PC World sucks

There are reasons why people are putting PC World in the Hall of Shame along with AOL – and I’m finding it out, painfully, at the moment.

A friend of mine asked for help with his PC. He couldn’t get the drivers for it. It’s an Advent brand PC, which I found out later to be sold by PC World. Unfortunately, he’s lost his drivers CD, so I have to find the drivers online.

After a quick search, it’s clear that PC World wants you to call its Helpline – which is a premium phone number, which will cost you a lot. So I refused the temptation, and insisted on finding the drivers by myself.

pcservicecall.co.uk (on of PC World’s website) listed the manufacturer’s website as http://www.adventcomputers.co.uk/. Too easy ? Yep, the website is down. Nothing like a challenge to start your day.

Unfortunately, it went downhill from there.
The graphic card was quite easy, it’s a Radeon X300. But the motherboard and soundcard were the painful ones. And then there’s still one funny thing in device manager that I have no idea what it is.

At the moment I’m still sorting out this bloody thing.
So, again, just say no to PC World. They can make your life miserable (and you paid a lot for it!).

61 thoughts on “PC World sucks

  1. i work for PCW ,””Unfortunately, he’s lost his drivers CD”” is that PC worlds fault ??? dont think so ….

  2. #2 – I’ve worked with a lot of computer hardware, and I can get the driver for almost all of them on Internet.
    Except, you guessed it, PC World’s computer (and a few others).

    It’s actually quite easy to lost the drivers CD – moving house, kids messing with it, your dog playing with it, and so on. So nowadays I consider it (having the drivers available on Internet) as a must.

    Anyway, the best tip so far to avoid this (losing the drivers CD) is to put it inside your computer’s casing.

  3. You can find a full hardware list at pcservicecall.co.uk (it’ll also show you exactly what device manager should look like), or order an update (driver) cd from dsgrecovery.com for a fiver, & helplines are charged at national rates except for out-of-warranty stuff which is charged at premium rates.

  4. #4 – very comprehensive answer, thanks towelie. Hopefully someone will find your information useful.

  5. drivers for advent laptops = easy, i bought a laptop which was advent with no OS or driver cd, stuck gentoo linux on it 😉 used to run windows on it (but windows sucks), take it apart and look at the chipsets to find drivers for it

  6. and yeh pcworld does suck, quit working for them a long time ago

  7. http://www.dsgrecovery.com – Tell your friend to order new system recovery media for his PC if he has misplaced his. If he never got any restore media for his PC there then the recovery may be built in, in which case pressing F10 on startup would recover his PC back to factory settings, and load all drivers.

    You only usually need to install drivers when you have ‘formatted’ the computer and installed windows xp your self – something you should never do with a PC bought from any highstreet retailer.

  8. Comment by Rich was unjust, PCW try to cater for a broad spectrum of users, they dont necessarily expect customers to upgrade O/S etc, so having a driver cd provided with the machine is OK, unless customer loses it, or as in most cases upgrades or downgrades O/S. I work for PCworld tech support, and although we dont always have the write ups for the brand new machines, we can investigate the HW specs with the manufacturers and find relevant drivers, and can provide the drivers on a CD as long as the customer has warranty, or hasnt lost them!,this can be done through the call centre which operates 24/7. Cheers.

  9. Any computer sold by PC World or anyother supplier does not have drivers available online, then it sucks. Any other comment, such as , you should not loose your drivers CD, sucks even more..

  10. I agree with all points about PC.World. How this company stays alive I will never know. I have phoned the company I have been on there web site and it is murder. I have been passed from pillow to post with this company. I have installed a new hard drive in my ei system 5001. On trying the recovery disk it then asked me for an update disk. I know why it asks this, but have you tried getting one? I have made seven phone calls, tried a web Address they give me that was down. I have took the machine back to pc world and asked them if I left the machine with them could they get it going with there disks. They said no because they do have the disks.
    Now all of you that is saying it is the fault of the owner for loosing the cd’s are wrong. I have the recovery disk that was supplied by PC.World on purchase. So does this mean I am unable to fit anew hard drive in my machine? It’s rubbish, totally bloody rubbish. The only alternative have now have is either load win 98 or purchase win xp.
    Now if someone can give me good reason for buying from this bloody company they are welcome to try.
    Like previously said a company should be able to provide at least info on how and where to purchase.
    Now if pC.World cannot provide keep the disks for what ever reason how do they restore machines. Also what is all this servicing about they advertise. After all if they cannot restore using a disk because lack of stock what does go on.
    Like it is said above if I pay for a warranty they may look at. That is stupid. Surely if they cannot recover without warranty, how is it done with one?
    I have offered to pay for any disks or repair necessary.
    Now what do you say?

