Dell Support SUCKS!!!!!....UPDATE Post #27

[DLBDS]

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :furious:

Sorry. I really have to vent. Some of you may have heard about a month ago that I was getting the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD).

My laptop computer (Dell E1705) is barely 2 years old and I paid EXTRA for a 4 year warranty with 24x7 in-home support.

That said....I had to take the frickin' thing to Geek Squad because Dell No-Support wasn't helping me AT ALL. Their solution was to wipe the entire computer and reload the operating system (Windows XP).....without having looked at the computer. I wasn't cool with this. I don't know, I've always heard that this was bad.?? So, I thought it was worth the money to just take it to Geek Squad and let them take care of it. Well, it's a MONTH later and after they tell me I have viruses and try to clean them off, they now tell me that my motherboard is bad. Something about the video chipset and the processor or registry chipset. I think he even said the chipset chipset (:headache:) I guess the chipsets have chipsets?? Oh, before the motherboard, they said the same thing Dell said....I need to wipe the system and reload Windows XP as the viruses can't be cleaned. They said I could have the laptop back in 24-48 hours after I drop off the disks to perform this task. So, imagine my surprise when someone from GS calls 2 hours after DH drops of the disks and says the laptop is ready. Well, it's the day before Thanksgiving so we put it off until Fri (yesterday). We get there Fri around 2:00 and they say it's NOT ready and they are still performing tests. They think it's a problem with the motherboard but they'll know for sure in a few hours when the test is complete. They called today and said it's the motherboard that's causing all of my problems. He says it's not really worth the money to repair the system. He quoted me $300 (I've already paid $130). My computer cost me $2200 new...just 2 years ago!!

I decided to contact Dell Online No-Support tonight and they STILL are not sending someone to my home even after telling them 3 times that I want someone to come to my home to fix the problem (like I PAID for, remember). He says they'll fix the problem and replace whatever for free but I'm basically gonna have to jump through hoops and spend who knows how many hours on the phone with tech support to get it accomplished! But he was so polite about it. (Bite me!!! :mad:)

Me: "So, I have to get my computer tomorrow, call you guys and spend who knows how many hours on the phone doing the steps you tell me to perform rather than having someone do it FOR ME like I paid for?! I paid for this so I wouldn't have to do this!"

Agent (Gunjan_131905): "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We assure you that we would try to isolate and fix this issue as quick as possible. We defiantly understand your concern. We would provide you quality service and would surely replace the part, incase any part would need replacement."

Definition of defiant: Boldly resisting

Seems appropriate, huh?

Thanks for letting me vent. :sad1:

[karen l]

I totally sympathize with your situation. I purchased 2 computers from dell before I swore never again. I gave my DS a laptop for his graduation gift & it was the biggest piece of junk. It only lasted 2 yrs too! I gave my DD a desktop from dell & she had nothing but problems. They both now own an Apple & haven't had any problems. Once my compaq dies, I'm going with a mac. I don't think dell has any employees in this country. As you know, everything is outsourced & you receive no help or satisfaction from them.
I hope you're able to get a resolution.

[GBShorts]

I had similar problems with their support. One of the 27 people I talked to before my first issue was identified (not resolved-STILL isn't) talked me into some one on one tech support thing. I thought I spoke with them and as it turned out, I never did. This was after getting a replacement laptop and having to reinstall windows and everything twice on both machines.

Once I realized I had never used it, I tried to get them to cancel it ($156/year or something extra) and they said since it had been 32 days (over 30) they wouldn't refund it. They sent me a $75 gift card. Woo. I will say though, that now that I've got the same american guy to talk to every tme, that things get solved a lot quicker. Patsy is his name. <_<

[robertgp124]

If you haven't already reformatted the drive, you may want to do this. You can hit F12 as you turn the laptop on (on most dells). You'll get an option to boot to a diagnostic mode. Let the laptop run through all the tests it wants to. At the end, if it finds anything you'll be presented with an error code. Sometimes you can give that directly to the folks on the phone and it will cut short the conversation.

Where I work, we have Dell certified techs. If I can give them the error code from the diagnostic partition tests, it does help out a lot.

