A second computer with a webcam these days is the way to go. The tech
person can then see what is going on.

"Bob F." wrote in message
...
I was once helping a young lady replace a disk drive over the phone. It
was obvious she had no knowledge of computers and I was at a point where
the jumper needed to be moved and knew that I always did this with a pair
of very small needle nose pliers. I knew she didn't have this tool. So,
I'm thinking to myself, "how am I going to get her to do this". So, I
said, "Now we have to move this jumper" and I described it. She immediate
said without the slightest delay, "wait a minute 'til I get my tweezers".
I was stunned! People always surprise me.
--
Regards, BobF.
"Colin Barnhorst" wrote in message
...
It is reasonable to replace a hard drive under the instruction of an
experienced person over the phone. She is right. It is not difficult.
Follow her advice.

Unexpected shutdowns can also be caused by overheating of a component.
Ask the Dell person who helps you with the hard drive replacement about
it.

"bradleywold" wrote in message
...

One of my computers is a Gateway desktop, that came with Vista Home
Premium. This computer has been giving me problems ever since I got it
last May. It has been giving me unexpected shut downs without warnings.
I have formated the hard drive numerous times, and finally paid Gateway
to get the restore disk so that I could do this. Well, the problem
kept continuing. I had talked to Gateway numerous times also. Anyway,
the
last straw was yesterday when I restored again, and this time she did a
shut down on me when it was installing the necessary updates. Now I
knew it wasn't a software incapability or something that I loaded that
was causing it. So I called Gateway again, and this time I rant and
raving about how I was frustrated about this and I wanted to find a
way to absolutely clear my hard drive from this corrupted thing or
virus,
so I could do another clean format. After her research about this
problem, she suggested that I may have a bad hard drive, that is causing
this
problem. She offered to send me out a new hard drive for $75, and if I
sent the old hard drive back, I would get the money back. I accepted,
but was reluctant to commit to putting a hard drive in myself, since I
was unfamiliar with this. I am a hands on learner, and got most of my
computer insights from you guys, and problems that I try to get out of.
Anyway, she said it is not hard, and that Gateway would talk me through
it. The computer is on Manufacturer warranty, but I did not buy the
extended warranty from Best Buy; so I think that Best Buy would not be
able to help me out with this, nor would I want them too, since I hear
horror stories.

My question to you is: Does this sound like a reasonable explanation
to a solution, and how difficult is it to replace the hard drive. I
would
like to be assured that this may be the solution to the problem. One
can only try. What are your ideas?? Thanks.