My daughter's new Dell

[Marsha Lynn]

In August before my daughter headed off to Olivet, we purchased a Dell computer for her.

In September, she called. The sound was messed up. We checked it out when we went to visit her for the first time. Any little task maxed out the CPU resources and left nothing for the sound card. Norton didn't detect any viruses, but I had sent her a link to a site that I thought would provide her with a freeware program she had forgotten to take from home. The site was a hoax and messed up her computer. I spent several hours cleaning things up and reinstalled her music program (Itunes) and thought I had it working when I left.

In October, she brought it home. The sound was still messed up. Norton said it was clean, but coincidentally(?), within minutes of hooking it into our home network, we had the first virus on our main workhorse computer that we'd had in probably a year or more. Our ISP disabled out account. :( Fortunately, I had just cleaned up a co-worker's system and was able to research the virus using her computer and ISP account and get that taken care of. The Dell was banned from the home network until further notice.

After many hours of research with no success, I called Dell.

"Have you tried this?" Yep. "This?" Yep. "How 'bout this other thing?" Yep.

By the time the phone tech guy called me back after consulting with a techier tech, I was ready for his answer. Start over. Ctrl-F11 puts it back the way it came from the factory. Having searched high and low for anything nasty on it, we hooked it to a brand new computer and copied her 8 MB of music and picture files to that hard drive. Then we hit Ctrl-F11 and started over with the "Hi, I'm your new Dell!" screen. Sigh.

In November she called. A friend had sent her a MSN virus and she had fallen for it. I helped her get back to a restore point and pull up the backup registry. I think it worked for a while after that.

Now it's Christmas break and the Dell is back home. Same problem. Norton says it's virus-free. Task manager doesn't show anything fishy-looking. She's done a system restore and replaced the registry with a backup version without success. Just starting Windows sounds terrible. The music will play if there's absolutely nothing else going on, but the simplest task (e.g. populating the add/remove programs list) maxes out the CPU and the music breaks up. This time there's the added novelty of the keyboard not working in Windows. (It worked fine until she brought it home and still works until Windows starts.) We can't find anything running on it that shouldn't be. There's no explanation for the keyboard not working.

New Year's Eve we disconnected our other computers and my husband dragged 13 MB of music and picture files across the network onto the harddrive in his Linux system (impervious to Windows viruses). (This task was an extra challenge since her system didn't have a static IP address and we couldn't assign one without a keyboard in order to get it onto our home network.)

Monday I hit Ctrl-F11 again (fortunately, that command is sent to the BIOS before Windows disables the keyboard) and we were back to the cheery "Hi, I'm your new Dell!" screen. We've been downloading Windows updates on our poor dial-up connection all day and evening. The music and picture files (along with a few school-related projects) are back on it. We've deleted the junk software Dell packaged onto it and reinstalled the few programs she's dared put on it. (She hasn't even bothered with Microsoft Office since it's been on the disabled list for most of the year.) Everything works perfectly. The sound is good. The keyboard works.

This is very frustrating. I assume it's not a hardware problem or it wouldn't work after doing the recovery process. But what can be messing it up every time she hooks it to Olivet's network? Are we going to have to do a backup and reformat it every time she comes home?

Just venting mostly, I guess. If anyone has any ideas, I'd sure like to hear them.

Marsha

[Brad Mercer]

My college daughter's friends and I are kind of nudging her toward Linux for her laptop PC. I'm about ready to do the same. I just read that there's a rumor going around business tech circles that Google may be about to introduce some kind of cheap PC through WalMart that will have it's own operating system. Google hasn't made any big missteps yet, that I've seen, so I'd be willing to take a look at that.

Brad

[Steve Reece]

In a college enviroment you should expect lots of viruses. I had about given up on Norton Antivirus, but the very latest version (Corporate Edition) is actually picking up viruses that, IMHO, it should have been picking up for years. A second virus scanner would be a good idea. Try to add on a personal firewall, I like Sygate's free one, but they have been purchased by Symantec (which is Norton), so, um, good luck... Also make sure you are running several anti-spyware programs: Adware, Spy Bot S&D, and Microsofts anti-spyware beta. Next time the PC is messed, try removing the hard drives and scanning them from a clean computer. Once the OS is infected it is difficult for any anti-virus running on that computer to do its job.

