If you are thinking about getting a Dell, read this.Follow

The following is a list of what I have gone through with Dell recently. I urge any of you who might be thinking of purchasing Dell systems to reconsider. The support for the systems is non-existent and the system performance is shoddy at best. You will get the same performance (and now, support) if you go through an independent dealer. You will also save a few hundred dollars. Please feel free to link to this, or to ask me for the Word Document in case you want to inform others.

This is long and semi-technical, so feel free to skip it unless you're really interested. Unfortunately, this is the only way I know to get the word out.



The Bare Facts
I have an Inspiron 8000 laptop. The service tag # is _____(left blank on purpose). The warranty I purchased was for 3 years. It included Next Business Day, Onsite Serrvice and Complete Care. The complete care ensures that my warranty protects me against accidents as well as normal usage. My warranty expires on May 28th. That is 5 business days from this moment.

Next Business Day, Onsite Service only applies if a hardware part needs to be changed. I was refused this service twice. Once when my CD-ROM had to be replaced and another time when my hard drive had to be replaced.

The laptop came pre-installed with Windows ME in the spring of 2001. I used Windows ME until Windows XP became available. When XP became available to me, I installed that on the system. The Windows XP I used was a copy I had received from Microsoft for attending a seminar. The last time I formatted my laptop and installed Windows XP was in November of 2003.

In April of 2004, I noticed that Windows kept crashing in random areas. Often Internet Explorer or MS Word would crash and a Blue Screen error would result. In computer circles, it’s called a Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD). The BSOD would normally have a filename to indicate which file had caused the fault, but none of mine had filenames. Just cryptic error codes. I figured that there was a problem with Windows XP. XP does not often produce faults like this, but there is always a chance Windows was actually at fault. The problems grew worse and on May 12th, I could no longer use the laptop without it crashing every few minutes. I decided to format and re-install Windows XP.

On Saturday May 15th, I tried to do this, but apparently I had another problem whereby the laptop was not receiving any power. I called technical support and after some troubleshooting, the technician said he would send out another power adaptor for me. When I asked when it would be delivered, he assured me it would be at my address on Monday morning. On Monday afternoon, I phoned technical support to ask where my power adapter was and they said they didn’t know. They assured me it would be there on Tuesday morning. I was unwilling to believe them, so I asked for a tracking number. They refused to give me one. I called Customer Service and presented my problem. The first response from the representatvie was to try to sell me more warranty. He did not address my problem until prompted by me again. He too refused to give me a tracking number.

On Tuesday night (May 18th), the adapter arrived. I then proceeded to format my laptop and re-install Windows XP using the FAT32 filesystem. Windows installed without a problem. However, shortly after applying a few updates to Windows after the installation, the BSOD returned. The system kept crashing, and often would crash to a BSOD upon booting.

On Wednesday May 19th, I called technical support again and spoke to someone named ‘Elvis Goodman’. He refused to give me any other means of identifying himself. I told him my problem and he went through some basic troubleshooting of the power system. Once I told him the problem still persisted, he told me that since I had Windows XP installed, he would be unable to help me much. He said that Dell will not support my laptop unless I have Windows ME installed. However, he then proceeded to do the following:

• He said the error was with Windows XP and not the system’s fault.
• He said that I had not installed Windows XP correctly.
• He said that the CD I installed Windows XP from could have errors.
• He the pointed me to an article on Microsoft’s site dealing with Windows NT4. The solution for the problem on the site was to install the latest NT4 service pack.
• He then pointed me to another article on Microsoft’s support site that dealt with upgrading from Windows 98 to Windows XP.

After those steps, he informed me he could not help me any further since the issue was clearly with the software.

I returned home that same day and formatted my laptop again to install Windows ME. I used the following method:
1. Booted from Dell’s Windows ME cd and ran FDISK
2. Removed the partition, created a new one and rebooted
3. Booted from Dell’s Windows ME cd and ran ‘format’ on the C drive
4. Ran setup.exe from the Win9x directory on Dell’s Windows ME cd.

