I’ll preface this by saying that if someone works in a certain industry, I do not expect them to know absolutely everything there is to know, but some basic grasp of it would be nice.

I have been having a few problems with my laptop computer of late, specifically with the power supply and battery. The battery charges while the computer is connected to mains supply, able to sustain 2 hours of worktime once disconnected from the wall socket. Five minutes before the battery is fully drained of power, a small alert window pops up, telling me that I should connect to another power supply or stop working, to avoid any data loss.

Fair enough. That’s a handy thing to know, because it saves going back to the small battery icon in the bottom right hand corner and clicking it to find out how much time remains. I also get five minutes to quickly finish off my train of thought, close the program, and shut down the computer without hassles.

However, in the last few weeks, the time between the pop-up alert telling me there are five minutes left, and the automatic shutting down of the computer when it runs out of power has no longer been five minutes. It’s actually only been one half of one second, which is definitely not useful at all. On top of this, the “you have five minutes left” warning is appearing at random intervals, such as when I have 25 or 30 minutes left, followed half a second later by the total shutdown of the computer through lack of power.

This makes the laptop not so reliable for work, as you might imagine, since it might shut down at any time, too quickly for me to save my work in that half second. It was still under warranty, so I took it in to the Toshiba authorised service centre in Richmond.

One of the people behind the counter, a pleasant 20yo lady, came over to speak to me as I approached. I told her I was bringing the computer in to be serviced under warranty, and showed the receipt to prove it was within the correct time period for warranty work. She looked a little panicked, as though she’d not seen a computer before, but got a form for writing down the details and asked me what the problem was with the computer.

I explained about the two-hour battery in the laptop, and that at the five minute mark, it was supposed to give a warning to save the work. She nodded in understanding. I then went on to say how the pop-up warning was appearing at random, at the wrong times, when there was sometimes over an hour of battery time left, then the computer would close down. She again nodded in an understanding fashion. On top of this, I explained, there was not actually five minutes to react to this problem, because the time warning and the shutdown sequence happened within half a second of another, meaning by the time I saw the “five minutes left” warning, it was already turning off.

She thought about this for a couple of seconds, then replied.

SPOTD: ”I’ll put down there is an error message appearing.”

Me: “But it is not really an error message.  It’s the appropriate warning for imminent shutdown, but at the wrong time.”

SPOTD: “Hmm… So it is not an error message?”

Me: “No. It’s shutting down at random, and the time between the message and the shutdown is the usual one that should appear when it has five minutes left. However, even if it does happen at the right time, when there are five minutes left, it still closes down in one half of one second.”

SPOTD (brightly): “Oh, okay.  Are there any programs that this happens in more than others?”

Me: “Well, I’m using either Word or Excel, but it can shut down twenty minutes earlier than it is supposed to, even when no programs are running. I’ve been testing it over the past week or so, just letting it run down to see where it gets to before closing down.”

SPOTD: “So it happens mainly when you’re using Word and Excel? There might be an error with those programs. I’ll put down there might be a problem with Word or Excel but that is a software issue and not covered under warranty.”

Me (frustrated): “But it is not a Word problem. It is not an Excel problem either. It’s a problem with the computer shutting down at the wrong time!  If you want, I can write down on the form what is happening, to make things easier.”

SPOTD (clueless about her impending doom): “No, no, it’s okay, it’s just as easy for me to write it.”

Me (silently): “No, it isn’t…”

Eventually, the message that she wrote was as follows : MESSAGE - “BATTERY LOW, CONNECT TO A MAIN SUPPLY”. I pushed hard, but she finally agreed to put “CHECK POWER SUPPLY” added on to that brief comment.

This was not exactly the way I would have described the problem if I’d written it myself, but she told me that before anyone began work on it, a technician would call me. I decided to cut my losses and just wait for the technician to call me, since if they had not begun work by that stage, then I could explain the exact nature of the problem.

Two days later, I got a call to say that someone had already looked at my computer, that it was a software issue and thus not covered under warranty, and I could come and pick it up. I went in to see what had been done to it. As far as I could tell, the technician, apparently having looked at the comments on the form, had turned the computer on, and seen it ran off the battery without problem.

I looked dubiously at the form that had been returned with the computer, but had no choice except to pay the $47.50 to get the computer back. I told the person behind the counter at the time that I’d like to speak to the technician to see whether the problem I described had been what he’d looked at, but the technician was apparently at lunch.

I took the computer home, plugged it in, charged it to full capacity, then ran it off the battery. With 19 minutes to go, the “5 minute” warning appeared and the machine promptly closed down.

So, because the original girl behind the counter was not prepared to let me describe the exact problem, I now have to go traipsing across to the service centre again to return the computer for the same reason I originally took it in.

Very frustrating indeed. With a bit of luck, she will be working again, and I can offer her my SPOTD award in person, then ask her to fetch someone else that is far more competent. Yes, I say what I think - when I have to do something twice through the fault of someone else who perhaps might need cue cards to remember the “inhale - exhale” concept, I get irritable.

Categories: SPOTD