Cover Story Daily Chuckle Local News Social Butterfly Commentary Professional Advice ..... The Computer Buzz ..... Your Body Can Heal Itself! Pet of the Week Featured Merchants Capitol Report Restaurant Review Where to Go What to Do Where to Eat In the Spotlight Clip & Save Chamber of Commerce Home Improvement Website Links Service Directory Business & Professions Classifieds Where to find The Paper How to Subscribe Archive Marketing/MediaKit Contact Us Search the site	The Computer Buzz	July 1st, 2010
	Nome and Paul Van Middlesworth - owners - The Computer Factory   Dell PCs Swollen, Leaking Capacitors In earlier days when PCs were actually designed, built and serviced by American companies there was strong emphasis on quality,reliability, and service. Today American PC companies no longer design, manufacture, or service PCs. Your new Dell, HP,or Compaq, was designed and manufactured in an alien, perhaps tropical land. It shivered in a darkened warehouse at Fry’s, Best Buyor Costco and first saw light of day in America when you opened it up in your living room. (Spray it with Lysol and watch out for banana spiders). Perhaps you have set-up problems and call Customer Service. You talk with Bobby in Bangalore, Mary in Manila or Tammy in Timbuktu. They don’t actually work for the company whose logo is on your PC but they entertain you with some highly imaginative English language impressions.They’re no help so you try your “Free On Site Service.” After hours of call waiting a robot takes your name and address. Two days later “Geeks an Freaks,”(low bidder for your computer company’s “on site service") sends Randy. He squats over your new PC exposing a “male cleavage” that lights up your entire living room. He uses your bathroom twice and then announces, “Your PC is broke and needs to go back the factory.” At the end of your “one-year on site service” you celebrate by getting drunk. Not everyone who buys a “retail package PC” has a horrible experience. If your new PC doesn’t break, you’ll never experience shoddy Customer Service as offered by most computer sellers. It is however, increasingly likely that your “American brand” PC will have problems. Nowadays those American companies have little control over the design, manufacture and quality of the products that bear their names. The pending litigation against Dell is an excellent example. The suit alleges that Dell knowingly distributed products with components (capacitors) that were bad enough to, over time, cause 97% of thePCs to fail. It further states that Dell instructed employees to lie about this problem and resisted a recall because most of the failures would occur after a one-year warranty had expired. Large companies who purchased thousands of PCs from Dell initiated the lawsuit. Small businesses and home users don’t have this kind of recourse. They get stuck when a crappy product goes sneakers-up shortly after the warranty expires. Offshore designers and builders of American brand PCs are encouraged to take shortcuts and use the cheap components because of the price competition at all levels. Dell is in the spotlight but we have seen the same “swollen, leaking capacitor problem” in HP, Compaq, E machine, and Gateway PCs. The PCs that we build are superior to those American brand but foreign made PCs in quality, service, and reliability, but servicing, repairing, and upgrading those American brand hummers is an important part of our business. So thank you Dell, Compaq, HP, and the rest. If their PCs were as reliable as ours, we’d be out of business in a month.