Epilogue to my earlier Laptop woes post...

[tooz]

Back in December 2004 I had display problems with my Dell Inspiron 8200. Back then I was living in China and Dell China tried THREE times to resolve the problem. The first repairman replaced my ATI video card with an nVidea card WITHOUT DELETING THE OLD ATI FILES OR INSTALLING THE nVidea driver! The laptop still managed to work somehow for one month. I was happy--I had FOG!!! Then the display started acting up again. I posted here for some help and learned a whole lot in the process. Still, the laptop kept getting the same old display problem. Dell China replaced the video card three times, motherboard twice and even the LCD.

Still no luck. Back I go to America.

I transfered the computer's registration from Dell of China to Dell of America. Here comes two more repairmen with two more video cards. Nothing. Now the laptop goes into the shop. Two weeks later the laptop is returned unrepaired as the attached letter informs me that the "problem has been identified and the part is on back order"--they never told me what the problem part was. So, here I am having problems for almost a year.

I have since bought a desktop and have gotten back into CM with full force. Man, STILL a great game after all of these years (by the way, CM looks great with an nVidea 6800!!!).

Last Wednesday morning--the day before Thanksgiving, there is a knock on my door. There is a FedEx guy with a big box from Dell. "What's this?" I ask. "It's a computer" answers the deliveryman. Strange, I didn't order a computer. I open up the box and inside is a brand new Dell Inspiron 9300! Amazing. I was lucky to have purchased Dell's extended warranty program (3 years) and since I had so many problems for so long, Dell just replaced it. Amazing. Now I have this smoking laptop (which CAN accept the latest, greatest video cards)to go along with my desktop (I'll give the laptop to the wife, but this thing is huge--er, the laptop--not the wife.)

So, I NEVER did find out what the hell happened to my original laptop. Six technicians were stumped. Dell practically rebuilt the pc and it still would not work. I'll never know what happened. Dell's techies didn't seem to try to fix anything, they just tried to replace.

The lesson I learned is that even if Dell's computers aren't the best, their customer service sure is.

Now I close the chapter on this problem. I want to thank of those guys here on the forum who tried their best to help.

Yeah, you can bet I just ordered a three-year warranty for this new rig.