What Do Geek Squad Technicians Actually Do?
It's a very valid question this is raised over on Slashdot, and in my two experiences (only because the laptop was still under
warranty, otherwise I wouldn't have wasted my time) they don't do very much.
The first time, the guy was able to run a diagnostics CD and then ship the laptop back to Sony (the touchpad had died).
The second time, the guy was able to look up the error message on Google, and then managed to break the display before he was able to run the diagnostics CD. Then he went on guessing what the problem was (including a program that had been uninstalled over a year ago, but had left registry entries behind).
Sadly, the Geek Squad can't even live up to it's name. There's no geeks that work there, just losers who finished the 3-hour in-store training course. Don't waste your time with them if you don't have to, as several others have already found out. There are plenty of other qualified computer technicians out there, so open up your yellow pages and get someone who can actually help you.
Actually.....The one and only time I used the Geek Squad, I found them to very helpful. My sister's hard drive crashed and they told me that the best chance to get ANY information off of the drive was to freeze the drive overnight, plug it in, and get the information off before the discs had time to expand again. Not only did their advice teach me something new, it was free and saved 5 years of information for my sister. Thank you Geek Squad!
Well, the last time I took Marci's laptop in (yes, it started acting up again) they told me the problem was spyware. Well, after clearing out the spyware myself instead of paying th $229 for them to do it, the laptop started acting up again a few days later. Turns out that there was a faulty sector on the hard drive that I was able to repair using a WinXP CD.
So after all their scans over the last month and a half, they had missed this relatively simple solution.
Sounds like you got lucky Wade. That guy probably won't be at the Geek Squad much longer.