Advice on Sending PC for Repair

Post Reply New Topic

I have a small netbook which has a fault with the battery not charging.
It is still under warranty and the manufacturer requests I send it via courier at their expense to Germany [I'm in UK].
I have used this netbook to conduct online banking and make payments via credit card and as I was asked for my netbook password I am now paranoid any technician will phish my account details.
I have no files stored at all on the netbook as I only use it to surf.

Please could someone give me advice as to what measures I could or should take before waving goodbye to it when the courier comes.

Do you make all the transactions using a web browser? If so, the simplest way would be to delete all cookies and delete all private data. This should prevent anyone from going in and looking at the information (if they start looking on the hard drive at the sector level, you have a totally different problem).

In addition, you can create another user account on the operating system and give them the password for that. Unless they need it to have administrative rights (which I don't see any reason for if it's just to check the battery), this will prevent them from accessing all your documents, etc. at the operating system level.

Explain what the netbook is doing. If you can't start it purchase a new power adapter and your problem shall be fixed, 5 bucks on eBay.

Thanks for the replies WillMcC + Nim.

I was wondering along the lines of doing a factory reset as I don't have any data stored but that means I would have to update all the system/security.
The netbook works via the adaptor ok, so I might just hang onto it and forget it is battery powered as I don't really go anywhere outside my home.

a power adaptor wont help on a blown charging circuit, a common fault in many brands of labtops and netbooks.
as said you can remove your cookies and your private data,
a true sector lookup can take hours and after that you often still stand with data errors and similar an actual restore can be quite the undertaking, i remember digging my financial records off of my drive once, took hours for a couple of text files.

i dont think they will have the time nor want to take the ffort for doing so just on the off chance that you have used it for banking.

remove the hard drive before you send it. Since all they need to do is replace the mobo, it wont matter that the HD is not in it.

Its more likely that the battery died than a "charging fault".

If your worried about your personal info then download "ccleaner", set it to clear everything, delete any files you don't want people to steal. And the last option in the ccleaner list is "wipe free space". Let it run as long as it takes and you should be relatively safe for sending it in.

There's only so far people will go to find information.

true, there is also quite a good possibility it could be that.

in either case he would have to send it in for repair unless he wants to buy a new battery himself, if he has little use of the battery however there is little reason to.

it is true he could pull the drive but disassembly of a netbook where there is no hard drive bay would void warranty, that is the case with some netbooks using SSD disks.

Removing HD might void warranty.

Oodain beat me.. lol

Thanks again for the replies........

I was WARNED if I send the netbook back and anything has been configured or altered since purchase I will be charged for the courier cost and repair/replacement. That could cost more than the thing cost.

I cannot even source a new battery online for the model so I am giving up and will just use it powered by the AC adaptor.

The password would be your log in to Windows, etc password. If you want - delete all cookies and temporary internet data.

^Thanks Keith, I usually delete all that stuff daily since BT blamed my once slow connection on temp internet files [when it was their exchange at fault all along].

Change your accounts password and details