Why are minor OEM machines built by monkeys?

So I'm cleaning out my case this morning. I notice that my front fan is dustier than thou. So I go to pull it out. As I do so, I notice something that had just never caught my eye before. The fan was installed <i>facing the wrong way</i>!

So basically I had a front and rear exhaust, with no intake fan. No bloody wonder I had problems with it overheating in the past.

Now, you might think that this is just completely an accident. Surely I can't think that this kind of stuff happens frequently. PC technicians at my local mini-OEM surely are more skilled than that.

Well, let me tell you a little story. When this PC was first ordered, it was needed in a rush. My company payed at least twice what it was worth for a combination of that rush, and for a 'loaner' PC until it was built, tested, and delivered.

So as I'm carrying the loaner up to my desk, I ask myself "Hey, what the hell is that banging noise inside the case?" When I opened up the case, guess what I saw.

If you guessed that the front fan wasn't even mounted and was just swinging by the power cable which was clipped to a bunching of cables, you're right.

If you guessed a midget llama in speedos, you need help.

So this same OEM has not once, but twice proven their incapacity for correctly mounting the front fan. Is it me, or does that just seem really pathetic?

Anywho, the morals of the story are:
1) Don't expect your local OEM PC technicians to be any more skilled than you are. Some are. Some aren't. Holding expectations will only leave room for a letdown.
2) If you are obsessed with midget llamas, you need help.
3) Morels taste really good when breaded with flour and pan fried in butter with fresh chives. I know a morel isn't really a moral, but it's still good advice if you like mushrooms.

<A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/171.htm" target="_new">The corpse you find may be your own.</A> - Black Mage

There are no local technicians as skilled as me.

<font color=blue>By now you're probably wishing you had ask more questions first!</font color=blue>

by the way, WTF is a llama?

"Is Celeron good?"
"No. Celeron is bad."
LOL

You're talking about camels, llamas are South-American pack animals similar to camels but not quite.

Check out my rig:
<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737" target="_new">http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=3737</A>

Yup, that's why you find only 1 in 10 shops, nice people that are honest. My local shop in Ottawa, during the P3 and early P4 days, had completly omitted selling Intels. I applaud them for that, but only for that period. During that time, Intel even being beaten by the K7, barely made the P3 any faster really, it still did not beat the K7 clock per clock, and they even tried RDR on it. Then P4 came out....WILLLLMAAAAA!!! <Fred Flinstone voice> Thank god they didn't sell those crap CPUs, at least they were selling the real price/performance honest CPUs. The fact they sell enthusiast CPUs, showed to me that they are smart, honest, so I looked at them for my AXP. Then in January 2002 they finally started selling Intels. But I can guess for competition AND the fact P4 NWs started to shine then. So this concludes to me, how searching well will get you the shop you can trust.


--
The sound of determination is the echo of will...

I saw the title of this post and thought:

Well, they need a break from the monotany of working out the script to Hamlet

Most local OEMs hire young college or highschool students, and don't pay them particularly well. Unfortunately, as is often the case in life, you get what you pay for.

Forum Gigolo wanabe

When I worked by an OEM, they send me to a company who had problems with one of their servers. It was an Compaq... with dual Xeons. One cpu blew after 2 month. So I replaced the CPU. After 3 Weeks had to go again to the same company, same server same cpu.

""Why does he blows up????
.................
Let's replace the cpu and turn the server n while it's open.""

There was 1 intake fan cooling one of the cpu's. The second didn't have any cooling.
So I put a piece of plastic to devide the airflow. Like that the 2 cpu's have airflow.

Ofcourse this was a temp solution. We ordered a second fan for the server to replace the plastic plate.

Sometimes we have to be creative with solutions.
Hell, the server worked, no?? Customer happy, I happy

Still, when you buy an expensive server from Compaq you expect that it will work fine.

The fastest cpu of today will be slow on the same day next year.

Compaq Technician 1: <font color=green>It survived the 24-hour burn in, so it's good to go.</font color=green>
Compaq Technician 2: <font color=red>I don't know... Don't you think that the cooling is a little ... inadiquate?</font color=red>
Compaq Technician 1: <font color=green>Nah. It must be good enough or else they wouldn't have told me to build it.</font color=green>
Compaq Technician 2: <font color=red>Well, okay. I guess if something goes wrong in a few months, it's someone else's problem by then.</font color=red>

Damn straight. That's exactly my point. When you actually pay someone else to put the PC together for you, you would <i>hope</i> that they actually know what they're doing. Usually they do. Sometimes though...

<font color=orange>Ooh. Ooh. Eee!</font color=orange>

Monkey want a banana?

<A HREF="http://www.nuklearpower.com/comic/171.htm" target="_new">The corpse you find may be your own.</A> - Black Mage