In short: Your daughter is a college student in a college enviroment. Expect computer trouble.

[Marsha Lynn]

In short: Your daughter is a college student in a college enviroment. Expect computer trouble.

Yes, but we have six years of college under our belts without this type of problem. What's different about this kid than the other two? Could it be the Itunes music library that her dormmates are tapping into?

Anyway, thanks for the advice. Antivirus software has never worked for me, but my husband brought home a new version of Norton to install and maybe some of the spyware stuff, too. I suppose it can't hurt. But if this is a virus, it's the most elusive one I've ever encountered.

Marsha

[Jonathan Long]

I agree with Steve. For some reason college students think that using IM programs & downloading music won't mess up their system. Most colleges require you to be running anti-virus before they will even let you on to the network.

I guess I'd look into something like Norton Ghost in addition to the system backup that the Dell already has. I'd also really scan any file before I put it back onto the clean system.

Jon

[Houston Thomas]

Marsha,

This is probably too late, but worth a try. Speaking as one who downloads music exclusively, IM's like crazy etc., here is my opinoin: It's probably not iTunes. Downloading music from iTunes is about as secure of a file transfer as possible. If your daughter downloads music from services such as 'limewire' or other such programs, she is opening herself up exponentially to viruses.

Secondly (and speaking personally) Norton stinks. I always have had great results with AVG by Grisoft http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1. Add to that a few Anti-Spyware programs (such as Adaware and Microsofts Anti-Spyware) and you're doing the best you can with a Windows based machine.

Thats my .02

Houston

[Jonathan Long]

Marsha,

Do you have an update on this?

You have to remember that 6 years ago computer viruses were something most people talked about but had never seen...

Nowdays, with everyone spending more time online.... and the the music sharing and the IM environment..... You're bound to get a virus or two.

Jon

[Marsha Lynn]

Marsha,

Do you have an update on this?

The Dell went back to Olivet today. It has Norton Corporate Edition and Spybot on it and Windows Firewall enabled. She had some software to install there and then she'll do a registry backup.

You have to remember that 6 years ago computer viruses were something most people talked about but had never seen...

Would you believe we got our first home virus in the early 90s on a Commodore Amiga 500? :eek:

Over several years of dealing with vulnerable systems and careless users at school, home, and in the public library, I've basically given up on both anti-virus software and spyware removal programs going beyond the most obvious problems and developed some expertise at hand-picking the little buggers with the help of Google. (I'm thinking about starting a computer cleaning business. :basic03) I haven't had to reformat a system since XP Service Pack 2 came along -- except for this stupid Dell. Somehow, whatever is maxing out the CPU on this system is doing it without showing up as a running process in task manager. Very frustrating.

Coincidentally, the computer guru who writes a weekly column in our newspaper dealt with this exact problem this week -- a Dell with its CPU maxed out and terrible sound. After removing all the spyware, his final solution was to defrag the hard drive. We'll certainly give that a try next time, but it's hard to imagine that being the problem when we reformat every month or two. :fav03

Thanks for asking. It's off the disabled list and back on the field for another quarter. We'll see how long it lasts this time.

Marsha

[Marsha Lynn]

Well, the Dell Dimension 3000 came home for every break of my daughter's freshman year of college and was taken back to the factory settings. It soon became totally out of the question to do all the Windows updates on our dialup connection. I would take it in to the library and hook it up to the T-1 line there.

Over summer break, away from the Olivet network, it worked fine. She wasn't back at school for a week before it started showing the same problems - maxed out CPU showing up primarily in slowness and choppy music. During her fall break in October we tried Dell support another time. That's just an exercise in total frustration as they lead us by the hand thru the process of emptying the cache and ask if we've tried other speakers. The daughter called Dell from college again in early November and did no better.

