Adventures In Tech Support

[Doctor Destiny 41]

A little prefacing - The notebook in question is an HP Pavilion DV8537CL and it is not mine. It was brought to us with a corrupted video display on the HP splash screen and even Safe Mode is bunked. Hell, it's hard enough to load Safe Mode!

 

It's obvious he's running through the International Tech Support Playbook... and he has such long pauses between responses.

 

Names changed to protect the innocent.

And without further adieu...

 

Doctor Destiny: Corrupted video display before even loading OS; cannot load into Windows normally, nv4_mini.sys error.

[An agent will be with you shortly.]

[You are now chatting with techie.]

techie: Hello Doctor Destiny.

Doctor Destiny: Hello.

techie: I understand that while turn on the Notebook you received message : nv4_mini.sys error.AmI correct?

Doctor Destiny: Yes. It doesn't stay visible for long but I'm pretty sure that's the error.

techie: Thank you for the confirmation.

techie: Please do not worry, I will certainly do my best to assist you.

Doctor Destiny: But even before it tries to boot into XP, the display is not right. It's garbled.

Doctor Destiny: I can read it but there are corrupted and malformed pixels all over.

Doctor Destiny: Even when running a DOS-based boot program or safe mode, same result.

techie: Doctor Destiny, the issue could be either with display driver which is not properly installed or with the corrupted operating system files.

techie: May I know the Operating System (Window XP, Vista) installed in your Notebook?

Doctor Destiny: It's Windows XP.

Doctor Destiny: I'm fairly certain it's the board itself, or the chip as the case may be...

Doctor Destiny: If I want to replace the video on the motherboard, do I need to replace the whole thing or is there a notebook based card or chip I can replace separately instead?

techie: Let me explain to you.

techie: Video card is integrated on the Motherboard of Notebook which cannot be replaced seperately .

techie: In that case, you have to change entire Motherboard in your Notebook.

Doctor Destiny: I figured as much. I was hoping to avoid that.

techie: Have you tried installing display driver and check for display?

Doctor Destiny: I can barely have it load into Safe Mode, let alone change any settings. I haven't been able to load anything to check for spyware or something killing my permissions.

Doctor Destiny: Even if I were to fix the driver error itself, that still doesn't fix the video corruption _before_ the OS even loads and it's scanning the BIOS.

techie: May I have the Serial and product number of your Notebook?

techie: The Serial number which is a 10 or 12 digit alphanumeric code preceded by S/N which is present on the back side of the Notebook and the Product Number which is a 7-Digit alphanumeric number preceeded by P/N.

Doctor Destiny: I'm not sure how that will help though.

techie: Doctor Destiny, as per the error message it is found that the issue is with corrupted video driver.

techie: In order to isolate the issue you have to uninstall display driver and reintall it.

techie: May i know if you able to boot Notebook into Safe mode by restarting Notebook and keep tapping F8 key on keyboard?

Doctor Destiny: I know it's a corrupted video driver. nv4_mini.sys told me that. HOWEVER, WHY is the display bad before it even GETS to the driver?

Doctor Destiny: Safe Mode is iffy. Sometimes it gets to it, sometimes it doesn't. More is going on with the OS than just a bad video driver too.

techie: Doctor Destiny, when we make any changes like installing some applications or softwares from online then it might corrupt some of the device drivers.

techie: Please let me know if you able to boot notebook into Safe mode so that I will proceed further to provide you steps to uninstall Video driver.

Doctor Destiny: I'm attempting it now. Though realize, at this time, the note book has NO Internet access.

techie: It is very bad to hear that internet has stopped working in the Notebook .

Doctor Destiny: I don't know if it worked or not. It's simply not connected.

Doctor Destiny: And it's stuck booting into Safe Mode again.

techie: Once you boot Notebook into Safe mode please let me know.

Doctor Destiny: If it boots into Safe Mode before tomorrow morning.

Doctor Destiny: I know how to uninstall video display drivers and that is only one part of the problem. I need to know what would cause the video, right now, trying to load safe mode, be corrupted.

