Thanks. I'll give that test a run. I've downloaded the two tools, but it may take me some time to get them on my new pc. There's no workable connection, and I'm gonna have to zip them up at work to (hopefully) get them small enough in size to transfer them on a floppy. I'll keep you posted.
Just a quick update. I'm still working on doing those two tests; it's just taking me some time. Even after zipped, one of them is too large for a 1.44 floppy. So I'm looking into burning them to a data CD and transferring them over that way. But this is a first for me (the CD part), so it's a bit slow.
If you have any other ideas in the meantime, I can do those while I'm working on these two at the same time.
Also, my "Dell reinstall everything" CDs arrive early this week. I'm gonna hold off on reinstalling everything with technical support on the line until you give me the go-ahead.
One quick thing to try is to reset the XP TCP/IP stack back to its default state (as when XP is first installed) - and clean out the registry of any TCP/IP changes. From a DOS shell issue this "netshell command", the filename at the end is necessary for command to work correctly. Essentially this useful command does the same as the removal and the reinstallation of the TCP/IP protocol stack......but in one easy step.
Thanks. I will do the "reset the XP stack" test tonight, and report back. I think my Dell "reinstall everything" CDs arrive today as well.
I was able to do one of the other two tests at long last........the Tracks Eraser; I'm still working on the other one. The summary results of running the Tracks Eraser were:
31 Registry Keys Erased; 80 Files Erased; 1.11 MB HD Space Released
I can post the detail too on the files above if necessary. At any rate, I was still unable to pull up a webpage after running the Trackers Eraser.
I'll let you know the results of the XP stack tomorrow.
I did the "reset the XP stack" test last night. I issued the command. It thought for 5-10 seconds, then provided me with another prompt (I assume that it did whatever it needed to do). I tried IE again, but no luck. I rebooted and tried, but no luck.
I received the "reinstall" CDs last night, and am itching to try something drastic after three weeks of tests and no luck. Let me know if you think that would be a VERY bad idea. Thanks.
Just try once more a renew of IP info from the cmd shell.
ipconfig /renew
If then you still can't access the internet - then we've tried every trick in the book and yes you will have to resort to a re-install.....hope the refresh of ipconfig works though.
Otherwise go ahead and grab those CD's and re-install
FYI...........I went back to the older idea of buying a cheap network card at Best Buy, and installing it in one of the slots. It works! So I think my problem is solved. I need to call Dell and tell them the news, so that they can take back my pc and fix a faulty network card.
I recently got my wife a Dimension 2400 with that Broadcom 440 built in NIC. I have a similar situation to yours and after installing that $14 DLink NIC I am replying to your post on her PC. I am very interested to the rest of your story. What has Dell done now? Have they made you jump thru any more hoops? Are you happy yet?
I bought a PC from the cow back when dvd's first came out. After over 40 hours of my time either on the phone or doing what different support people read off of their scripts, replacing motherboard, reinstalling software, receiving someone else's replacement PC, I wound up paying a $700 restocking fee to get my other 3K back, then went to a local chain and bought a 2k store bought special that still works for a living, just can't do new things. After that I swore I would never buy from an online dealer again or any one else where I was unable to place a broken one on their counter.
Well, that was then, and now after about 30 hours of frustration and two conversations with Dell, followed all Dell instructions where they determined PC and built in NIC was okay, instructions to call your ISP (not likely I have two other PCs on my network), I dropped the $14 and here I am back on the Internet. I am going to give the Dell the chance to make me happy, cause thats what a company is supposed to do when they take your money.
So, I am curious what has happened to fix your situation, if you don't mind sharing?
Anyone else? How does Dell respond at this time, any better than the cow? and please no bull!
I am still not happy. I've only made one call to Dell since successfully installing my store-bought network card, but that one call was long and frustrating. In a nutshell, the Dell technician remains unconvinced that the network card is the problem, in spite of the fact that I've spent hours doing tests from small to large (including reinstalling the OS & all software), my ISP cable modem works with both an old pc, and that it now works with my new PC/new network card. To make matters more frustrating, english is not the first language of the Dell technician with whom I spoke (frequently the case), and while the technician is probably 10 times smarter and more multilingual than I am, he has difficulty explaining to me WHY he believes that I am wrong in believing that my successful network card installation proves that we've found the problem. He is also unable to explain to me how it is that he believes that "the network card is fine".
The one phone call lasted hours, and involved many tests again (some similar to tests already done in the past). In addition to disabling my purchased network card (which made sense to me), the technician also requested that I uninstall it (?) and physically remove it from the box. I found the latter odd, and it took me a while to put humpty-dumpty back together again after our phone call so I could get my recently acquired internet connection back again through my network card. Then he suggested that I needed to reinstall XP & all of the software again, even though he clearly understood that I had done that days earlier. At that point, I began to worry about not being able to get back to my new "status quo", so I said goodbye.
