16 month old computer crashes??!!

[ItalianScallion]

Step aside Mousebaby, it's my turn to hate Dell! My 16 month old (fresh out of warranty) Dell laptop just showed me the blue screen of death.
I was "ripping" some songs off of my own home made cd's (no pirating here) to put on my mp3 player and, when it got to the third song, the cd burner started to surge (slow down, speed up). I stopped it and re started it and it did the same thing. I restarted the computer (with the cd out) and up came the blue screen. HOW THE HECK DOES THAT HAPPEN?
After Dell telling me "ah so, we can fix over phone", they couldn't, and told me I need a new hard drive. I have a Geek (not the one on here) coming out Thursday to extract my info off the hard drive. I back up all my data but, since I've been busy with a school reunion, I haven't done it in the last 3 weeks.
My question is: can the data from the last 3 weeks really be salvaged and are these "Geeks" dependable?
Also, I have a spare laptop for my nightly radio program so I can use it for now but are all my pictures & music salvageable too?
Thanks in advance folks. It's scary to think how much we depend on these things!

 

[morningbell]

I feel your pain

So how do you feel about apple? I was thinking about getting one after taxes.

 

[Mousebaby]

Step aside Mousebaby, it's my turn to hate Dell! My 16 month old (fresh out of warranty) Dell laptop just showed me the blue screen of death.
I was "ripping" some songs off of my own home made cd's (no pirating here) to put on my mp3 player and, when it got to the third song, the cd burner started to surge (slow down, speed up). I stopped it and re started it and it did the same thing. I restarted the computer (with the cd out) and up came the blue screen. HOW THE HECK DOES THAT HAPPEN?
After Dell telling me "ah so, we can fix over phone", they couldn't, and told me I need a new hard drive. I have a Geek (not the one on here) coming out Thursday to extract my info off the hard drive. I back up all my data but, since I've been busy with a school reunion, I haven't done it in the last 3 weeks.
My question is: can the data from the last 3 weeks really be salvaged and are these "Geeks" dependable?
Also, I have a spare laptop for my nightly radio program so I can use it for now but are all my pictures & music salvageable too?
Thanks in advance folks. It's scary to think how much we depend on these things!

Mine was only 1 month old when the hard drive decided to go TU with the first one. This is the second laptop and it is only 4 months old and they have replaced the motherboard twice, the memory twice, and the touch pad twice. You ain't telling me nothing about Dell! I have been through HELL with them!

I went out and bought me a nice HP and I told them that I did and that I replaced the XPS with and I am currently trying to unload this thing on some other poor sap. They say we are sorry you feel that way ma'am, I assure you we will fix it.

 

[GWguy]

Step aside Mousebaby, it's my turn to hate Dell! My 16 month old (fresh out of warranty) Dell laptop just showed me the blue screen of death.
I was "ripping" some songs off of my own home made cd's (no pirating here) to put on my mp3 player and, when it got to the third song, the cd burner started to surge (slow down, speed up). I stopped it and re started it and it did the same thing. I restarted the computer (with the cd out) and up came the blue screen. HOW THE HECK DOES THAT HAPPEN?
After Dell telling me "ah so, we can fix over phone", they couldn't, and told me I need a new hard drive. I have a Geek (not the one on here) coming out Thursday to extract my info off the hard drive. I back up all my data but, since I've been busy with a school reunion, I haven't done it in the last 3 weeks.
My question is: can the data from the last 3 weeks really be salvaged and are these "Geeks" dependable?
Also, I have a spare laptop for my nightly radio program so I can use it for now but are all my pictures & music salvageable too?
Thanks in advance folks. It's scary to think how much we depend on these things!

BSOD is caused by a corruption of the operating system, not necessarily a hard drive crash. Seen it lots of times. In some cases, you can just run the Recovery Console and repair the OS, sometimes not. As long as you didn't hear a repeated "clunk clunk clunk" from the hard drive, chances are all the data is recoverable.

 

[Mousebaby]

BSOD is caused by a corruption of the operating system, not necessarily a hard drive crash. Seen it lots of times. In some cases, you can just run the Recovery Console and repair the OS, sometimes not. As long as you didn't hear a repeated "clunk clunk clunk" from the hard drive, chances are all the data is recoverable.

Or loud screeching like mine was doing, and I had no clue what the heck it was and I thought the damn thing was going to blow up because Dell computer's seem notorious for that!

 

[ItalianScallion]

I feel your pain

So how do you feel about apple? I was thinking about getting one after taxes.

I know nothing about apple and I'd really hate to have to learn a new system at this point.

 

[vanbells]

I usually just put the hard drive in another PC. Copy the files over from a working PC.

Worst case scenario that I have ever done is to transplant the internals to a matching hdd.

