Dell Ambivalence

Ah, my love/hate relationship with Dell continues. Wednesday afternoon, my power adapter randomly broke. Which made me hate Dell. But then, I called Dell’s technical support, spoke to a very nice and exceptionally woman named Kalpana, and by 10:00 the next morning, I had my replacement power adapter. Which made me love Dell.

I think the general conclusion is this: if their hardware was as good as their warranty repair and replacement, Dell would be unstoppable.

On a down note, it seems that my motherboard is failing again. This will be for the fifth time in just over two years of ownership. The LED status indicator lights (num lock, caps lock, scroll lock) are starting to randomly turn themselves on and off, sometimes the system hangs when it tries to go into hibernate (“Insufficient System Resources to Complete Request”), the volume buttons have all but stopped working, and my wireless adapter is acting a little flaky. Eventually, my laptop just won’t turn on. I might be able to make it to the end of the semester before I have it replaced, but I would probably pretty much die if my laptop decided to kick the bucket just a few days sooner…

So yeah. That’s my life. Exciting, as always.

Anyhow, I’m looking forward to going home on Tuesday– real food, family and friends!

About Mark Egge

Transportation planner-adjacent data scientist by day. YIMBY Shoupista on a bicycle by night. Bozeman, MT. All opinions expressed here are my own.
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3 Responses to Dell Ambivalence

  1. markegge says:

    Hmm. Looks like Dell is going to replace the whole system. I just hope that I don’t get shafted in the process (I’ve added a Bluetooth adatper and this summer I upgraded my optical drive, ram and hard drive– how much of which will be compatible with the new system, I don’t know).

    I don’t know if I should feel bad for Dell (I mean, already they’ve lost a LOT of money on me) or for myself (I mean, I bought the laptop with the reasonable expectation that it would work. I probably could take better care of it, but I certainly don’t abuse it).

    Just for my reference: 800-822-8965 x977-0716 (Salmon)
    case# 149-251-018, dispatch# 81504461

  2. jenny says:

    can’t wait to see you and we’re bringing the extra good mashed potatoessssssss

  3. markegge says:

    Mmm. Mashed potatoes!