16 July 2008

A Call From Dell

Evening received a phone call from a Dell personnel. He called regarding a matter I reported to Dell Support through e-mail.

Last week there was once when I boot up the laptop, the screen went flashing with different colours and beeping sound. Was shocked with this error, immediately soft-shutdown it (by pressing the Power button for few secs to let it turn off itself instead of plugging out the power cable, which can damage the laptop).

Thankfully the laptop works normally after that. I backed up my important files, and then lodge a report to Dell regarding this matter.

My report:

INCIDENT INFORMATION
******************************

Incident Type:Computer
Operating System:Windows Vista 32-bit
Computer Skills:on
If you are getting an error, please include the exact text of the message.

Description of problem.
When I boot up the laptop, the screen turns blank and then came up with different colour (red, green, yellow) flashing on the screen with beeping sound.

Description of any troubleshooting steps you have taken.
Pressed the power button 'til the laptop switch off. Try to boot up again and it works like normal.

I got this reply on the next day.

Dear Ling Fan,

Thank you for contacting Dell Online Technical Support. If you have contacted or tried contacting Dell recently regarding this issue, please let me know.

From your email, I understand that your system is having blank screen and color flashing when booting up. If I am misunderstood your concern, please do let me know.

I am concerned with the problem you are having with your computer. Please do not worry as I will help to resolve the issue very soon.

To isolate the problem, kindly perform the following:

Please run the Dell Diagnostic to check on the hardware. This test will generate an error if a hardware fault is found.

a. Insert Dell Resource CD (Dell Drivers and Utilities CD)
b. Restart system. Press immediately when Dell splash screen appears to enter into the Boot Menu.
c. Choose to boot with CD/DVD
d. Run the 32 Bit Diagnostics/ Diagnostic test.
e. Choose to run the Extended Test.
Note: the test will take at least 3-4 hours to be completed.
f. If there is any error reported, please provide me with the complete error message and the category the error falls into.

To be safe, I would suggested that you to back up your data for in case.

I would appreciate if you could monitor your system over these weekend and feedback to me the status of your system.

Ling Fan, in case we could not reach you via your primary phone, kindly feedback an alternate contact number (mobile phone/Office phone) if you have any.

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have further enquiries.

For your reference, your case number is: 3031884

Take care and have a nice weekend!


Thank you & best regards,
Alex Ooi
Dell Services - Technical Support
ANZ & SA - Online Team

I actually send the report on Thursday and they replied on Friday. Today (Wednesday) they decided to call me to check out is there anymore problems or not. Thankfully nothing happened til then.

No, I didn't run the hardware diagnostic test as what they recommended because it took up to hours to complete it.

Well, at least Dell's Support is responsive and attentive. I didn't expect to get such call because I thought it's solved "online", but it's good that they approach the cusomter "offline".

Their service is good, but the quality of the products remain doubtful as I've problems with their hardwares.

The Dell LCD monitor I ordered back in 2006 was faulty less than one year of use, so I got it replaced with a new one. Since then I've no problem with it, at least until now.

My sis' Dell XPS laptop broke down just not long after its one year warranty expires. Bad luck for her though. At least it's sorted out now.

I dunno whether the other companies, namely Acer, HP/Compaq those have such kind of service or not. Is it good? I dunno. For now I'm quite satisfied with Dell.

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