I'm with you though. I really dislike calling Dell. I *think* that if you're having a hard time with their tech support, you can specifically ask to be transferred to an American call center.

[NWOhioAngela]

Wow, I'm really surprised. I have never had trouble with Dell support. Now HP, thats a whole other story!

[daneenm]

DH swears he will never buy Dell again because of their support, or lack thereof.

HP is just as bad. We have a printer that is not working, DH put in a trouble ticket with them. A week later, we get a call at 5:30 a.m. from a tech (in India) asking for details about our problem. When I tell him it is 5:30 IN THE MORNING, he acts surprised and still asks to speak with DH. ARRRGGGHH! Now, I have lots of contractors working with me from India and they are pretty darn good at knowing the time here in the west coast...not sure why HP cannot figure it out. We have literally been trading phone messages ever since. One month later, still no one has given us info on where to take it to have it fixed.

[Decorated_Dust]

I feel you with Dell. Mine lasted for three years without any major problems, then I got the blue screen of death and it all went downhill from there. The support was no help. They too said that I had to re-install Windows XP, which was impossible since the hardware was obviously the issue.

I ended up getting a Toshiba as a replacement, and it actually crashed about a month after I got it. Support was great, though. The biggest problem I had was the fact that it crashed while I was in the middle of nowhere with no car and no Best Buy within a hundred miles.

Laptops in general just don't last long, which sucks. If anyone knows of a laptop that has lasted them 3 or 4 years, please make yourself known!

[UrsulasShadow]

Laptops in general just don't last long, which sucks. If anyone knows of a laptop that has lasted them 3 or 4 years, please make yourself known!

DD has a Macbook. She's in her Jr. year of college, and has had it since before she started (2.5 years). Great support at any Apple store, it's only given her trouble once (early on, when she spilled "something" on it her first semester). Can't say it'll go 3 years, since I'm not a prognosticator, but she loves it.

[robertgp124]

DD has a Macbook. She's in her Jr. year of college, and has had it since before she started (2.5 years). Great support at any Apple store, it's only given her trouble once (early on, when she spilled "something" on it her first semester). Can't say it'll go 3 years, since I'm not a prognosticator, but she loves it.

I have a 2.5 year old macbook pro as well. No problems to speak of, would highly recommend Apple. My only complaint - no local Apple store. :)

[bfrosty]

DLBDS,

Wow, that is really a huge let down from Dell and GS.

Let me start by commenting on the BSOD, usually a Windows file has been corrupted, and it is possible to replace that one file or the quick/dirty way is just tell someone that they need to wipe their computer clean and reinstall Windows. I think Geek Squad uses the reinstall/erase the old for about 99% of the issues they get. They don't have to spend much time on your computer and basically you get it back the same as when you first bought it.
Not, the greatest method.

Again, going from Dell (frying pan) and taking it to GS (the Fire) was....well probably not what I would have done. You were looking for a quick fix though...so I don't blame you.

I'm sure after talking to Dell, they should get laptop back up and running...or replace it? I'm not positive on what they cover for 4yrs.

The costs that GS quoted you are ridiculous. I can't believe they charged you $130 and still didn't fix it. Their prices are sky high...but they need to rip folks off to pay for all those VW Beetles they drive around!!!

I've been in tech support for over 13yrs and have been teaching it for 5yrs. I run a small side-business (tech support) and I try to be over-fair to the customer....there are so many variables when trying to fix an issue and then try to charge for the correct amount of time.

Not to toot my own horn, but most issues I end up fixing are from customers who have already called Dell, HP, GeekSquad, etc....for help. I usually tell people who are thinking about taking their PC to GS.... to just let me look at it for free first.

It's really ashame at what Best Buy is offering as Tech Support....I think they found a very gullable and vulnerable market...and are taking advantage of peoples lack of knowledge about computers when their very own employees don't know much more than the owner.

Wow, I rarely rant about a company...but I've heard so many horror stories about Geek Squad....and this is just one more.

....Well...not sure why I wrote this...but maybe it shed some light on computers and how they are supported.

