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Problems at Home

Gordon Jenkins has had his fair share of hassles with his two-year-old Micron home PC. First of all, some of the keyboard keys stopped working, and then the cooling fan went out. The company sent him new components. "When I called Micron, it took anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes to get through," says Jenkins. "But once [the company] got on it, they took care of everything pretty quickly."

Jenkins also reported that he called Micron about software-related problems, too. Predictably, the techies responded by saying that the problems lay with the programs--not the hardware--and urged him to call the software vendors. "But the problem is, when you don't know what exactly is causing the problem, you don't know who to call." His latest gripe? To date, he has not been able to get his new RCA digital camera to work with his PC.

Jenkins has had some problems with his home appliances, but only after years of faithful service. His refrigerator's ice maker has begun sticking, after four years of use. His three-year-old VCR (built into his TV) now refuses to eject tapes. And he recently had to replace his washer-dryer after six years because it gobbled up the belt during the spin cycle.

PCs Lagging Behind

So why are computers so much less reliable than other appliances? Basically, computers just do a lot more, says Gartner Group senior research analyst Mark Margevicius. "It's not a fixed function appliance. It's a great, great Swiss Army knife. You can use it many different ways." And that means it can break down in many different ways.

But what about the individual components--the CD-ROM drive, the modem, the hard drives? Each of these does only one job, yet almost a third of our home PC owners told us they'd had to replace at least one such faulty component. Margevicius blames the PC industry's breakneck pace of change. Companies like Intel, for instance, are racing to produce faster processors and new chip technologies. PC makers must change their systems to accommodate these improvements--even if they'd rather focus on upgrading the stability of their existing products. "Market conditions and...Intel won't allow them to do that," said Margevicius. "The rate of change just adds to the uncertainty and unreliability [of computers]."

Gary Cotshott, vice president of services for Dell, agrees that making the ever-changing pieces of a PC work together is a constant challenge. "You have levels of hardware and software integration that frankly you couldn't even contemplate in, say, a refrigerator," he says. Cotshott also cites the continuing explosion in new software and new operating systems as a source of difficulties. "You can't test every possible combination of every [single] thing that may be in a machine," says Cotshott, adding that Dell does take great pains to test its products thoroughly. And buyers often load their own collection of hardware onto systems. This too can cause all kinds of compatibility problems.

Our survey results show worsening PC reliability and service. In the months since we last presented our ratings (in the January 2000 issue), several companies have dropped in rank from Good to Fair overall, and many fewer earn a Good rating. Overall, the Home PCs group did a little bit worse than Work PCs and Notebooks groups: Home computer owners had to deal with a slightly larger number of PC problems overall and poorer service.