Thursday, August 14, 2008

Caution: Dell does not provide support for computers purchased from Best Buy

I recently purchased a Dell XPS M1330 from my local Best Buy (local being an hour drive away). I really like my laptop, so far it does everything I need it to with minimal problems. However, after updating the display driver (which I downloaded from support.dell.com) when I have the power adapter disconnected from the laptop I can't adjust the brightness to the same brightness as I can when the power adapter is connected to the laptop (which I was able to do before using the {Fn + Up Arrow Key}).

Here's where the major problem comes in. I contacted Dell Support through a live chat and was told that because I purchased my laptop from Best Buy, they could not help me with support issues. This is disappointing, one of the reasons I purchased a Dell computer is because I've always received excellent support from them in the past.

The following is the live chat between the Dell Support Technician and myself:


This is an automated email sent from Dell Chat. The following information is a log of your session. Please save the log for your records.

Your session ID for this incident is ########.

Time Details

08/13/2008 11:33:03AM Session Started with Agent (Prashanth_156460)

08/13/2008 11:33:09AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "Thank you for contacting Dell XPS Premium Support. My name is Prashanth and my rep ID number is 156460. How may I help you today?"

08/13/2008 11:33:53AM Ian Oliver: "I'm having trouble with my Dell XPS Laptop. When I disconnect the power cord, I cannot adjust the display to be as bright as it is when the power cord is connected."

08/13/2008 11:34:27AM Ian Oliver: "I'm using the Fn+UP keys"

08/13/2008 11:34:43AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "All right ."

08/13/2008 11:34:53AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "Does it change when you use fn and up arrow key ?"

08/13/2008 11:35:02AM Ian Oliver: "No."

08/13/2008 11:35:29AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "May I know from where did you purchase the system?"

08/13/2008 11:35:39AM Ian Oliver: "Best Buy"

08/13/2008 11:36:26AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "Ian, I will be able to help you with the very basic things like the one that you have tried already however any issues with the system would be answered by best buy technical support itself."

08/13/2008 11:36:55AM Ian Oliver: "I'm sorry. This is a Dell laptop, shouldn't I be able to get support from Dell?"

08/13/2008 11:37:07AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/best_buy?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs"

08/13/2008 11:37:13AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "Please check this link once."

08/13/2008 11:37:42AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "You can check the 6 FAQ for the same."

08/13/2008 11:37:50AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "Q: Who can I contact if I need technical support?"

08/13/2008 11:37:58AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "A: If you need support for your personal computer, please contact any Best Buy store."

08/13/2008 11:38:46AM Ian Oliver: "Thanks. This will be the last Dell product I ever purchase."

08/13/2008 11:38:56AM Ian Oliver: "Please notify your supervisor."

08/13/2008 11:39:06AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "Please give me a minute, my supervisor would like to have a word with you."

08/13/2008 11:39:18AM Ian Oliver: "Thanks."

08/13/2008 11:41:45AM Agent (Prashanth_156460): "Are we still connected?"

08/13/2008 11:41:49AM Ian Oliver: "Yes"

08/13/2008 11:43:54AM Agent (Sup_Ashish_74782): "Hello Ian! This is Ashish, supervisor for Chat Support. How are you doing today?"

08/13/2008 11:44:04AM Ian Oliver: "I'm good, how are you?"

08/13/2008 11:44:19AM Agent (Sup_Ashish_74782): "That is really good to know, I am doing good thank you."

08/13/2008 11:45:05AM Ian Oliver: "How can we resolve this issue that I'm having with my display brightness?"

08/13/2008 11:45:41AM Agent (Sup_Ashish_74782): "Well, as we start with this."

08/13/2008 11:45:55AM Agent (Sup_Ashish_74782): "I hope you know that you purchased a Dell product from Best buy, Right."

08/13/2008 11:46:04AM Ian Oliver: "I am aware."

08/13/2008 11:46:38AM Agent (Sup_Ashish_74782): "And I believe you must have checked the link provided by Prashant to you on the policy regarding the customers purchasing the computer from Best buy ?"

08/13/2008 11:46:55AM Ian Oliver: "Yes, I saw the link"

08/13/2008 11:47:46AM Agent (Sup_Ashish_74782): "Have you tried updating the BIOS?"

