8400 - Choppy Sound - Don't Call Dell

Last week I wrote a note here because my 8 month old 8400 was
experiencing intermittant choppy sound and erratic mouse problems.

So, after several weeks of this and being sure the machine is
spyware/virus & worm free and not seeing any obvious conflicts or old
drivers we finally broke down and called India.

Brief Background: I've purchased 7 Dells from a 266, 500, Inspiron,
1500 and have been a Dell supporter since the very early days. Years
ago I called Dell on a Sunday night with a bad motherboard and had a
tech onsite replacing it on Tuesday morning.

I'm sure many of you know a lot more than I do but I'm a retired CIO
of 25 years (not that this qualifies me as a technical person) but I
can take care of things.

Well, that all changed Tuesday when we called about a choppy sound and
erratic mouse complaint. In the space of 2 hours (after a 45 minute on
hold wait) India took the machine from having an irritating but minor
problem to one where the machine had a BSOD part way through the boot
sequence.

And the tech & his manager were telling me it was MY fault it
happened. 2 hours into the call they discovered the machine had 2 hard
drives and that the Dell installed hard drive was now the second drive
on the machine. Once they discovered this they said that I would be
transferred to the India Help Line, for which I would have to pay. I
said "because yout have caused a BSOD on a machine that started with a
minor problem I now have to pay to fix a problem that YOU caused?"

While arguing with them I was able to stop the auto reboot and get the
BSOD message that the Boot.ini file had been damaged. I fixed that,
adios'ed the Indians and came away with the very clear impression that
Dell support has taken a BAD turn. I used to be able to talk to techs
who really knew their stuff. Now I get people who read from
troubleshooting guides and ask for answers.

The manager said "If we'd know you had 2 hard drives we would not have
diagnosed your machine because our techs aren't trained on that". I
said "if it's so important why don't you ask when you first take the
call?" He said "Dell sells 10,000 machnies a day and we have to have
efficient support". I said "Thanks". Have someone from Dell who cares
call me tomorrow (yesterday). Haven't received any calls but I'm now
back where I started with a minor choppy sound and erratic mouse
problem. But it bothers me much less now than it did before.

John

Did you run the hardware diags that came with your Dell? If there are no
hardware problems detected, you are pretty much on your own anymore. Dell
will help with the installation and configuration of the OS and factory
installed software during the warranty period but not much else.

"nospam mindspring.com" jrcat7@ wrote in message
...
Last week I wrote a note here because my 8 month old 8400 was
experiencing intermittant choppy sound and erratic mouse problems.

So, after several weeks of this and being sure the machine is
spyware/virus & worm free and not seeing any obvious conflicts or old
drivers we finally broke down and called India.

Brief Background: I've purchased 7 Dells from a 266, 500, Inspiron,
1500 and have been a Dell supporter since the very early days. Years
ago I called Dell on a Sunday night with a bad motherboard and had a
tech onsite replacing it on Tuesday morning.

I'm sure many of you know a lot more than I do but I'm a retired CIO
of 25 years (not that this qualifies me as a technical person) but I
can take care of things.

Well, that all changed Tuesday when we called about a choppy sound and
erratic mouse complaint. In the space of 2 hours (after a 45 minute on
hold wait) India took the machine from having an irritating but minor
problem to one where the machine had a BSOD part way through the boot
sequence.

And the tech & his manager were telling me it was MY fault it
happened. 2 hours into the call they discovered the machine had 2 hard
drives and that the Dell installed hard drive was now the second drive
on the machine. Once they discovered this they said that I would be
transferred to the India Help Line, for which I would have to pay. I
said "because yout have caused a BSOD on a machine that started with a
minor problem I now have to pay to fix a problem that YOU caused?"

While arguing with them I was able to stop the auto reboot and get the
BSOD message that the Boot.ini file had been damaged. I fixed that,
adios'ed the Indians and came away with the very clear impression that
Dell support has taken a BAD turn. I used to be able to talk to techs
who really knew their stuff. Now I get people who read from
troubleshooting guides and ask for answers.

The manager said "If we'd know you had 2 hard drives we would not have
diagnosed your machine because our techs aren't trained on that". I
said "if it's so important why don't you ask when you first take the
call?" He said "Dell sells 10,000 machnies a day and we have to have
efficient support". I said "Thanks". Have someone from Dell who cares
call me tomorrow (yesterday). Haven't received any calls but I'm now
back where I started with a minor choppy sound and erratic mouse
problem. But it bothers me much less now than it did before.