  11. Sorry for the mistake where it says “because they do have the disks” should say “because they do NOT have the disks. I am just that mad.

  12. I also have this pain in the arse. I bought a advent laptop 7088 and i lost my driver disk, i have tryed all the websites (which are down)and am left with a brand new laptop i cant use

  13. I seem to have the same problem with a brand new Philips LS2200 that I bought from PC World. I requested a disc from them in early March (they will send you one disc free of charge), the disc never came. Now they are telling me that I told them I received the disc but lost it. I’m still waiting for the disc, so this was news to me. I don’t mind paying for the bloody disc, so they gave me the address of http://www.dsgrecovery.com, but the website does not work. I just sent an email back to them, so i’m awaiting a response. I bought this PC and a laptop (cash) at the same time less than 8 months ago and i’ve had to send the laptop back because it was overheating, and I still can’t use my PC. PC World? Never again.

  14. Hi, I got an ADVENT T1 and changed the hard drive, but i dont have the cd with the drivers, searching internet I found almost all of them and works very good, but no driver for the webcam (at least any one able to work as webcam, just photo camera). could you help me to get a copy of the original cd drivers please?, or at least for the webcam.
    PC world NEVER AGAIN
    I’m in London.
    Thanks

  15. Like everyone else I have had the runaround tryin to get recovery media for an Advent 7011 but found the guys on +44(0)870901300 very helpful
    To purchase online try this link http://www.pcservicecall.co.uk/recoverymedia
    but you will need
    Customer ref#
    Date of purchase
    ref #
    Branch #
    Coverplan #
    serial#

    Good luck and I hope this helps someone.

  16. I ALSO BOUGHT AN ADVENT 7081 LAPTOP ,IT CAME WITH NO BACK UP DISC ATALL.IT HAS A HARD DRIVE PROBLEM,I WENT TO PC WORLD TO BE TOLD THERE MOVING SHOP AND CC
    CANT HELP ME TILL NEXT WEEK.IS THIS THE START OF MY PROBLEM`S OR DO I HOLD OUT WITH HOPE.THE LAPTOP IS FIVE MONTHS OLD ,CAN I GET MY MONET BACK IF THEY PISS ME ABOUT,IM OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS

  17. Hi, I bought an Advent T9300 from PC World after 15 months I needed the Recovery Disc. It was so badly scratched that it will not load 15 of the files consequentley XP does not work properly. I phoned the Premiem line and ordered a replacement and was told delivery within 28 days. After five weeks I phoned again to be told that the order is there on the computer but the representative should not have taken an order fron me. Try the we sites. ALL THE WEB SITES ARE DOWN AND HAVE BEEN FOR WEEKS. PC WORLD NEVER AGAIN.

  18. Yep PC World Suck!

    And NTL do but thats another story!

    After installing a new NTL connection on the my cheapo 7086 laptop I brought from PC World I used the Recovery Disc, that the machine got me to create when I first fired it up, to restart from scratch so I didnt have any of NTLs crap on there.

    Anyway half way thru the rebuild it asked me to put another disc in… HELLO It only burnt one disc! So off I went down to PC World and politly asked for there help. After a long discussion the guy said that the DVD was scratched. Maybe but only because it had been pulled in and out of the drive so many times. So he said he will order me a disc as they dont keep them. 3 weeks latter I am still waiting for my disc despite being told they will send me one on several occasions.

    So here I am with a £400 paper weight and nothing but fob off lies from PC World. So Yes PC WORLD SUCKS!

    And before anyone blames my lack of experience I am infact typing this on 64 bit PC that I built and installed the software with out any help. I only wish I had done that with a laptop and not been ripped off by lack of care take your money and fuck you PC WORLD.

    And I still need a Rescue Disc for an Advent 7086 Laptop so if anyone can help feel free to Mail Me at webmaster@nitronick.co.uk

  19. PCWorld suck and blow. I tried to take a Sony laptop back after 2 days – I had mistakenly ordered one with a screen too large – and they weren’t interested in helping. No refund, unlucky mate (the sentiment of their customer service, if not their exact words).

    They suck so much.