08/13/2008 11:49:40AM Ian Oliver: "Thanks for your help, I don't think updating the BIOS will help for this problem. It seems to be related to the video driver, I've updated to the latest video driver for my video card from the Dell Support web site (this did not resolve the issue). I've"
also downloaded the previoius driver, again from Dell's Support web site and this did not correct the issue either.

08/13/2008 11:54:37AM Ian Oliver: "Ok, we're done here. I suppose I shold have read the fine print, and not purchased the laptop from Best Buy. I work at a University, where we have over 300 Dell computers, and have always received great support from Dell in the past. When I purchased"
this laptop I was expecting the same kind of support. It is my fault for not reading the warenty/support policy. I will not make this mistake again. Thanks again for your help, sorry for the trouble.
If you require further assistance, please visit us at support.dell.com


This post is a word of caution to those considering purchasing a Dell computer from Best Buy, know that you will not be receiving the high quality support that we've come to expect from Dell.

I will not be purchasing another Dell computer from anywhere other then Dell in the future.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition (My Review)

Resident Evil 4 for the Nintendo Wii is a great game. The story is compelling. The controls work well. The graphics, although not a sharp as the X Box 360 or PS3 version, are engaging. If you are a fan of first-person shooters, or just looking for a great game, I highly recommend Resident Evil 4 for the Nintendo Wii.

Understanding File Permissions in Linux

Do you know what this means?
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 31660 Jan 30 13:51 touch

Neither do I. Fortunately Webmonkey has an article detailing how to work with Linux file permissions.

This article found on Lifehacker.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Windows Vista Proformance and Tuning

Microsoft has released a step-by-step guide for speeding up Windows Vista on your computer. You can download a pdf copy here.



This story was found on Lifehacker.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

An Open Letter to Software Publishers

This letter should be more articulate, but it's not. I'm frustrated. I'm upset. I pay for your software, purchase your software, but then when I try to install it, to use the software that I've paid for, I'm forced to deal with cumbersome license keys, registration keys, security key, and validation keys.

For example. The company that I work for purchased Symantec Ghost, and enough licenses for our entire organization. This is not inexpensive. After installing the software, generating a registration key, emailing the registration key to Symantec, waiting for there response with my authorization key, and entering the registration key I was able to use their (our) software. It's now maybe 2 to 4 years later, and I'm trying to reinstall this software (the software that we've purchased) and I can't because I can't get the license key to work, even after repeating the above steps. So, I call Symantec's technical support, only they can't help me because this software is not serviced anymore. So, I'm not able to use this software (which we've paid for) all because Symantec is trying to prevent piracy. And, while I sympathize with the fact that they do not want to lose money to theft, I hope they understand that they have lost my money, as I will not purchase software from Symantec again. Unfortunately, Symantec is not the only software publisher with these business practices. It's more the norm than the exception.

In conclusion, this note is written mostly for me, to vent my frustration, and with small (very small) hopes that this may get through to Symantec and other software publishers who engage in similar business practices. And maybe, just maybe, they'll decide not to punish their customers, in an attempt to stop theft.

Feel free to discuss your experiences in the comments section.

Thanks for reading.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Enable Advanced Permissions Dialog in Nautilus / Ubuntu Linux (on Lifehacker)

Click here for a good article about how to enable file and folder permission in Nautilus, the file manager for Ubuntu Linux.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Installing Songbird in Ubuntu 7.10

I know it's putting the cart before the horse, but I needed a success with Linux. It was my goal to have my Wireless Network card running before I installed Songbird, as an internet connection is needed to download Songbird. However, after a week of working on getting my Wireless NIC running, with no luck, I needed a smaller project. As it turns out getting Songbird downloaded and installed is not that difficult.

Step 1: Downloading Songbird

  • On a computer with internet access, go to 'http://www.songbirdnest.com/download', and download the latest version of Songbird. Songbird_0.5_linux-i686.tar.gz, is the version that I downloaded, so I'll use that file name is this document. Your file name may be different.

  • Copy this file to your Ubuntu Linux computer. You can use a flash drive, or if you're like me and your Ubuntu computer is also your Windows computer, just reboot into Linux and access the Windows drive from there. I copied the file, Songbird_0.5_linux-i686.tar.gz, to /home/username/Downloads, but you can copy it to where ever you like.

