Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

Memory Fiasco
About a week ago I called a dealer I've been using recently when buying some computer products, with the main intention of getting an extra 128MB memory module for the new notebook computer. While I was at it, I went through their online memory search mechanism and bought an extra 256MB of memory for my Dell, my main workhouse computer in the house. Instead of buying it all online I called in and confirmed the order – and the right memory – over the phone with one of their reps.

Inserting the memory into the IBM Thinkpad was a snap, literally. I opened up a little hatch with a small screwdriver and simply snapped the new notebook memory into it. A voila it worked.

The Dell desktop machine was more of a rigamorole. I hefted the machine onto my lap, opened up the case, and worked in the new memory module. Then I turned on the machine. Then I get the usual bright blue Dell startup screen. But it doesn't go away... Uh oh.

I tried swapping out the new memory. No change. Then swapping in only the new memory. No diff. Ugh. I check the cables for all of the hard drives and make sure all of the peripheral cards are properly seated. They are.

So I put in a call to Dell's tech support. Over the course of an hour or so, the patient tech had me re-seat all of the cards and devices, then take them all out, then plug everything else back in minus the memory to try to get to the underlying cause of the problem. Without the memory in the machine, I get three long beeps – a sign that everything is working, and that there's no memory in the machine. Final diagnosis: bad memory. Not only has the memory that I've been sold is deemed incompatible, but it appears to have blown out the previously good memory chip in the machine in the process. Ugh. I call up the sysadmin guys at the office and they concur with the diagnosis. Double Ugh.

So there's nothing for it but to call up Dell and buy fresh memory from them. No surprise that their memory is more expensive than the standard pricing these days. But what is an unpleasant surprise is that they have no rush service available – I was hoping to get overnight service on the memory at worst, but am told that they don't have such service in Canada, and that I might have to wait a few days for it. Argh!

I am now very pleased at having bought this notebook computer not so long ago, since it is now serving as my backup until my main system can be repaired. Luckily I had most of my recent critical work saved onto my 128MB USB memory key, and was able to transfer some programs I didn't already on the notepad from one of my other, slower machines in the house, so I was back up and running again shortly after everything went kaboom.

I still have to tear a strip from the supplier of the memory module that blew out my system. I have to admit that I'm also unhappy with Dell for not having a rush delivery service available for critical parts, though I am otherwise happy with their patient tech support service.