John

Your story is an illustration not of Dell and not of India but of the
general state of tech support in all industries everywhere in the world
where tech support is provided. Your experience could just as easily have
happened with Compaq or Toshiba or in Canada or the Philipines. Indeed, it
could just as easily have happened with your car mechanic or the clerk at
the local department to which you are trying to return a purchase. Are you
naive to this, or are you simply using this as an opportunity to show your
hatred of Dell or India?

And while it's almost certainly true that your second hard disk probably has
nothing to do with choppy sound -- or should I say that I myself don't see
what it has to do with choppy sound -- the fact remains that any product
that you buy from any company is only warranted in its original
configuration. Have you never read a product warranty, which almost always
states that the warranty is void if the owner makes unauthorized changes to
the product? Or is this also an opportunity for you to press your agenda
against Dell or against India?

--
Ted Zieglar
"You can do it if you try."

"nospam mindspring.com" jrcat7@ wrote in message
...
Last week I wrote a note here because my 8 month old 8400 was
experiencing intermittant choppy sound and erratic mouse problems.

So, after several weeks of this and being sure the machine is
spyware/virus & worm free and not seeing any obvious conflicts or old
drivers we finally broke down and called India.

Brief Background: I've purchased 7 Dells from a 266, 500, Inspiron,
1500 and have been a Dell supporter since the very early days. Years
ago I called Dell on a Sunday night with a bad motherboard and had a
tech onsite replacing it on Tuesday morning.

I'm sure many of you know a lot more than I do but I'm a retired CIO
of 25 years (not that this qualifies me as a technical person) but I
can take care of things.

Well, that all changed Tuesday when we called about a choppy sound and
erratic mouse complaint. In the space of 2 hours (after a 45 minute on
hold wait) India took the machine from having an irritating but minor
problem to one where the machine had a BSOD part way through the boot
sequence.

And the tech & his manager were telling me it was MY fault it
happened. 2 hours into the call they discovered the machine had 2 hard
drives and that the Dell installed hard drive was now the second drive
on the machine. Once they discovered this they said that I would be
transferred to the India Help Line, for which I would have to pay. I
said "because yout have caused a BSOD on a machine that started with a
minor problem I now have to pay to fix a problem that YOU caused?"

While arguing with them I was able to stop the auto reboot and get the
BSOD message that the Boot.ini file had been damaged. I fixed that,
adios'ed the Indians and came away with the very clear impression that
Dell support has taken a BAD turn. I used to be able to talk to techs
who really knew their stuff. Now I get people who read from
troubleshooting guides and ask for answers.

The manager said "If we'd know you had 2 hard drives we would not have
diagnosed your machine because our techs aren't trained on that". I
said "if it's so important why don't you ask when you first take the
call?" He said "Dell sells 10,000 machnies a day and we have to have
efficient support". I said "Thanks". Have someone from Dell who cares
call me tomorrow (yesterday). Haven't received any calls but I'm now
back where I started with a minor choppy sound and erratic mouse
problem. But it bothers me much less now than it did before.

John

major snippage

" But it bothers me much less now than it did before."

John

LOL Not to make light of your problem, but that made me chuckle.

Yes.. ran diags clean but thought there might be some guidance.

On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 20:51:05 GMT, "WSZsr" wrote:

Did you run the hardware diags that came with your Dell? If there are no
hardware problems detected, you are pretty much on your own anymore. Dell
will help with the installation and configuration of the OS and factory
installed software during the warranty period but not much else.

"nospam mindspring.com" jrcat7@ wrote in message
.. .
Last week I wrote a note here because my 8 month old 8400 was
experiencing intermittant choppy sound and erratic mouse problems.

So, after several weeks of this and being sure the machine is
spyware/virus & worm free and not seeing any obvious conflicts or old
drivers we finally broke down and called India.

Brief Background: I've purchased 7 Dells from a 266, 500, Inspiron,
1500 and have been a Dell supporter since the very early days. Years
ago I called Dell on a Sunday night with a bad motherboard and had a
tech onsite replacing it on Tuesday morning.

I'm sure many of you know a lot more than I do but I'm a retired CIO
of 25 years (not that this qualifies me as a technical person) but I
can take care of things.

