Need some help with the Dell Computer....new...

[loftycity]

Saturday,
I go to turn it on and it reads "cannot find registry."
So I go through the whole Call Center thing..
Outsourcing will never work (more on that later)

One of the Techs from the Call Center had me open up the tower and a couple of caps on the Mother board are missing.

This could happen again at any time--all it took was turning on or off the computer?

It is only 4 months old.

So what would be the best course.
Try and have Dell come out and fix it?
or
have them send out a new tower? (I've lost all info)

[trotsky]

1. You may or may not have lost your data.

It may be possible to salvage data from the hard drive if it is put into another computer as a secondary drive. If Dell is able to do this for you, have them do it. But, if the drive has failed (and that's why it can't read the registry), then there is little point, unfortunately.

[loftycity]

2. Oh I have lost data it's all gone....I really appreciate your help..

[trotsky]

3. Bummer.

So sorry to hear. It's always such a sinking feeling when that happens. I recommend you have them send you a new one then, don't even mess with fixing it!

[MadHound]

4. Better yet, have them refund your money

And go out and buy an E-Mac. They're on sale now for around $800.00. Excellent machines, rarely give trouble, and last forever. Bonus, you never have to worry about viruses, ever. I've always had Macs at home, while having Dells and other Wintel boxes at work. I've had three Wintel boxes die on me(two Dells, one Compaq) at work. All of my Macs are still going along fine, including the ancient EII I fire up for fun and nostalgia on occasion.

Seriously, make the switch, you'll never regret it.

[democracyindanger]

5. The only time you never have to worry about viruses

is when you never connect your box to the internet.

[loftycity]

8. I want one of those..self employed so I have to work with old Excel

from other clients.

[necso]

6. Sounds like,

The registry is damaged/deleted. The computer should know nothing about the existence of the registry until Windows starts to load.

Try: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article - 306084

I have some stuff to do but I will check back latter to see if you have had any luck. There are other things to try.

[loftycity]

9. On the phone with them again...and I requested a new tower.

We'll see. I've had Sony's forever and never experienced this kind of thing.
And, this support overseas is a drag...their sense of time is what will kill this outsourcing of jobs. They will never know how fast Americans think and get something done....we know. And it is something you cannot teach in a foreign country. They will never understand.

[necso]

10. Sure.

But if a few simple steps might at least let you save some files, it is worth trying. Besides all the major players are making systems so cheap these days, that I have little confidence in them.

Speaking from long experience with tech support, it was/is rarely very good even when it is domestic, because this is an area (like test/documentation) where companies have always been slow to spend the money it takes to do the jo right. Of course this trend is only getting worse and offshoring is a sure sign of that.

[Onlooker]

7. That's a bad problem

The best course of action is probably to have Dell send you a new computer. You could have a disk problem, a motherboard problem, or possibly some kind of virus. Dell either helps you replace a part (or the computer) or tells you to format the hard drive. They don't provide software support. If you want to try to salvage the info on your computer, one option worth considering is to call Microsoft.

If you go to support.microsoft.com and choose Contact Microsoft, you can track down a technical support number. I believe the cost is $35, but they are really good. I once used them when I had a less serious problem than yours, and they identified and helped me delete a virus on my computer not found by Norton AntiVirus.

[Abaques]

11. As someone else pointed out...

The Dell customer support guy lied to you. There are no "caps" in the motherboard that would cause any kind of error like that. The fact that it mentioned the registry means that you are at least booting up.

Take it from someone who has worked tech support phone banks, that tech bailed on you.

You should have just been able to use the Dell recovery cd.

[loftycity]

13. I knew they would bail the minute they started talking

And Dell has about 5 boot up CD's that have to be done in some order.
I'm just pissed off.
I had the Sony for years and not one problem.

[Maestro]

12. It's a Windows' problem

This is a software problem. It has nothing to do with the motherboard. Restart the computer and as it is booting up hit the delete button on your keyboard (it won't delete anything) It might be another button since this is a Dell and they do things a bit differently, but anyhow, what you want to do is stop the computer just before it checks for the registry which is sort of like the brains for Windows. Hopefully by pressing delete or some Function key you get to list which allows you to boot in safe mode. Boot in safe mode. Get to your desktop if able. Go to menu/control panel/system/system restore and see if you can restore and previously saved restore point where the registry was good.

If not, find a Dell tech that can boot you up with a start-up disk so you get to the old command prompt from olden days. There is an old DOS command that will restore a previous registry.

If all else fails, you can try to reinstall Windows, I'm assuming XP, by putting in your CD-ROM drive. When it installs there is an option to repair XP. Choose that and see if it can repair the damage without you losing information. If not, select reformat. You will fix the problem, but lose the info.

Oh and find a good Dell tech person.

[loftycity]

14. I try that ...I had to do the full reformat and I really wish I could just

send this Dell back. I didn't like it the day I got it.
You know you just get that intution thing going and you know it's not going to work right.
I don't have any confidence that this Dell will last even 6 months.