yet another post about Dell
UPDATED!
At the behest (well… maybe “behest” is too strong a word) of a Dell technical agent, I recently ran Dell’s diagnostic software to check the “health” of my Dell Inspiron 700m notebook. The application popped up the following two error messages while testing the hard-disk drive (HDD):
In the “Read Test”, the following error message was detected:
Error Code 0F00:0244
Msg Block 5177324: Uncorrectable data error code or media is write protectedIn the “Verify Test”, the following error message was detected:
Error Code 0F00:1A44
Msg Block 5177324: Uncorrectable data error code or media is write protected
I noted the error messages and emailed the Dell technical agent asking him for further advice. Specifically, I wanted to know what the messages meant and what, if anything, I needed to do? Or if I could ignore them and live happily ever after?
Two working days later, I received a telephone call from the agent informing me that Dell was going to replace my HDD! This is the good bit. I’m sure if you asked any technically savvy people, they would say that this reaction from Dell is a bit of an overkill, but since they offered and since they are happy to do it, I should just accept the offer and resign myself to a gruelling reinstallation of the machine, re-customising Windows and the over twenty applications I would install on the notebook, and transferring all 60GB of my personal data.
[Note: I still don't quite know what those error messages mean. I was just told that the HDD would be replaced.]
Seeing as how we were going to go through this exercise of replacing the HDD, I thought it would be a good opportunity to really resolve my earlier problem about the lost factory installation of my notebook (see these earlier posts: first, second, third, fourth). I emailed the earlier customer care agent with whom I had been communicating and suggested that Dell takes this opportunity to install the factory image on the HDD before delivering it to me. By so doing, Dell would also reduce the time that their technician would have to spend with me when replacing the HDD (see below).
Alas, shock! horrors!
I was told this afternoon that this is not possible! Dell is unable to reproduce the factory installation for me. Why? Well… they just can’t. The customer care agent was not able to give me a good, understandable reason why it was not possible. It just isn’t. And by the way, we’re very sorry. Despite pressing her on the matter with more questions, all I got in reply was that it just can’t be done. Honestly, we’re very sorry.
I didn’t know whether to laugh, or to cry.
But I was slightly flabbergasted. Why? Firstly, this is Dell - a technically advanced multinational IT company at the forefront of its industry, not some backyard IT shop in the middle of Balakong. Secondly, in my earlier discussions with Dell on the loss of the factory image, an offer was made to replace the lost factory image - am I now to conclude that this offer was baseless and made in bad faith?
So what happens now?
Dell will send a technician over with an EMPTY HDD. He will remove the faulty HDD, replace it with the new one and then re-install the OS and drivers, presumably from the “recovery” disks - the very same disks that I had earlier used and discovered that they did not reproduce the factory-installed system (see this earlier post). Given that this is an 80GB HDD, and that I insist on partitioning the HDD, and that the technician has to test the system after it has been installed, I will have to suffer the company of a complete stranger in a confined space for at least two hours, if not three. Not good.
To add salt to the wound, I was surfing wirelessly at Starbucks two evenings ago when I noticed that the notebook on the next table was also an Inspiron 700m. The owner was about to leave and started to shut down his machine. That was when I saw this beautiful and elegant shutdown splash screen across his notebook… the very same splash screen that I no longer see on mine. Why? Because Dell can’t give me back my factory installation!
$%*&^*&$$/)^$@$$^&^%#%$@#%$#*(&(&()&(*)!!!!!!!
UPDATE on 03 December: Dell called me this morning (03 December) and apparently a manager has approved an offer to replace my entire unit! Yes, that’s right, they are going to take away my cacat notebook and give me a brand new one! With the factory installation! For the record, I did not ask for this. As far as I was concerned, the situation as we had left it yesterday was it. So I was pleasantly surprised to receive this offer. Delivery would take longer than if they were replacing only the HDD. But I suppose, I will be happier … the transaction is not yet completed, so we will see …
Posted on December 2nd, 2004 by jl
Filed under: Uncategorized
those errors mean that there are bad sectors developing on your hard disk. it usually doesn’t take that long for it to spread and grow. thus, it was appropriate of dell to replace your hard disk immediately before any major loss of data. i’m still confounded as to why they said they can’t put the factory default setting of the OS and stuff. didn’t your laptop come with the install CD that you can just pop into the drive during power up and let it zip through the installation?