Step 2: Installing Songbird

  • Copy Songbird_0.5_linux-i686.tar.gz to the /opt directory.
    - In a terminal enter, 'sudo mv Songbird_0.5_linux-i686.tar.gz /opt'
    - If you want to know what the commands sudo, and mv do, there's a list of all the commands used in this procedure at the end of this document.

  • Go to the /opt directory, and extract the files in the file Songbird_0.5_linux-i686.tar.gz
    - Enter, 'cd /opt'.
    - Enter, 'tar xzvf Songbird_0.5_linux-i686.tar.gz'.

  • Change owner permissions on Songbird directory
    - Enter, 'sudo chown -R username:username Songbird', replace username with your username

Step 3: Installing the GStreamer packages

  • In order to hear audio from Songbird it is necessary to install the GStreamer packages. To install the GStreamer packages you first need to enable some additional software sources in Ubuntu.
    - On the Ubuntu desktop click System > Administration > Software Sources
    - In the Software Sources window, make sure that the main, universe, restricted, and multiverse check boxes are selected (checked), then close the Software Sources window
    - Now open the Synaptic Package Manger, click System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
    - Click the Search button in the Synaptic Package Manager window, enter 'GStreamer' in the Search field then click the Search button
    - You will have to manually search the list of available packages and select the following:

    libgstreamer0.10-0
    gstreamer0.10-x
    gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
    gstreamer0.10-plugins-base
    gstreamer0.10-esd or gstreamer0.10-alsa (depending on your audio setup)
    libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev (Ubuntu 7)
    libgstreamer0.10-dev (Ubuntu 7)
    gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
    gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
    gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly (for mp3 playback)
    gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
    gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3 (alternate for mp3 playback)
    gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-multiverse
    gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly-multiverse

    After all packages have been selected click the Apply button, and after all packages are installed close the Synaptic Package Manager window

Step 4: Running Songbird

  • To start Songbird you need to naviage to the /opt/Songbird directory and run ./songbird
    - At a terminal enter, 'cd /opt/Songbird'
    - Enter, './songbird'


Commands used in this procedure

sudo - allows a permitted user to execute a command as the superuser or

another user, as specified in the sudoers file

mv - move (rename) files

tar - the GNU version of the tar archiving utility

x - extracts files from and archive

z - filters the archive through gzip

v - verbosely list files processed

f - specifies the filename to extract

chown - change file owner and group

R - Recursively change ownership of directories and their contents


References

1) http://www.ubuntugeek.com/install-songbird-music-player-in-ubuntu.html

2) http://publicsvn.songbirdnest.com/wiki/SettingUpGStreamer

Monday, May 19, 2008

Ease the Transition To Ubuntu With a Cheat Sheet (on Lifehacker)

Here's a link to a Lifehacker story that includes a a pdf Cheat Sheet with some Ubuntu Linux commands that may make the switch from Windows a little easier.

Friday, May 2, 2008

Wii Play - A Don't Buy

I recently picked up Wii Play for the Nintendo Wii. I was talked in to by the guy behind the counter at GameStop. I needed a second Wii Remote ($40.00), and Wii Play ($50.00) comes with a Wii Remote and few games, so why not spend ten more dollars?

Here's why: Wii Play is terrible. The games aren't fun, and there's no replay value. Wii Play is meant to be a tutorial on how to use the Wii Remote, so if you've already been playing a while, there's no need to play this game. Even if you haven't played at all, the controls are simple to figure out, and most games have there own tutorials built in.

If you find yourself in my position, just get the Wii-mote, and save your $10.00.

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Offline Update for Windows XP

Hise Security's Offline Update was recently featured on an episode of Security Now. Offline Update is a solution to a common problem.

To often I've installed a fresh copy of Windows XP on a workstation only to spend hours downloading and installing necessary updates and security patches. Offline Update allows you to create a CD containing all the updates and security patches necessary to get Windows XP current. Of course you'll need a computer (with a CD Burner) connected to the Internet, but this is all you'll need. Offline Update features a simple interface (built with AutoIt) that allows you to select the language you want, and then it does the rest for you, downloading the patches and writing them to a disc.

If you want to try Offline Update you can download it here.