Take care....
Bfrosty

[Decorated_Dust]

DD has a Macbook. She's in her Jr. year of college, and has had it since before she started (2.5 years). Great support at any Apple store, it's only given her trouble once (early on, when she spilled "something" on it her first semester). Can't say it'll go 3 years, since I'm not a prognosticator, but she loves it.

I'm not surprised. I heard a rumor that Macbooks were crafted by the hands of God. I mean, there has to be a purpose for all that white in the Apple Store.

I all seriousness, I really do want a Mac. The support for my iPod is stellar. However, I'm too frugal (a.k.a. cheap) to spend that kind of money. :confused3

[kab407]

Laptops in general just don't last long, which sucks. If anyone knows of a laptop that has lasted them 3 or 4 years, please make yourself known!

I have an Apple iBook G4. It's 3+ years old. Aside from the touchpad that died within the first 2 months (Apple fixed), I have had no problems with it. I have a Dell at work that I want to toss thru the window at least once a week. It freezes up for no reason. My IS group can't figure out why. Hmmmmm..because it's a Dell?

[dpuck1998]

I feel you with Dell. Mine lasted for three years without any major problems, then I got the blue screen of death and it all went downhill from there. The support was no help. They too said that I had to re-install Windows XP, which was impossible since the hardware was obviously the issue.

I ended up getting a Toshiba as a replacement, and it actually crashed about a month after I got it. Support was great, though. The biggest problem I had was the fact that it crashed while I was in the middle of nowhere with no car and no Best Buy within a hundred miles.

Laptops in general just don't last long, which sucks. If anyone knows of a laptop that has lasted them 3 or 4 years, please make yourself known!

I have an HP laptop that is over 6 years old. It was an early Windows XP machine and I reinstall XP every couple of years. Most peoples problems stem from install/uninstall of programs and .dll file conflicts, etc. I reinstall of the OS usually fixes the problem. That said, laptops are much more prone to hardware issues. Of course the fact that they get banged around is a lot of the issue, but the generate a lot of heat also. People will set them on a couch and overheat them. Most new, year or so, machines now have vents on the side. Older machines had the fan at the bottom and sitting on the couch would block the fan and overheat the machine.

[robind]

Laptops in general just don't last long, which sucks. If anyone knows of a laptop that has lasted them 3 or 4 years, please make yourself known!

I used my stupid IBM at work for over 4 years, before I could finally get them to replace it. I hated it because it was super slow and a pain but since it still worked, they wouldn't replace it. It fell from the security belt once (opps), I spilled stuff on it, I couldn't kill the stupid thing. The touchpad finally died and they let me have a new one since mine was out of warranty. I have a Dell for work now, not thrilled w/ it but it works and if it breaks I just call our tech support.

I had a Dell at home a while back and the service was horrible.

My newest personal laptop is the mac air and I love it !!!!

[dpuck1998]

DLBDS,



....Well...not sure why I wrote this...but maybe it shed some light on computers and how they are supported.

Take care....
Bfrosty

Totally agree Bfrosty, GS is horrible. I've been in tech for the same amount of time. Since I work for a school I get questions daily and people wanting me to fix their computers. Of course I fix a few, but if I just "looked" at every computer that someone asked me about it would be a full time job. I never charge them when I do fix a computer, but that is why I only do if for friends now :) I feel like the kid tossing starfish back into the ocean. I can't save them all but I can save this one ;)

[dpuck1998]

I used my stupid IBM at work for over 4 years, before I could finally get them to replace it. I hated it because it was super slow and a pain but since it still worked, they wouldn't replace it. It fell from the security belt once (opps), I spilled stuff on it, I couldn't kill the stupid thing. The touchpad finally died and they let me have a new one since mine was out of warranty. I have a Dell for work now, not thrilled w/ it but it works and if it breaks I just call our tech support.

I had a Dell at home a while back and the service was horrible.

My newest personal laptop is the mac air and I love it !!!!