Hilarious, if it wouldnt be that sad. But your post really makes me wonder if I should buy a Dell PDA or stick with one from Ipaq. I am contemplating to buy a new one - see the power of word? Never fails!
dj is right, your hard disk will die sooner than you think and getting a replacement is the only way to go.
dj & pickyin: we are talking about one sector in an 80GB HDD, no?
dj: the CD-ROMs that Dell gives its customers will allow you to install a fully working Windows XP system but this is NOT THE SAME system as the one that first comes out of the factory (see my earlier post). You might argue that the differences are minor and are largely cosmetic, but even if that is true (and I would say it’s not), I would rather leave it up to each individual customer to judge the relative value of the factory vs self-installed systems.
jikon: one bad sector is enough. it will infect others like a plague. in a 80gig HDD or not, it may just choose to infect those sectors with your most important data.
pickyin: i think it’s more likely that it “might” infect others, rather than it “will”. given that this is only the first detection, there’s no way to tell whether this is a random non-infectious error or reflective of a more endemic “illness”. your average user would just reformat the HDD and hope the “problem” goes away. i can’t imagine that you would throw away your 80GB HDD and buy a new one immediately… or would you?
two articles I found on this subject this morning:
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1583&page=3
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/comp/hdd/errorsBadSectors-c.html
Just smash that machine at the wall..(not yours, of coz)… then pick it up and smash it again. If in smithereens… jump on it. If not in smithereens, continue smashing it. Boy..you’ll feel good doing it.
but then.. u probably need it to do work. Sigh.
Oh. My. God. You give customer service a whole new meaning Jikon - incurred losses.
Hi Jikon.. My dell notebook’s hard disk developed bad sectors in the first 6 months after purchase. ever since it’s continued to detect more bad sectors - and thankfully it’s covered by warranty. If yours still is- it’s just easier to get them to replace the HD. They don’t reinstall the whole OS again - they just send the HD to you and you have t reinstall it (and if you choose to have the OS they sold with the machine, then they recommend you to use the CD they sent with purchase). hope that helps.
oops ignore my last comment. i didnt read your post in full hehe. Hmm maybe i should try the same request to get my inspiron 500m replaced. the screen has just gotten worse over the year, the hard disk is gone.. and the DVD drive is glitchy. Ugh. I hate dell.
pickyin: incurred losses? You mean increased prices for the rest of us who don’t care about the cosmetics! It’s all Jikon’s fault!
When in doubt, get an IBM.
(Comme moi!)
fazu: IBM? Too late … Looks like they’ve already heard about this blog …
( http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/03/technology/03ibm.html?ex=1259816400&en=c60a66b7afa86173&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland )
I have the same problem!
I tried to get the laptop replaced with Dell, but they said they only did that when the laptop was less than 2 months old.
How old was yours??
Mine was 11 months, covered by the warranty, so they are shipping out a new drive on Monday.
vs: my Inspiron 700m is about 3 months old. i think. i can’t quite remember though… they were initially going to replace only the HDD and not the entire unit. i suspect the latter only came about due to all the other issues i’ve had with the unit.
what HD does DELL use just out of interest?
Oh, just remember, if they are taking away your HD, I would recommend you wipe it first, ideally with a proper wiping program. I can’t off the top of my head recommend anything but if you look you wil find. Failing that, a lowlevel format/repartition is the next best thing.
Why? I know these guys. If they’re free and they’ve nothing to do, they will look at your HD. I know some mates and they say they find stuff on the HD of their customers…. most interesting. I remember them telling me what they found on this imam’s HD once… nice to know that some people are ummm… normal underneath all that veneer of holiness
By the way, Dell sucks in other respects too. Given that I already knew how crappy the service was, I chose to fix my dell myself.
The fan on my desktop failed strangely enough 1 year after I bought it. Why did I buy a dell and not DIY? Well it was cheap.
Overall failed fan not with standing the build quality was really quite good I have to say.
I opened the thing up… it was an 865 job with a 2.6 P4 and DDR 400 256 CL3 x 2. From a CPU and Ram point of view it was average and okay. The ram I am happy to say they did not really dump me with crap.
Here’s the 3 biggest flaws:
1. PSU - 240 watts… WHAT? 240 watts. Gimme a break. That limits the amount of internal stuff I can dump in and limits the no. of fans I can put in to cool them down (see below)
2. Fans. err.. 1 x 90 mm… for the whole UNIT. Yep, just one ducted fan, blowing out, drawing air over the monster P4 heatsink and dumping it outside. Now in a SFF shuttle or something I can see the reasons for doing so, but this is a desktop minitower. It was fried so I had to replace it, bringing me to point 3.
3. Non standard plugs and stuff…. None of the fans I could get on the market could plug straight into the board so I had to do a little bit of a job…
Why did I not go bug dell to come and fix it? One, they would charge me now my warranty was off, and two, I’d probably lose the machine for at least 2 weeks and three I’d have some idiot looking at everything I have on the HD.
Total cost of repairs $20 for the new 90 mm fan, about 2 hours of time (going in to buy it, adapting the wires etc).
BUT….
Would I buy a dell again? Well for a desktop maybe. why? I know the bits they put in in general are pretty average (ie not total crap) and really the price…. I mean, for the amount of stuff you get and the price you pay here (in Oz) you can’t really compare it with a DIY job which would cost more, sadly.
Would I buy a dell laptop? I like to physically see the machine I am getting before buying so the answer is no, unless they were like 1/2 the price of similar offerings I could physically inspect.
I’ve got Dell Inspiron 8200. Just yesterday after battery had run out and I powered up with AC, I got the blue screen with the msg
UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_DRIVE. I called Dell with the error codes and they directed me to diagnostics and I ran that.
