Dell is driving me to drink.

[theweaselking]

Replacement laptop #*2*, incoming! And it only took another 10 transfers, an hour and a half on the phone, and two warranty-information related fuckups!

Remember all those times I've said Dell has the best support in the business? Even at this point, they *still* do, and that's a fucking terrifying thing to be able to say.

(The problem: Original laptop was defective. Replacement laptop works fine but is missing the Bluetooth module, which is not field-addable.)

Comments

[pappy-legba.livejournal.com]

Dell's manufacturing quality is all over the map. They make some models that are solid as anything Lenovo or Toshiba ever put out, and they make some that explode if you wave a magnet at them. By the time I sort the former from the latter, the model's already a year old and maybe out of production already.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The Latitudes tend to be very good. The one I got was *physically broken* by the person who put it together poorly, not a manufacturing flaw.

(And the missing Bluetooth module was simply purest fuckup from the replacement people.)

[fearmeforiampink]

I'm currently getting irritated that BBC iPlayer seems to be crashing my Dell's graphics card. I've had three blue screens, two were definitely iPlayer (one in browser, one in its own thing), can't remember what the third was in, but it was quite possibly iPlayer again.

I'm fairly certain it shouldn't be iPlayer taxing the card too much, as the card is high end. Adobe AIR is up to date, the graphics card drivers are up to date, and I've just updated Flash afterwards, but it was a pretty minor level of update. So what's causing it? I may end up doing a general LJ shoutout for advice if the minor update doesn't help.

In theory I can sidestep this all by watching Sherlock via Windows Media Player, as the iPlayer site lists that as an option. But I'd rather actually fix the problem.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Use VLC to watch Sherlock. And uTorrent to get it.

[fearmeforiampink]

I like being legal when its viable, even if I'm not actually paying for Sherlock either way.

I'll probably end up going that way if it carries on though…

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

"Viable" is the hard part, here.

(You're getting a free product via a nonstandard way, but it's not like you're paying any less than the asking price, to the asking person, for it. It's actually *saving them money* because now they don't have to pay for the bandwidth.)

[fearmeforiampink]

However, it's reducing the case for them continuing, expanding, and suchlike improving the iPlayer by dropping the number of users they have on it.

[thornae.livejournal.com]

The second the BBC starts selling international TV licenses, as they've been threatening to do for some time, I will buy one.

A non-empirical straw poll among my employed, over 25, technologically competent, Doctor Who/Sherlock loving friends indicates they would have about a 75% uptake amongst said demographic.

[thornae.livejournal.com]

Oh, and, on topic - the one time I had a Dell laptop (for work), the motherboard cracked. They repaired it on-site within 24 hours.


I've used Toshiba Acers ever since (slightly less fragile) but I was impressed with Dell's service the one time I dealt with it.



... actually, come to think of it, a colleague dropped a car battery on the screen of a Dell portable, and it was replaced within a week under the "you idiot" warranty.

[twilightbloo.livejournal.com]

I've had three blue screens ... can't remember what the third was in

Blue Screen View is great for re-checking information from previous crashes, and often provides more information than the default blue screen text, by highlighting multiple drivers when more than one is suspect. (http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html) ()

[fearmeforiampink]

Handy, though probably more for providing information to others, as I'm not that sure about that level of specifics.

These are apparently the suspicious drivers, the 'caused by' box says the dxgkrnl.sys in all three cases, and the .exe is in only two out of the three crashes, the others are in all three.

[twilightbloo.livejournal.com]

dxgkrnl.sys and dxgmms1.sys are Microsoft Direct-X related.
You could try running "dxdiag" (without the quotes) from the search box in your start menu, to see if any problems are reported on the video tab.

atikmpag.sys refers to your ATI graphics card.
Did you update the drivers through the ATI website or Windows Update? If the latter check the ATI website as there may be a more recent version available.

[fearmeforiampink]

dxdiag doesn't report any problems.

I haven't updated the drivers; the laptop is about a month and a half old, when I clicked 'Update Driver' in the appropriate bit, it said it was already up to day (i.e. what it shipped with is still good). If it crashes again, I'll give updating via ATI a go, and then try it in Firefox or Chrome (it was in Opera the times its been in a browser).

It's not been crashing every time, and I've just watched a fair chunk of the program that crashed it without it crashing again, so its possible the Flash update fixed it.

[fearmeforiampink]

Thanks for the advice BTW, it's definitely appreciated.

[twilightbloo.livejournal.com]

No problem, good luck.

[fearmeforiampink]

Happened again, in the standalone player, so I still have to try it in Chrome to see if that helps.

Have attempted to update the drivers through their website. The initial 'download this and it'll find the right drivers' misidentifies my graphics card then says I don't have a proper graphics adapter.

Looking around the website I eventually find out that they want me to go to Dell for it, as the drivers are system specific due to it being a laptop.

Downloading said driver now, hope it'll help. Also planning to try updating DirectX

[twilightbloo.livejournal.com]

Also, if you haven't already, see if it still happens when using Firefox or Chrome.

[anktastic.livejournal.com]

Time to get a Mac.

trollface.jpg

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Except the problem with Apple support is that, after you're stuck taking it into the store and waiting for the parts, they give you back a *mac*.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

Weird, on my Dell Inspiron a couple years ago it came back from service minus the Bluetooth module, and they just mailed me another one. Easy peasey to put in a little compartment next to the battery.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It depends on the device.

However! I have a Stupid-Good-Support warranty that involves Not My Problem being the main thing I have to say at any point, which means that even though I *could* potentially install the Bluetooth module myself, I don't have to.

[jerril]

... assuming Dell doesn't misplace the note about your warranty...