Doctor Destiny: Would dropping your notebook cause a malfunction with the hardware?

techie: Doctor Destiny, as I have already mentioned that this happens either when we download some of the softwares from online which gets affected in the registry files where operating system files are located.

techie: Due to this some of the drivers stops working.

techie: I am providing you Video driver weblink that you have to install later .

techie: NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 and 7600 Graphics Driver :

techie: ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp32501-33000/sp32899.exe

techie: NOTE: Clicking on the link may open the new web page in the same window. Please copy the link and paste it in the Internet Explorer address bar and Press Enter.

techie: REstart Notebook after installing Video driver to make changes affect

Doctor Destiny: You didn't answer my question though. Would... dropping the notebook cause a hardware malfunction?

techie: Yes, as the internal components present inside the Notebook are delicate that is the reason if the Notebook gets fall down or drop then it will cause internal hardware malfunction.

Doctor Destiny: Then that would explain the corrupted video display... though I don't know if that's what actually happened to this one or not...

techie: Yes, if the Notebook is dropped then it could be the reason causing internel hardware of Video .

Doctor Destiny: So then my last option is to replace the motherboard.

techie: If the isssue still persist after installing Video driver then as a last attempt you can try performing F11 recovery which will set Notebook to factory condition.

Doctor Destiny: Well... I'm pretty sure it's down to bad hardware now. Corrupted video display won't break the HP splash screen when you first boot up.

techie: Doctor Destiny, as an attempt you can try performing F11 recovery and if you want I can assist you in providing steps online which you can perform later?

Doctor Destiny: I can't do a recovery. Two reasons - it won't fix the problem and it's not my notebook. I don't want to lose someone else's files.

techie: If you do not wants to loose the data from hard drive then you can try uninstall and reinstall Video driver.

techie: Still the issue perssist then F11 recovery will be the last option to resolve the issue.

Doctor Destiny: But that will NOT fix everything. That will eliminate the display driver but will not fix the problem with the graphics controller improperly displaying BEFORE I LOAD THE GRAPHICS DRIVER.

techie: Please let me know if the Notebook is dropped or fall which cause the display issue?

Doctor Destiny: I have no idea since it's not mine. It was brought to me in this condition.

techie: Do you see any crack or something on the Notebook or on the display ?

Doctor Destiny: The screen itself is in good condition and I haven't noticed anything out of place either. Whatever happened, it damaged the internals.

techie: Not to worry, uninstall and reinstall Video driver should resolve the issue in your Notebook of display.

techie: Still the issue persists perform F11 recovery by taking backup of data from hard drive.

techie: Even, if the issue persists get back to us we will be glad to assist you .

techie: Is there anything else that I can assist you with today?

Doctor Destiny: No. I think's that's it.

Doctor Destiny: I know two things I needed - trauma can cause hardware problems and I need a new motherboard.

A few more responses about more help and where to go, etc.

[Alphabear 11]

Reminds me of EA tech support

[Saracen 16]

Why, when reading that, did I perceive the techie as a mid 20's Indian male with one of those annoying accents that you cannot understand. Stereotype? Surely not!

[Sonic 296]

This was done via a live chat thing I assume?

[Doctor Destiny 41]

Why, when reading that, did I perceive the techie as a mid 20's Indian male with one of those annoying accents that you cannot understand. Stereotype? Surely not!

No. I'm pretty sure he was from India. The broken English is a dead giveaway and the fact I did it at 11 PM CST helps too. Tech support wouldn't dare work that late or on weekends!

 

This was done via a live chat thing I assume?

Yeah. I did it last night. I had to confirm a few things and decided to be nice instead of belligerent.

[Mina Synd 0]

lawl XDDDD gawd those live chats are so funny... i've had a few encounters with the AOL live tech support. oh geez that was entertaining. and sadly the second time resulted in my humiliation >->;

basically i just lost all my download speed (i could load webpages no problem but actually downloading files was nigh impossible. think 20kbps max... P2P programs worked fine.) so after about a week of this i just figured it was too much. i had this problem before and it had lasted about half a month or more because AOL were upgrading the connection... so i figure i'd go in the live support and ask them what was happening...

 

so i go in, start chatting to the guy. obviously foreign and using the standard textbook... we went through the zillion standard questions asking just about every little detail... then he tells me that AOL has been bought by Carphone warehouse (this instantly worrying me on the spot as i had heard them to be one of the -worst- ISP's in the country...) and he tells me that i'm on the old aol servers and must put in a new router aol sign-on name... so he creates one for me and sends me the details, then explains what to do to set it up. so i leave the chat with happy goodbyes and such, and thinking i know best, i skip the part about resetting the router to factory settings because i simply don't want to have to put in a zillion port forwards and have to refix the laptop's wireless... (which my mom uses...)