After Windows ME finished installation, I installed the video drivers from Dell’s Nvidia cd. I then proceeded to update Windows. In the middle of updating Windows, I got a BSOD. I rebooted and got the same error twice more, at different times. I then tried to used Dell’s diagnostic CD and told it to run all the tests. It froze after about 15 minutes and the screen went blank. I then procceded to call technical support again.

I spoke to ‘Natasha’. She also refused to give me any more information to identify herself. She took me through the same basic troubleshooting steps Elvis had led me to do earlier in the day. I informed her that since Dell would not help me when I had Windows XP installed, I formatted and installed Windows ME and had the same error. She asked me to reproduce the error and I did so. I read out all the information to her and she said she was ‘entering it into the log’. She then asked me to re-seat the hard drive and the memory chips. I did this following her instructions. The BSOD still persisted.

Once I finished re-seating the hardware, she promptly informed me that it was a software issue and I had installed Windows improperly. I told her that I installed Windows less than 3 hours ago, but she still insisted I had done something incorrectly. She then proceeded to tell me that since I had Windows XP on the drive, I *had* to have used the NTFS file system and I should have done a ‘debug’ before installing Windows ME. I asked her to show me how to do this and she was unable to comply. She made me reboot the computer several times and type ‘debug’ at several command prompts. Each time I got ‘bad command or file name’ as the result.

Natasha then gave up on that and told me I had used FDISK incorrectly and that I needed to re-install the system again. I said I would be willing to stay on the phone while she talked me through re-installing the system. She said she couldn’t do that, but she gave me instructions. The instructions were exactly the same as the procedure I had done earlier. I informed her of this and she said that I need to do it again as the problem is obviously with the software. I proceeded to then inform her of the dell diagnostic cd and the result from that. She asked me to boot from it and try to run a scan again. I did so and it crashed again after approximately 4 minutes. Natasha then told me that I need to re-install Windows. She also said that she would e-mail me links from Microsoft’s website within an hour so that I could fix this problem. Our conversation then ended.

It has been approximately 2 hours and I still have no e-mail from Natasha.


Commentary
• Both technicians were polite up until I gave them my name. Then they became more hostile and rude as the call went on. At one point, Natasha swore softly and then yelled at me.
• I asked to speak to a manager when Elvis was unable to assist me. He put me on hold for 10 minutes and then told me there was no manager in the area.
• I have been asked to format my laptop twice in the past 12 hours. I did so and yet the technician insisted I was doing something wrong. I asked for someone to come on site and they said they could not send someone out for software. Dell will not support Windows XP, Dell tells me I isntalled Windows ME incorrectly and Dell refuses to help me fix the problem.
• The fact that the diagnostics CD froze points to a hardware problem, but Dell will not acknowledge that. That fact, coupled with the fact that I am 5 business days away from being out of warranty leads me to believe that Dell is just trying to stall until they don’t have an obligation to help me anymore.
• Natasha kept telling me I needed to do a ‘debug’ before I installed Windows ME. I have been working with computers for 9 years and not once have I had to do this. Debugging is to help diagnose system errors.
• Elvis kept showing me articles from Micrososft’s site that had NOTHING to do with my issue.

No RAM has been added recently. No RAM has been added at all.

With WIndows XP, the general BSOD starts off with
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
and then at the bottom I get what I think are memory addresses starting with 0x000000A


With WIndows ME, the general BSOD message contains
"File Name: BATTC(03)+0000061D Error: 0C : 0028 : FF0527ED


The laptop is generally stable for about 10-15 minutes when I boot it up in the morning, then it starts crashing. That, coupled with the fact that the diagnostics crashed, leads me to believe it's one of three things:
Overheating
Memory Error
Hard Drive Error

There's a chance it could also just be the motherboard, but I have no way to know for sure.

