Was it my fault or the computer technician's? (Heated argument) (8GB, transfer)

[Lovehound]

If you paid by credit card, notify your card service that you want to dispute the charge. They will give you credit and the merchant has to follow an appeals process if he wants to fight it. My main CC gives the merchant 90 days and if nothing heard I get to keep my credit. I did it only once, but it worked. (In my case it was a math error at a restaurant, their fault. I had proof.)

In the end the best way is to use experts and Internet research to learn what your problem is, and then fix it yourself if you can.

I'm shopping for a new laptop and I want Win 10 Pro. Best Buy was going to charge me $50 for upgrade labor, but I found online you can just buy the thumb drive and license, install it yourself.

[flamadiddle]

Based on what you've told us, the tech is at fault. It's simple to verify 32 vs. 64 bit and anyone that works on computers knows that a 32 bit version of Windows cannot use more than 4 GB of RAM. Sounds like he told you that, but if he didn't let you know you needed to reinstall your OS to get there, that's where he fell short.

[Tek_Freek]

Originally Posted by Ethereal

Excuse the months late reply. And thank you for the answers.

Cross my heart, he really did lose it. I'm a calm person overall. Just after I asked him why he didn't tell me all this, that I would need to reformat my computer in order for the 8GB of RAM to be operational, he becomes cranky and nasty, and starts to insult me.

Funnily, he said he'd upgrade it to 64 bit for extra $40. That's why I opted to do it by myself at home.

You sound like a decent technician yourself. We need more of you.


Dishonest, sly and greedy. He said he'll never do a refund and he was really adamant about that. Told me I'm wasting his time and he shut the phone on my face. And again, as I said above to another user, I never screamed at me or insulted him. Just told him that it was his job to tell me all this - Perhaps that triggered him.

Anyway, I needed the 8 GB of RAM. I did the strenuous task of backing up my content. I'm content with my reformatted computer. But people like him must be taken care of, really.

P.S. I "bashed" him on Google Map reviews.

If he's on Yelp drop a review there as well. If ther's any flak post a link to this thread. I was (retired) a computer tech for 30 years with the last 12 self-employed. That guy needs to be put out of business. People like that give the rest of us a bad rep.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by Ethereal

So we had a little heated argument on the phone with each other. Please read this and tell me if he was right and had a reason to be cross with me, or if I was at fault for not researching.

So the technician upgrades my RAM from 4gb to 8gb. He told me I need to also upgrade my 32 bit PC to 64 bit online in order for the RAM to be active in its full glory. Fair enough, I paid. And said I'll go home and do the update. It was going all well until, to my frustrating surprise, computer tech websites & forums all stated I must perform a clean installation of the system in order to upgrade to 64 bit and for the new RAM to be in full use. I wasn't up for that as backing up files can be mentally straining. Felt really deceived because he didn't tell me this at the store.

I called him back twice on this. At first he is like "nah, your computer can use the RAM as it is" (contradicting what he said at the store that I need 64 bit). On the second call, he admits that I have to reformat my computer. So I asked a simple question, ignoring his two blatant contradictions - "Why didn't you tell me this beforehand, that I need to reformat my PC?" All of a sudden, he gets really aggravated and emotional. He starts to have a condescending attitude towards me telling me that I should've researched and how it's not his problem. He then tells me how I know nothing about computers. - Okay, since when is this about computer knowledge? All I said to him is that he should've informed earlier (before I paid). He used ad hominems against me and made strawmans ("come here and let me teach you"), just because he made the mistake of not informing me this. Ironically, he mockingly tells me if I'm having a bad day.

I never experienced such arrogant and cantankerous behaviour from a staffs person. So after I buy the RAM and "Gotcha! Now you gotta reformat your PC and there is no refund, your problem, your loss". It felt like this.

He insists that it's my problem and not his. Is it?

It is his problem. Any tech should have known that. Very simple.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by thecoalman

You need a 64 bit system to begin with and it would be odd to have 32 bit OS originally installed. You cannot simply switch to 64 bit if it's not 64 bit. Make sure it's 64 bit machine before doing anything.


Assuming you have Windows in the Windows search box type system information and click to open it, in the right pane next to system type it should say x64 based PC.

Yep, this is the reason for the reformat. You can't just upgrade to a 64-bit OS on top of the 32-bit. It requires a fresh install.

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

The technician should have known you needed to reinstall your OS. That he didn't tell you this indicates he's either sloppy, stupid, or dishonest.

I have to agree.
Even if you called them and asked them to upgrade your RAM from 4GB to whatever, the tech should have done some due diligence, beforehand.

I am guessing it was not intentional but this indicates a -possibly- sloppy or incompetent tech.
Either way, do not use this tech again and contact one that has good reviews from bunch of people, or from people you personally know (which is always better in my book).

