilities, Microsoft concluded the problem was hardware-related and beyond its reach. At least I was promised a refund.
Since the hard drive seemed to work okay, I avoided calling Western Digital and turned to Gateway. It offers toll-free technical support for as long as you own a machine. I punched my way through a touch-tone menu only to have a folksy voice advise me that all representatives were busy and I'd have to try later. There was no way to leave a voice message. Around midnight, I reached a rep, who explained that when I'd installed the new hard drive, I should have also upgraded the system BIOS (basic input-output system, which eases the transfer of data between the PC and peripherals). I was advised to download an upgrade at the Gateway Web site.
BUS MASTERING? All seemed to go smoothly, save for an error message that indicated that bus mastering was not supported. I wasn't sure what that meant, so it was back to Gateway, where another rep told me there was a file I could download that would take care of things. Big mistake. My CD-ROM went on the blink, and when I tried to reinstall it, my system crashed.
Gateway's befuddled rep couldn't figure out how to revive the system. My case, he informed me, would have to be ''escalated'' to a hardware specialist. I was told to expect a call back two nights later. It never came. When I complained, another rep told me such a promise couldn't have been made and the 72-hour period in which I was supposed to get a return call wasn't over. He insisted the call would come the following evening. Yeah, right. When I reached a rep the following week, he instructed me to flip a jumper switch on my motherboard, which let me boot up. But during the next few days, my system repeatedly crashed. So Gateway recommended I back up files and reformat my drives.
But when I called Gateway to walk me through the reformatting process, a rep claimed the CD-ROM that came with my system might cause problems if I tried to reinstall everything. He said Gateway might have to ship me a new CD-ROM, but such a decision would have to come from a hardware specialist. Then I got lucky. Another rep suggested I try reformatting the hard drive, after all. I did, and everything finally ran perfectly.
When I told my tale to the head of Gateway's tech-support, he apologized and explained that I'd hit the company during its busiest season--after Christmas. Meanwhile, Gateway is working on diagnostic tools to be shipped with future systems to intercept potential conflicts before they cause damage.
What should you do if you find yourself in PC hell? If you can wait out a problem, you might try calling help lines during off hours or on weekends--Mondays are busy. Many companies provide premium support for a price. For $99, Gateway will give you an extra two years of onsite service (on top of the year that comes with its systems) plus a toll-free phone number that gives you quicker access to a tech rep. New Packard Bell PCs come with software to diagnose problems and prevent users from accidently deleting files. Intel Answer-Express provides help for leading software titles. But snafus remain an unfortunate part of the PC experience. Tom Rhinelander, an analyst with Forrester Research, jokes that computers should carry warning labels. ''This device is complicated. It has a tendency to crash and explode.'' I found out the hard way.
By Edward C. Baig
EDITED BY AMY DUNKIN

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