hiya—a few weeks back, i woke up to a black monitor. when i went to turn on the pc, the fans spun up, but i got no other typical signs of life—lights didn’t turn on, no power to connected usb devices, nothing. i tried a lot of things—redoing every connection between components, reseating the ram, trying a single stick of ram, trying to boot without gpu, clearing cmos, swapping the cmos battery—i also paperclip tested the psu for signs of life. nothing was really fruitful and unfortunately i know less about pcs than I’d like, so i figured I’d be better off taking it to the local microcenter. i got this text back today and it reeks of bullshit, but i don’t know enough to be sure or know how to respond. any advice on how to move forward would be lovely <3
26 Comments
F that
CPU cooler is too dusty, leading to replacement?
This is not right
Too dusty to remove. Smh
How will they install the new one then?
That sounds like the weirdest way to say your cpu cooler is crap. I don’t know microcenter didn’t exactly build their reputation off fucking customers but I don’t have any first person experience with their repair services
sounds off unless the cooler broken in some way a fail to see how dust could stop you removing it to accesses the cpu but they can remove it to replace it?
Ask them what magical powers they propose to use in order to replace the cooler, if it’s supposedly too dusty to unscrew from its bracket.
Scam Likely
Hmm doesn’t seem right but I would pretty much stake my life on my local microcenter (not your location)
80$ for 5 minutes of work lol.
Plus “too dusty”? Go get your system back and take it somewhere else.
They do not need to replace the CPU cooler to see if the CPU works, and dust is irrelevant to testing the CPU.
Now, I’ve seen some cases that are horrible inside, and that I would absolutely not touch with a 10 foot pole. Maybe this is their way of saying “dude you got life growing on the heatsink and I ain’t touching that for free”, but besides that, there is absolutely no reason to need to replace the cooler to test the CPU.
Go remove it yourself, then ask them to do a diagnostic
Yeah, that’s obvious bullshit. There’s no amount of dust that prevents you from removing a cooler. Plus, it’s logically inconsistent, because he then offers to remove it and put a new one on. With that one lie he just lost all trust and credibility.
Not cool
Too dusty to remove doesn’t make any sense.
$80 in labor for removal and reinstallation for something like this, reasons aside, is maybe a tad high.
Let’s hypothetically say that you or I were going to remove and install a new cooler. It might take 30, 45 mins to remove the old cooler, disconnect the fan cable(s), unbox the new one, bolt it down, and reroute the new power cables. Maybe we can do it in 30 if we’re real good, and the instructions for the bracket are clear and no issues are encountered.
I’d say the shop probably adds testing as part of the install process and you probably should too. It probably takes 45 mins to an hour to complete. Hourly tech work used to be about $70/hour. So $80 adjusted for inflation seems about right.
$80 in labor to remove and install a cooler is not egregrious.
What is wrong is the reason given for this- I don’t know why the cooler can’t be cleaned out in situ, and the test. I might argue that fresh thermal compound might be something they might want to do if they suspect the cooler is underperforming, but I don’t get the “dusty” thing.
The tech needs to clarify why this is needed. The $80 labor is probably a reasonable charge but the reason they think it needs it isn’t right. If they want to remove it to clean it and reseat it with fresh compound, ok, say that. But just because a cooler is “dusty” isn’t a reason to replace it, even if it is. Just clean it and stick it back on.
Tell them to put it back together and not do any service on it. Go pick it up. Don’t pay anything. If you’ve already paid, initiate a chargeback once you’ve picked it up.
lol, no. Too dusty? Ok vacuum it, detach fan, clean, re attach. Boom done. Maybe it needs a re paste, but not a replacement. That’s bs.
Yeah they’re trying to scam you
Wow… shameless scam
Your PC is dusty so unfortunately we had to destroy it. Would you like to look at our selection of very expensive brand new options?
Yea. Tell them to step away from the computer you’ll be there to pick it up and take it somewhere else.
Fuck I can’t get past all this dust to unscrew the 4 thumbscrews fuck
But if you give me 80$ I’ll figure it out
if it’s not even POSTing you can rule out that it’s the CPU. If it were part of the CPU assemblage your monitor would light up and you’d get error beeps. Microcenter sells compressed air cans for like $1. Go in, buy the compressed air, go over to the service department, clean it out yourself, then they’re good.
This is a totally unnecessary copout from the tech. More likely the they’re just being lazy because CPU fan assemblies can be a pain in the dick. Diagnostic labor is already covered in the diagnostic fee. Once you’ve cleaned it out I would take shit tons of pictures of the condition of the motherboard; someone uncertain enough to try to scam you instead of pulling the fan, is also a risk for damaging components and saying they were already damaged.
And Microcenter has a history of doing exactly that.
Do you smoke OP? “Too dusty to replace” could be code for “covered in tar and crap and easier to replace than clean”.
Question: why do people who get these texts not call the place they dropped their PC off at?
Call microcenter and tell them you got this text and wanted to confirm whats going on. That should’ve been done from the start, not asking on reddit lol.
What? Too dusty to remove?
If that was even true, which it isn’t, how is he intending on installing a new one if he can’t even remove the current one? Fuck this place
Too dusty to remove huh? Give it back then, I’ll do it myself. And if it is in fact that dusty, that ain’t just dust. Probably cigar smoke and tar.