If I remember correctly, a 64-bit OS can utilize up to 128 GB RAM, but no home user is likely to need that much.
For those doing heavy video/image editing or CAD work, 64 should be enough but then again, how many how users are running SolidWorks or Catia on their system?

RAM can be a double-edged sword, too much of it can actually have adverse effects on a system that doesn't really need/utilize it. A rough analogy would be a light weight sports car that doesn't need/use the extra horsepower it gets from the V8 installed in it. That engine would be too heavy and powerful for the chassis to handle to begin with. Also, it'd require better braking/transmission while also requiring/using way more fuel.

RAM capacity are commonly determined/restricted by the following:
- Operating System
- Motherboard (and naturally, to a certain extend CPU)
- Software/User's needs and utilization
- And indirect but still applicable; overall system power load and currently installed PSU

Even if it was feasible to upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit Windows, I would still strongly urge people to do a fresh install. I think it might be confusing to novice home users when they hear words like "Upgrade" or "Reinstall" Windows. You can upgrade from an older version of Windows to a newer one but if they are different bit versions, that calls for a fresh install aka install from scratch. Now, that doesn't mean you cannot use an app or manually transfer your files, application settings, bookmarks/favorites, etc.
However, you will have to re-install all required applications after installing the different bit version of Windows.
At that point, not much different than going from Windows to Linux.

Here is the kicker, assuming your RAM upgrade was only restricted by OS (Operating System) and all other requirements and factors were A-OK with it, and you had ample hard drive space, then you could technically re-partition (resize) the existing HD and install the 64-bit version of Windows adjacent to the existing one.
Why would you do such a thing? Perhaps you have some irreplaceable apps that you still needed and wouldn't be able to re-install, etc. so you could reboot and switch between different Windows installations on the same machine.

Still, even if that was the case, I'd recommend turning the existing Windows into a virtual image (any computer shop/tech worthy enough to do this for a living should be able to do) or most home users can do this for free by using a free app like Disk2VHD, even.

Then you do a fresh install of Windows and then if you need to access anything from the old system, you can fire up a free app like VirtualBox or VM Player to load that virtual image created.

I am sensing the above information might be a tad too much for you but I shared this regardless, in case if it is something you'd be interested in, the tech could make it happen for you.

[stanley-88888888]

so based on the o.p., the tech messed up by not checking how wide the c.p.u. and o.s. are. or maybe they did know; but, did as instructed anyways knowing it would have no benefit for the o.p. and make some quick cash.


it seems like o.p. is attempting to complete the work themselves. o.p. didnt post what operating system they are using ? the responses presumed that it is ms-windows-10 32-bit (which is probably accurate but o.p. should confirm to prevent further miscommunications).


also what c.p.u. do they have ?


i trust a machine to answer these questions more than a human with unreliable experience. i dont know what commands in windows to get that information (presuming the assumption they are indeed running a version of ms-windows is correct and not gnu/linux or mac-os).


gnu/linux makes this easy where you would copy-pasta the output of the uname and cpuinfo commands (also meminfo would probably be helpful too).


i would like to avoid the scenario where the o.p. is already running an o.s. like fedora-29 64-bit and the 8 gb ram is not really an issue (or worse: they spend more money on a new version of windows-10 64-bit but the c.p.u. is a single core 32-bit celeron).

[TurcoLoco]

Originally Posted by stanley-88888888

i trust a machine to answer these questions more than a human with unreliable experience. i dont know what commands in windows to get that information (presuming the assumption they are indeed running a version of ms-windows is correct and not gnu/linux or mac-os).

Yup, same here.

gnu/linux makes this easy where you would copy-pasta the output of the uname and cpuinfo commands (also meminfo would probably be helpful too).

For Windows, System Info page can be displayed by the following key combination:

Hold down Windows key and press Pause/Break (Pause is the actual key, so on laptops where Pause/Break might be separated, go for Pause, or more like Windows key + F/funtion + Pause

For a more comprehensive list: START > RUN > msinfo32 > OK

[Peregrine]

Agree 99% with Turco.


Except this:

Originally Posted by TurcoLoco

RAM can be a double-edged sword, too much of it can actually have adverse effects on a system that doesn't really need/utilize it. A rough analogy would be a light weight sports car that doesn't need/use the extra horsepower it gets from the V8 installed in it. That engine would be too heavy and powerful for the chassis to handle to begin with. Also, it'd require better braking/transmission while also requiring/using way more fuel.

There is zero impact to having more RAM then you need.

Except to the wallet paying for RAM you don't need.

[gguerra]

Originally Posted by Peregrine

There is zero impact to having more RAM then you need.

This is correct. RAM stands for Random Access Memory, meaning it can be addressed directly at whatever location your system needs to. Doesn't matter on the amount.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Random-access_memory