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Alienware

Customer Service Saves the Day!

July 24, 2018 by Elizabeth Drake

How often do you hear that? I know, right? But honestly, Alienware’s customer service was amazing!

As I mentioned here, my computer has been acting up since I downloaded the April Windows 10 update. Yeah, I didn’t do it until June, but I wanted them to work out all of the bugs first.

Stop laughing.

laughingkitten.jpg
I know. I’m so optimistic it hurts.

After the Microsoft Help Desk told me it was a hardware issue, and a trip to Geek Squad confirmed it was a hardware issue, we decided to call Alienware and see if they’d stand behind their product.

The computer is just over a year old, so technically out of the warranty period, but it’s one of their better models. I had opted for an Alienware as they’re known for quality. The laptop has never left my house, never been dropped, and I don’t eat near it.

I’ve also never come close to taxing the abilities of this machine as I’d bought it because I thought we’d start gaming again now that our kids were a little older.

Yeah, I know. You’re laughing again, aren’t you?

laughingwoman
Still not funny.

 Anyway, my husband called them. Yes, it’s my machine. But he’s also the one that took it to Geek Squad. For better or worse, help desks treat men differently than they do women. As we both wanted this solved as quickly as possible, he agreed to take the lead on it.

So, he called Alienware and told them what’s going on, then gave them all of the details of the computer. They said, yes, they’ve seen this before, and it was the Windows 10 update. The update broke the Tobii eye tracking software on my model of Alienware. This is what’s causing the issue, not a broken keyboard.

Uninstalling the Windows 10 update, which we had done, was not enough to “unbreak” what the update had done to my computer.

Because of course it wasn’t. Thanks Windows!

Windows10ruined
At least the update had. No joke. It was unusable.

As it’s a software issue, they could walk him through how to fix it.

At first, I thought it was too good to be true, but Alienware customer support walked him through how to deactivate the software even though he couldn’t really type anything. He then uninstalled the software completely as he now had control of my computer, and Alienware then directed him to where to get the fixed version.

At the end of the call, my computer worked beautifully.

I will not need to be without it for a month.

I did lose a weekend, but I think I can make that up and still be on track.

If I ever buy a Windows machine again, it will be an Alienware.

 

 

Filed Under: Computer Tagged With: Alienware, customer service, Gaming, Geek Squad, hardware, software, warranty, Windows 10

Update: A Set Back

July 19, 2018 by Elizabeth Drake

I am writing this on my phone as my very expensive Alienware laptop is currently unusable.

After restarting it for other reasons, it is impossible to open apps on it as it types 4 over and over again in the Windows screen. When trying to type anywhere else, it keeps backspacing, making it impossible to write a coherent word, much less a coherent sentence.

Windows10

 

I have taken it down to Geek Squad, and they are telling me the “4” key on my number pad is broken. One my one year old Alienware computer. That has never left the house until its trip to Geek Squad.

Now that’s some quality right there. #sarcasm

I am in the process of trying to get it fixed, but it will have to be sent back to Dell as it’s pretty specialized and no one has the parts. Dell has yet to decide if they will stand by their top-of-the-line computers, and if they don’t, we’re looking at hundreds of dollars to repair.

WindowsvsMac
This is no longer even a question for me.

I am trying to move things over to my Mac, but it’s going slowly. The learning curve seems less steep when you aren’t stressing out about it.

If I can’t get things all transferred to the Mac, I’m looking at being a month behind on everything as Geek Squad said they’re seeing four weeks or so for this kind of fix.

Fabulous.

I can promise one thing, though. Once I get switched over to my Mac, I will never, ever buy another Windows machine again.

Filed Under: Computer Tagged With: Alienware, Apple, Computer, Dell, Mac, New Computer, Windows 10

And So I Joined a Cult

March 27, 2018 by Elizabeth Drake

Or am thinking about it, anyway. At least, that’s how the Mac users I’ve talked to describe themselves. They’ve all told me once I buy my first Mac, I won’t ever buy another Windows machine.

MacBook
Looks innocuous enough, and no purple Kool-Aid anywhere.

I’m skeptical, as is my nature, but I’ve never known anyone who has a Mac that hates it.

 Ever.

 Yeah, they’re more expensive, but everyone I talked to who owns one was more than willing to fork over their hard earned dollars to get another one.

And this includes some very frugal finance professionals.

So, I started to research more about operating specs, performance, etc. You need to know all of this on a Windows machine. When I bought my Alienware, I had an array of processors to choose from, video cards, hard drive space, RAM, screen size etc.

techwoman
Researching.

It’s less daunting to order your computer from Dell than to build your own, as I did on my last machine (where then you have to worry about motherboards, cases, power supply, etc.), but there’s still a lot to sort out to make good decisions.

Not so on the Mac. You have desktop or laptop. Once you choose laptop, there are only three options. A bit of research showed me the MacBook Air was probably the best choice for me in terms of functionality. I am not a high end user, and using Pages and maybe some ebook creating software is not a big deal to a Mac.

Once I chose MacBook Air, I basically had three choices left to make. Which of the two processors did I want, 8MB or 16MB of RAM, and 128GB, 256GB or 512GB for the solid state hard drive. That’s it.

 I should be in awe of the simplicity. Instead, I’m wary. Can it really be this easy? Can it really work as well as the Alienware?

WindowsvsMac
Way too much truth.

We need to replace my husband’s computer so we can each have a machine to work on at the same time. But this is a commitment. A big one.

Am I ready for it?

How about you? Ever make a big change like this from one system to another? How’d it go? Any tips or advice?

Filed Under: Computer, Uncategorized Tagged With: Alienware, Apple, Computer, Mac, New Computer, research, Windows 10

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