Monday, June 30, 2008

Dell Unboxing #1

So my replacement Dall arrived last week.

There are three general phases to getting a new computer.

1) Unboxing it and doing the manual setup.

2) Installing all of the software and configuring the machine.

3) Restoring the data from the old computer system.

As of this writing, I'm finished with 1 and am in the middle of 2. It looks like 3 is going to take about six hours to do. The good news is that there is SOMEthing on the backup hard drive that I thought was wiped. The bad news is that I am not quite sure what it is. Sunday night, I started the scan and recovery process and went to bed, only to check the machine on Monday morning to find that the whole process "hung up" (the technical term) at 1:10 am. I do not know if this is a Windows issue, a Dell issue, or the data recovery software's issue. All I know is that the entire operating system froze and neither the keyboard or the mouse worked. (My guess it has something to do with the default settings on the powersave/hibernate option.)

But that is neither here nor there. The purpose of this entry is to describe the unboxing of the replacement Dell.

As some of you know, I through a fit here on the blog after the incredibly shoddy technical support I received from Dell and its third party vendor. Brad at Dell responded in my comments and we worked out a deal for me to exchange my old broken Dell for a new working one.

It came in a box.



Covered in Dell logos.



And an image instructing you to lift it out of the box with a buddy.



The box contained instructions.



And even instructions that depict users reading the instructions.



All of the pre-installed software came on CDs (which was very nice).



And I even found some religious pamphlets included in the box. I guess this means the system was blessed.



I cracked open the case to make sure everything was in order.



I set the new next to the old for some side-by-side comparison action.



Wired up all of my 5,099,234,155 peripherals to the machine.



And cranked her up.



Then I set the old machine in the box, preparing it for the inevitable Viking funeral.



To Be Continued....

9 comments:

alex said...

If I were the owner of the pointy sexy-toes in picture #1, I'd be peeved that I didn't get mentioned in the unboxing. Those toes are obviously critical to the process.

heather said...

ah, this post brings back fond memories of unpacking my new dell. (which i had to do twice also because the first one came without essential drivers that would allow me to access the internet. the lovely first line support tech kept asking me to download them from the website. yep, nice thorough training there at dell.)

i however was missing out on the lovely religious propaganda.

what? am i not worthy of salvation?

M. Robert Turnage said...

Alex, the toes belong to the Mrs. and she has made it clear that she does not want her face plastered all over the blog. My guess is that is has to do with the rest of the female population getting jealous.

Heather, I live in the Bible Belt so it will not be difficult to introduce you to someone who thinks you are worthy of salvation. I also had the missing connect-to-the-internet drivers but was able to work around it. Details coming in a later blog post.

I also forgot to wax poetic about the New Dell Smell. Maybe in another entry.

NoRegrets said...

Jeez, I didn't even notice the toes!! How lame am I? Does that mean I'm a geek if I only saw the Dell box?

Religious stuff - perhaps it's an omen that you will need to call upon a higher being to deal with the next phase(s). Ooooohhh I"m on the edge of my seat.

Susan said...

I like instructions with pictures. I really like to try to only follow the pictures and not read the words. It's like complex pictionary..

Tera said...

How long did it take you to count all 5,099,234,155 peripherals?

NoRegrets said...

If I didnt' have to scroll so much to get to where I can leave comments I'd leave more comments.

heather said...

while i appreciate your kind offer to find someone within the bible belt who thinks i'm worth saving i think i'll stick with the personal relationship god and i have for now. the last time a bible belter tried saving me i got stuck going to church twice on sundays and on wednesdays. what kind of 10 year old sins so badly that they need to go to church three times a week?

heather said...

*or was my mother smarter tha i've given her credit for and trying to like mad to make sure my karmic balance was firmly in the black before my teens and twenties?*