  20. Not going to knock PC world, they are they to supply a demand.. bought an advent myself about 18 months ago (7056 model) and have lost my driver cd as well… tried a coupel of websites to update them but am having lots of trouble with the graphic card one.. if anyone gets their hands ona recovery disc let me know…
    M,

  21. Danny says to visit http://www.pcservicecall.co.uk/recoverymedia. I have already done this and once I finally had all the details needed I entered the relevant data. I received a confirmation of receipt and it was stated that I would receive my disks within 28 days. A month later I still have no disks. I went back to the website to see what was going on and the website ha been completed updated. It now states that I have to contact sales to order my recovery disks for 30 quid. It was free last month!! I phoned themup on the number provided (if you need to do this just lie on the touchtone system as they will not talk to you if you have not bought your pc within the last year and have paid for support – recovery disks is not support it simply comes under your buyers rights) and they informed me that they only have cds 1 and 2 of a 3 disk set. The fact that it takes 28days to produce a cd is a bit excessive anyway but with delays its ridiculous. It leads me to believe that their service is so shocking that the backlog of broken computers simply piles up and up. They have asked me to be patient and wait a while longer. If I have not received them in a fortnight I will phone them back and ask for the address of thye MD. I will post it here so you can all send him the stories of bad customer service you have all been given.

  22. FOUND IT!!! (No MD name though)
    PC Servicecall, Lenton Lane, Lenton Industrial Estate, Nottingham

  23. Hi,

    I too made the mistake of buying a pc from pcw but have to say the Fujitsu Siemans Laptop I got for the misses has been fab. But the previous laptop the Advent 7056 was crashing. It was out of the 1 year warranty so no point contacting them. I went onto fdisk it before making a backup of the c:\driver and c:\application folders. Realising that it’s hopeless trying to find the driver package anywhere I used the recovery disk (yes I’m one of those that keep disks very safe!) but it didn’t reinstall the drivers. The pcservicecall site does have most of the drivers you need for download. The graphics driver can be found at nvidias website. The only drivers I couldn’t find were for the mouse touchpad but it still works fine and and it just means it doesn’t have an icon in control panel. If anyone needs a copy of the recovery disk for this model email me and I’ll post you a copy. Not sure if it will work for yours but you never know. Funny thing was I should’ve thought about the drivers before fdisking and ironically it was overheating cos of fluff in the fan channels (which I also should’ve checked first) and had I thought, I wouldn’t have needed to reinstall in the first place lol! It’s sat here beside me performing very well editing video with prem 1.5. Only gripe is it tends to drop wireless lan connection whenever it’s transferring big files. Oh yeh and I live about 10 mins from the MD’s address but I doubt writing to him will help. You should all get together and contact bbc’s watchdog and let them do an item. Alternatively make a video of your thoughts about pcw or take a cam in with you when you go to complain. Then upload it to youtube.com! LOL. Best of luck people and remember – don’t buy pc’s from pcw.

  24. Sorry about the Advent drivers, they are very difficult to find. Anyone who has a problem finding Advent drivers, email suzerains@aol.com and I will find them for you.

    Regards, Colin

  25. Looking for info on an Advent computer (7081NO) I found these url s

    http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/laptop/7081.htm
    http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/advent/advidx.htm

    maybe this can be helpful to others :-).

    Advent 7081 Laptop
    Can You Help?

    If you own one of these laptops can you take a couple of minutes to check the information on this page is correct. If you come across any errors or have any other information that can help fill in the gaps then please email me at info@uktsupport.co.uk.

    Many thanks, Matt

    Specification
    CPU Intel Celeron M 350 1.30GHz
    Chipset SiS 661 Chipset
    Hard Drive 40GB UDMA
    Memory 256MB PC2700 DDR SODIMM (1 memory slot. Max 1GB) ***
    CD Drive Dual layer DVD±RW
    Sound Card Realtek AC’97 audio
    Screen 14.1″ TFT (native resolution 1024 x 768)
    Video Card SiS 661FX 64MB shared
    Network Card SiS 900 integrated fast ethernet (download drivers)
    Modem Agere systems AC’97 modem
    PC Card None
    Ports ** 1x LAN
    1x Modem
    1x Kensington Lock
    4x USB
    1x Headphone
    1x Microphone
    1x S-Video
    1x VGA

    Touchpad Synaptics Touchpad

  26. I used to work for PC service call (now called tech guys btw) and while i appreciate your frustration the address is nothing to do with the people at the addy /phone number given – that is purly a tech support number(0845 901 3000)/address (Lenton Lane, Nottingham). It’s not much consolation but the ridululous rules regarding recovery media wind the support staff up too!

