Posted on 07/26/2018 2:47:33 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
Thanks for the tip. I was about to buy my first “Smartphone” from Best Buy.
If you’re mainly using a computer for browsing and perhaps checking email, consider getting a used machine. Even a 5 year old MacBook will have plenty of processing power. A used machine has the advantage of being both less expensive than new and having electronics that have been proven over time. If electronics are going to conk out, they usually conk out when relatively new as the parts burn in.
Next time you might look at the dell Outlet site and the Optiplex line of desktops and all-in-ones. Most of these are heavily discounted and come with a three year NBD (next business day warranty. they will send someone to you the next business day to fix your system.
some of the laptops also used to get this warranty as well.
Get a wireless mouse and disable the touch pad.That's what I do.
Hard to type and not accidentally get some part of your hand near the touch pad.
Did you take the computer to a Dell Support technician or a dude who said yeah, I work on Dells?
If the new power supply did not fix the issue then why did he persist on the ‘low power to the mother board’ scenario? The frozen mouse is a symptom of low power to the CPU. MBs don’t fail their CPU that way, power supplies do. When MBs go PCI lanes usually start dropping first. And I’m talking 5+ years for that.
There is a chance the car impact loosed solder and caused a short on top of the initial problem (software).
No qualified technician ‘thinks’ a power supply is bad. They plug the cables into a $10 power supply tester and check the voltages on all the cables. Green light good, red light bad, no light dead.
Secondly, he should have slaved off your hard drive to read the event log. It’s usually very detailed for hardware and software as well as a locked system state (time gaps in security log entries).
If I had to guess I’d say it could be a corrupt driver issue. We have seen the mouse driver issue with some MS patches recently on virtual machines.
Most normal data corruption issues on spinning hard drives can be fixed with admin command prompt: defrag C: /u /v. In the analysis section anything over 5% = program degradation, errors, etc. It’s good to run this command occasionally on hard drives. It should NOT be run on solid state storage (SSDs).
If the issue persists it may be something more serious like a garbled patch, etc. which needs to be uninstalled and reinstalled.
It should also be thoroughly checked for viruses. I use Avast! Free in Quiet mode, Malwarebytes, etc.
There are other options but they get more into serious OS issues. MS is putting out a ton of patches (they are updating the source code) so expect a higher than normal degree of W10 issues for the foreseeable future. Typical components affected are NIC, firewall, system .dlls, drivers, etc.
If you can get your computer back use the keyboard to navigate to control panel, and re-install the mouse. Or buy a cheap USB mouse, plug it in and let Windows load the driver on top of the modified or corrupted system files. Load last, works best.
Seems your tech is collecting a bunch of unnecessary parts in-warranty. I find it quite hard to believe there was neither a power supply tester or a spare power supply on hand.
The only reason to buy Dell is that if you pay an extra $200+ a year,
...
I can buy a really good used one for $200.
I have a nine years year old Dell lappy. Had to replace a disk years ago that was trashed because of a neighborhood power issue. Came with Vista now running Windows 10
“Ctl-Alt-Delete still works? I thought that went out the window with Windows 7.”
Ctrl-Alt-Delete is the Mother Of All Keystrokes. It will never perish. It’s 1,000 year reign is a shining beacon of progress lighting humanity’s way to the Blue Screen of Enlightenment.
“Get a wireless mouse and disable the touch pad.”
I prefer wired mouses/mice; they seem more responsive. But a touchpad is straight from Hell.
To fix the cursor problem jumping around press at the same time fn and F6
I had the same problem with my Lenovo and that fixes it, but you have to do it every time you start your laptop up. It’s very annoying!
For the business, my department gets all laptops with 3 years pro support.
I haven’t had to do any real laptop surgery in many years because of the service package.
In the past year, I may have had to get Dell on-site 4 times at most.
I’d bet that it was probably running a BIOS update and pulling power bricked your computer. :( I don’t know if in that case pulling the CMOS battery would help any. Sorry.
Feel your pain.
Disconnected is not a pleasant way to go through life. When our puter blew a gasket (during the primary season of POTUS TRUMP first election) we felt like the wrath of GOD had come down on us. Fortunately, we were able to pick up a rebuilt at a small shop with which business had been done in the past. $100 for CPU Dell tower and OS win7
Runs fine; operator could use some help.
Good luck. It WILL get better. :-)
I thought my Dell with Win 7 wanted CTL-shift-something.
An alternative might be an I-pad assuming you have wireless capability at home. Any I-pad model will do, meaning you don’t need the latest to access the internet. They are great for email, internet, photos, camera, portability, and you can print to a wireless printer.
Just a suggestion. I haven’t utilized a computer in years. Photos can be transferred to a computer from an I-pad as well.
BTW, I’ve had the same experience with laptops. They are made to die quickly. I-pads don’t have that problem.
People have been getting away from their desktop computers; they are so last century. You can access Free Republic and post on your Smart Phone or tablet. If you are totally disconnected from the internet for a while enjoy it. You will no longer suffer from information overload. :-) The lib’s are still going berserk and Trump is still winning. I was without the internet for a few days during hurricane Irma last year. If I wanted to learn what was going on I sat in my car and listened to the radio. Didn’t bother me that much, but it was the week long power outage that almost broke me.
I forgot to add, you can also listen to podcasts, which are free, such as Dan Bongino, Levin, Hannity etc. or Rush on IHeartRadio (also free). Those apps do not interfere with performing any other tasks. I often peruse FR while listening to Rush.
I bought my last desktop and 2 laptops off of Craigslist. All were corporate off lease units. I paid about $125 for the desktop and $150 for the laptop.
Dell’s like any computer lasts a long time until you take them into the shower. My stepson has problems with cars, some people have problems with computers.
That is unnecessarily nasty. No reason for it at all. You can take your unjustified snark and stick it somewhere where photosynthesis would not be possible.
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