Waiting on pins and needles...

Post #68,538 by Another Scott 12/12/02 11:20:49 PM Reply	Waiting on pins and needles... Any updates? Or was [link\|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=68047"\|this] a reference to this thread? :-( Cheers, Scott.
Post #68,563 by Ashton 12/13/02 1:06:39 AM Reply	[cackle] ... pining for the Fjords here. (Er that was about.. the return of the Addled Poster(s).) I was hoping to have something +positive+ lest reports seem mere er more whinging.. {sigh} Turns out: the label on the refurb mb was wrong - said BIOS Rev A01 == the old one. But.. it's really A09 == latest. Scratch therefore one small hope for an explanation of the Endless Install. So then I asked self - can this POS install ANYTHING? (It was 'running' on old HD warts & all) Ran the Restore ME disk + the new HD: it got through to Key code - there was no key code stuck to or noted on anything Dell included. Tried the W2K one (in old days, this sometimes worked) - no dice. Now I'm waiting for Owner.. to er interface with Dell folks and get a code; save my on-fone appearances as conslutant with meter-running, for when we battle over compensation for her denied On-Site service. yada. Can't try Greg's suggestion re memory exactly - there are the minimal 2 (one pair) so I can't try just one. I will however swap places - on off chance it will matter. As they're already 'Tweek'ed for good contact.. fat chance. I still don't understand how the default (Oak) CDROM drivers can function well enough to transfer all this stuff (from either DVD or CD/RW players), how it can boot BBC-Linux! while auto-detecting hdwre etc. Then go all Dubya on the last part! I'll try Greg's hot-setup in any next session. ie yeah.. I wanna find out the solution to this mystery too, and hope she gets on the horn soon. This is nutty and IF there's some BIOS flag which recognizes Dell-sold VS other Doze versions: then I can imagine a few things to do with that info. Nutty indeed. I envision another wearing down of excuses not to assist, via the Brandioch Aristotelian Method - to get a &$%# pair of memory sticks and a NEW CPU and/or a new reader (or reason why these need also a BIOS update: something Dell should* know). I can't reach that data without signing in -with S/Ns- it may come to that (with her #s). Silly you can't access their Kbase generally; what's to lose? My Dream: new entry at fuckedcompany.com: Dell. [hah] Cheers, Ashton, suspended. Time to bug someone again..
Post #70,353 by Ashton 12/22/02 8:46:31 AM Reply	The Dell fails final test, ignominiously. We resolved that the final test for the duration would be: that it simply load its own Restore disk of Win MErde, onto the new HD and the refurb mobo. If it accomplished that, to a first approximation, Dell might conclude they had fulfilled a major requirement. (Then we would address the W2K and other issues.) Alas - random crashes persisted during install, though it did complete, unlike the W2K endless loop. Moot that it did not find the GeFORCE driver and instead defaulted to 640/480, or that first install was mouseless. The fact of kernel 32 and other messages, random crashes on a clean install with no aps loaded: is as far as I/we shall persist. (Greg's memory clue could well be apt) We won't be letting them ship that, then a week later a CPU. Then CD/RW? Another mobo? yada Letter, reports to Mikey Dell next, prep small claims court forms - prepare for presentation to a consumer muckraking show on local Tee Vee station (in SF). She wants a full refund for entire purchase - as she had requested within 72 hrs/ of its arrival. By now, maybe it's in the cards: Dell has in fact done nothing re her warranty. We shall have to become a thorn. I'd sorta like to find out what broke, of course - but this-all has reached the ridiculous stage. Time to fight. More tasty tidbits as & when. Ashton When the rich assemble to concern themselves with the business of the poor, it is called Charity. When the poor assemble to concern themselves with the business of the rich, it is called Anarchy. -Paul Richards
Post #70,360 by Another Scott 12/22/02 9:44:34 AM Reply	Thanks for the update. Luck!
Post #130,457 by folkert 12/12/03 10:24:58 AM Reply	Well? Didja get this fixxored -- [link\|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net\|greg], [link\|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry\|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ *i_wethey*
Post #130,497 by a6l6e6x 12/12/03 4:14:30 PM Reply	Re: The Dell fails final test, ignominiously. Ashton, I have some Dell parts that you may or not be able to use. They came out of my niece's Dell machine with a motherboard failure that I disassembled for parts. I threw away the case and can no longer tell you what model it was. However it was a Pentium III 733 Mhz desktop machine. The processor is of the slot type (i.e. plugs in like a card edge) with attached cooling fins. The memory is one 128Mb module made by NEC -- [link\|http://www.chipdocs.com/pndecoder/datasheets/NEC/MC-4R128CEE6C-745.html\|MC-4R128CEE6C-745]. It is non-ECC memory. I believe, but do not know for a fact, the parts good. If the parts could be of use, you are welcome (i.e. gratis ) to either or both of these items. Let me know here and if you do, I'll email you (at vom) for a mailing address. Alex A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true. -- Demosthenes, Greek orator (384-322 BCE)
Post #133,490 by Ashton 1/4/04 8:07:25 AM Reply	Sorry.. missed these recent comments. Appreciate offer; alas this be a P-4 with (whatever is the fancy paired RAS-sensitive memory spread of now near-3 years ago). As mentioned in (belated) reply to Greg - depending on how court? or TeeVee? goes - I may give a try with known good memory, on the boxed-up entrails. Hope is: a guy shows up at door and we give him a big box, in exchange for a check.. or maybe CASH. (Irony abounds - no problems with down-grading the later Dell 4400 recently; of course I needed no 'support' from Dell, nor would they have answered any questions about nuking Ex Pee!) Thanks for kind offer, Ashton
Post #133,528 by a6l6e6x 1/4/04 2:06:44 PM Reply	Good luck with the plan! Alex In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty. -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US president

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