computers...

Computers have a love/hate relationship. You love them until something goes wrong than you hate them!

I got a new computer about 2 months ago. Pete was getting his replaced because the video card went out 3 or 4 times so Dell declared it defective and sent a replacement. (we buy the 3 year warranty). Usually when Pete gets a new computer I get his old one. This time around I would not be getting one. SO... Pete decided the replacement would be for me and he would order the one he had been eye-balling for awhile. Worked fine. Until he got to really use his new computer. It was 64 bit and a lot of the stuff he uses at work I guess is not supported with 64 bit. So he came home at lunch even and said the computer was going back. He then took over my computer (the replacement one that was sent). But I got to buy a new one as well. We checked Dell refurbished site and found some good deals. However, if you do check them out, the good buys go VERY fast! I picked one out, it was 64 bit by the way. So in the end, Pete and I have almost the same computer. We both have a Dell Studio 1737, 17 inch screen, and all the good numbers. I don't understand what all the numbers are for so I left that to Pete. They have fast processors, lots of memory and big hard drives (but not insanely big!). His has 2 hard drives within it and mine has a finger print scanner. I love the scanner by the way. Not that I would order it special but since it was refurbished it was included. His is 32 bit and mine is 64 bit. I have not had problems with the 64 bit by the way. They both have Windows Vista. Pete hates it. I've gotten used to it. But it is different than XP!

Well it feels like it takes forever for me to get it set up the way I want. I get a copy of my back up from my other computer and pull off all my stuff. I also had lots of software to install. OK, Pete helped with some of that.

So a few weeks after using my computer the black bar at top stops working. This black bar is called the hinge cover. It is not critical. It controls volume and the play back features for a disk. All of which you can control from in other ways. Like I said, no biggie. I call Dell and they replace it. (we have in-home service so the tech comes to our house). By the way... If you get Dell, make sure and pay extra for "your tech team" it is English speaking customer service instead of the India call center that is VERY worthless!! It's expensive but very worth it. Anyway, it's replaced. Within 2 weeks, the same thing. The controls on this hinge cover stop working. I call them up again and they send the piece again. This time they also send a new motherboard so hopefully it will not happen again. The tech that came to our house this time was an older man. He was very slow. He was here for a little over 2 hours!! Usually when techs come out to replace things it takes less than 10 minutes. This guy cracked me up. He would call Dell and get mad because they should have more people on the phones so he doesn't have to listen to the hold music. He made a few calls, not sure who all to, but every time I could hear him complaining about the service. I'm guessing he couldn't see well as he had me read him off numbers from his paper work and had me turn on more lights for him. He also asked for a glass of water, and a bowl for the screws he was taking out of my computer. Another sign of "Oh-no" was when he opened my computer up from the back and said to himself, "hmm, I wonder how i get that out?" What?? He replaced the hinge cover and then the motherboard. After he replaced the motherboard and finally got all my parts back together in my computer, the screen was not working. NICE! Normally i would have asked for him to put the old motherboard back in but i only had about 20 minutes until I had my parent/teacher conferences. There was no way he could work that fast. He said I should have the new part the next day or the day after. OK, fine, bye.

2 days later a tech came out (this time it was the original guy--who worked much faster!) He replaced the motherboard and was done within a few minutes. He said though that the computer was working but since the screen was not showing anything every time we turned it on and off windows did not shut done correctly so it wasn't working right. He started the repair program and said if that didn't work then I would have to re-install everything then he left. Well, I'm sure you know, it didn't work. This is the time I hate my computer!

I do not have a back up yet of my stuff since this is a new computer and I don't have back ups set up yet. I also don't have anything on here that would be lost forever if it crashed. So it of course is crashed!! Pete does some work on it and i get to hear about how he's not fixing my computer ever again since I don't do regular back ups. I know he loves the challenge!! He gets it back to running. But I am the one who has to get it really running-- installing ALL that software, again, set up my email account, again, set up my wireless, again.... You get what I'm saying. I think I have it all back and running except one program-- the Adobe stuff, and Pete will need to help with that. What a big pain in the butt! So i guess I will be doing a back up soon. However, right now my computer has TOO much stuff on it to fit on my back up drive. I have double of lots of stuff since Pete was able to pull my old stuff off of it before he reformatted at. That is all in a folder and is about 53 GB. Then my (back up) drive has extra stuff because he copied it to my drive in case we lost it on the computer. I have lots of deleting to do before I can do a back up. Although I think I got everything I need, I also hate permanently deleting stuff like that!

And guess what? The hinge cover is still not working correctly. It is working but doesn't show up on the screen like it's supposed to. Maybe that is just a driver that needs to be installed. I'm afraid to call Dell yet though!! And guess what else? We will be getting Windows 7 very soon (it came with our computers as a free upgrade. we should be getting them this week I guess). So lots of this will have to be re-done and Pete has said he thinks he will switch computers with me once we get it!! GRRR! Something about being able to put more RAM on 64 bit computers. So I'll be starting from scratch again soon. FUN-FUN!! Love/Hate relationships!