Case Study:
Misdirected Technical Support
This happened to me, and illustrates why we started Stoney Hill Associates. I’ve edited out specific names, because they aren’t relevant to the story. It's a bit long, but worth reading through to the end.
Here’s the original problem, as it was captured on the vendor’s Web submission form:
Problem: Computer
Operating System: Windows XP
Problem Description: No Error message
The CPU will not run at full speed even when I use [the power- management utility] to select "Maximum Performance" mode. Instead of 1.4GHZ, "My Computer > Properties" reports speed of 599MHz.
Tried to close and reopen My Computer. I note that during this time, the computer is on AC power, and the battery is being charged. Does this mean the system will not run at full speed?
Vendor's Reply #1:
***THIS IS AN AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED ACKNOWLEDGEMENT -- DO NOT REPLY***
Thank you for choosing [your vendor’s] E-Mail Support. We have received your message and look forward to serving you. Our e-mail technicians can usually answer you in six to twelve hours.
Vendor's Reply #2:
Dear Mr.[name],
Thank you for contacting [vendor] Support and Services. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you. I apologize for your trouble and I assure you it is our hope that you have a positive experience with our company.
Please visit the following link and repair the operating system:
[URL for a document describing how to do a Repair Reinstallation of Windows XP]
To identify the exact malfunction, please visit the following link and run the diagnostic test for the hard drive:
[URL for a document describing how to run a diagnostic test to verify hard drive failures]
Thank you again for choosing [vendor].
Respectfully,
[Technician name]
StoneyHill's Reply #1: (I’m skeptical, because the repair doesn’t seem to be related to the problem. But I might be wrong.)
Thank you for the link. I am not able to reinstall immediately, but will pursue this after work is done. Before I begin, though, I like to understand the rationale for a repair procedure so I can be confident of the likelihood of repair before I begin a risky procedure.
The links recommend running a 90/90 (severe) diagnostic on my hard drive. Why should I do this when the issue is a CPU speed problem? The CPU ran at full-speed yesterday when on AC power, and it does not do so today. I am not experiencing any errors or problems with the hard disk. Can you explain the connection between CPU speed and hard drive failures?
Thanks for the help.
Vendor's Reply #3. Untouched by human hands, but it does tell me that my message got into a queue:
***THIS IS AN AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED ACKNOWLEDGEMENT -- DO NOT REPLY***
Dear
Customer
Your
Support Request has been received by [the] Technical Support Team. We
provide technical support for [several laptop models] sold from the United
States.
Your request will be responded to via e-mail as soon as possible. Our average response time is currently 21 minutes 7 seconds.
When responding to follow-up e-mails please do not change or modify the subject line. This is used to properly route your e-mail.
If you have an urgent issue and need immediate assistance with your system, please utilize our 24 hour support line at [toll-free phone number].
If you are in need of assistance with multiple systems, please submit a request for each system individually. This will allow each request to be handled on an individual basis and by a technician that is trained on your system.
Thank you for choosing [our company]
Technical Support
Vendor Reply #4. This was from a technician.
Dear Mr. [Customer],
Thank you for your time and cooperation.
Sir, before repairing the operating system I will request you to please
refer to the link below to resolve the issue.
[URL to a Microsoft article on how to set performance options in Windows
XP]
Some email programs will wrap this address to a second line so you will
have to copy each of the lines directly into the address bar of your browser
with no spaces between the two sections.
If the issue still persists then please let me know and we will do the
needful to resolve the issue. We
assure you our best support all the time.
Thank you for choosing [our company].
[Technician name]
StoneyHill's Reply #3:
Adjusting performance options turns off some of the eye candy in Windows
XP, but it won’t raise the CPU clock speed. So these suggestions
didn’t solve the problem.
Thank you. This
is a very useful link. It allowed me to turn off many many annoying
features of Windows XP. This makes my computer a little less frustrating
to use.
However, the basic issue remains: My 1.4 GHz Pentium 4 chip runs
only at something between 251MHz and 799 MHz, even when running on AC
and not battery. I am determining this problem by examining the
display on the My Computer > Properties > General window
[A screen shot of the
System Properties dialog box was included to show the incorrect speed
display]
The attached image clearly shows the problem. The chip rated for
1400 MHz is running at less than half that speed. This is consistently
the case and I have not been able to find conditions under which the processor
will run at full speed.
I originally thought that this was a power management problem and arranged to run the laptop with external cooling (a fan) blowing across the unit to keep it cool. No change. I have been able to get the machine to run at full speed now and again, but only for short periods of time.
What causes this behavior?
Vendor Reply #4. I didn’t get an automated reply this time. It appears that the issue has been escalated.
