I too had cause to call Tiny "helpline" to try and rectify an inoperative card reader.
After some toing and froing,and hums and has,and a total lack of understanding on the part of the "help" representative,I was put on hold while they spoke to their supervisor.
I was then advised to go into hardware profiles and un-install the relevant entries for the card reader,which I did twice to no avail.
I was then told that only a complete re-load of the system would cure the problem,no mention at all that the card reader could be at fault.
I was reluctant to do a restore as I would have had to back-up a lot of info and photos or lose them.
Most of my problem was in getting the "help" person to understand me,as they were Indian,Tiny must have its customer helpline based in India as many companies now do,why then can they not understand simple requests spoken in plain English.
Luckily I had taken out an extended warranty option which meant that the call was only charged at local rates,but still a rather lengthy call for no resolution.
I have given up on my card reader,and now use the one built into my printer.
Again Tiny seems cursed by the ghosts of the past and their service or lack of it still causes some concern.

I use Onetel as my ISP, BTBroadband as my b/b supplier and Incredimail as my mail client.
Lasty novemeber I "moved up" to broadband after 3 years of dialling up via Onetel, who have been my telephone suppliers as well.
At the time I asked Onetel and BT wheter adopting broadband in the set up mentioned above was OK and I was told it would be. For two months all went well, then without any warning, my mail client was unable to connect to the Onetel outgoing mail server (note that is identical to the Incoming mail server).
My inquiries to Onetel pointed their fingers to BT, whilst BT said that it had nothing to do with them but to sort it out with Onetel.
Strangely, I am still able to receive e-mails even though I cannot reply or send any out.
I have come to the conclusion that my arrangement was not finacially suitable to Onetel or to BT. So one, the other, or both must have arranged to block my e-mailing to compel me to jump wholly to either of the two.
If I am right, then tough luck, because I shall ditch them both, never to return, as soon as I have completed alternative provisions/suppliers.
Is there anybody in the same situation?

Probably solve it by deleting onetel and then using the wizard to set it back up as a new connection.
Might consider adding a couple more PAYG as back ups, like Wanadoo or Tiscali. When they invite you to download their file, download it, don't open it but open in notepad, print it and you will find the dial up number, settings, etc. Then you won't get customised.

I have heard a lot of bad press about Tiny computers and yes they are crap. Why do you think that they can churn out high class computers (supposed to be that is) at quiet low prices. The reason being is that the guts of the computer is not all that good. My advice is and i say this to everyone i know is to build your own computer from scratch. Its a lot cheaper, you know whats inside it and lastly there is no expensive telephone calls to service engineers to be made.

I bought a Time laptop last year (Time being the same company as Tiny) and to cut a very very long story short the result is a non-working laptop, Time have all my money plus support phone costs and Time's customer services telling me that I am welcome to take them to the small claims court because they would simply win.

On the positive side I got round the expensive technical phone lines and got direct lines to higher up tech people. I was told that writing to the Managing Director was pointless because it all goes to the same department anyway. As a result of 3 months of phone calls, the laptop was returned 4 times but they always denied they could see a problem.

Don't touch Time or Tiny or any 'Computer Shop'. They offer extremely good prices, but remember this... If it looks too good to be true, it usually is. (I own a fully working HP laptop, slightly more money but its quality).

I bought a desktop PC from TIME who as people have previously stated are part of the same company as TINY, I paid for a copy of Windows XP which never arrived, the recovery CD that they sent with the machine just did not work at all i.e. the disc was faulty. Despite telephoning customer support and being promised that I would shortly receive my copy of windows which I had paid £50 for it never arrived. Within 14 months of purchase the DVD reader had broken, the motherboard had broken, the graphics card had broken and the mouse had broken. NEVER trust TINY or TIME and NEVER buy anything from them.

I do feel for the horrible problems and treatment Time/Tiny customers have had. My Time computer is now 1 year old(bought as a discounted package from Tesco) and except for a few emails to customer support whose replies have not all been that clear or helpful my machine has worked well with no hardware problems at all. There must be some exceptions I suppose and perhaps I've just been very lucky. I do fear a breakdown.

