Computer Help Please! Tech preferred.

[Reuben Feffer]

Can someone please tell me if I purchased a 'hot' laptop and have been had in the process? That is, I was told this computer was brand new and had never been used before. I have recently come across a few suspicious occurences with my laptop and here they are:

1) When I replied to an email I received using hotmail, the person who received my email said the outgoing name was not mine.

2) I signed up for winzip and for some reason there were previous logs made from 2001 with winzip and purchased the laptop in 2003.

The answer I got in response to winzip when I proposed the question to a computer tech person is this: "Can`t see Winzip doing that. Nobody puts more shit in your PC than Symantec, that is why as far as product activations and what not, if you do a add/remove to get rid of it and delete the files when you reinstall it will pick up all of the info from the registry and remeber it all as well as the activation date. If you F disk and reformat, it will wipe the partition clean and the registry will be fresh, so if you put a
symantec product on there it will give you a brand new activation date
and not find anything, the same goes any Microsoft products, and Winzip
is the same, now however on Laptop`s they usually leave a image from
the dealer, sometimes in the CMOS on the mainboard, so if it was not wiped
from the CMOS it can be picked up with the right tool, but the registry
on the hard drive, is wiped clean so it would get it from there, if
that were the case Sympatec and Microsoft products would pick it up every
time. The registry is wiped out on a format, as well as any mods done to it whatsoever"

Can someone please explain what this computer tech person is talking about in lamins terms? If it helps, I have never reformated this laptop and is any of the remarks made by this computer tech making any sense? What is the real answer to his theory?

Thank you.

 

[freakshow]

You might wanna check with these guys...........


http://www.computerforums.org/


In case you havent noticed this is an Escort Review board

 

[Esco!]

In case you havent noticed this is an Escort Review board

This is an Escort Review board???????????????????????????????

 

[freakshow]

This is an Escort Review board???????????????????????????????

Ocasionally

 

[Berlin]

This is an Escort Review board???????????????????????????????

Exactly what I was thinking. Almost anything goes in the lounge, but a big fat question as such for the first post ... LOL

Don't get me wrong here, ain't nothing wrong with what you are asking at all.

 

[yychobbyist]

Not that I'm the big expert about this guy here or anything but a post like this by a guy named Reuben? Doesn't that kinda just maybe not pass the smell test?

 

[Reuben Feffer]

Not that I'm the big expert about this guy here or anything but a post like this by a guy named Reuben? Doesn't that kinda just maybe not pass the smell test?

HUH? Well, thanks for all the great support guys. This is an open discussion forum called the lounge and I've read other threads in reference to computer questions so where are all the computer geeks here?
BTW, Reuben Feffer is the name of Ben Stiller's character I took from Along Came Polly in which he shags quite the prize lady in Jennifer Aniston, fyi!

 

[yychobbyist]

It's just that there's a poster named Rueben who is, shall we say......a bit......colourful.

 

[darkknight77]

Hmmm, I think you're right in being suspicious. And it sounds like the tech is given you a lot of verbal diarrhea and lingo to stop you asking the tough questions. Remember, the number one rule in these places is

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

In response to your question, I would press the issue further. It seems clear that the computer was being used before it was sold to you. Some shops will do installations and so forth as a way of testing the product, but NO reputable shop would ever give you a machine in which the old files were still present. The laptop should have been cleanly formatted and in a virgin state when you got it, as you were purchasing a new product.

My hunch is that they had an old hard drive lying around and tossed it in without formatting things properly. You said you purchased the machine in 2003, so a reformat would require some work (backing up your files, format, reinstalling your files/programs) which they might help you with if you bitch enough. As for direct compensation, it seems unlikely. Most computer parts are untraceable so you'd have a tough time making a solid case of theft.

That having been said, you might want to sniff around and see if the old user left his banking information or PIN lying around ;-)

 

[Larry_Fyne]

Can someone please tell me if I purchased a 'hot' laptop and have been had in the process? That is, I was told this computer was brand new and had never been used before. I have recently come across a few suspicious occurences with my laptop and here they are:

1) When I replied to an email I received using hotmail, the person who received my email said the outgoing name was not mine.

2) I signed up for winzip and for some reason there were previous logs made from 2001 with winzip and purchased the laptop in 2003.

