Digital Dave

You can’t tell me that you’ve never been involved in an activity and had that one person that strayed way away from the pack.  It is just one of those life situations that we all will deal with multiple times throughout our lifetimes.  How do you deal with it?  Do you get pissed off, and do you translate that into the conversation?  Do you sit back and let them go?  Do you correct and guide them while being respective?

Well, I’m one to guide somebody while being respective, keeping my cool. This is easier said than done, but, hey, you gain nothing from being an equally annoying and pain in the ass person back.  SOMEBODY has to maintain control.

Tonight was my night.

I really have had enough of this particular laptop.

1 Month ago, I was playing a casual puzzle game — Peggle.  If you haven’t played this game, you really should.

Service Call 1: Resulted in a Tech Coming out to replace — RAM, Video Card

Problem not fixed, Tech called for more parts.

Service Call 2: Tech replaced — LCD Screen, Motherboard, Video Card (Again, 2), RAM (Again, 2)

Problem fixed for a week or two… Display issues started again doing random tasks on the computer.

Service Call 3: Required to send laptop into the depot.  Parts Replaced — LCD Screen (Again, 2), Motherboard (Again, 2), Video Card (Again, 3),  Keyboard, Power Cable

Problem fixed for a week, when I tried to play a game, again, and display issues that started this entire debacle, started AGAIN!

Service Call 4: Tech replaced — Video Card (Again, 4)

Service call 4 was just this last Saturday.

Today, I was playing a game during lunch, Oblivion, and my entire computer’s display crashed.  Resulting in me not even being able to start my computer.  The display wouldn’t even turn on, but the computer would. However, the system didn’t sound like it even went past POST.

So, you can begin to see why I just decided to contact dell again to ask for a replacement laptop (I still have a year of tech support, and they will replace these parts until it works like it should).

I’m not sure if it’s part of their SOP, but this representitive went above and beyond to deceive me.

Little did he know, he was talking to A) A Gamer, B) A Programmer, C) An aspiring Game Developer.

The Grit

Robert: “Thank you for the info how may I assist you?”
Me: Explained all of the part replacements, requested new laptop due to all of the issues within the last month.
Robert: “what is the issue”
Me: Explained that I was playing a game for about 5 minutes, computer crashed, display will not turn on
Robert: “what game and what system” <- Shouldn’t he have my system on the screen?
Me: “M170 Laptop – Oblivion”
Robert: “the game is not Capable to be run on a system that old”

— Facts: Computer Bought (top of the line for its time) 2/19/06
———- Oblivion Released/Purchased: 3/20/06

Me: “It’s worked perfectly fine before this entire mess started.”
Me: “You just turn down all the settings.”
Me: “It’s definitely capable. I’ve played it on a worse system.”
Robert: “the game I have played on my desktop it is a very graphic intensive game”
Me: “Yeah it is. But if you turn down all the settings, it looks nasty but plays fine.”
Robert: “and requires a very strong graphic card”
Robert: “let me see what I can do but I assure you the parts can be replaced but system exchange is unlikely”
Me: “That’s fine, keep replacing the parts.”

The Fun

Robert: “games such as oblivion are not meant for systems such as the m170 witch is marketed as a office replacement system” <- Uh… What?!
Me: “I’m well aware of what this system can handle. There is something seriously messed up with it and neither of us can figure it out.”
Robert: “Let me review if system keeps failing due to video game Pushing the system beyond its physical limit dell has the right to not replace these parts as it is considered abuse”
Robert: “if you are pushing the vid card beyond physical ability the video card will fail”
Me: “5 Minutes of standing around in a game world? That’s hardly abuse.”
Me: “That’s turning the game on to see if everything is working correctly.”
Me: “And when i’ve spent hours on the game before my display issue started, it doesn’t make sense that /this/ particular game caused the issue.”
Me “I’m in disbelief that you’d even consider that abuse.”

The Stupid

Robert: “it is abuse if the same parts are being replaced and the issues is Centered around a game that has the following specs”
Robert: “Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows XP 64-bit 512 MB System RAM 2Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor 128MB Direct3d compatible video card and DirectX 9.0 compatible driver, 8x DVD-ROM drive 4.6 GB free hard disk space DirectX 9.0c (included)”
Me: “And, are you looking at my system specs?”
Robert: “You are just over the minimum specs”
Me: “Where?”

— Facts: Windows XP, 2.16GH, 2GB RAM, 100 GB Hard Disk, nVidia 6800 Ultra
———- Supported Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series, Listed ON the same page he links me later– http://www.elderscrolls.com/games/oblivion_faq.htm

Me: “You do realize I bought this laptop a few months befor ethe game came out?”
Robert: “the processor is only 2.0 GHz to run this game with your current system specs you would need to disable key window components to get it to run functionally”
Me: “Are you looking at my system specs?”
Robert: “those are the MINIMUM Specs”
Robert: “3Ghz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent processor 1 GB System RAM ATI X800 series, NVIDIA GeForce 6800 series, or higher video card”

The Logical

Me: “Ok. It’s not abuse if you meet the specifications. Why are you wasting our time with this?”
Robert: “You can view it your self >link to the specs<”
Me: “Yes, I’m well aware that this laptop can run the game.”
Me: “Come on. Quit wasting our time with this.”
Me: “You are avoiding the issue all together.”

He then let me know that the system replacement was not approved and that he needed to troubleshoot the computer. I said sure.

He asked me to plug into an external monitor and to run the diagnostic tools.

I couldn’t help but say:

Me: “This makes me think you haven’t been reading what I wrote. The computer doesn’t go past the post. The display doesn’t initiate.”

The Result

An act of God saved me, apparently.  It was just one of those times where things magically work again. After turning on, shutting down, turning on, shutting down, and finally turning on one more time, The computer actually worked

I had to let my new best friend go, and I let him know I’d definitely be back if it started being stupid again.

Wow, what a night.

I haven’t had an issue like this, yet, with dell.  So be prepared to defend yourself if you ever ask for a system replacement.  That obviously is in their SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).  But when is enough, enough? When does it cost more for them to replace parts, have techs come out, etc?  I had a tech tell me that it costs dell +$100 every time they have to come out. Add part costs, add how much it costs for them to pay a tech to look at it when it’s on their bench at the depot… Considering how much they mark up their laptops (and having a good idea with how cheap it is to build computers), I can’t see how this isn’t costing them more than replacing the thing.

I have 261 days remaining on my warranty, and I will get this thing fixed, and I will be able to play games on it again.