Death! Destruction! Hard drives!
My journal icon has ne'er been more appropriate.
I returned home last night from work to find my screensaver quite thoroughly locked up. No movement, moving my mouse did nothing. Figured it was more of the virus~ish behavior of my computer over the past two or three days due to the installation of Bioshock. So I reboot, which I am entreated to the following error.SAMSUNG SP2504C VT100-41
Ultra DMA Mode-6, S.M.A.R.T. Capable and Status BAD
Fuck.
Windows would start to boot, then reboot the entire system at the loading screen. Then Windows wouldn't even start to load, it would just lock up. Then the BIOS would fail to even recognize the primary HD. Then it started to make clicking noise. It was as if my hard drive rapidly degenerated with each reboot of my system.
...at least the horror story ended there. Lucky, my 1-year warranty doesn't expire until October. I gave Alienware a call, and in 22 minutes I was hanging up the phone. Alienware will be shipping me a new HD within the next few days, and all I have to do is put the old drive in the box and ship it back. The only commitment on my part is a $82 hold on my credit card which will be removed when they receive the old drive and the hassle of reinstalling everything. orz.
If you're looking for a reason to spend the extra couple of bucks on an Alienware vs other brands, this is why. Professionalism put aside, there's something gratifying about explaining your observations to tech support only to have them say, and I quote: "Hmmm. It's clicking? Yep, it's busted. Lemme check to make sure we have a replacement to send you." Not to be discriminatory or anything, but let's face it. If you're at the point where you have to call tech support, you're already irritated to begin with. It's much more calming to talk to someone who is intelligent enough to speak on your level and with no language barrier than to talk to someone where you're explaining to them what's wrong because they don't understand computers OR the words you're speaking. I've got more horror stories with Dell Tech Support than I'd care to recount, most of them involving someone with a name I can't pronounce, who happens to have a heavy Indian accent and cannot discern the fact that no, the fact that my laptop isn't plugged in is not the cause of my CD-RW drive being unable to handle disc-at-once. Even if your tech-support-by-flowchart says that if the computer isn't plugged in, then that's why I'm having problems. ("That's why the computer won't turn on? REALLY?" You need a script for that?!)
I returned home last night from work to find my screensaver quite thoroughly locked up. No movement, moving my mouse did nothing. Figured it was more of the virus~ish behavior of my computer over the past two or three days due to the installation of Bioshock. So I reboot, which I am entreated to the following error.SAMSUNG SP2504C VT100-41
Ultra DMA Mode-6, S.M.A.R.T. Capable and Status BAD
Fuck.
Windows would start to boot, then reboot the entire system at the loading screen. Then Windows wouldn't even start to load, it would just lock up. Then the BIOS would fail to even recognize the primary HD. Then it started to make clicking noise. It was as if my hard drive rapidly degenerated with each reboot of my system.
...at least the horror story ended there. Lucky, my 1-year warranty doesn't expire until October. I gave Alienware a call, and in 22 minutes I was hanging up the phone. Alienware will be shipping me a new HD within the next few days, and all I have to do is put the old drive in the box and ship it back. The only commitment on my part is a $82 hold on my credit card which will be removed when they receive the old drive and the hassle of reinstalling everything. orz.
If you're looking for a reason to spend the extra couple of bucks on an Alienware vs other brands, this is why. Professionalism put aside, there's something gratifying about explaining your observations to tech support only to have them say, and I quote: "Hmmm. It's clicking? Yep, it's busted. Lemme check to make sure we have a replacement to send you." Not to be discriminatory or anything, but let's face it. If you're at the point where you have to call tech support, you're already irritated to begin with. It's much more calming to talk to someone who is intelligent enough to speak on your level and with no language barrier than to talk to someone where you're explaining to them what's wrong because they don't understand computers OR the words you're speaking. I've got more horror stories with Dell Tech Support than I'd care to recount, most of them involving someone with a name I can't pronounce, who happens to have a heavy Indian accent and cannot discern the fact that no, the fact that my laptop isn't plugged in is not the cause of my CD-RW drive being unable to handle disc-at-once. Even if your tech-support-by-flowchart says that if the computer isn't plugged in, then that's why I'm having problems. ("That's why the computer won't turn on? REALLY?" You need a script for that?!)