The answer I got in response to winzip when I proposed the question to a computer tech person is this: "Can`t see Winzip doing that. Nobody puts more shit in your PC than Symantec, that is why as far as product activations and what not, if you do a add/remove to get rid of it and delete the files when you reinstall it will pick up all of the info from the registry and remeber it all as well as the activation date. If you F disk and reformat, it will wipe the partition clean and the registry will be fresh, so if you put a
symantec product on there it will give you a brand new activation date
and not find anything, the same goes any Microsoft products, and Winzip
is the same, now however on Laptop`s they usually leave a image from
the dealer, sometimes in the CMOS on the mainboard, so if it was not wiped
from the CMOS it can be picked up with the right tool, but the registry
on the hard drive, is wiped clean so it would get it from there, if
that were the case Sympatec and Microsoft products would pick it up every
time. The registry is wiped out on a format, as well as any mods done to it whatsoever"

Can someone please explain what this computer tech person is talking about in lamins terms? If it helps, I have never reformated this laptop and is any of the remarks made by this computer tech making any sense? What is the real answer to his theory?

Thank you.

First of all, if you bought it in 2003 and there are "logs" from 2001, what the hell did you buy? P3? P4?

Hotmail does not reside on your PC, it is on a server. Sending a message from Hotmail would not change no matter what PC you used. That is why people use internet cafes and libraries.

Winzip would have created registry entries. Sometimes, uninstalls do not remove registry entries.

Where would you buy a notebook from and not know it is new? If you have dealt with someone who is not an authorized dealer, you may have been screwed, but it was 2 years ago now. I replace computers after 3 years. The barn door is now closed.

 

[Reuben Feffer]

Hmmm, I think you're right in being suspicious. And it sounds like the tech is given you a lot of verbal diarrhea and lingo to stop you asking the tough questions. Remember, the number one rule in these places is

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

In response to your question, I would press the issue further. It seems clear that the computer was being used before it was sold to you. Some shops will do installations and so forth as a way of testing the product, but NO reputable shop would ever give you a machine in which the old files were still present. The laptop should have been cleanly formatted and in a virgin state when you got it, as you were purchasing a new product.

My hunch is that they had an old hard drive lying around and tossed it in without formatting things properly. You said you purchased the machine in 2003, so a reformat would require some work (backing up your files, format, reinstalling your files/programs) which they might help you with if you bitch enough. As for direct compensation, it seems unlikely. Most computer parts are untraceable so you'd have a tough time making a solid case of theft.

That having been said, you might want to sniff around and see if the old user left his banking information or PIN lying around ;-)

I should have said that I purchased the computer through a mutual friend who had middle man offer his computer initially the night before. He said I would be getting the same Toshiba notebook computer but could buy his for a cheaper price if I wanted it. I think he sold me his anyway because the story was that there was no box when I picked up the laptop and that they said the computer I purchased was couried in. Besides that the top of the notebook had a scratch on it. The issue about winzip is the latest and like I said about buying this computer in 2003, why does winzip show log in files from 2001? Does this indeed prove the laptop is used? The computer was never reformated as noted and I would love to get your feedback on this. Thank you kindly.

 

[Reuben Feffer]

First of all, if you bought it in 2003 and there are "logs" from 2001, what the hell did you buy? P3? P4?

Hotmail does not reside on your PC, it is on a server. Sending a message from Hotmail would not change no matter what PC you used. That is why people use internet cafes and libraries.

Winzip would have created registry entries. Sometimes, uninstalls do not remove registry entries.

Where would you buy a notebook from and not know it is new? If you have dealt with someone who is not an authorized dealer, you may have been screwed, but it was 2 years ago now. I replace computers after 3 years. The barn door is now closed.

I purchased a Toshiba satellite notebook P4

 

[a 1 player]

That having been said, you might want to sniff around and see if the old user left his banking information or PIN lying around ;-)

Or if you're really lucky his old escort reviews.

 

[Cashanova]

Belarc Advisor

Whether you're troubleshooting, shopping for an upgrade, or just want to check what's underneath the hood, it's helpful to know what you have. Belarc Advisor gives you the scoop on what's installed on your desktop or notebook. It scans your computer and generates a profile of everything installed on it, from your main circuit board to software. Version, manufacturer, and serial numbers are listed, as well as statistics such as available memory slots and hard drive space.

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, including Microsoft Hotfixes, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.

 

[l69norm]

...
2) I signed up for winzip and for some reason there were previous logs made from 2001 with winzip and purchased the laptop in 2003.......
Thank you.

Best to call Toshiba with the s/n. They can tell you when it was built.

It's not unusual for new PCs to be loaded from a drive image. It's possible that the log was on the image being used.

I don't think you'll find a "new" laptop in that's the same model in 2003 as it was in 2001. They change pretty much on a yearly basis.