Someone actually bought the macair? Do you have a separate bag for all the accessories :) jk I'm on a mac right now ;)

[Jacklynn]

I'm sorry for your problems. I had the same dell (600m) laptop computer throughout college without any problems at all. The only reason why I just got a new laptop was because I wanted a newer one and because my internal battery wouldn't hold battery and I didn't want to invest the $100 in an older computer.

My DH had a dell all 4 years of college as well, and he did have to have his motherboard replaced. He also had his power cord replaced no problem. DH also has always reformatted our computers whenever there was an issue that we couldn't fix, and it worked out just fine for us.

We actually loved the Dell support and always find it helpful. But we are the type of people who would rather take instructions and do it ourselves because we trust ourselves more than someone we don't know messing with our stuff.

I hope you get it fixed, it know it can be frustrating when you depend on something like a computer and it doesn't work like it is suppose to.

[cpdwiz]

UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :furious:

Sorry. I really have to vent. Some of you may have heard about a month ago that I was getting the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD).

My laptop computer (Dell E1705) is barely 2 years old and I paid EXTRA for a 4 year warranty with 24x7 in-home support.

That said....I had to take the frickin' thing to Geek Squad because Dell No-Support wasn't helping me AT ALL. Their solution was to wipe the entire computer and reload the operating system (Windows XP).....without having looked at the computer. I wasn't cool with this. I don't know, I've always heard that this was bad.?? So, I thought it was worth the money to just take it to Geek Squad and let them take care of it. Well, it's a MONTH later and after they tell me I have viruses and try to clean them off, they now tell me that my motherboard is bad. Something about the video chipset and the processor or registry chipset. I think he even said the chipset chipset (:headache:) I guess the chipsets have chipsets?? Oh, before the motherboard, they said the same thing Dell said....I need to wipe the system and reload Windows XP as the viruses can't be cleaned. They said I could have the laptop back in 24-48 hours after I drop off the disks to perform this task. So, imagine my surprise when someone from GS calls 2 hours after DH drops of the disks and says the laptop is ready. Well, it's the day before Thanksgiving so we put it off until Fri (yesterday). We get there Fri around 2:00 and they say it's NOT ready and they are still performing tests. They think it's a problem with the motherboard but they'll know for sure in a few hours when the test is complete. They called today and said it's the motherboard that's causing all of my problems. He says it's not really worth the money to repair the system. He quoted me $300 (I've already paid $130). My computer cost me $2200 new...just 2 years ago!!

I decided to contact Dell Online No-Support tonight and they STILL are not sending someone to my home even after telling them 3 times that I want someone to come to my home to fix the problem (like I PAID for, remember). He says they'll fix the problem and replace whatever for free but I'm basically gonna have to jump through hoops and spend who knows how many hours on the phone with tech support to get it accomplished! But he was so polite about it. (Bite me!!! :mad:)

Me: "So, I have to get my computer tomorrow, call you guys and spend who knows how many hours on the phone doing the steps you tell me to perform rather than having someone do it FOR ME like I paid for?! I paid for this so I wouldn't have to do this!"

Agent (Gunjan_131905): "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We assure you that we would try to isolate and fix this issue as quick as possible. We defiantly understand your concern. We would provide you quality service and would surely replace the part, incase any part would need replacement."

Definition of defiant: Boldly resisting

Seems appropriate, huh?

Thanks for letting me vent. :sad1:



I HATE dell and will never buy again...I bought a blu ray player...From DAY ONE, I was jerked around. They never shipped it, charged me, then gave me the run around. I spoke with the entire population of Pakistan, as not ONE member of their CS is in the states. UPS told me dell never sent my item to them. They were rude and cancelled my order, did not refund, had to fight. THEN I get a survey on how the CS are. Can you understand them, were they nice, helpful. Lets just say that survey was blazing. I sent letters to the CEO and Board about them. Wonder if they even care? Oh well. No more Dell for me.

[GBShorts]

I'm with you though. I really dislike calling Dell. I *think* that if you're having a hard time with their tech support, you can specifically ask to be transferred to an American call center.