Dear Mr. [Customer],
Thank you for your time and cooperation. In order to resolve the issue please refer to the link below
[URL to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article describing a defect in speed reporting in Windows XP]
If the issue still persists then follow the steps listed below
To resolve this problem, uninstall the SpeedStep utility, reset the computer, restore setup defaults, then reinstall the SpeedStep utility.
To do this, perform the following steps
- Uninstall SpeedStep
- Click the Start button, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
- The Control Panel window appears.
- Double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon.
- Click to select Intel Speed Step App, and then click the Add/Remove button.
- The program uninstalls.
- Click the Close button.
- Click the Start button, click Shut Down, click Shutdown, and then click OK
If the issue still remains unresolved then in that case I will suggest you to get your system exchanged as the processor needs to be replaced for that you need to contcat Customer care section .
Please contact customer service at [toll-free phone number].
We assure you our best support all the time. Thank you again for choosing [our company].
Respectfully,
[Technician
name]
StoneyHill's
Reply #4
Now we are getting somewhere. No one has offered a solution, but
these possible causes seem relevant to the problem.
Thank you for the reply. It does appear that there is an issue, because when I follow the instructions in the provided link, my system reports the clock speed as 599MHz.
The General tab under My Computer > Properties reports speed at 599 MHz at the same time.
I opened the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, but I do not find the SpeedStep utility installed. So I can't complete the procedure to uninstall it.
What do you recommend as the next step? Thanks.
Final reply from the technician:
Dear Mr. [Customer],
Thank you for your time and cooperation. Sir, Please contact customer care at [toll-free phone number] to exchange the system as the systsem is within 30 days so you will get the system exchange for it.
Thank you for your time and cooperation.
Thank you again for choosing [our company].
Respectfully,
[Name
of new technician]
ANALYSIS
I thought the explanation of the problem was clear. The CPU speed was too slow. I explained why I thought there was a problem, and how the technician could try to reproduce it.
Now let’s look at the solutions presented by the technicians.
1. Reinstall Windows. Why? The evidence suggests a hardware problem, on a machine that the vendor knew was only a week or two old.
2. Run hard disk diagnostics. Some hard drive diagnostics are fairly benign, so taking the step of running disk tests would only have wasted the user’s time. Others are severe, intended to force a questionable disk drive to fail. Why do this if there’s no evidence of disk trouble?
3. Adjust Windows XP performance options. This choice causes the colorful Windows XP interface to be replaced with the plainer Windows 2000 style of menus and windows. This does no permanent damage, unless the user depends on the XP color scheme for accessibility. But this solution doesn’t address the symptom, which is that the CPU appears to run too slow.
4. Windows XP speed defect: This is the true cause of the problem, and although the technician refers to it, he does not describe how to correct it. It’s not the technician’s fault, because the vendor can’t fix Windows XP.
5. Reinstall the Intel SpeedStep utility: This might be the solution, if the computer had this software. But this computer doesn’t use it.
6. Replace the computer: Ouch! Why would the technician suggest this? Well, the issue has been unresolved after several messages, so it is “hot”. And since the problem does not seem to be resolvable from the point of view of the second technician, he or she is probably justified in authorizing a replacement just to get this problem out of the queue. This is understandable, but it’s a bad result for everyone concerned.
It’s expensive for the vendor to replace a computer or motherboard that is not defective. This raises the price of computers and support.
It’s bothersome to negotiate the tech-support system, and it takes a lot of time. This issue took several days to work through.
It’s a hardship to be without a computer if you have to send it to the factory for repair.
Even if you have “on-site” service, you have to wait for parts to be delivered and for a service call to be scheduled.
It’s a lot of work to move programs and data to a new computer or to reinstall software.
Why did the technician make all these suggestions ?
All the procedures the technicians recommend will restore the computer to its as-sold configuration. From this point, the most common problems will usually be resolved without any further action on the vendor’s part. But if you’re like I am, you do a lot with your computer, and it would be a hardship to go backward.
Using a hardware diagnostic, I demonstrated that the CPU was running at full speed. I activated the power-management features and verified that the CPU could slow down to save battery power, and that the hardware diagnostic correctly reported the speed. So the defect about speed reporting in Windows XP is the trouble, and (fortunately) the only trouble. Although there’s no fix yet for this defect in Windows XP, I could prove that the computer was healthy and no replacement was needed.
What Does This Mean for You?
If you took these recommended steps on your computer, you’d do a lot of work for no result. Sometimes, going backward on your computer isn’t the smart way to solve a problem. But vendor technicians don’t have the time to think about your problem; they need to get it back to the factory setup and get you out of the call queue. That’s the only way they can offer support for thousands of users.
When you call on Stoney Hill Associates, we can take the time to understand your problem. We’ll ask questions that will identify your trouble, and we’ll explain why your computer isn’t healthy. We’ll fix the trouble, and help you keep it from coming back. If you need vendor support, we’ll tell you, and see that you get the help you need.
© 2006 Stoney Hill Associates, LLC
