Egads! What a discovery! How could I be so stupid?

I posted last week about my Dell Dimension 4400 flaming out (in jet-pilot parlance). This is a different problem from the Dell 4100 (my wife's) de-frag problem I posed last night (I did the safe-mode thingy and de-frag went great). Anyway, I continued surfing the Dell website today for a replacement for my dead 4400. For some reason I decided to log on. Guess what I discovered. I HAVE 11 DAYS REMAINING ON MY EXTENDED WARRANTY! I thought the warranty had long expired.

I called Dell and spent almost 90 minutes on the phone with an Indian fellow who called me "Williamuns" (my first name is William). We did all the diagnostics and he ended up whispering these sweet words in my ears: "OK Williamuns, we will have a technician there within 48 hours to replace the mother-board, the power supply, memory cards, modem, and whatever else doesn't work." Then I discovered that within the 11 days remaining on my extended warranty, I can buy another extended warranty. Every Dell computer either of us have owned has needed warranty work. Same-o Sony computers, but they did not have the good warranty.

I am a happy camper tonight. I almost spent close to $3000 to replace a computer that I thought was long out of warranty.

Mine is more a Windows 98 problem. My wife's Sony notebook is a Windows XP, but she has had problems too.

To protect American jobs, next time ask the call center person where they are located.

If they say somewhere outside the USA, ask to be transferred to a USA call center.

I build my own, and I never had any problems with it. I still have components on this computer from way back in '90, the floppy drive, been recycled into 4 computers so far, and it is more reliable than my parent's floppy drive on their Dell, it corrupts disks.

However, I don't have the technical expertise (even though I am an Extra-class ham radio license holder) to build my own computer. I might not ever again buy a Dell computer, but as Hubert Humphrey might say: "I am pleased as punch that Dell is standing behind my investment. After all, that is what I paid for."

with a fellow in Bangalore (I think that is correct) named Andy. I swear I have never had better service or more concern, this was also from Dell. He called the next day to make certain my computer was working and that was after about 2 hours on the phone the night before. I am certain there are some stinkers out there but Andy was the best of any of the companies I have had to deal with.

Nowadays most of it is literally plug and play for even the most technically inexperience. I could understand it if you had to remember the jumper settings for every component to work together, but nowadays, that is not a worry. Plus, its COLOR coded now. The only thing holding people back is the appearance of complexity (circuit boards), and not the inherent simplicity of setting up a system yourself. Plus you can save money that way.

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http://www.waterwheel.com/Build_A_PC/build_PC.htm

The most important thing to remember is this, make sure that the CPU, Motherboard, and RAM are all the right type for each other. Basically go up to the nearest local computer shop (not Best Buy), and ask for the best setup of your price range. You can buy a case with power supply, motherboard, and CPU and RAM to get started for well less than 400 dollars if you shop wisely. Then you can reuse the Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse and any other component from a Dell Machine. Note: I do NOT know what compatibility problems that will happen with mixing Dell components that are proprietary with non Dell components.

This could be a major problem, the ones that I know should be compatible are the Mouse, Keyboard, and Monitor, the Hard drives should also be compatible, and your CD/DVD drives should be as well, but sound card and stuff I have no idea, Dells are a mess when it comes to upgrades. That is why I like home built systems, I don't have to worry about incompatibilities of that sort, all hardware is PC standard, with no overridding name brand propriatary pieces of shit being used.

that's about it - I'm not going to debate computer brands or any of that. Just good for you that you managed to get your machine fixed and save money. :thumbsup:

Just goes to show, Mac, you can never tell. Mine was supposed to be a shit-box that would go up in smoke within 2 years...

Easy to work on and they are pretty good machines for the money you spend.

I bought it before I knew Dell gave so much money to the GOP, so I'll not buy another one, but my Dell has been trouble free.

I even have it on a small wireless network at home at it just keeps tooling along, never a bleep. I've use it for hours every day, for the past 3-ish years.