 

[ItalianScallion]

Mine was only 1 month old when the hard drive decided to go TU with the first one. This is the second laptop and it is only 4 months old and they have replaced the motherboard twice, the memory twice, and the touch pad twice. You ain't telling me nothing about Dell! I have been through HELL with them!

I went out and bought me a nice HP and I told them that I did and that I replaced the XPS with and I am currently trying to unload this thing on some other poor sap. They say we are sorry you feel that way ma'am, I assure you we will fix it.

I think it's time to alert the attorney general or the Consumer protection division. This is what America gets for outsourcing so much.

BSOD is caused by a corruption of the operating system, not necessarily a hard drive crash. Seen it lots of times. In some cases, you can just run the Recovery Console and repair the OS, sometimes not. As long as you didn't hear a repeated "clunk clunk clunk" from the hard drive, chances are all the data is recoverable.

I called Hell today and they assured me that they could fix it over the phone. They talked me through a program that ran tests and then I tried to run the original disc to restore it but it didn't work. After the memory tests it showed an error code of 0412. Because of that code, they said it's a hard drive problem.
There was no clunking sound so I hope the "Geeks" can recover the little bit I hadn't backed up on my memory stick. Maybe he can give me a second opinion before the new drive arrives. I still fail to see how it happened. The only abnormal indication I had was the surging of the cd burner.

 

[Mousebaby]

I think it's time to alert the attorney general or the Consumer protection division. This is what America gets for outsourcing so much.

I called Hell today and they assured me that they could fix it over the phone. They talked me through a program that ran tests and then I tried to run the original disc to restore it but it didn't work. After the memory tests it showed an error code of 0412. Because of that code, they said it's a hard drive problem.
There was no clunking sound so I hope the "Geeks" can recover the little bit I hadn't backed up on my memory stick. Maybe he can give me a second opinion before the new drive arrives. I still fail to see how it happened. The only abnormal indication I had was the surging of the cd burner.

I would like to suggest something. I got a Seagate External hard drive and I back up all my important files to that. I got it from Amazon.com and it has 500GB of space on it. I have seen lately one that has 1 Terabyte of space for 149.00 or something close to that, same brand. I will NEVER be without this external again after owning that POS Dell!

 

[Mousebaby]

Here is the link for one, you want to get one with the firewire connection because it is a lot faster. Trust me, no more USB! Firewire is that little connection on your computer that has the number 1394 above it. If you don't see a hole that says that you don't have firewire. Anyway, I found this one for 179.00, it is 1 Terabyte.

Amazon.com: Seagate ST310005FPA1E3-RK Freeagent Pro 1 TB 3.5-Inch USB 2.0/FireWire 400 External Hard Drive: Electronics

 

[G1G4]

Dell is terrible. You'd be better off just making your own. I've had a ton of BSOD's before and all I've had to do restart and it usually fixes itself after it completes a disc check.
External hard drives are a neccessity, period. If you don't have one, get one ASAP. External TB HD's are extremely cheap (as shown in a previous post) and with the rising size of applications, introduction of FLAC and lower compression movie formats, more space is warranted. A 250 GB external should work fine, even a 125 or 150 can serve you well. It just depends on what you want to do. Good luck, and for laptops, HP is your best bet.

 

[Mousebaby]

Dell is terrible. You'd be better off just making your own. I've had a ton of BSOD's before and all I've had to do restart and it usually fixes itself after it completes a disc check.
External hard drives are a neccessity, period. If you don't have one, get one ASAP. External TB HD's are extremely cheap (as shown in a previous post) and with the rising size of applications, introduction of FLAC and lower compression movie formats, more space is warranted. A 250 GB external should work fine, even a 125 or 150 can serve you well. It just depends on what you want to do. Good luck, and for laptops, HP is your best bet.

I agree it depends on what your using it for, but after experiencing the difference between a USB external and a 1394 external I will choose the firewire every time! This sucker is FAST!

 

[clevalley]

Normally, I reload my laptops annually and have never had a problem with them... all Dell's and no problem. I do use them for testing, troubleshooting, development and horsing around... we use Dell at work and I have said it over and over again, no problems. O/S's just flake out and throw the BSOD, that is a majority of the problem - after that is either memory or HDD issues.

With the advent of SpyWare, persistent cookies and portable JAVA programs which leaves traces of themselves in the system, BSOD's have been more prevalent and the only way to really get rid of this crap is to reload the O/S.

G1G4 hit something right, use some type of external storage as a backup. I use a Linksys RAID array at home - I have 2 500GB drives which are mirrored (RAID 0) you can also stripe them (RAID 5) but I want real data protection

ItallionScallion - I have a USB to HDD converter if you would like to borrow it, if you have another computer to transfer to. If not I can do it here at work - just let me know.

 

[Floyd2004]

Score another one for dell... This is why I build PCs for friends.

