Some may remember that I purchased a new Dell a few months ago. And, though I complained about Vista a little [Teresa will laugh at this point!], the box itself has been great. Performed admirably. No complaints.

Until a couple of weeks ago, when it wouldn’t start one morning. Sometimes it would start, sometimes it wouldn’t, so I just left it running 24/7 and did a restart every morning. As an aside, when it refused to start, Arthur would unplug the power cord and hold down the power button until the little light in the back went out… then he’d plug the cord back in and power it up. Presto!

That didn’t work this morning. The third time, it tried to boot, but didn’t. There were beeps and the power light was yellow. Now… the time after that it did boot correctly.

I had called tech support yesterday and explained the problem to a woman in India, but both times she had me power it off it came right back up. She just got a return email and phone call, though I have no idea when they wake up over there.

What IS ironic? Well, every Dell before this we’ve purchased as a refurbished model. Never, ever had a problem with any of them. This is the first brand new box I’ve gotten from them.
Next time I’ll return to the returns.