Just to let everyone know out there, i work for a computer shop store and we clearly explain to all customers the support options that you have when you buy a computer. anyone who wants to actually run windows with there computer when they get it should buy the £69 upgrade and at least the silver direct debit (9.99 for pc, 10.99 for laptops). You should expect to wait about 2 to 3 weeks for your computer. Our head office tells us that it will take about a week but from experience this is nowwhat i tell customers to avoid chasing up. The reason why i recomend the £69 upgarde is because that will basically get you the reload cd, subject to starting at least the silver direct debit. as soon as the first payment comes off for the silver direct debit cancel it and the reload cd is yours for life. YOU NEED ONE BELIEVE ME. trying to use another windows cd is pointless cause the reload cs unlocks a hidden partition on the hard disk. I actually recommend keeping the silver or gold direct debit runnin because that covers everyting for your comp and pays for any returns to head office for repair. remember that it is your right to ask for a full refund if you send back your comp three times for the sameproblem and it's still not fixed. personally i wanna say that our high spec comps are good. best ones right now are the pentium M laptops or the new 630 P4 base unit. do not buy a comp for less then 600!!! there is a reason for the cheapness. i would recommend about a grand for a good long lasting comp. that would include your 69£ upgrade for the reload disk and the delivery of 39.99. be smart when buying a pc. unlike many other stores that i have worked in such as dixons and pc world this company will take care of you if you spend the right amount and take the appropriate cover. for the few unhappy customers that i have had there are hundreds more that are happy because i explained to them these points. hopes it's of help.

I am on my third Time/Tiny computer bought over the last seven years. All are still in use. It seems to be cheaper to buy a new PC than upgrade. Last occasion I just bought the tower. The mix of "free" software has been quite attractive to me. The last machine went back within a week with card reader problems, but has been trouble free for ten months. I paid for MS Office and was sent out XP when i was promised 2003. I sent Office XP back (Unopened)and got the refund. I dread the thought of ringing for help but knew the risk i was running by not paying the extra for the warranties. I feel that I got what I paid for and would be happy to buy a Tiny PC for my next upgrade.

Tiny have now had money for a laptop that my mum paid for 2 months ago. I cancelled the order 3 days after making it when they told me the promised delivery of 5 days was now going to be 2 weeks. The money would be refunded within 7 working days. 6 emails, 3 letters, 5 phone calls later & I have yet to receive anything. Everytime 'someone will get back to you' no-one has. If this was an individual, they'd be prosecuted for fraud. Please do not go near this company - Tiny are crooks & they treat their customers with contempt.

Hi, ive got one! laptop...he-he. this monstrosety sounds like helycopter but works...ufter copplete crush 3 weeks from purchaise.Dont want to go about very "foreign" telephone assistant that after 25 minutes of explanation that the damn thing dsnt want to switch even on and my final question about possibility to save my DATA on HD----that qualified Bastard told me to back data on cds!!! like it works!!!!!!i only asked him whether he listened to me or not at all......
Next, i had P4,Prescott 3.2 , now just after 2 days away i have genuine intel P4 3.0 but 2 processors and Aida32 says now im ready for 64bit progs!!!THEY HAVE CHANGED MOTHERBOARD!! just tell me, is it good or bad?! Tony.

Right now I feel sick to my stomach. My friend has a perfectly working Tiny PC which I said would run better and faster if I formatted it and installed Windows XP Pro. I didn't know that there was a reload CD that you need for it to work properly, so now I have a Tiny PC which is perfectly OK, but will not boot into windows. It is a S27 model (Intel Celeron 2.4ghz/512MB RAM/120GB HDD/MS 6787 V2 Mainboard). Does anyone have a reload CD I can get a copy of to sort this out as I'm so stressed, his mother is not well off and saved for ages to buy this for him as a present for finishing college, and she's a family friend. I really need help, please!! I'll gladly cover any costs for the CD or postage, or if you have broadband I could download the CD image from you & burn it my end. Thanks so much people.

on no...I have bought a time pc,what have I done? I wish I knew then what I know now.the computer shop couldnt wait to get there hands on my cash & it was cash as I dont have a credit card.I was told my pc would be delivered in 7-10 days,so away I went having paid over a ?100 extra for anti virus hack software & a reload cd,I didnt take out the 3 yrs insurence because I have the reload cd,was I ripped off I wonder?so after 7 days I phone the store,am told coz I paid cash it takes longer because the money is sent somewhere to be counted!! what they cant count,that would explain alot.so a few days later I phone again to be told its 7-10 WORKING days + 3 days coz I paid cash,ok fair enough,so I waited & waited then phoned again this time Im told its not going to be delivered in the next week,I said that is totally unacceptable no way Im not having it I've been mislead & lied to,she said I'll sort you out some freebies,let me phone head office & I'll call you back....she never did.So before they closed that day I called again & was told it was gonna be delivered mid next week(that was yestaday) I just want my money back,what are my chances? 0 Dont ever buy from the computer shop,from what I've read this is just the start of my problems,to think I saved for 6 months for this.Revenge is planned tiny/time(is there a difference?)are going to get theres.