RAM tests fine. With the Dell diags and with SIMMtest.
The networks the laptop attaches to are networks I've built and I will stake my reputation on the fact that they are virus free.

Plus, all the formatting and re-installation has been done at my home, offline.

I was on the phone with 'Joel' today and he got me to upgrade some firmware. See, Dell keeps these upgrades locked up so I can't find them on the website. After the upgrades, Windows won't even install. So Joel asked me to run the Dell diagnostics again.

With XP and ME, BSODs occur
- at boot time (loading windows)
- when launching IE
- when moving mouse
- when looking at the screen intently

I ran the new Dell diagnostics again and everything passes. Windows ME keeps crashing when I try to install it now. It'll copy all the files to the drive and at the very end of the installation, it'll crap out when it's configuring the system.

The second time I installed ME, it froze while detetcing hardware after the files had been copied.

I'm now leaving a message for 'Joel' to appraise him of the situation.

EDIT: I could try to install Windows XP, but Dell will absolutely not support me with that OS, so I will not load it.

Edited, Thu May 20 22:20:13 2004 by CloakedStranger

The BBB-
Better Business Bureau

Drop that next time you call them... Trust me.

Hey ISO.
I indeed went down to Dell on Friday. I thought that the tech wanted me to sit down with him and we'd fix the laptop together. Unfortunately, he simply wanted me to drop it off for him and he said "I'll try to get Windows installed for you."

I have a feeling he's going to take the Hard Drive out of my machine, put it in a similar machine, install Windows and then put it back in my machine. So it may work fine for boot, but when I try to do anythig else, it may crap out on me.

As for Googling the error, I did that :) It's definitely a hardware issue that Dell refuses to recognize because their diagnostics say all the hardware is fine. The reasons I say it's a hardware issue:

a) When I get a BSOD, it doesn't mention a file.
b) No version of WIndows will install. 98, ME, 2000 and XP all crash at some point during the installation.
c) The system SUDDENLY started crapping out on me. 6 months, no problem, and BAM.



Basically, my plan at this point is to wait until Tuesday to see what the tech did with the laptop. If he says everythimg is working now, I'm going to format and install Windows ME at least twice and then XP once to make sure everything is working. If everything is indeed working, then fine.

If he says it's working, but it crashes, I will report them to the BBB of Southern Ontario like Okan suggested (thanks Okan!). I've documented what's happened since Tuesday in this thread and in my own notes. Of course, it's my word against Dell's, but we'll see what happens.

Since your power adapter suddenly stopped working I would be highly suspect of a power surge. The kernel error message normally is caused by some device driver (or malfunctioning device) constantly sending an IRQ request to the kernel. If the kernel receives multiple stop messages within a certain period of time from the same device(IRQ requests) there is a chance of BSOD.

The problem could actually be the master boot record on sector 1 of your hard drive, however, my gut instinct tells me you have a chip malfunctioning either on your motherboard or graphics card. Something happened to blow out your power adapter, thus that same something could have also affected the motherboard.

I would send the entire laptop in to the factory and have them run additional diagnostics on it. As long as the return is postmarked by the 28th you should be covered. I would go down to the post office and send the package with insurance and delivery confirmation.

p.s. If it makes you feel any better Gateway ran into the same problems with their on-site warranties and not honoring. Eventually a class action lawsuit was filed, which they lost.

The tech from Dell called me back. After 2 weeks of hell and Dell insisting that the hardware is fine, they found a bad memory chip. It's being replaced tomorrow and I will be able to pick up my laptop on Thursday.

Every frikkin' time I told Dell it was a hardware problem, they asked me to format the laptop. Why couldn't they have just tested this out sooner?

***** WINDOWS. GET LINUX.

Sure...send me the cash and I'll pick one up! :p

Update: Got the laptop back and it is working fine so far. Warranty expires tomorrow, so I hope everything stays in working order.