Hard drive problem -- Warranty guy left new drive with DOS
 

Marcio Watanabe wrote:
I'm an IT consultant, and one of my clients just had a problem with a
hard drive. Since the Optiplex was still under warranty, Dell was
called to replace the drive. Someone came and replaced the drive, but
the computer was left only with a DOS prompt--no software installed.
Is this standard operating procedure for warranty services? Shouldn't
they at least leave a working computer (with Windows XP and Office XP)
as it came from Dell?

Typically the leave the PC in the condition it was in when it left the
factory but that depends on the client having the software. In other words
the don't carry around a copy of the software with them.

I almost always just have dell ship me the disk cause it isn't worth my time
to have some one else install it and my clients environment is nothing like
what came from the Dell so I'd have to reinstall everything anyway.


--

Rob

it is quite disappointing, but this is normal. unless it is a large
corporate customer that has a standard drive 'image' on file with dell, the
drives come empty. i have never had a tech offer to install any software
for me. what i usually do is temporarily remove the replacement drive and
install it into an identical system in order to clone the drive image to the
new drive.. then return the reinstall the replacement drive and configure it
correctly for the office network. but if you don't have an identical system
in the office it may prove to be more trouble than it is worth to do it this
way. of course you can alternatively rebuild the software image from
scratch using all the disks that were provided with the system.

"Marcio Watanabe" wrote in message
...
I'm an IT consultant, and one of my clients just had a problem with a
hard drive. Since the Optiplex was still under warranty, Dell was
called to replace the drive. Someone came and replaced the drive, but
the computer was left only with a DOS prompt--no software installed.
Is this standard operating procedure for warranty services? Shouldn't
they at least leave a working computer (with Windows XP and Office XP)
as it came from Dell?

--
Marcio Watanabe

this is standard procedure for dell. they will replace the drive, and get
you up to a dos prompt (to demonstrate that it works). it's actually not
even MS-DOS, afaik, but FreeDOS. the dos prompt is simply to demonstrate
that the part works. after that it's the customer's responsibility to
install the software. this is where getting recovery CDs from dell comes in
handy. if you are a large corporate customer, you can pay to have dell
maintain an image and ship out drives with the software pre-installed, but
that will delay the ship date to about 2-3 business days instead of the
standard next business day for the blank ones so they have time to push the
image on to the drive.


"Marcio Watanabe" wrote in message
...
I'm an IT consultant, and one of my clients just had a problem with a
hard drive. Since the Optiplex was still under warranty, Dell was
called to replace the drive. Someone came and replaced the drive, but
the computer was left only with a DOS prompt--no software installed.
Is this standard operating procedure for warranty services? Shouldn't
they at least leave a working computer (with Windows XP and Office XP)
as it came from Dell?

--
Marcio Watanabe

After the first 30 days, the hard drive is replaced without software. Only
the hardware is warranted. The software is the responsibility of the
customer. That has been the policy as long as I can remember.

"Marcio Watanabe" wrote in message
...
I'm an IT consultant, and one of my clients just had a problem with a
hard drive. Since the Optiplex was still under warranty, Dell was
called to replace the drive. Someone came and replaced the drive, but
the computer was left only with a DOS prompt--no software installed.
Is this standard operating procedure for warranty services? Shouldn't
they at least leave a working computer (with Windows XP and Office XP)
as it came from Dell?

--
Marcio Watanabe

In New Zealand the Dell supplied windows and drivers (resource) CD is
installed unless the client does their own (corporate) image. The customer
has to have the install media available.

"Marcio Watanabe" wrote in message
...
I'm an IT consultant, and one of my clients just had a problem with a
hard drive. Since the Optiplex was still under warranty, Dell was
called to replace the drive. Someone came and replaced the drive, but
the computer was left only with a DOS prompt--no software installed.
Is this standard operating procedure for warranty services? Shouldn't
they at least leave a working computer (with Windows XP and Office XP)
as it came from Dell?

--
Marcio Watanabe