FYI, I tried this when I had my issues. I was told by whoever in India that that was impossible as they all connect to one number. This, I know, is a lie because I have a friend who worked at the Arizona center and they had a specific number. Unfortunately for me, however, he couldn't find that number to give it to me.

That's how I ended up paying to get the American (in Tennessee I believe) every time.

[Northern_Julie]

I had a lot of problems until someone suggested this trick: chose the corporate business help option instead of the home computer option. The business support desk did not turn me away after the circles I went through and went over and beyond to make things up to me. This was not until after had already ordered my Mac.
I had the same problem getting home service. I live in an semi-isolated area so I had made sure there was someone had the contract before buying. Dell was telling me there was no such service and I had to send the computer out. They have the warranty on file - get them to tell you what it means. It took 6 weeks but the business desk was more interested in attmepting to keep my business and even followed up afterwards.

[WebmasterAlex]

I've never liked Dell but the issue you are starting to see with ALL computer manufacturers is that computers have become commodity items.
What makes it especially difficult when compared to say a TV is that a lot of the problems can be the result of user error. That is why they try to get you to the reload windows stage, if that works chances are pretty good it's something you did, if it doesn't then they know they have a real hardware issue.
As for geek squad and the rest of them, the in store techs get paid 12 bucks an hour, what kind of support do you think your going to get?

[simonkodousek]

I'm so sorry to hear about your experience with Dell. We've sworn never to buy one of their computers ever again, mainly because the customer support sucks and when you have a problem, they will deny it either out of cluelessness or laziness.

My laptop is an HP/Compaq and has only had one problem involving the hard drive, which HP had fixed (free of charge) in 3 days, including shipping.

I also have an iMac which has been great except for a motherboard failure, which I got them to fix for free.

Good luck! :)

[dpuck1998]

I'm so sorry to hear about your experience with Dell. We've sworn never to buy one of their computers ever again, mainly because the customer support sucks and when you have a problem, they will deny it either out of cluelessness or laziness.

My laptop is an HP/Compaq and has only had one problem involving the hard drive, which HP had fixed (free of charge) in 3 days, including shipping.

I also have an iMac which has been great except for a motherboard failure, which I got them to fix for free.

Good luck! :)

Good point on the macs, they are computers just like any other. They are not bullet proof. In fact I support about 100 macs and over 1000 PCs. I send in a higher percentage of macs for issues than I do PCs.

[lorax123]

I have an HP laptop that is over 6 years old. It was an early Windows XP machine and I reinstall XP every couple of years. Most peoples problems stem from install/uninstall of programs and .dll file conflicts, etc. I reinstall of the OS usually fixes the problem. That said, laptops are much more prone to hardware issues. Of course the fact that they get banged around is a lot of the issue, but the generate a lot of heat also. People will set them on a couch and overheat them. Most new, year or so, machines now have vents on the side. Older machines had the fan at the bottom and sitting on the couch would block the fan and overheat the machine.

I've always found a re-formatting fixes alot of sins and is always a good idea after a year or two. It is a royal PITA, but if you have your stuff backed-up, it's not horrible and if there's no hardware problems, it runs great afterwards.

I know all the stuff I download, install and uninstall on my machine over two years is a lot... This current computer I can not figure out what the heck has happened to all the drive space. I'm to the point of just throwing in the towel and starting over.

But apparently FIL and MIL got us a new computer for X-mas, which is great! But I really hope they got a No Name barebones kit! I love building my own system and not having all the proprietary hardware and silly software the store bought's come with.

[Chkultr]

Wow, I'm really surprised. I have never had trouble with Dell support. Now HP, thats a whole other story!

My mother in law,father in law, aunt, and uncle have dell. This is the reason my household has HP!

DLBS..I could not help but read your conversation with the Dell agent without using an Indian accent! When I have to use Dell I usually try and use the online chat instead of calling. I can't help but get and stay frustrated with the tech support. All they are doing is reading from a screen with no real computer experience. So they really don't understand your problem.
Sounds like you could have done a complete system restore on your own and fixed the problem...

My father in law has the 1505 laptop. It is not even a year old and I already replaced the memory and I am waiting on a new hard drive to arrive so I can replace that!

