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Best Buy $39.95 "Optimization" At Best a Waste of Money

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the hooray-for-corporate-scams dept.

DCFC writes "The Consumerist deconstructs the appalling 'optimization service' that Best Buy has been pushing on consumers in recent weeks. The retailer charges 40 bucks to give you a slower PC, and make bizarre claims that it makes it go 200% faster. 'We ran the 3DMark 2003 graphics benchmark on each laptop, comparing optimized and non-optimized settings. For two of our samples, the Gateway and Toshiba, performance changes were negligible. On the Asus laptop, however, optimized tests actually scored about 32% worse than the non-optimized setup. We have been unable to isolate the source of this performance change. On none of the three tested laptops did the optimized settings give a performance boost in our test.'"

9 of 504 comments (clear)

  1. Best Buy by Frizbie · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ha!... they charge 40 bucks to clean up the startup, great... This might actual put Best Buy in the running for the most corrupt company in existence. Best Buy is going to have a hard time passing up Jiffy Lube for most corrupt company in 2010. Perhaps they should also tack on another 100 dollar charge to help carry it out to your car, they could totally market it as a "zero shock pc transport service"... that's sure to screw with the general public... throw in some more big words and act like they are doing us a service. Jiffy Lube look out!! your not the only ones that are screwing people mercilessly. "No,... just the cheapest oil change you got... No.. sir... sir... no.. I already have wiper blades... sir... SIR, no... sir listen.. I don't want the manufacturer's suggested monthly screwing, just the oil change."

  2. I'll optimize your new PC for free. by ProppaT · · Score: 4, Informative

    1) Download: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/
    2) Install
    3) Run program.

    Hell, I'll even give you free PC optimization months down the road after your PC looses it's new PC smell!

    1) Download: http://www.ccleaner.com/
    2) Install
    3) Run program.

    You're welcome.

    --
    Wise men say, "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza."
    1. Re:I'll optimize your new PC for free. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I'll give an optimization, but not free (due to time). I'll take the new PC and:

      1: Image off the original partitions so I make sure I have all drivers. These go on two copies of burned media, as well as a USB flash drive.

      2: Pull a live CD, dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda (or whatever the disk is.) This makes sure that any defects on outer tracks get reassigned if they might be a bit faulty.

      3: Install the included version of Windows clean.

      4: Install Microsoft Security Essentialls from a USB flash drive.

      5: Activate the machine if needed. Then image the activated machine so it can be restored to a known good imaged state that is activated.

      6: Update everything via Windows Update and add service packs if needed.

      7: Install ccleaner, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Firefox/Adblock or Chrome/Adblock, and SpywareBlaster.

      8: Install user software that is licensed (Office, Acrobat, etc.)

      9: Make an image of the complete system.

      Now the machine is ready to be handed over to a customer with high recommendations of doing backups to an external drive or Mozy. The advantage of this system is that the customer, should he or she trash the HDD, a complete image restore is just a boot of a recovery CD away.

  3. 3dMark??? by seeker_1us · · Score: 4, Informative

    WTF? That test determines 3d gaming performance. While I do not doubt that the best buy "service" is junk, 3dmark would by no means be a valid metric.

  4. Re:System tuning... by nine-times · · Score: 4, Informative

    Can you remember when system tuning was part of the sysadmin's job?

    Yeah, back when computers were so slow that they really needed tuning.

    Now? Let's be honest, your computer will probably run best if you just don't screw around with it. You want your Windows system "tuned"? Reformat the drive, reinstall Windows, install the latest version of all appropriate drivers, run Windows update, and then install *only* the applications that you're going to use. That's about as "tuned" as most people need.

    If you want to tune it further, try changing your performance settings to "Optimize for best performance" or whatever the equivalent is in Windows 7. It'll look a bit worse, but it may improve performance a little. Yes, you might also be able to disable some services and squeeze out a couple extra cycles, but how much does it matter these days? You're much more likely to break something than to effect significant performance improvements.

  5. Staples by deathtopaulw · · Score: 5, Informative

    I am a Staples easytech idiot and we basically have the same service for $10 cheaper called a pc tune-up. We run a norton toolkit scan, meaning "find out if we can push a virus removal service (129.99)," and nothing more than a basic "windows cleanup." This is usually a 29.99 service although it just so happens to be free right now. All the big box stores are a scam, preying on the lack of basic public knowledge like any local car mechanic.

    Sadly I happen to be preaching to the choir. We will continue to have customers pouring in with the most mind-numbingly simple problems that we charge $150 to fix in the end. It's this fact that actually makes it a difficult job for me.

  6. Re:Friends by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    I like it! Did you know you can also do that with dresses? Wear it to a party! As long as you don't get food or jizz on it just return it and say you accidentally bought the wrong size or that it doesn't match your panties or whatever.

  7. Re:System tuning... by Runaway1956 · · Score: 5, Informative

    That's exactly it. I've read stories about how good the Geek Squad USED TO BE. And, I've read more stories about what they are now. All they have is an almost completely automated boot CD with which they activate a half dozen antivirus and some system testing tools. A couple of cleanup tools. It takes ages to run the full suite of tools, which is why people bring their computer in on Monday, and it's still not done on Friday. Googling for MRI-5.1 might be informative. You might even find an ISO to explore.

    MRI has basically good tools on it, I won't badmouth the CD - it's worth having in your toolkit. But, tools can't make a craftsman out of a novice.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  8. Completely OT: Installing Win7 on a netbook by Osty · · Score: 3, Informative

    A couple of months ago I needed a USB DVD to install Windows 7 on a netbook.

    But why? Assuming you have access to a PC with a DVD drive, a USB port, and a 4GB or larger USB drive, you didn't need a USB DVD drive. Installing Windows from a USB stick is trivial:

    1. Make sure your USB stick is FAT32 formatted. Unless you mucked about with formatting, that should be the out-of-the-box default.
    2. Copy the contents of the Windows DVD to the USB drive, keeping the folder structure the same.
    3. Stick the USB drive in your netbook and reboot. When prompted to boot from USB drive (the BIOS might say CD or DVD), press any key and get on with your install.

    I've never understood why most "Install Windows 7 from USB drive" tutorials on the web have so many extra, unnecessary steps. I've done this install on three different netbooks, across multiple installs on one (beta to RC to RTM), and have never had to do anything more than just copying the files to my USB key.