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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 |
#2
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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 |
#3
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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 |
#4
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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 |
#5
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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 |
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