Thanks for venting for all of us that have and will be in your shoes! Good luck and I hope all works out in the end!

[Willow1213]

Laptops in general just don't last long, which sucks. If anyone knows of a laptop that has lasted them 3 or 4 years, please make yourself known!

Oh I have! I got an iBook G4 my first year of college (January '05) and it has lasted like a champ! I have only had one small problem, which Apple fixed, and that pesky battery recall thing a couple years ago. I love my Mac bust I mainly just use it for web browsing and minor things now. I would love to splurge and buy myself a new Macbook Pro, but I just can't do it since my old one still works just great!

Sorry to hear about Dell support. Sony's is just as bad. I had my motherboard die a week before my warranty went up and they said "mail it to us at this address" and I did. When it got to them ( a week later) they said "sorry, it's out of warranty" :scared1: DUH!!! That's why I contacted you a WEEK AGO! Never again...

~Abby

[DLBDS]

Well, after 3 hours of dealing with Dell tech support yesterday evening, they have agreed that my problem is......the motherboard. Gee, go figure. :rolleyes: During the process of loading drivers etc. I got the BSoD again. I gave the error code to the agent (Shivani) and after being on hold while she 'investigated' the code, she came back and said it was the motherboard and they would send out a technician. She gave me a service # and said someone would call me within 2 days to set up an appointment. I was amazed at how fast it went at this point. :yay: I have to admit that Shivani was very nice to deal with. Not very personable (they never are though) but hey, they did what I told them to do and they had a person "with a (mostly) American accent" call me. She was a breath of fresh air. The coolest part was when she linked to my computer and was doing everything remotely. Very cool. I've never had that done before. The downside...while she was doing her thing for just under 1 hour....I was on hold. My ear was numb when I finally hung up the phone.

I'll post again after the tech enters on the scene......

[zulemara]

I am not surprised by the dell situation, nor am I about the GS situation and quite frankly, I agree with the above poster's rant about GS taking advantage of a very vulnerable market. Most people can't even understand the concept of where their music actually IS on their hard drive, nonetheless being able to diagnose a problem and fix it.

As for laptops, I had an HP pavillion since Feb 2005 and just recently sold it. I kept it clean by partitioning the hard drive and having windows on one drive and installed programs on another. That tends to at least keep the machine running faster. I had a warranty for 4 years and actually sent it in to HP in about early Feb 2008. They replaced the battery(which didn't hold a charge), the power cord(which had exposed wires) and the fan on the processor that was causing it to overheat. Although these were a lot of repairs, it was all really easy to handle. I self-diagnosed it as much as I could, then took it to GS because they are an authorized HP repair center. They said they would have to send the computer in, but since I had in home repair available, they had me call HP and get a box sent to me. I just told the HP guy that GS said it was overheating and he sent everything. I had the laptop back in less than a week.

Now I have a Macbook pro and couldn't be happier. I sold my custom built desktop and haven't looked back!

all pre built computers are mass manufactured and subject to the same failures. The difference between companies is support and I've always had good luck emailing back and forth with HP. I always recommend them, but that's just me.

[astrodrummergirl]

Agent (Gunjan_131905): "We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We assure you that we would try to isolate and fix this issue as quick as possible. We defiantly understand your concern. We would provide you quality service and would surely replace the part, incase any part would need replacement."


Thats the first paragraph of the first email I had back from dell customer supprt as well when my computer had problems. I was sent my PC with a naff graphics card which displayed colours wrong, displayed lines were there shouldn't have been and had, what looked like, dead pixels.

I had 2 or 3 emails back from dell after that one, and having at least 3 friends who all do Computer Science related courses and build computers themselves, was told that my GPU had basically exploded and at least the graphics card needed replacing, maybe even the motherboard depending on severety. So knowing this, I started nudging towards them that it needed to be sent in to be fixed, but oh no, the agent wanted to diagnose the problem that I had explained to her, which I already know the outcome.

So, in the end, I paid £40, probably $70 maybe (not sure on exchange rate), on a brand new graphics card, even though I'd already paid for an upgraded one, however, I didn't mind buying a new one, as it is twice as good as the previous, and a hell of a lot of games work better.

