Dell Wars « Chomper Stomping

12Oct/084

Fixing Dell XPS 410 Front Panel Error Codes 3 & 4

Does your Dell XPS 410 just sit there with a solid green 3 & 4 and refuse to boot up? Mine does!
Have you tried the suggested Dell method of removing RAM to find the bad stick? I Have!
Does your computer, even with no RAM in it still indicate that same error code? Mine does!

Well good! For a limited time only, I have the solution to your problem! That's right, turn that paper weight into a super great! (Huh?)

Unplug it. Wait 30 seconds. Plug it back in. Try turning it on again. It should:

1. Boot up fine! (this means your RAM is A-OK, and that the error codes are just indicative of the fact that your computer is a piece of crap. Duh! You got a Dell!)

2. Error code again. (Take out a RAM stick and put a different one in and repeat the process of unplugging etc. till it boots up)

3. Error code different. If you hear beeps and just have a 1 showing, it means you took them all out and unplugged it and waited 30 seconds (or two minutes or longer) and then plugged it back in. That's what I finally did. It accomplished some sort of hard reboot or something and cleared it's memory or whatever. Torn it off, throw in some RAM (one stick if you don't mind), and plug her in and boot her up. Should work unless you threw in the bad RAM.

If all this fails it means that all your RAM went bad at once. If so, please comment so i can know there's someone out there more hated by their ocursed Dell minion than me!

So, again, the lesson here is that Dell sucks and no one should ever buy a Dell ever and that I hate Dell, and that I will never buy one again (and have put my money where my mouth is and although I have 10 Dells in my home, my most recent purchase was an HP).

Tagged as: computers, Dell, dell sucks, Dell Wars, Fixing, hardware, Troubleshooting 4 Comments

12Oct/080

“Dell Wars” Episode VII – Death of an Empire

Hey, wait, I thought I was done with Dell? Especially after the first six episodes? Yeah, and I thought Lucas was done making movies, but they keep coming, and it just keeps getting worse.

So, yesterday I decided to buy a new laptop. I'm recording an online Lecture series with IUPUI CSCI Dept. and I need a laptop to do it on. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Surely... surely, he didn't buy a Dell... right?" At this point, you're probably expecting me to say "wrong", but actually, I'm not a fracking idiot. I'll never give Dell another red cent in my entire life. I bought an HP.

Modest 15.4" Screen

4 GB Ram

2.1 GHZ AMD Turion X2 Ultra 64

Vista Home Premium

ATI RADEON HD 3200 Graphics card

WiFi

LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling DVD Burner

SD-MS/Pro-MMC-XD media card reader

Removable Remote Control thingamabob (so I can use it as a TV)

Lots of lovely little ports some of which I don't know the name for (USB/eSATA/HDMI/Network/phone/monitor/etc)

So, I get this thing home. Get my wifi network back up and running, and low an behold, aparently this pissed off my Dell.

She must have gotten jelous of the new girl in town, because when I walked in the room after getting my lappy all up and running, the dell was deader than a doornail.

She won't even turn on. She just sits there with front panel error codes indicating she has bad memory. No bios screen, nothing. Just a number 3 and a number 4 lit up in green, as if to say, "Fine! I'm leaving!".

I even ripped out all the memory and hit the power button to see if it would give me the correct error codes for "no memory found", but nope. It still claims to have memory, but claims the memory is bad.

Well, guess what Dell? That's BS! You were going to remain my primary, but now it really does look like I'm abandoning you to the cobwebs of irrelevancy! Good ridance you over priced piece of crap! You never worked right in the first place!

If I didn't think there was a chance I could fix it (probably have to buy a new motherboard, this will be it's third one) I'd take it out back and beat the snot out of it with a baseball bat.

I HATE DELL COMPUTERS!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Tagged as: computers, Dell, dell sucks, Dell Wars, HP No Comments

26Nov/073

“Dell Wars” Episode VI – Return of the… Sith?

I've chronicled my disastrous flirtations with Dell computers in the past, and thought that my struggles were over. Alas, here is episode VI...

Every computer I own is a dell. Why? Because they used to be good. After a year of fighting with dell, they finally sent me an xps 410 (to replace my crappy xps 400).

I upgraded my RAM a while back because the 1GB just wasn't doing it.

So now I'm playing through Half Life 2 Episode 2 with the developer's commentary on. I'm going after the larva in the chapter where the antlion gaurdian chases you through the tunnels. Just after you have to break through the boards to escape him and you drop through the floor. As soon as I run down the hall, at the exact moment I am approaching the medic passing the hall light on the left side the game freezes and there is a memory error. It happens every time. I have done everything short of uninstalling my antivirus program to try and fix it. It has happened at the exact same moment every time for the last 12 times.

This is not happening to anyone else, just me. Why? It has to be something to do with my stupid freaking dell. Probably the built in (to the motherboard) sound-card. At least now I'm not getting the blue screen of death, it just quits the program.

I am never buying a dell again. Ever. Yes, this is the billionth time I've said that, but this is just a nail in the already soldered shut coffin for dell with me.

dell == hell.

Tagged as: Blue Screen of Death, Computer, Computer Problems, Dell, Dell Wars, RAM 3 Comments

20Nov/060

“Dell Wars”: Episode V – The Dellpire Strikes Back

After boxing up my old computer and sending it off to Dell, I began playing Half Life 2: Episode 1.

The third day I went to play it, It started crashing. It would crash every time I played after playing for 60 seconds.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I went in search of the answer hoping beyond hope that it was a simple driver update.

I did all of the windows updates, downloaded the latest DirectX drivers, and downloaded the Steam Crash Client. The steam crash client was very helpful in that it told me that I had a VERY SEVERE problem with my video card drivers, and gave me a link to download the new ones (I was using v.6.14.1... and the current ones as of 8/21/06 were 8.282). Let's hope this isn't an evil trap by Vadar to lure me in, and that this will actually work.

After installing all drivers and updating windows, the game seems to be working fine...

Tagged as: Blue Screen of Death, Computer, Computer Problems, Dell, Dell Wars, Direct X, Drivers, Half-Life, RAM, Steam, Valve, Windows No Comments

1Nov/060

“Dell Wars” Episode IV: A New XPS 410

Some of you may have heard about my Dell Wars saga to date. But if you have not, I will sum it up here:

Dell sent me a lemon.

Episode I - The Phantom Menace:

I get the Dell. It''s stats are off the chart. I am astounded. Yet there are some foreboding signs I ignore lurking in the shadows. My computer freezes randomly sometimes...

Episode II - Attack of the Cloning Sounds:

While playing HL2:E1 the computer begins crashing with looping sounds. Whaaaaa??? Dell sends me a new video card, and I put a new sound card in it and disable the on-board sound.

Episode III - Revenge of the System Board:

While playing WOW my Dell starts crashing and giving me "Blue Screens of Death". I calmly call dell and scream at them, and they tell me it is the ram and system board. Oh and the processor. And they come and replace it. The RAM goes bad, and they send me new RAM. Then the system board goes bad AGAIN... All seems lost. I rise up screaming "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!"

This brings us current with:

Episode IV: A New XPS 410

My old computer (An XPS400) has gone over to the dark side of the force. However after a year of dealing with my darth dell computer, A new (free) XPS 410 has just arrived in it's place. Could this new hope be the answer to all my problems? Will it play HL2:E1 without crashing even at full resolution and max fps? Will I counter strike with impunity? We shall soon find out (I just took it out of the box)...

Stay tuned. Hopefully there will be no Episode V in which the evil dellpire strikes back and turns out to have sent me another hopelessly crappy computer...