Nontrivial Exercises

My Second Toshiba Support Experience - Still Decent

After going through my first Toshiba customer support experience, and being left with a machine that was not quite 100% functional, I decided I wasn’t going to accept that and I called back in to open a new support case. The end result is that I have an M200 that works very well now, but again it was not quite as smooth of a process as it should have been. I’ll give the chronology again below.

The issue with my M200 after being fixed the first time was that the tablet was not sensing the movement of the screen from laptop to slate mode and automatically changing the screen orientation.This became very annoying as I switched between laptop and tablet modes and had to manually adjust the screen orientation. In addition to that, however, it became clearer that the whole hinge and rotation of the screen was not as solid as it used to be – it was pretty loose and there was a lot of “play” in it as it hinged and turned.

Tuesday, 10/18 11:00 am – I call Toshiba support and describe my problem. The support rep appears to understand exactly what I’m saying and opens a CASE.

Tuesday, 10/18 3:00 pm – I receive a call from the same local technician who had worked on my M200 before. He informed me that Toshiba had ordered a new “hinge assembly” and would overnight it to him. He would call me when it came in. This was familiar, and again I was impressed with the responsiveness from the Toshiba support system.

Wednesday, 10/19 3:00 pm – The local technician called and told me he had the part form Toshiba, but couldn’t get my machine until the next day. (Interestingly, these first three interactions have almost the exact same timing, as in time of day, as my first three calls in my previous support issue.)

Thursday, 10/20 3:30 pm – The local technician arrives to pick up my tablet. I return to my office to limp by on my Dell C610 regular laptop with my backed up files and not all my productivity applications.

Friday, 10/21 2:30 pm – No word from local technician guy, but I have to leave early anyway. I have a Indian Guides camp out with my son, so I don’t worry about the tablet for now. However, had I had the tablet working, I would have taken it on the camp out so that I could down load my pictures from my camera as I took them. I only have a 256M memory stick, so I can only hold about pics at the next-to-highest resolution (only about 50 at the highest resolution). I limit my picture taking for the weekend to just 72 pics, but I still got some good ones, including my son catching his first fish!

Monday, 10/24 8:45 am – I receive a call from my close acquaintance, the local technician who repairs my M200, telling me that my M200 is ready. He arrives at my office about 30 minutes later to deliver the now fully functional tablet. I put it through it’s paces with him in the lobby of my building before I accept it again, and am satisfied. The hinge assembly did the trick, it’s clearly back to its original turning capability and does now correctly recognize when I switch from laptop mode to slate mode. I bid him goodbye, hoping on a professional level that we do not need to interact again in the near future.

Tuesday, 10/25 10:30 am – after using the tablet for a day or so, I can tell that although the hinge mechanism does work correctly, it feels a little loose just in a small range of moving the screen up and down, as if something isn’t quite tight enough. In addition to that, there is a dust spec that’s under the plastic screen that is really becoming annoying. It’s right in the middle of the screen and is blocking some letters. In addition to that, there are still a couple of small smudges on the inside of the plastic screen – barely visible, but I notice them. And, in addition to that, I hear a slight rattle when I move the tablet around, as if there’s a small piece of something loose inside that moves around whenever I tilt the tablet.

I’m not especially happy at this point, though the last thing I really want to do is give up my tablet for another couple of days. I’ve lost enough time and productivity without it over the past several days for these two support episodes. So, I decide to take matters into my own hands and fix the last remaining annoyances myself.

I unscrew the screen – just like I saw the local technician do it the first time around – and gently pry the top plastic cover away from the base of the screen assembly. It’s really quite easy and the inside of the screen is surprisingly uncluttered. There’s the top clear plastic cover, then there’s the digitizer, a thin film-like sheet that rests on top of the TFT (thin film transistor) LCD panel. Upon removal of the top clear plastic screen cover, I am able to remove the bothersome dust spec, clean off all smudges with a cloth that I use to clean the lenses of my glasses. I then gently tilt the laptop up and down and lo, what should fall on my desk but a little screw. There were no screws missing from the screen assembly, so I conclude the technician dropped it in by mistake from the old hinge assembly.

With 3 of my 4 remaining problems out of the way, I turn my attention to the loose screen movement. After trying to put the screen cover back on unsuccessfully, I see the problem. One of the screws to which the middle hinge attaches to the screen is unscrewed about halfway, preventing the screen cover from completely going back on. I tighten up this screw, and guess what – no more hinge problems. The screen is nice and tight and rotates just right.

Tuesday, 10/25, 12:00 pm – I reassemble the screen, wiping down the plastic cover again, and now I am an extremely happy and productive tableteer once again.

I again will say that the support I received from Toshiba itself was effective and responsive. I don’t think that the work that my local technician did was great, though. I wish I could find a Richard’s Computer near me (as referenced in Warner Crocker’s recent positive experience having his M200 serviced.)

Update – I just looked on the Richard’s Computer website, and there is indeed a store in Dallas, not too far from me! I think I will go to them for any future service on the M200 – thanks for the plug, Warner.

Overall, I still rate my customer support experience as decent.