[FireDancer]

We have many Dell PCs here at work and we don’t even bother with Dell Support.

Calling Dell is just a painful experience. You get someone who learned English yesterday and says in a heavy accent…”Hello, my name is Bob”...uh, no it isn’t!

Let’s hope they add an India pavilion to World Showcase and then we can just bring our laptops to Disney with us for repair.

[doconeill]

I hate dealing with EVERYONE's tech support. I'm a high-tech person. I built many of my own computers, until I got lazy and started buying Dells given the price and generally impressed by the hardware at work. I test out everything before I even think about picking up the phone, because I KNOW the people who answer the phone don't know anything about the equipment, but simply follow the script...

"My computer fails to boot."

"Have you tried rebooting it?"

"Uh...it doesn't boot at all."

"Have you checked the power cord?"

"Yes. The light comes on, but it doesn't boot."

"Have you tried a different mouse?"

"What the #@!!% does that have to do with it?!?"

That's pretty much how it always goes.

I bought a brand new Dell desktop last year. It worked great, except if I had a USB hard drive connected, in which case it froze on the opening Dell screen. If I connected it after it booted, it was fine, but don't forget to disconnect before rebooting...I tried multiple drives, etc. That was pretty useless to me, so I called. Stoopid me. I actually yelled at the poor person after a while because they felt that having to disconnect the drive every boot was an acceptable solution.

The whole story is here (http://www.fleezle.com/log/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=34). In summary, after a montherboard replacement, whole box replacement, etc. (with which they "could not duplicate the problem", although there testing methods left a lot to be desired), it turned out to be a seemingly unrelated BIOS option, and the solution given to me not by Dell, but by another person with the same problem on the same box who went through the same thing...

[dpuck1998]

I hate dealing with EVERYONE's tech support. I'm a high-tech person. I built many of my own computers, until I got lazy and started buying Dells given the price and generally impressed by the hardware at work. I test out everything before I even think about picking up the phone, because I KNOW the people who answer the phone don't know anything about the equipment, but simply follow the script...

"My computer fails to boot."

"Have you tried rebooting it?"

"Uh...it doesn't boot at all."

"Have you checked the power cord?"

"Yes. The light comes on, but it doesn't boot."

"Have you tried a different mouse?"

"What the #@!!% does that have to do with it?!?"

That's pretty much how it always goes.

I bought a brand new Dell desktop last year. It worked great, except if I had a USB hard drive connected, in which case it froze on the opening Dell screen. If I connected it after it booted, it was fine, but don't forget to disconnect before rebooting...I tried multiple drives, etc. That was pretty useless to me, so I called. Stoopid me. I actually yelled at the poor person after a while because they felt that having to disconnect the drive every boot was an acceptable solution.

The whole story is here (http://www.fleezle.com/log/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=34). In summary, after a montherboard replacement, whole box replacement, etc. (with which they "could not duplicate the problem", although there testing methods left a lot to be desired), it turned out to be a seemingly unrelated BIOS option, and the solution given to me not by Dell, but by another person with the same problem on the same box who went through the same thing...

Here is my conversation,

Yep...
Yep..
Yep....
uh huh....


I have actually troubleshot computers with the "tech support" and I wasn't even near the computer. I already knew what was wrong with it so I just sit on the phone and pretend to do what they ask until the pass me on or issue an RMA!!

its kinda fun to mess with them too...yea, well just a second let me check to see if that socket work...I'll plug in my lava lamp...

[zulemara]

Here is my conversation,

Yep...
Yep..
Yep....
uh huh....


I have actually troubleshot computers with the "tech support" and I wasn't even near the computer. I already knew what was wrong with it so I just sit on the phone and pretend to do what they ask until the pass me on or issue an RMA!!

its kinda fun to mess with them too...yea, well just a second let me check to see if that socket work...I'll plug in my lava lamp...
LOL I do the same thing. I already know what the problem is before I call. Usually I'm just looking for confirmation so I can get an RMA and be on my way