Plus, I also have an 8800GT that’s just shipped, and the 8800GT is known to not reproduce this sort of shit, so I can now start depending on the thing more and do some serious VM-ing.

We got a Inspiron laptop recently through work, and being a “business” machine, it was ordered with *next day* onsite warranty. Pulled it out of the box, pressed the power button, rubbed my hands together as Vista booted (yeah yeah, I know) - and then, blue screen of death. Memory parity check error. This is quite literally the first time I’ve seen a machine BSOD out of the box. I knew Dells didn’t have the best reputation, but this was kind of a joke.

After a few reboots and a few more blue screens and random Windows crashes, I find out that this is not an uncommon problem with the model. I also find out that this model has a habit of putting anywhere between 50 and 200 volts AC through the screws on the bottom of the chassis. Ah, the power of Google-fu. Sure enough, I tap a multimeter onto the chassis screws and it’s putting out 90 volts. That might have something to do with it!

We asked for a 3-pin power brick rather than the 2-pin ungrounded version that Dell moved to recently, and after explaining it all to the Indian call center drone, I eventually got it elevated and they sent us the 3-pin adapter. The machine still crashed (albeit a little less), so I assumed the stray voltage had killed something. So they said they’d send a tech out the next day. 3 days later, someone shows up from a local PC shop to replace the motherboard. It works for a day or two, then bluescreens again. I call up and demand they replace the system, because it’s obviously fried somewhere. The Indians are adamant that they have to replace the motherboard again.

WHY?! It didn’t work the first time, so here’s a guess: It probably won’t work THE SECOND DAMN TIME.

Sure enough, a different tech from a different shop shows up (and again, with an odd idea of the meaning of next day support) and replaces the motherboard. And again, the thing still doesn’t work. After another angry call to Dell, they agree to send us a new laptop. Which means building it from bloody scratch again in goddamn Malaysia.

And after all this, they send me a “how was our support” questionnaire. Being the honest person I am, I scored their support pretty bloody low. And then some Indian woman has the balls to call up and ask why I wasn’t happy.