    PCW are owned by DSG international, the same parent company as Currys and Currys Digital (formerly known as Dixons.) Their HQ address is:
    Dixons House
    Maylands Ave.
    Hemel Hempstead
    Herts
    England
    HP2 7TG
    The chairman is a guy called John Collins.

    THEIR website is www. dsgiplc.com

    The tech support side is run by Capita (look up their website for further info on them!) as DSG sold the support company to them in Feb – and the problems escalated from then!

    The probs regarding Advent recovery media are down to Advent’s stupid rules (although others are worse – eg HP wont replace a recovery disk that was MISSING AT PURCHASE after the first 28 days and charch around £45 for one.) The other problem seems to be Advent retail their computers before they can provide recovery media, so if a new machine goes down you could be faced with a long wait without the PC!

    A little advice for you who have had the “insert second disk” on recovery, this is when the hard disk based recovery screws up , the second disk is basically a driver disk, & although its a pain you can manage without but will need to trawl the net to find drivers… many are available from the PCSC website, http://www.pcservicecall.co.uk – click PC Support at the top & navigate to your machine, Many drivers are in the DOWNLOADS section of the write up, otherwise go to HARDWARE where you can at least find the make & model of what you need (and clicking on each sometimes takes you to a driver link.

    Hope this clears the air from a tech support point of view, as for DSGI I’ve provided the info it’s up to you how you use it!! 😉

  27. PC World is on the way down. I have just sold all of my shares for PC world and hope other investors like myself see PC World as a liability within their portfolio. PC World is a liability to the DSG Group!

  28. my advent t9306 is the worst pc I have owned comes with no o/s cds tried to load xp pro with no luck and cant get xp home to work keep getting stop message, tested all components with
    ubd cd and all tests seem ok. the first time I turned it on I couldn’t believe the noise it made total load of crashing crap

  29. Why would you need XP Pro on ur machine other than to make use of domain based networking, remote deskop or IIS?

    See, what is frustrating is that people moan on an on about not getting recovery CD’s. Read back, people loose and damage (by accident) these CD’s, so many manufacturers such as HP, Packard Bell and Acer to name a few have decided that it works out better for both parties to make use of a second partition on the hard drive for recovery media. This way, the recovery media is where the PC is, plus they all give the option of creating CD’s if you wish.

    On the part of drivers, ‘The Tech Guys’ website appears to have the key drivers (sound, chipset, etc) for all new PC’s and possibly many past models.

    I personally feel that PC World’s customer service is let down by two things. First of all, PC World staff are not employed for their knowledge of PC’s and peripherals, but rather their ability to work as a team and sell. Secondly, their returns policies are a little poor, yet I understand that this is most probably due to the number of customers who try and sometimes succeed in returning PC’s that they don’t know how to use in the first place.

    I’m not standing up for the company, but maybe it gives an insight into both sides of the story.

  30. Ok.

    I’ve bought an ei systems computer from pc world, and this was in 2004.
    Like others, i did not think t back up the applications folder, i mean … after all, drivers are soooooo easy to find right?
    Today, i dicided that i would get it sorted out properly; i have drivers for everything except the bluetooth and the easy button.
    Pcservicecall.co.uk = redirect to thetechguies.com.
    Clicked on downloads for my model, and i only got the modem driver. great. I can give drivers to anyone that needs:
    sis 900 lan
    sis 650 graphics
    realtech ac97 sound
    sis 7012 sond
    If anyone could sort out the easy button and bluetooth thing, could they please email bmustillrose@gmail.com, same if they want any of the above.
    If anyones up for starting a wiki type thing to group driver links and specs together, again email me and i will sort out hosting.

    One good thing about pcworld was when i took my ei in due to a fault with the pcmcia slot. The computer came back, pcmcia working, but whats this? It now runs windows xp home (no drivers except for ethenet) which is quite strange considering i gave it to them with ubuntu on it.
    No wories though, turns out they gave it a new hdd aswell as fixing the card problem; they left my old perfectly working one in my laptop case.

    Btw, this is the first result when you google dsgrecovery or dsgrecovery.com, which was what i was told to go onto to sort out bluetooth, to bad its down.

