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This happened...a while ago. Maybe 4-5 years ago. My brother had "helped" me build my own PC (that was my first mistake. Should've asked me now-husband, even though we weren't dating at the time, we were still friends and he knows a lot more about computers than my brother does. Anyway.) It ran fine for a while (about a year or two) but eventually it started having some trouble. I think I first became aware of the issue when a funny noise started coming from the tower. Shortly after that, the computer shut off and wouldn't reboot. Since it was a home-built machine, there was no manufacturer warranty on any of it, and I didn't trust my brother enough to diagnose the problem, so I decided to take it to a local computer repair shop.
That was mistake #2.
It turns out the processor fan was dead. They pawned the machine off on some high school kid who was supposedly the resident expert at everything and knew more than most of the professional techs who worked there. He replaced the fan and I had my machine back in about a day.
About a day after that, my computer started having problems again, and this time whatever happened messed up my hard drive, to the point that I couldn't even read my hard drive on our backup machine (we had an older computer that I could use to test a few things on or use as backup in case the main one went down.) The computer repair shop had given me the box for the new fan they put in my machine, so I took a look at it.
I don't remember the exact specs, but it turns out that the fan wasn't powerful enough for the processor I had at the time.
I was pissed! I called the computer repair shop back and they told me to bring it back in. Against my better judgement, I agreed, at least to get my money back. They took a look at it and determined that the processor was now fried, and there was indeed something wrong with my hard drive as well, although the only thing they'd pay for would be to replace the fan again. (they claimed the HD failure had nothing to do with the processor issues; it just coincidentally happened at the exact same time.) If I wanted a new processor or my HD restored, I had to pay for all of it myself.
I think it was around that time I decided to get a laptop. My brother told me of one that he thought looked good (why did I listen to him? why?) and it fared a little better than my PC, but not by much.
I eventually started having overheating problems with it, although I didn't know that at the time, so I ended up calling the manufacturer's technical support help line. What a waste of time. This was a small manufacturer, so first of all, the customer service rep I talked to could barely speak English. He also seemed convinced that because I'm a girl, I had no freaking clue what I was talking about. The conversation went something like this (I don't remember the details anymore, so sorry that it's a bit vague):
Him: You need to do (something) when the computer boots up.
Me: But it won't get past the BIOS screen so I can't do that.
Him: ... You need to reboot the computer and do (something).
Me: But I can't do that unless I'm in Windows...
Him: Yes, we need to test (something) in Windows now so you need to reboot.
Me: *sigh* Fine. *turns computer off and then turns it back on* Okay, I'm at the BIOS screen.
Him: It needs to finish booting.
Me: It won't.
Him: It won't?
Me: No, it's not going any further, it gets stuck on the BIOS screen.
Him: Oh, then we can't test this. You'll need to send it in so we can look at it.
THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU.
Finally, last year, I asked my husband for advice on getting a new laptop and now I have a fantastic one that I haven't had any problems whatsoever with in over a year. Hurray!
Lesson learned in all of this: Don't listen to my brother when it comes to computer advice.
That was mistake #2.
It turns out the processor fan was dead. They pawned the machine off on some high school kid who was supposedly the resident expert at everything and knew more than most of the professional techs who worked there. He replaced the fan and I had my machine back in about a day.
About a day after that, my computer started having problems again, and this time whatever happened messed up my hard drive, to the point that I couldn't even read my hard drive on our backup machine (we had an older computer that I could use to test a few things on or use as backup in case the main one went down.) The computer repair shop had given me the box for the new fan they put in my machine, so I took a look at it.
I don't remember the exact specs, but it turns out that the fan wasn't powerful enough for the processor I had at the time.
I was pissed! I called the computer repair shop back and they told me to bring it back in. Against my better judgement, I agreed, at least to get my money back. They took a look at it and determined that the processor was now fried, and there was indeed something wrong with my hard drive as well, although the only thing they'd pay for would be to replace the fan again. (they claimed the HD failure had nothing to do with the processor issues; it just coincidentally happened at the exact same time.) If I wanted a new processor or my HD restored, I had to pay for all of it myself.
I think it was around that time I decided to get a laptop. My brother told me of one that he thought looked good (why did I listen to him? why?) and it fared a little better than my PC, but not by much.
I eventually started having overheating problems with it, although I didn't know that at the time, so I ended up calling the manufacturer's technical support help line. What a waste of time. This was a small manufacturer, so first of all, the customer service rep I talked to could barely speak English. He also seemed convinced that because I'm a girl, I had no freaking clue what I was talking about. The conversation went something like this (I don't remember the details anymore, so sorry that it's a bit vague):
Him: You need to do (something) when the computer boots up.
Me: But it won't get past the BIOS screen so I can't do that.
Him: ... You need to reboot the computer and do (something).
Me: But I can't do that unless I'm in Windows...
Him: Yes, we need to test (something) in Windows now so you need to reboot.
Me: *sigh* Fine. *turns computer off and then turns it back on* Okay, I'm at the BIOS screen.
Him: It needs to finish booting.
Me: It won't.
Him: It won't?
Me: No, it's not going any further, it gets stuck on the BIOS screen.
Him: Oh, then we can't test this. You'll need to send it in so we can look at it.
THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU.
Finally, last year, I asked my husband for advice on getting a new laptop and now I have a fantastic one that I haven't had any problems whatsoever with in over a year. Hurray!
Lesson learned in all of this: Don't listen to my brother when it comes to computer advice.
I'm pretty much IT illiterate so whenever something goes wrong, I just hand it to hubby, bat my eyelashes and say "Please fix" 
. 
Even when I tell them exactly what I want, they try to tell me I don't want that at all. I even had to complain once to a manager about the complete crap being spouted by a sales clerk - if you don't know what you're talking about, don't argue your point, no matter how much I look your great Aunt Sophie!
...), so one day some fairly obscure setting got borked. Support was still US-based at that time; what I found interesting about the call was the technician determined from the get-go what I had already tried and went from there.
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