Craptop Strikes Back

Written by: adekun on 9 March, 2007 6:01 am - Filed under: blog — No Comments »

I shall have to keep this short as the power adapter for my reliable laptop has now ceased to function. This has happened a few weeks after my warranty expired. I expect to receive a reply from Dell reiterating this. What a choice of title for my previous post. How I laughed.
So until a replacement appears, I shall be in the garden – at least the forecast is favourable.

Tags: craptop

Craptop Update

Written by: adekun on 25 January, 2007 8:40 am - Filed under: blog — 2 Comments »

As mentioned before, I said I would continue to press Dell’s Technical Support department. My replacement hard disk came unformatted without the integral MediaDirect program. I requested the CD’s I needed to restore the system to what it was sold with. Today I got a response. My transferred warranty doesn’t cover the missing CD’s. These are usually included with the system sold in Asia. However, I have the option of completing an online form, to receive a quote. Posts on a few forums mention invoices to be three figures US.

The system I bought was probably amongst the earliest batches shipped in the UK. I paid extra for the NVIDIA 7800 Go graphics card, top spec a year ago. I am dumbfounded as to why that the latest drivers on the Dell site are still those released 18-Jan-06. None of the standard NVIDIA drivers are compatible. I discovered during my first rebuild, the card is underclocked to 250 MHz rather than the usual 400 MHz – to keep the temperature down. That wasn’t in the sales literature.

Tags: craptop

Craptop

Written by: adekun on 18 January, 2007 3:06 am - Filed under: blog — 2 Comments »

Before moving out to Japan I ordered a laptop from Dell. Having spent quite a while researching what was on the market I opted for the familiar company. Although paying a premium price, I hoped that any problems that might arise would be remedied with little fuss and the system would be reliable. Sadly, I found this was not the case. Within a couple of weeks of moving out to Japan I found that the hard disk was full of bad sectors. After several attempts to repair the problem it was with reluctance, I formatted the drive and reinstalled Windows. It was fortunate I paid extra for the OS CD having paid extra for the Professional edition. The warranty didn’t extend beyond the UK & Ireland, since these problems arose so soon I thought Dell might have gone the extra mile. Being a global company I thought it little hassle for them to either send me a replacement or contact details of somebody that spoke English in Japan. I would have used the Japanese support page if I would have been able to translate the pages and if the service recognised my system. I emailed technical support, detailing the problem. I was asked to run a full diagnostics test, having sent the results I was then told “The error message you have got indicates that the hard drive is faulty” – pull the other one I thought. Once established, the rollercoaster of conflicting emails, Escalations, passing the buck, one liners began. After six months, I was about to cut my losses, when the 90W battery, (which I paid extra for) started to fail. I’d only run it on batteries a few times. I tried a different method in contacting Dell and was given a link to transfer my warranty to Japan. I did so and received a snotty reply stating the person was Technical Support not Customer Service. Trying again I was given the correct link and managed to get my warranty transferred. After a couple of hours with my wife navigating, we made a request to get parts replaced. The replies were in English and courteous, the parts came promptly as directed. I am pleased to get the parts replaced but as expected I do not have the functions of the original system, no diagnostics and in particular MediaDirect – I assume a selling point for some people.
Anyway, I was thinking about those less fortunate than me. I like the idea of Reduce, Reuse & Recycle. Given the amount of heat this kicks out, (enough BTU’s to heat a small church) I thought it could be married with other defunct devices, such as the George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine.

Perhaps those adventurous, with a working machine could try really multi-tasking.
I’ve not used the computer as a football, to flambé food, or in the jungle, in addition to the above…
Coating on the underside is flaking.
A lug in the middle of one of the USB sockets broke.
DVD R/RW eject button is usually unresponsive.
Decals peeling.

I will try the Japanese support again as they seem willing to help. Maybe after a year of trying I will get back to what I started with.

Tags: craptop