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| Measure | Desktop PCs | Survey average1 | Notebook PCs | Survey average1 |
| Percent of PCs with problems: Percentage of PCs that have had at least one problem needing repair. (Lower is better.) | Outstanding: 38.4 to 39.5 percent Good: 45.9 to 49.2 percent Fair: 52.4 to 52.7 percent | 45.7 percent | Outstanding: 35 to 36.3 percent Good: 42.6 to 44.6 percent Fair: 46.8 percent | 40.7 percent |
| Problems per year: Average number of problems per PC per year of age. (Lower is better.) | Good: 0.64 to 0.74 problem per year Fair: 0.87 to 0.96 problem per year | 0.74 problem per year | Outstanding: 0.45 problem per year Good: 0.64 to 0.7 problem per year Fair: 0.96 problem per year | 0.68 problem per year |
| Problems on arrival: Percentage of PCs that did not work properly when first turned on. (Lower is better.) | Outstanding: 2.3 percent Good: 3.7 to 5.1 percent Fair: 6.7 percent | 4.7 percent | Good: 2.9 to 3.9 percent Fair: 4.5 to 4.7 percent | 3.7 percent |
| Dead on arrival: Percentage of PCs that were nonfunctional when first turned on. (Lower is better.) | Outstanding: 0.39 to 0.87 percent Good: 1.37 to 1.55 percent Fair: 2.22 percent | 1.2 percent | Outstanding: 0 to 0.55 percent Good: 0.63 to 0.94 percent | 0.47 percent |
| Component failure: Percentage of PCs that have had at least one faulty component replaced. (Lower is better.) | Outstanding: 17.5 percent Good: 19 to 31.8 percent Fair: 35.7 percent | 26.4 percent | Outstanding: 16.3 percent Good: 20.2 to 24.7 percent Fair: 28.8 to 30.4 percent | 22.8 percent |
| Satisfaction with reliability: Percentage of respondents who said they were highly satisfied with their PC?s reliability. (Higher is better.) | Good: 77.7 to 75.6 percent Fair: 66.9 to 62.6 percent Poor: 57.8 to 54.8 percent | 67.5 percent | Good: 76.4 to 74.1 percent Fair: 68.8 to 67.4 percent Poor: 62.7 percent | 72.4 percent |
| Short hold time: Percentage of service recipients who waited for 5 minutes or less for telephone tech support. (Higher is better.) | Outstanding: 86.3 to 78.6 percent Good: 70.4 to 61.8 percent Fair: 57.9 percent Poor: 48 to 45.3 percent | 61.9 percent | Good: 65.7 to 62 percent Fair: 55.4 to 53.3 percent Poor: 47.6 to 45 percent | 54.6 percent |
| Quick resolution: Percentage of service recipients whose most recent problem was resolved in 5 days or less. (Higher is better.) | Good: 76.7 to 71.4 percent Fair: 68.2 to 60.6 percent Poor: 57.8 percent | 67.4 percent | Good: 68.8 to 67.5 percent Fair: 60.3 percent Poor: 56.1 to 50.4 percent | 61.1 percent |
| No resolution: Percentage of service recipients whose problem was never resolved. (Lower is better.) | Outstanding: 3.5 percent Good: 5.4 percent Fair: 7.8 to 9.7 percent Poor: 11.8 percent | 7.9 percent | Good: 5.4 to 5.5 percent Fair: 7.1 to 7.9 percent Poor: 12.2 to 12.4 percent | 8.3 percent |
| Knowledgeable tech support: Percentage of service recipients who rated the tech support personnel's knowledge as high quality. (Higher is better.) | Outstanding: 91.2 percent Good: 85.7 to 80.1 percent Fair: 74 percent | 82.7 percent | Outstanding: 92.6 percent Good: 85.5 to 81.8 percent Fair: 76.9 to 72.5 percent | 82.1 percent |
| Sincere effort by tech support: Percentage of service recipients who rated the tech support personnel's sincere effort as high quality. (Higher is better.) | Outstanding: 90.5 to 89.5 percent Good: 87.5 to 79.8 percent | 85.1 percent | Outstanding: 93.4 to 90.1 percent Good: 87.7 to 85.2 percent Fair: 70 percent | 85.4 percent |
| Satisfaction with service: Percentage of service recipients who said they were highly satisfied with the service they received. (Higher is better.) | Good: 64.6 percent Fair: 57.5 to 54.3 percent Poor: 47.9 to 39.7 percent | 53.9 percent | Good: 69.3 percent Fair: 60.9 to 52.5 percent Poor: 47.8 to 41.5 percent | 53.8 percent |
1 Figure refers to the average score among all companies rated in the respective measure in PC World's PC Reliability and Service report.
HOW WE TEST: We test rewritable DVD drives under Windows XP Home on PCs with 1.67-GHz Athlon XP 2000+ processors and 512MB of DDR SDRAM. To test each drive, we use the bundled DVD video authoring, mastering, and packet-writing software; we use vendor-supplied media or Verbatim media. Tests conducted by the PC World Test Center. All rights reserved.