Well, that all changed Tuesday when we called about a choppy sound and
erratic mouse complaint. In the space of 2 hours (after a 45 minute on
hold wait) India took the machine from having an irritating but minor
problem to one where the machine had a BSOD part way through the boot
sequence.

And the tech & his manager were telling me it was MY fault it
happened. 2 hours into the call they discovered the machine had 2 hard
drives and that the Dell installed hard drive was now the second drive
on the machine. Once they discovered this they said that I would be
transferred to the India Help Line, for which I would have to pay. I
said "because yout have caused a BSOD on a machine that started with a
minor problem I now have to pay to fix a problem that YOU caused?"

While arguing with them I was able to stop the auto reboot and get the
BSOD message that the Boot.ini file had been damaged. I fixed that,
adios'ed the Indians and came away with the very clear impression that
Dell support has taken a BAD turn. I used to be able to talk to techs
who really knew their stuff. Now I get people who read from
troubleshooting guides and ask for answers.

The manager said "If we'd know you had 2 hard drives we would not have
diagnosed your machine because our techs aren't trained on that". I
said "if it's so important why don't you ask when you first take the
call?" He said "Dell sells 10,000 machnies a day and we have to have
efficient support". I said "Thanks". Have someone from Dell who cares
call me tomorrow (yesterday). Haven't received any calls but I'm now
back where I started with a minor choppy sound and erratic mouse
problem. But it bothers me much less now than it did before.

John

If you have a spare sound card lying around then you could try installing
that, if the sound is ok then you know its the onboard sound card thats at
fault , not If you have left yor machine as it was and not reinstalled a non
Dell copy of windows then they will help you BUT if its your own O/S then
they will hang you out to dry (its in the Eula T+Cs )

~One thing you could try IF you have reformatted the HD and installed your
own O/s make sure you have installed the chipset drivers

"nospam mindspring.com" jrcat7@ wrote in message
...
Yes.. ran diags clean but thought there might be some guidance.

On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 20:51:05 GMT, "WSZsr" wrote:

Did you run the hardware diags that came with your Dell? If there are no
hardware problems detected, you are pretty much on your own anymore. Dell
will help with the installation and configuration of the OS and factory
installed software during the warranty period but not much else.

"nospam mindspring.com" jrcat7@ wrote in message
. ..
Last week I wrote a note here because my 8 month old 8400 was
experiencing intermittant choppy sound and erratic mouse problems.

So, after several weeks of this and being sure the machine is
spyware/virus & worm free and not seeing any obvious conflicts or old
drivers we finally broke down and called India.

Brief Background: I've purchased 7 Dells from a 266, 500, Inspiron,
1500 and have been a Dell supporter since the very early days. Years
ago I called Dell on a Sunday night with a bad motherboard and had a
tech onsite replacing it on Tuesday morning.

I'm sure many of you know a lot more than I do but I'm a retired CIO
of 25 years (not that this qualifies me as a technical person) but I
can take care of things.

Well, that all changed Tuesday when we called about a choppy sound and
erratic mouse complaint. In the space of 2 hours (after a 45 minute on
hold wait) India took the machine from having an irritating but minor
problem to one where the machine had a BSOD part way through the boot
sequence.

And the tech & his manager were telling me it was MY fault it
happened. 2 hours into the call they discovered the machine had 2 hard
drives and that the Dell installed hard drive was now the second drive
on the machine. Once they discovered this they said that I would be
transferred to the India Help Line, for which I would have to pay. I
said "because yout have caused a BSOD on a machine that started with a
minor problem I now have to pay to fix a problem that YOU caused?"

While arguing with them I was able to stop the auto reboot and get the
BSOD message that the Boot.ini file had been damaged. I fixed that,
adios'ed the Indians and came away with the very clear impression that
Dell support has taken a BAD turn. I used to be able to talk to techs
who really knew their stuff. Now I get people who read from
troubleshooting guides and ask for answers.

The manager said "If we'd know you had 2 hard drives we would not have
diagnosed your machine because our techs aren't trained on that". I
said "if it's so important why don't you ask when you first take the
call?" He said "Dell sells 10,000 machnies a day and we have to have
efficient support". I said "Thanks". Have someone from Dell who cares
call me tomorrow (yesterday). Haven't received any calls but I'm now
back where I started with a minor choppy sound and erratic mouse
problem. But it bothers me much less now than it did before.

John

If I hadn't been so irritated I would've found a lot of humor in some
of the dialog:

Tech: "looking at the motherboard do you see a jumper on the right
side?"