For Thanksgiving break it came home again. We were totally fed up with it and cleaned up an older system that doesn't get a lot of use here to send back with her for the three weeks until the semester is over. Sure, it's a little slow and only has an 8 GB hard drive, but it's only three weeks! And we could risk sacrificing it to whatever is hosing her Dell. That system works just fine at home. It prints to our printer, accesses the internet, has copies of all our major software, downloads pictures from our camera, plays music through our stereo. Starts and runs every time.

Tonight she called. What is her serial number? Huh? It's a "home-brew". It doesn't have a serial number. We walked through the steps of getting it on the Olivet network to the point where they discovered it was running Windows ME. No deal. And it won't work with her printer or her camera or her IPod and, anyway, I forgot to send her the USB hub so she could plug everything into it. She has major projects due and no computer. Tomorrow we're meeting at the halfway point (100 miles for both of us) and trading computers back.

Meanwhile, I went to Google one more time. If you type in 'Dell "Dimension 3000" trouble', you get 12,000 hits. At least some of them describe the exact problem we have had for the past 15 months. Lots of people asking the question and up until tonight no one coming up with a solution. But tonight ... success!! Someone finally figured it out! And it's so simple, doing it every couple of weeks might be feasible for a while.

It has something to do with the DMA being degraded because of errors. I don't understand the problem. But the solution is simply to uninstall the IDE controllers and reboot so that Windows reinstalls them. And it works! Much simpler than taking it back to the factory settings and reinstalling everything.

Obviously, this is Dell's problem since no one else at Olivet is seeing it and Dell Dimension 3000 users worldwide are dealing with it. It sure would be nice if Dell support would get past "Is it the speakers?" and admit that it's a genuine problem and offer a solution. But at least we have a place to start now to look for a long-term solution. It's not a virus, never was a virus, and it has nothing to do with the Olivet network other than perhaps being related to downloading large quantities of data and/or doing upgrades.

Sure would have been nice to discover this before she went back to school this afternoon! It would save us both four hours on the road tomorrow evening.

Somehow having a Dell isn't nearly so exciting as it once seemed.

Marsha

[Joel Merrill]

I don't know if there is any computer company that has good support. I went around and around with Gateway support. I called Dell once and realized I was talking to someone who was totally clueless and didn't call them back. In my case, I figured it out on my own. We used to have a naznetter who had worked as support for Gateway and HP. He said they were not trained to troubleshoot, just ship parts. Worse yet they were only allowed to spend a few minutes per customer. I've run into that went emailing support. They will only reply a few times and then say I need to take it to a shop.

With my old Gateway, I had a bad mother board and I knew it was bad. They kept referring me to Microsoft or to links about problems that had nothing to do with my computer. You never talk to the same person twice. After a while they asked me to check the same thing the guy before did and I just got the run around. We needed a computer so we bought a new one but since the Gateway was still under warranty, I kept after them for 6 months! Finally, 2 weeks before it was out of warranty I got a hold of a gal and she said, "Your mother board is bad" as if it was so obvious. I said, "That is what I've been trying to tell you guys for 6 months."

So they sent me another (repaired, not new) mother board. I installed it right away and sent the old one right back. Then they heckled me for 3 months and said they didn't receive it and they wanted to bill me for it. Finally I explained to them how to use a UPS tracking number as if they were a little child and I never heard from them again. But that's not the end of the story.

The mother board they sent me was junk. The computer runs but it is extremely unstable. You never know when you start a program if it is going to start or crash. I've reformatted the hard drive and un-installed everything but the basics and it sort of works. I have an old flight simulator that was made for Windows 95. It doesn't work with XP and this old Gateway is Windows 98. (I got it after XP had came out and it was probably one of the last computers they sold with 98.) I keep this old computer alive just so I can use that old flight sim.

I've been very happy with my Dell and I just bought another one for my wife for Christmas.

Joel