on no...I have bought a time pc,what have I done? I wish I knew then what I know now.the computer shop couldnt wait to get there hands on my cash & it was cash as I dont have a credit card.I was told my pc would be delivered in 7-10 days,so away I went having paid over a ?100 extra for anti virus hack software & a reload cd,I didnt take out the 3 yrs insurence because I have the reload cd,was I ripped off I wonder?so after 7 days I phone the store,am told coz I paid cash it takes longer because the money is sent somewhere to be counted!! what they cant count,that would explain alot.so a few days later I phone again to be told its 7-10 WORKING days + 3 days coz I paid cash,ok fair enough,so I waited & waited then phoned again this time Im told its not going to be delivered in the next week,I said that is totally unacceptable no way Im not having it I've been mislead & lied to,she said I'll sort you out some freebies,let me phone head office & I'll call you back....she never did.So before they closed that day I called again & was told it was gonna be delivered mid next week(that was yestaday) I just want my money back,what are my chances? 0 Dont ever buy from the computer shop,from what I've read this is just the start of my problems,to think I saved for 6 months for this.Revenge is planned tiny/time(is there a difference?)are going to get theres.

I used to work for this disgraceful company, I was in technical support. First to all those people who have bought a computer from these cowboys, you might as well sell it at a car boot sale and buy from a dealer inside Computer Shopper. A message to the person working in the Computer Shop, do you think it is fair to pay £10 a month support or £69 to get a CD to fix your computer in case something goes wrong ? Do you buy a set of transistors in case your TV breaks down you can fix it ? Do you see me paying £10 a month support in case my Hi Fi breaks down ? A computer should work out of the box and last for one year without any cost to the buyer. You should not have to pay £30 or £60 as it used to be for a CD to repair it or pay £1 a minute to arrange a repair.

I expect that 'anonymous' 17 May is biting his tongue about now.. I bought a Tiny 3500+ laptop for £629 on 13 June and went back to the shop the next day because the battery wouldn't charge, I asked for a refund and was told that it would take 28 days so I chose a replacement (HP) which would arrive in 14 days (they said). I'm still waiting now but know there's no chance. Tiny are thieves!!! Like other of your subscribers I formatted and put my own Windows on and its working well so far, except that some WLAN drivers are missing. Can anyone help me with Reload CD files. I'm on BB, if that helps.. Ta!

Well of this seems by the by now that the whole of the Time/Time/Computer Shop have gone into administration. I too brought a 'high' spec machine from Tiny online paid for the extended warranty and re-load disc and was assured that i had the best cover I could get. What a laugh!!! Like the above card readers didnt work, front USB ports were u/s so was the front headphones and mic sockets. Sent it back, 4 weeks later it was returned as being ok, even though it hadnt been opened. Of course everything was still faulty. Sent it back again, again it was returned without anybody bothering to look at it and everything was still faulty. Eventually got them to agree to a refund and quite promptly they picked the computer back up. It took 12 monthys and several phone calls to get a refund, in the end a very nice person from my bank got involved because Tiny were telling me they had paid the money even tho they hadnt. While all this was going on I had purchased another computer from The Computer Shop, this was a high tech computer at a reasonable price and by this time I had made friends with a computer hobbyist, Front usb ports didnt work but that was just a case of Tiny hadn't bothered connecting them....front speaker and mic sockets dont work either and no matter what manual we follow to connect these its to no avail but the purchase of a reasonably cheap soundcard has sorted that. Just a word to those that formatted and installed their own copies of windows, I too did that, out of curisioty I tried to use the reload disc just recently to sort out a problem, it didnt work so i threw it away. If anyone knows why the re-load disc didnt work and can help me with this can you e-mail me please because i was of the understanding that formatting the C drive wouldnt effect the partion that can only be opened by the re-load disc or is this just another Tiny myth???

In advertising, Tiny boast of building their computers in their own factory, my laptop has a label with the name of 'Uniwill Computers' as the manufacturer so I guess that they also are part of the Granville Technology scam, as is 'WillPower Electronics Co. Ltd; the battery pack supplier. I came to this conclusion recently when I mailed Uniwell for help, just like Tiny they ignored my mail. I asked WillPower to sell me a replacement battery and they actually gave me a good price... until I mentioned Tiny. Yes you guessed, they've forgotten how to write.
Just two more company's to be wary of!

i have the unfortunate problem of needed the recoad disk for my Tiny 5-3500 PCI Express version 1(8.3)due to a LOADING NORTON GOBACK that is not compatible with pc.i had prolblems deleting it and now did to reload.
where xccan i get a copy of this disk.