Friends dont let friends buy dell lol.

My girlfriends laptop is dell and she has BSOD about once a month while playing a game.

 

[ItalianScallion]

I would like to suggest something. I got a Seagate External hard drive and I back up all my important files to that. I got it from Amazon.com and it has 500GB of space on it. I have seen lately one that has 1 Terabyte of space for 149.00 or something close to that, same brand. I will NEVER be without this external again after owning that POS Dell!

I have a 2 gig memory stick that I back up most of my data on. The problem is that I hadn't done it in the last 3 weeks. Everything up to that point is on there though. Thanks for the info MB.

Normally, I reload my laptops annually and have never had a problem with them... all Dell's and no problem. I do use them for testing, troubleshooting, development and horsing around... we use Dell at work and I have said it over and over again, no problems. O/S's just flake out and throw the BSOD, that is a majority of the problem - after that is either memory or HDD issues.

With the advent of SpyWare, persistent cookies and portable JAVA programs which leaves traces of themselves in the system, BSOD's have been more prevalent and the only way to really get rid of this crap is to reload the O/S.

G1G4 hit something right, use some type of external storage as a backup. I use a Linksys RAID array at home - I have 2 500GB drives which are mirrored (RAID 0) you can also stripe them (RAID 5) but I want real data protection

ItallionScallion - I have a USB to HDD converter if you would like to borrow it, if you have another computer to transfer to. If not I can do it here at work - just let me know.

You're talking way over my head right now Clev. First tell me what HDD is. I know less than half of what I need to know about these non user friendly devices.
If I reload the OS, what happens to all my stored info?
Is an external hard drive better than a memory stick? If so, I'll get one next week.
I'll find out what really happened on Thursday afternoon but it is so irritating right now that it even happened. FYI: I only use it to surf the net and store a few things in. I normally live with almost 80% free memory space on all my computers.
Thanks for the info and I will let you know what they find. I will be happy to pay for your services if you have the time to sit and school me on this procedure. Thanks.

 

[ItalianScallion]

Dell is terrible. You'd be better off just making your own. I've had a ton of BSOD's before and all I've had to do restart and it usually fixes itself after it completes a disc check.
External hard drives are a neccessity, period. If you don't have one, get one ASAP. External TB HD's are extremely cheap (as shown in a previous post) and with the rising size of applications, introduction of FLAC and lower compression movie formats, more space is warranted. A 250 GB external should work fine, even a 125 or 150 can serve you well. It just depends on what you want to do. Good luck, and for laptops, HP is your best bet.

Thanks dude. In all fairness to Dell, I only had one problem with one of my 2 laptops but I had to go through some hassle to figure out what it was (the LONG phone calls and the language barrier).
The battery in the one I'm on now was defective but, on the other one, they had me on the phone for weeks before they could figure it out.
Where's the best place to get an external hd? As I said earlier, I have an external memory stick but they are only good when they are used regularly. I normally do but I have been abnormally busy and so I was derelict in doing it. Never again, for sure.

 

[The_Twisted_Ear]

FWIW - I've owned four Dells so far. I've had ZERO problems with them! Yea, every once in a while (maybe once a year) I would have a crash - but I would reboot and move on. Now, I do "preventive" maintenance with all my systems (including family members). I make sure I update EVERYTHING that comes down the line with Windows and existing software. I don't mean just "critical updates" - I mean everything. I also go up to Dell's site (and all software running..i.e., graphics, wordprocessing, etc.) and download (check every 6 months) the latest "updates" to hardware and/or software. I also run a program called TweakNow to remove those pesty ADOBE, etc. programs that run at startup. Yea, I'm doing more then the normal person but I've owned HP's, Compaq's and others that you young pups never heard of and had problems UNTIL I finally woke up to the maintenance that really is required to keep these PCs running. Anyway - that is just my two cents.

 

[Floyd2004]

You're talking way over my head right now Clev. First tell me what HDD is.

HDD=Hard drive

 

[clevalley]

Thanks dude. In all fairness to Dell, I only had one problem with one of my 2 laptops but I had to go through some hassle to figure out what it was (the LONG phone calls and the language barrier).
The battery in the one I'm on now was defective but, on the other one, they had me on the phone for weeks before they could figure it out.
Where's the best place to get an external hd? As I said earlier, I have an external memory stick but they are only good when they are used regularly. I normally do but I have been abnormally busy and so I was derelict in doing it. Never again, for sure.

Oh, the language barrier! I hate when I call in for support and get Habeeb - we generally get Professional/Gold support here at work... but I do understand your pain.

Always back up important data, no matter what. Sometimes it takes a data loss to reinforce this. I too have lost data, but it was doing something bonehead where I was trying to save time.

HDD=Hard drive

Thanks Floyd!

 

[Floyd2004]

Thanks Floyd!

No worries.