John: "right side from the front or the back?"

Tech: "uh...one moment...(shuffling papers) do you see a lot of wires
plugged in to the motherboard on one side?"

John: "No...I see a lot of wires plugged into two sides. Are you
talking power connectors or interface wires?"

Tech: "one moment (shuffling papers)... uh..."


or...

Tech: "tap rapidly on the F-12 key while booting. Now what does your
monitor say?"

John: "it shows the Windows XP startup screen"

Tech: "You didn't start tapping soon enough. Reboot and tap F-12"

Tech: "Now what does your monitor say?"

John: "It says keyboard error"

Tech: "you're tapping too fast"

John: If you'lljust tell me you want me to boot to a setup screen or
to a boot menu I can do that..."









On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 17:26:02 -0400, "joe_tide"
wrote:

major snippage

" But it bothers me much less now than it did before."

John

LOL Not to make light of your problem, but that made me chuckle.

I don't hate Dell OR India. I hate lousy tech support.




On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 17:00:18 -0400, "Ted Zieglar"
wrote:

Your story is an illustration not of Dell and not of India but of the
general state of tech support in all industries everywhere in the world
where tech support is provided. Your experience could just as easily have
happened with Compaq or Toshiba or in Canada or the Philipines. Indeed, it
could just as easily have happened with your car mechanic or the clerk at
the local department to which you are trying to return a purchase. Are you
naive to this, or are you simply using this as an opportunity to show your
hatred of Dell or India?

And while it's almost certainly true that your second hard disk probably has
nothing to do with choppy sound -- or should I say that I myself don't see
what it has to do with choppy sound -- the fact remains that any product
that you buy from any company is only warranted in its original
configuration. Have you never read a product warranty, which almost always
states that the warranty is void if the owner makes unauthorized changes to
the product? Or is this also an opportunity for you to press your agenda
against Dell or against India?

So Ted,


"unauthorized changes..."

C'mon now. Do you seriously think people buy 8400's to run them
exactly as is.?

"My agenda.?? What're, you kidding?

My agenda is to get my machine running right.


On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 17:00:18 -0400, "Ted Zieglar"
wrote:

Your story is an illustration not of Dell and not of India but of the
general state of tech support in all industries everywhere in the world
where tech support is provided. Your experience could just as easily have
happened with Compaq or Toshiba or in Canada or the Philipines. Indeed, it
could just as easily have happened with your car mechanic or the clerk at
the local department to which you are trying to return a purchase. Are you
naive to this, or are you simply using this as an opportunity to show your
hatred of Dell or India?

And while it's almost certainly true that your second hard disk probably has
nothing to do with choppy sound -- or should I say that I myself don't see
what it has to do with choppy sound -- the fact remains that any product
that you buy from any company is only warranted in its original
configuration. Have you never read a product warranty, which almost always
states that the warranty is void if the owner makes unauthorized changes to
the product? Or is this also an opportunity for you to press your agenda
against Dell or against India?

I'm just curious. Have you made sure that both hard drives are set to AUTO?
If one of the drives is still off, it will work, but in PIO mode.
Ironically, the slow throughput of the drive, if it is regularly accessed,
could cause.

choppy sound.

Tom
"nospam mindspring.com" jrcat7@ wrote in message
...
So Ted,


"unauthorized changes..."

C'mon now. Do you seriously think people buy 8400's to run them
exactly as is.?

"My agenda.?? What're, you kidding?

My agenda is to get my machine running right.


On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 17:00:18 -0400, "Ted Zieglar"
wrote:

Your story is an illustration not of Dell and not of India but of the
general state of tech support in all industries everywhere in the world
where tech support is provided. Your experience could just as easily have
happened with Compaq or Toshiba or in Canada or the Philipines. Indeed, it
could just as easily have happened with your car mechanic or the clerk at
the local department to which you are trying to return a purchase. Are you
naive to this, or are you simply using this as an opportunity to show your
hatred of Dell or India?

And while it's almost certainly true that your second hard disk probably
has
nothing to do with choppy sound -- or should I say that I myself don't see
what it has to do with choppy sound -- the fact remains that any product
that you buy from any company is only warranted in its original
configuration. Have you never read a product warranty, which almost always
states that the warranty is void if the owner makes unauthorized changes
to
the product? Or is this also an opportunity for you to press your agenda
against Dell or against India?