I bought a HP laptop from tiny, until i found out tiny went bust, i've just sort of broken my laptop but i've had for under a year, and i dont know how to contact to see if it is still in warrenty, can anyone help me on this topic, cheers

all you people wanting copies of reload cds. should realise that the reload cd only works on the pc it was made for

Just for those of you after the Reload CD. I have just purchased one from Ebay for £4.99. just search for RELOAD in "Operating Systems".
Hope it helps :-p

Can anyone confirm that any reload disc works on any time computer?

Yes that is correct. I liked your comment. I too belong to the same profile and this was of great help.
Tom Goodman
http://www.onetelcenter.com

Greetings all
I had a bit of a run in with the computer shop in cambridge and even complained to the trading standards people with no real effect. I eventually solved the problem no thanks to the time groupof companies. I sometimes cringed at the complete and total crap that this group of companies allowed/demanded their salesmen to use. Dixons/PC world were almost honest but still gringe worthy. Though in general I got good value for money from The Computer shop because I knew what I was after. So like in all purchases "Buyer Beware".

Here's my bit for the on-going tale of Tiny.
A friend of mine bought a second hand Tiny S27. Because the previous owner had installed and unstalled so many things it didn't run very well. (it probably didnt run very well when it was new, but there you go) So he decided to format and install his own copy of Window XP.
He had the same problems as above, it wont work. After much cursing and swearing he asked me to have a look at it for him.
I have read before about this 'locked partition' and needing a 'reload CD' so I thought 'OK...a locked partition..why not just replace the hard drive?...that should solve it.'
Jeez, was I wrong.
I put in a brand new 80gig drive. Bios recognised it. Booted up with Window XP disk. Everything went fine. Until setup shut the computer down. All we get now is the windows logo coming up then after 20 seconds it freezes. So far I have tried 3 hard drives, 2 copies of Windows and still get the same result.
Has anyone else come across this problem?
Is there also some sort of lock on the motherboard that only allows a Tiny OEM installation?
As he wont pay £30 for the reload CD (he only paid £30 for the thing in the first place) my mate has now decided to rip the thing apart and see if he can figure out why this happens.

This blog posting was of great use in learning new information and also in exchanging our views. Thank you.
Mary Anne Martin
http://www.onetelcenter.com

I bought a computer from Tiny about 4 years ago - it cost me £1,000, and in the first week alone it cost me another £100.00 in calls to their useless service department. I probably spent about £350.00 on repairs until I learned to do my own. Of course, you don't want to invalidate the warrantly do you. Not until you realise that it is worthless anyway.

Crap company, crap product. It still galls me now how the crap Tiny Logo comes on when you boot up.

Oh - and of course, with the model I bought, they put in some unknown/exotic (cheap/experimental) memory cards which were unavailible in the shops - preventing any upgrade short of changing the mother board. Twats!

OK heres the punchline: I obviously wanted another computer - so last year, I went into this place. I saw what seemed to be some reasonable kit at a good price. That made me suspicious. I told them about my issues with Tiny and how I'd rather pay more for a decent computer. They assured me that 'Yes - Tiny were useless', unlike themselves. I priced up a system and almost bought it then and there. But they couldn't just give me a computer to go - they had to 'order it'. I remembered a 'pressing engagement' elsewhere... 2 days later, having gone back to risk it, I was lucky to find that the shop was closed - forever, as it turned out. Of course that was those assholes at Time/Computer shop...

I'd rather get one of my mates to knock a new system up for me, or try myself - after all, I've had plenty of experience now.

So: The employees lost their jobs, we all got ripped off, and I bet the gormless bastards who dreamed this scam up live happily ever after - Unless we find where they live.

Anyone giv me a hand i am missing an important file from my tiny pc it's the system32.hal.dll file not sure what it is or what it does but i av lost the tiny backup cd for it. anyone know how i can get around it or how i can get hold of a new disk?

I bought a brand new PC from Tiny for around £850 including a 3 year warranty. They forgot to send a reload CD with the computer and when I complained said that I probably had a virus on my computer and that is why it would not work. Have since been told by people who know about computers that this is crap.