 

so upon wondering why it hasn't worked, i proceed to go back to the help. i get another guy and we chat. after a little while he kinda tells me "oh. yes. you SHOULD RESET THE ROUTER" >-> so i go and do that. problem solved for a while...

 

then a few months later, fairly recently infact. me and mom simply got irritated beyond belief because carphone warehouse were completely nerfing our connection. every day during peak hours from 6pm - about 11pm, my download would go from an 8MB speed (most downloads being about 500kbps... speedtest.net rated my download as about 7.6MBps) to a 20kbps tops. usually 0.1kbps. and guess what. that happened the day when i discovered the Left 4 Dead demo was out... i spent over FIVE HOURS downloading it. the only reason it was that quick was because the second it hit 11pm my connection just went zooming up to 500kbps again xD; but the download didn't get above 5% in the 4 hours before that... so yah. go figure.

 

ANYWAY. we went to tech support again. after much fiddling about and mom being her retarded self (she knows NOTHING about computers. she knows i know she knows nothing about computers. yet she still tries to offer her opinion on technical things like i really didn't think of it before >-> and i have to do it infront of her to prove it's not the problem --; ) so she ends up dragging a chair and the laptop into my room so i don't have to keep running up and down the stairs to talk between the tech support and the laptop... aaaand after going through all the basic details again the guy explains to use some OTHER details are wrong. having already changed that specific detail twice before already, it didn't really bother me. it occurs to me that changing anything on the router and saving it will reboot the router but the guy says do it. so i do. it reboots. guess what. live chat goes goodbye XD it seems to fix the problem. for about a week. i still get it sometimes but it's hasn't affected me that badly so far because i'm not usually downloading things at that time...

 

but yah, no doubt sooner or later it'll irritate the crud out of me and/or mom. it's getting to the point where we're considering changing ISP's... on AOL the service was EXCELLENT but AOL owned by carphone warehouse... they are just abusing us :\

[Duke 0]

Why, when reading that, did I perceive the techie as a mid 20's Indian male with one of those annoying accents that you cannot understand. Stereotype? Surely not!

 

Absolutely 100% the same perception I had! Rofl. DD, i'm surprised you didn't just quit earlier.

[Doctor Destiny 41]

He has a **** job and I can sympathize with that so I can't be too mean.

[Mina Synd 0]

yah you gotta sympathize xD unless they are really winding you up >-> incase case you utterly dominate them with your tech knowledge XD

[Doctor Destiny 41]

I was without even being close to belligerent. And it took me forever for him to explain that dropping the **** will break it. >_>

 

I already knew that of course but I wanted confirmation right from HP.

[Mina Synd 0]

oO; heck i could have told you that xD; why didn't you just open the thing up and look for anything knocked out of place? though i guess it would be possible for some of the chips or whatever to take damage without it being noticable. either way you're pretty boned. gotta get a new mobo x3;

[Doctor Destiny 41]

It's not mine and I'm not bothering repairing it. I'll likely get the data if I can and give it back with a CD of his files. Replacing a notebook motherboard is a huge pain in the ass.

[Mina Synd 0]

that much i know. you have to completely disassemble the thing >->; even small upgrades that you know are possible for your laptop are surprisingly irritating >->;;; just make sure you make him get the RIGHT mobo... because otherwise you're both gonna end up with a busted laptop which has been taken apart and a shiny new laptop mobo which none of you can use because it doesn't fit any existing models you have xD ARG yah go figure ;

[Doctor Destiny 41]

I would look up the board that HP uses and buy the same thing again. herp derp. >_>

[Mina Synd 0]

...you realise HP make a lot of mobo's right? x3; not to mention the fact that if it's not a "new" laptop they probably won't sell it anymore >->;; aaaah the rise of technology. oh, how you con us so XD i get the feeling your apparently simple quest is going to turn into an epic three-part movie where you eventually have to trek the streets and deserts and go to a nevada warehouse and manually pick one up xD then you'll get it all done and discover that's not the problem and beat yourself up for weeks saying he should have just bought a new laptop xD

[Doctor Destiny 41]

I've found motherboards to ancient machines still for sale. I'm sure I could find this one since it's not that old.

[Mina Synd 0]

*nodnods* o.o; well good luck. just make sure you pick a good replacement... problem with buying older things is a lot of times they are cons or have been well-used and don't have much life left in them >>; but i'm sure you could find something decent :3