We have been going through a PC nightmare for the past week.  I was on the verge of pitching the ‘puter out the window and jumping ship from Microsoft to Apple.  We had one incident after another, seemingly caused by Windows Updates and ultimately rendering our main PC useless.  Things I wouldn’t want my grandmother to hear started to spew from my mouth. I’ve been a techie for a long time so I have been noticing things for a while that lead me to believe hardware failure or an operating system re-install was imminent.  Thank goodness I bought the external drive and backed up just prior to “the crash”.

My first calls were to Microsoft for support with the perceived Windows Updates issue.  After a battery of testing and no resolutions, it appeared that the OS reinstall would be the first step but the Microsoft technician had me run a procedure to check the disk first.  Called “chkdsk”, this DOS procedure found it necessary to hang and freeze at Stage 5, leading me to change my theory on the OS and realize that the hard drive was most likely doomed.  Next support call please – this time Dell.  I also thought Dell would be great because I had a great dialog going with the @DellCares representative on Twitter and he seemed so engaged and ready to help.

We have an extended warranty on the PC so it seemed pretty simple that Dell would just replace the drive.  Ah, not so much.  And not so fast.  First, let’s have Dell run some of their diagnostics on the system and tell me that it is the operating system and not the drive and, therefore, how about you pay us $129 for this one incident to re-install the operating system.  And, oh, by the way, as long as you’re paying us $129 for just this once, why don’t you think about paying us $250 for the year so we can fix your software issues again?  And, since this is a software issue, we won’t be replacing your hard drive after all.  The hard drive that is covered under your warranty.  Yes, that one.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has been calling as they said they would and repeatedly emailing and asking how they could be of service.  I’m so completely amazed and impressed with Microsoft’s tech support and customer service that I might just leave the Mac on the back burner for a while.  Seriously.  Very impressive.  Dell on the other hand – not so much.  They were more interested in selling us support services than taking responsibility for the hard drive failure.  After quoting research on this issue that I found on the internet and requesting hard drive manufacturer diagnostics from the next tech rep I talked to, it seems Dell has changed their mind.  New hard drive on the way.  And now, the @DellCares representative seems to have gotten the word that they are sending someone to replace the drive so he is now responding to the emails that I sent yesterday and this morning advising him of the situation and asking  him why the need to sell software support services was taking precedence over the obvious need to replace the drive.

The repair is scheduled for tomorrow or Monday (they do have 72 hours you know).  And they are bringing an imaged hard drive pre-loaded (as we bought it supposedly).  So, we’ll just have to see how that goes.  Stay tuned for the continuing saga…  and.. put a little faith back into Microsoft.  I have.  I am seriously impressed. (And I still want a Mac.. in addition to the PC )