Anyway, decided to find out if I can get the proper CD so phoned up Time who are supposed to have taken over from Tiny. Told the warranty isn't worth the paper its written on and is worthless and that I need a TREX Reload CD and it will cost me approximately £40.00. Seeing as it was Tiny's mistake in the first place I told them I would have expected to get one from free. They said Tiny didn't exist and that they were not responsible for them as Tiny had been bought up by someone else. Said were not allowed to tell me who (well what a surprise) and that they would put me through to the administrators who would tell me what to do.

Phoned administrators and got an answerphone message from some dozy cow who had obviously been on the drugs and booze all night and was actually slurring her words and sounded like she was about to pass out. No joy there then.

Any idea where I can get a TREX CD from which will restore my Tiny computer, anyone, please?

I bought a brand new PC from Tiny for around £850 including a 3 year warranty. They forgot to send a reload CD with the computer and when I complained said that I probably had a virus on my computer and that is why it would not work. Have since been told by people who know about computers that this is crap.

Anyway, decided to find out if I can get the proper CD so phoned up Time who are supposed to have taken over from Tiny. Told the warranty isn't worth the paper its written on and is worthless and that I need a TREX Reload CD and it will cost me approximately £40.00. Seeing as it was Tiny's mistake in the first place I told them I would have expected to get one from free. They said Tiny didn't exist and that they were not responsible for them as Tiny had been bought up by someone else. Said were not allowed to tell me who (well what a surprise) and that they would put me through to the administrators who would tell me what to do.

Phoned administrators and got an answerphone message from some dozy cow who had obviously been on the drugs and booze all night and was actually slurring her words and sounded like she was about to pass out. No joy there then.

Any idea where I can get a TREX CD from which will restore my Tiny computer, anyone, please?

Still no answers ... I have the Reload CD but due to the fact that my hard drive died the THIRD time i turned my laptop on (And my extended warranty was no good because tiny had gone into administration) I had to put a new hard drive in ... well you can guess whats next ... no hidden partition so what use is the reload cd ha ha anyways they can be bought from here.

www.gennersales.co.uk/

hello
i have a Tiny A535 notebook and is in need of the reload cd, i have version 0.4 which is incompatiable with my notebook and the other version is version 1.7 a t-rex version which reloaded my notebook but then when i restarted it it came up with file currupt or missing system32/config/sys.....

has anyone got a reload cd which i can get a copy of or if wanting to get rid of the origanal my e-mail is earnip24@hotmail.co.uk

thanks
kevin

I spent £749.00 + on a laptop recommended by a reputable computer mag, paid for it by debit card and then Tiny went bust. At least a machine can be fixed but the whole in my bank account can not. I think the liquidators should have been forced to fulfil all outstanding cash orders. I have no laptop and no refund

Hi

for all those that have a tiny laptop, you can load your own windows, this is how i did it. after my hd died and the reload disk didn't work. you will need the system and driver cd.
1. create a boot disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/bookdisk.html choose windows 98se custom no ramdrive use this file to create the boot disk.
2. if you have a hd bigger than 64gb use the other fdisk which is further down the page.
3. create the partion and format it in FAT32.
4. i used the windows xp home cd.
5. dont update the drives on the windows update. i've had nothing but problems from them.

i hope this helps if you have questions or want help pls email me will help if i can

Hello there people, sorry to hear of the bad times expeirenced, but no be honest im not surprised been a technical support chappy since i was a scratch in my daddys pants. And all i can say is why buy shit and then moan about it, build your own. Or buy from sole trader who has been around for more than 5 yrs, then you can throw at them when it goes wrong or your enquiries arn't being answered

hey umm ... i may be only 15 but i have one and i need to ask you a question about the bk up cd
please will you email me
BabiiGirlLovesHerBoo@hotmail.com

many thanks i may be able to help you aswell :)

I agree with all comments regarding Tiny/Time. I bought a Tiny 850 and did not get reload cd, it soon broke down and I bought a laptop from Dell, trying to get a boot disk for Tiny 850 before dumping as it is still good spec and has info I need on it.

I have been given a Tiny S27 system and am having a hard time locating drivers or reload disc. Any ideas?

I'm also going to use 'system rescue cd' to attempt to access the locked partition and maybe copy the contents off it to dvd/cd...

Words cant describe how i feel about tiny, but most of you have done pretty well!! except that idiot whom works for them. I too was lied to about a reload disk, phoned up then they sent me the wrong version then administration. Still looking for the drivers, if i ever get my hands on the guy i gave 1000 quid to 3 years ago .....