Not all tech support is outsourced yet...

[altivo]

I had to call Dell today. I spent much of yesterday trying to exterminate Windows XP from a year-old Dell GX280 and replace it with Linux. The Linux installation routines kept complaining either that they couldn't find the SATA drive or that they were getting an I/O error on it.

Dell's diagnostics said the drive was working. Certainly it had been working (apparently) with Windows.

Finally I downloaded diagnostics from Maxtor and ran the low level format, which didn't complain, and then the complete read test, which did. Drive fails Maxtor's own test every time. That was 5 pm yesterday.

So this morning I followed the instructions in the diagnostic program, and checked with Maxtor via the web. Nope, OEM drive, contact Dell. Ugh. I figured I'd be on hold for 40 minutes and then get some first level support who would want me to start over from the "is it turned on" stage, and probably would only speak English with a heavy, sleepy East Indian accent, it being the middle of the night over in Asia. (That was my experience with Hewlett-Packard a couple of months ago, and It took three calls and a lot of hard words before they fixed their problem.)

However, our machines were under Dell's "Gold Support" plan. So I dialed the toll-free number and dealt with one of those voice recognition systems. Amazingly, it got my 10 digit account number right on the first try. Once I convinced it that I was not calling about wireless networking problems, it transferred me to a hold queue where the phone rang immediately and was answered on the second ring. Randi did not argue with me. She took the particulars, serial numbers, etc., agreed with me that the drive was failing, and said a replacement would be out by DHL tomorrow. Did I want her to send a technician to install it? No, thanks. We'll see if it arrives on time.

Since I have five of these machines to deal with, all purchased at the same time, you can bet I'll run that diagnostic on every one of them. Two will be getting a fresh install of XP, so I went back and tried the XP install on this one, defective drive and all, just for practice. Windows never noticed the defect, and installed normally. Then I tried the diagnostic again and it still found the same failure. I can only guess that the SATA drivers in Windows must not push as hard or use the same features as Linux and the diagnostic diskette do.

Edit: (Next evening) That solved it. The replacement drive arrived via DHL at 1:30 pm. Before 3:00, the drives had been swapped, the new drive (a Seagate, but probably the same mechanism in the end) had passed manufacturer diagnostics, the new OS had been installed and configured, and was running exactly as desired.

Comments

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

I just replaced a drive in a GX280 (it's only 5 months old). The original 40G Seagate SATA drive wouldn't boot, and it came up as "Failed. Return code=7" I talked to the IT manager and he confirmed that 7 isn't a lucky number when you're running HD diagnostics on a Dell.

This was also under the "Gold Support" plan, but there's a long, sad story involving third party vendors, lost paperwork, and police dispatchers who wanted their dispatch console back yesterday.

Not a bad machine, but at least for myself, I much rather have a "Frankenputer" that runs generic parts..but then again, I'm not a business :)

This particular machine would try to boot,..I'd get the splash screen and then it would blue-screen every time. I tried everything in the recovery console, including fixing the MBR. I was able to get about 65% through reinstalling Windows, and it would hang.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the kind of symptoms all right. Though I've had first level tech support try to tell me I had a virus with a report like that...

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

*grin*

A hardware virus.

Dell.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well, no, it wasn't Dell support that tried that stunt. The company that pulled it has since completely fallen by the wayside. ;p

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

Yep. The BSOD error was someting like "The Windows System Process Manager has failed to start. The system has been halted. 0054FF02 00000X22." Apparently, bad drivers will cause this issue, and on some systems, a bad Windows hotfix will also cause it..but...this machine had never been patched, never been connected to the Internet (or any network), never been updated, and just died one morning.

That pretty much rules out a virus :D

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Well I'm not accustomed to think of BSOD errors as being viral in origin.

However, I've seen some horrendous infections on unconnected machines. They were brought in on contaminated floppy disks, usually in the form of Word documents that were actually disguised templates with trojans hidden in them. One infection came in on a commercial CD-ROM that had been distributed with infected archive files on it. ;p

[pioneer11.livejournal.com]

Sounds like your up on it here with the drives.

Doncha love it when you don't have to ask for
the managers managers manager to get what
you need? XD

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yes. And I love it when I don't find I'm talking to someone in India or another country on the other side of the world who couldn't care less about my issue. In that situation, no matter how many layers you go through, it's usually hopeless.

I'm glad to see you're still here. I was a bit concerned this morning early.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I've done that. I try to be kind, even with the language
barrier at times, but I'm not hip to this "international capitilsim"
bit. I didn't spend half my life fighting godless communism only
to find it replaced by godless capitalism.

*facepaws*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

You have it exactly right. Not only is it godless capitalism, but it's also faceless capitalism. There's no one who take responsibility. There's no one to whom you can complain. There's nowhere to turn. And that's just the way it's intended to be.

"You don't like what we sold you kid? Tough. Maybe you'll be smart enough to hold onto your penny next time, but we think not. In fact, we're counting on it."

[(Anonymous)]

I got the cellar half way cleaned though!

How To Organize:

Make Two Piles; Save or Throw away.

Actually thats my entire secret of being a good organizer...

Make Two Piles.

XD

[ducktapeddonkey.livejournal.com]

We have the gold support as well.

I've only used it a couple of times. But it's already paid for itself.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I figure it's how they make up for the really cheap prices they offer. You have to buy the Gold Support to make sure you will be able to get warranty service.