I got 1 error each on the READ and VERIFY tests–the same block on each and with codes respectively, 0F00:0244 and 0F00: 1A44. These say “uncorrectable data error or media is write protected.”
What I want to know is whether there is a chance I can still recover some data from the HDD, and if so how to go about it. Dell will get somebody to install the new HDD I guess and they want me to return the old one. I’d really like to get some data off before sending it away, Any advice?
Try to rewrite your boot volume.
Insert your window xp disk and press f12 at startup to boot from it. In the set-up select the recovery console item by pressing ‘r’.
when the dos screen comes up, press 1 to select your partition, and then type in your admin password (if there is one).
type chkdsk /r to try to repair system files. Reboot and see if this resolves the problem.
If that does not work, go back into the recovery console and type fixboot at the command prompt to try to rewrite a new boot volume.
If that does not work, go back into the recovery console and type fixmbr at the command prompt to try to rewrite a new boot volume.
For more info on the recovery console visit: http://www.wown.com/j_helmig/wxprcons.htm and see the recovering from boot problems about halfway down the page.
NOTE: DOING THESE OPERATIONS TO AN ALREADY BAD HARD DRIVE MAY WEAR OUT THE DRIVE FURTHER, POSSIBLY CAUSING PERMENANT LOSS OF DATA THAT YOU MAY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO RECOVER. IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT USING THE CONSOLE, OR YOU SERIOUSLY NEED YOUR FILES (LIFE/DEATH SITUATION). TAKE THE COMPUTER TO A PROFESSIONAL FOR RECOVERY.
P.S. IF YOU HAVE ANY COMPUTER FRIENDS THAT KNOW THE LINUX OS, TELL THEM TO LOOK FOR KNOPPIX, THIS IS A GREAT DATA RECOVERY TOOL.
Thanks, that’s very helpful. I will give it a try.
Look …. I hate Dell just as much as the next guy …. they don’t give a crap about their customers or their employees …. but jeez, people like you make it hard for the rest of us. Your hard drive was bad. It possible that you could have gone on fine without replaceing the hard drive. But, given the likely possiblity that the data would become corrupt, inaccessible and the system unusable at anypoint in time due to a KNOWN faulty hard drive, you’d feel pretty stupid if that happened because you didn’t want to bother replacing the hard drive.
Dell explicitly defines the warranty to NOT include ANY software after the first 30 days of purchase. They do this to save money. Having to keep image files of every flavor of PC they have still under warranty would take up terabytes of space. Creating restore CDs that are specific to the model of PC sold is also costly. Dell chooses to save money (thus offer a lower price) by writing the warranty in this manner.
If you want to picky about how a HARDWARE vendor warranties the software, don’t buy from Dell.
Also, it never ceases to amaze me how many people feel it is someone elses job to fix their own computer problems because they did not backup their “precious” data.
If the battery in your car died, would you feel that it is the manufacture’s job to reprogram your car radio presets and clock after they replace the battery under warranty?
Guys, how about taking a regular full image back up..I use Acronis True Image Personal (free so I’m not selling anything)before you do the HD swap. Just load the boot disk and the back up DVD’s (or lots of CD’s that you’ve made) and you’re back as you were with the old disk without the problem (assuming you made the back up before the crash). I take a full image back up every month..havn’t mastered incremental back ups as I switch on at irregular times..anyone any ideas, I hear Dantz is good but costs??? That way I can recover without the whole hassle of reloading the OS and all my applications and files.
Why am I doing it..about two months ago I loaded a register cleaner from 3b software, paid properly for it, and it wiped my system costing me hours of grief. Do I get any comments from them? Nada after three emails to customer support. So much for buying software, now I use a free copy of registry mechanic off a magazine and it works without problems. I also use Avast virus scan (free with daily updates) McAfee firewall (free off a magazine)and MS Spyware checker (also Spybot, free). I would welcome better suggestions
Greetings,
My Inspiron 8600c. Ever since July - August, the HDD has been very slow. Since September it has been making the sound “der der der, der der der, der der der, click” repeatedly… I assume when accessing bad sectors.
Despite many CHKDSKs and Defrags, the problem just keeps occuring. I get a blue screen of death saying STOP: several times a day and get UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME when I reboot the laptop. After 5 - 11 times of restarting you get past the blue screen..slowly.
I have since had to move all 60GB / 80 (71.9) GB onto another computer or uninstall programs. I’m doing a diagnosis now with many 0F00:0244 (it’s 6% as I type done (the test started 2 hours 23 minutes ago) and I’ve had 19 bad blocks so far which I assume is quite high.
Hopefully after this when I revert to Dell they’ll give me a new HDD or something. The situation is unbearable!
P.S.: I like Dell because of their brand name and when I bought a Dell Inspiron I was comforted by the reputation of high quality parts and good customer service (heard nothing good about it but nothing bad - customer service can be hell in the UK somtimes).
Regards!