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From: Alex Forbes [write@summitlake.com]
Thanks for writing, Larry, It was good to hear from you, and thanks for permission to print your letter and email address, which I shall try to post today along with this reply and update. Yes, I do have some suggestions as to how to approach Dell. I know that my “Dell Firewall” posting grew into a disjointed collection of updates posted in reverse chronological order. The only suggestion that worked for me was writing Dell HQ, Michael S. Dell specifically, which eventually led to me being contacted by a motivated and highly effective person in Dell Executive Support. This info is still on my “Customer Firewall” page, complete with the correct mailing address. On April 3, after two Dell-paid service calls and two refurbished motherboards, a contract service technician was able to get a motherboard to boot and pass the keyboard diagnostic tests. I then signed off on the work, he left, and I wrote a thank-you letter to my Dell contact. I took the machine home and stored it away safely in the closet. The machine has long since been replaced at home and at work by other laptops, so I had no further occasion to use it until last week when I needed to perform some software testing. I regret to inform you and others following this story that the machine now does not work at all. I have just not had the heart to resurrect and update the article yet. With AC power, pressing the “start” button causes the light to go on for about two seconds, and then turn off. No amount of repetition improves the odds of starting it up. There is no hard drive light, startup sound, or activity. The machine shuts itself down. However, if you take the laptop off the table and place it in your lap (!), with the back reclining downward toward your feet and the screen opened past “normal”, you can boot into Windows and see the battery is still charged 100%. You can even run applications so long as you remain frozen in this position with the 3800 in your lap. Placing it however gently back on a flat surface causes instantaneous shutdown. If there is a pressure point “hot spot” on the top or bottom of the case, I cannot locate it. Pretty obviously, either this is another defective motherboard, an improperly installed motherboard, or both. If there is ever to be a solution for this, all I can say for sure is that I am not going to allow it to consist of a refurbished motherboard or another visit by a service technician. My #2 DIMM slot went out, or at least gave a diagnostic that it went out, before the original motherboard replacements started arriving. I never got around to seeing if the new slot is good. My “success” in securing Dell responsiveness depended in part on having gone through Channels to give Tech Support a chance to rectify the problem fairly, and the good fortune of having my letter read by a very capable person who had the same thing happen to her 3800. The Tech Support gamut is a very steep price to pay just to be able to say you tried all normal channels to get satisfaction. It goes almost without saying that this is a huge investment in time and energy to get even this far. If the most competent people in an organization, folks that you would be proud to work with in your own line of work, cannot obtain successful solutions for their personally assigned clients, then I’m afraid you would understand that I am reluctant to endorse the method that “worked” for me, because in the end even that did not work. The big picture emerging from all of my experiences with Dell and all of my correspondence with other 3800 owners is this: the 3800 has little to recommend it, and never will. It has motherboard problems, DIMM problems, cooling problems, a cheap warpable plastic case make out of laminated chicken fat, flimsy back panel connectors, a resentful and deliberately obfuscatory support staff in Tech Support and Customer Service … and, I suspect, the display LCD is fading far faster than normal. It is, after all, only a machine. A machine, after all, consists of only so many parts, and parts can be diagnosed and replaced. Readers I have “talked” with all go the extra mile to baby, pamper and coax their machines into extra service extending well out beyond the 9 to 18 month cradle to grave point. Why? Because we harbor a strong faith that no machine can possibly be that bad. Where there is good faith and a will to try, there’s always a solution? Wrong. I will never again laugh at jokes about the quality of old Soviet equipment and machinery without thinking of Dell. Unlike PG&E’s leaky PCB substations in California, or Ford’s TFI ignition systems, there is no known direct link between this product and human life safety, support or health issues. All the signs of corporate denial are there. It’s only your money, productivity and time of life. If there is an Erin Brockovich for the consumer-computing world, I do not know that person. If I could buy a replacement motherboard new from ASUS or Soyo or EpoX I might be tempted, but the prospect of having to drop that nice board into the existing 3800 Inspiron case is still a showstopper. Why would anyone want to do that? Even if my contact at Dell were to say, listen, let us get you refurbished Latitude instead, it is really far, far too late for me. That would be more appropriate for a first response, given what we know now. I have my little Sony Vaio, and I build my own desktop boxes. Life without Dell Support is wonderful. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to leave it that way. Best of luck to you, Alex -----Original Message----- Hi Alex... Went through your site with regards to
the 3800 at http://www.summitlake.com/COMPUTERS_NET/Dell_Customer-Firewall.html My 3800.... I purchased a 3800 late in July of 2000. In May of 2001, the keyboard was replaced after several keys in the upper right side quit functioning. This was under warranty. Also a broken latch mechanism for the modular bay required the replacement of the lower portion of the 3800's case. My woes.... Now, a year later, several keys in the same keyboard area have become erratic in operation. Also the memory in DIMM #2 would occasionally not be recognized (and lately it is never recognized). I have had no problems with the battery charging or running from an A.C. converter. Possible help.... The information from your site suggests that this may fall under the known problem with some 3800's that Dell is willing to repair after warranty expired. If you think so, would you have any suggestions as to how to approach Dell? More on my 3800.... My 3800 is a Celeron 500 running Win2K, used mostly for communication and business purposes. I am not a road warrior, but the 3800 is moved around the house for working in my home out of my home's office, using Orinoco wireless LAN. Because the unit runs hot and I like a mouse, I put it on a plastic cutting board - which works very well and protects the 3800 from rough handling. When traveling, I remove the batteries, provide a protective (rubber) cover for the 3800 within the Dell case, and carry this in a large messager bag like the bicycle couriers in San Francisco use. About my computing environment.... I have a Micron used as a workstation for software development, which has performed very well. (It developed major hardware problems at three weeks, and Micron promptly replaced the entire unit outright!). I have a Dell Dimension which serves as a print/fax/disk, 24/7 server and have been very pleased with it. The computer the Micron replaced was another Micron bought in '93, and was early this year retired to the parts salvage bin. I also have two custom computers, both running Linux - one a development Oracle server and one a dedicated bastion firewall. I would have bought Dell or Micron, but the tower case was no longer an option from these vendors, as well as Linux not being an option. You may print this letter and my e-mail address. Thanks again, Larry Johnson |
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