    BEN.

  31. I agree PC WORLD IS CR*P

    But come on people you know the chipsets just search for drivers that way, ie typw into google sis660 drivers and thats it,
    Itherwise use bios agent (type in google) that will tell you the chipset and it costs nothing again simple.
    I have a advent 7081 which i found drivers for within 5 mins and not from no crapp* pcworld website. I re-formatted and installed win home agian without any problems whatsoever

  32. I’m agreeing with Dan (34): You can’t blame PC world for not being provided with surplus manufacturer’s discs. Blame Advent, blame Philips etc by all means for not making enough in time. Or blame yourselves for not looking after them in the first place, or ignoring the Recovery Disc creator popup that kept occuring on your new PC. If your buy a car, do you not care much for the log book or the little card with your stereo’s security PIN?

    The majority of people complaining here are the ones who don’t know enough to resolve their own problems, but don’t want to have to fork out. Not that I’m against that- the only way to get used to a computer is to use a computer. But it’s no good venting at some poor £11k salesman because you got your mate to install his copy of XP Pro in an attempt to make it better only to find you’ve lost your device drivers. As Dan says: domain based networking, remote deskop or IIS is all your going to benefit with Pro. If you’re stuck, get someone who can to do it. The Techguys now offer OOW (out of warranty) support for ANY computer. No, it’s not free. But no, it’s not a charity for the IT bewildered either.

    Enough rant! Here’s 3 ways for all you loverly people to get the drivers for your Advent PC etc:

    1) Checking the product guides on http://www.pcservicecall.co.uk or http://www.thetechguys.com – Every computer purchased through PC World is here, as well as a comprehensive breakdown of every device in your system. Maybe not all direct driver downloads, but at least you’ll know exactly what to Google for. They *can* be found very easily.

    2) Cross-reference the Vendor and Device IDs from Device Manager with http://www.pcidatabase.com. You will get EVERYTHING you need to know about your mobo, VGA sound chipsets etc. If you don’t have access to the Vendor or Device IDs (look under the Details tab) then you’re using a version of Windows earlier than XP SP2. Sorry, even Microsoft themselves won’t help you unless you update. This is good for non PCWorld & DSGi PCs too.

    3) Create recovery CDs before you have a problem. More so; backup your C:\WINDOWS\INF (hidden), and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folders (and their subdirectories) to a DVD. That way you have a manual backup of all your drivers. But I’m not going into depth on how to utilise that one; I’ll be missing out on thirty quid a throw!

    I brought a Packard Bell MV51-120 laptop with Turion 64×2 (1.6) CPU 100GB HDD, 1GB RAM and nVidia GO 6100 (shared) graphics from PCWorld. With an extra gig and a few tweaks, at £440 it’s now out-performing my mates £1000 HP. The difference? I’ve had a bit more practice.

    ———-
    PS. PCWorld is pants though. Mainly because they are salesmen and not techs.

  33. I work for the support line at The Tech Guys (not the best name in the world admittedly), was looking for the address funnily enough for updating my CV and came across this. On the subject of recovery media, unfortunately supplying PCs with disks is rather unfashionable, Toshiba and Fujitsu Siemens are the only 2 brands sold by PCW that still do that, however most do prompt you on set up not make your own, shouldn’t ignore it. As for obtaining drivers, most are available on http://support.thetechguys.com – just look under product guides.

    Hope this is of some help to some people

  34. Dell are so much better then pc world they have all the drivers for multiple OS for each unit, guessing no-one knows where proper advent drivers are my uncle wants to downgrade from vista to xp and the idiots at pc world gave him a home premium license when he asked for a business pc.

  35. The question still unanswered by me was THIS:
    Advent T1 a magnificent product has few manuals. To see the DOS screen for partition change or examination the laptop keyboard F1 cannot activate anything, so as my administrater has more to attain than measly accomplishers up till today I will have a surprise for him. ( after the shop closes , since pulling my finger out ! )

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  37. rich is blowing out his arse, windows pwns linux and no pc world employee can even spell linux let alone use it, stop bullshitting people here, that’s what pc world is for and you’re too dumb to even work there

  38. Despite the fact that this article is quite old, it has really much sense in it. I mean PC World is not acting in the best way lately so you know what I mean. Let’s just hope that situation will change in the future.

  39. sometimes the drivers are to old or the manufactured does not upload the drivers to the internet

    Regards
    Sophie

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