I have a question for anyone reading this post, and believes as I do that my problem is the Dell network card. Do you have any recommendations on how I can get Dell to fix it? Do I demand to be elevated? Do I cooperate with endless tests at my own risk? Heck, do I just completely give up and keep my subpar network card (the connection can be intermittent at times), or go out and purchase a more expensive and adequate one? The idea of spending $100 to avoid what could be EXCRUCIATING frustration sounds acceptable to me. If someone thinks that it still is conceivable that the network card is not my problem, then I would be interested in that too.
I haven't given up though. I'll be calling again. Craig - Let me know how your problem progresses.
I replied earlier with a long message. Someone didn't like it cause it ain't here. I am calling Dell in the morning, to see if I can get satisfaction for the same problem you have. I'll let you know how it turns out.
I found out that when the wife bought this thing, it went thru an employee purchase program, the support system maybe a little different than for straight consumer, which by the way I don't agree with. I spent 1 hour this morning, an a technician is coming out tomorrow with a new motherboard.
Tips:
Ask the person you are talking to, to exchange information with you at the start of your call. When they ask for service code, before you give it get their name, badge number and physical location ( Grace-xxxxxx-Bangalore, India). Tell them you have followed all of their previous instructions, and you expect full resolution of the problem early in this phone call. Ask them to please document everything you say(they do anyway). Ask them to pull up your service history, because you don't want to repeat anything unnescesary. Tell them you have non functioning Dell equipment, that you can make work with non Dell equipment added in. Tell them this is not what you paid for. Be nice, and say you expect them to make it work now. Be nice, but don't take no for an answer. I think part of what they do is planned wearing down of you. Don't play into it. Expect what you paid for, demand it and don't settle for less.
Let me know how it turns out. I will let you know about the new motherboard.
My turn to be dissapointed again. Grace(you believe like I do this was her name) in India took two phone numbers from me and told me a technician would be calling to install a new motherboard. So I waited. I happened to check the Dell site and saw that a motherboard was shipped and it had an Airborne Express tracking #, then to my surprise I looked it up on Airborne's site, and Dell had shipped the Motherboard to my house and Airborne had tried to deliver it and of course nobody was home. I was able to get the board at Airborne's office at the end of the day. But what now? Am I the technician again? This is not what I was told.
marcparrish
22 Posts
0
January 2nd, 2004 19:00
marcparrish
22 Posts
0
January 5th, 2004 13:00
Sentinel Master,
Just a quick update. I'm still working on doing those two tests; it's just taking me some time. Even after zipped, one of them is too large for a 1.44 floppy. So I'm looking into burning them to a data CD and transferring them over that way. But this is a first for me (the CD part), so it's a bit slow.
If you have any other ideas in the meantime, I can do those while I'm working on these two at the same time.
Also, my "Dell reinstall everything" CDs arrive early this week. I'm gonna hold off on reinstalling everything with technical support on the line until you give me the go-ahead.
Thanks.
Marc
sentinel-master
345 Posts
0
January 5th, 2004 18:00
marc - Happy New Year
One quick thing to try is to reset the XP TCP/IP stack back to its default state (as when XP is first installed) - and clean out the registry of any TCP/IP changes. From a DOS shell issue this "netshell command", the filename at the end is necessary for command to work correctly. Essentially this useful command does the same as the removal and the reinstallation of the TCP/IP protocol stack......but in one easy step.
netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt
marcparrish
22 Posts
0
January 7th, 2004 13:00
Sentinel Master,
Thanks. I will do the "reset the XP stack" test tonight, and report back. I think my Dell "reinstall everything" CDs arrive today as well.
I was able to do one of the other two tests at long last........the Tracks Eraser; I'm still working on the other one. The summary results of running the Tracks Eraser were:
31 Registry Keys Erased; 80 Files Erased; 1.11 MB HD Space Released
I can post the detail too on the files above if necessary. At any rate, I was still unable to pull up a webpage after running the Trackers Eraser.
I'll let you know the results of the XP stack tomorrow.
Marc
marcparrish
22 Posts
0
January 8th, 2004 14:00
Sentinel Master,
I did the "reset the XP stack" test last night. I issued the command. It thought for 5-10 seconds, then provided me with another prompt (I assume that it did whatever it needed to do). I tried IE again, but no luck. I rebooted and tried, but no luck.
I received the "reinstall" CDs last night, and am itching to try something drastic after three weeks of tests and no luck. Let me know if you think that would be a VERY bad idea. Thanks.
Marc
sentinel-master
345 Posts
0
January 8th, 2004 20:00
Just try once more a renew of IP info from the cmd shell.
ipconfig /renew
If then you still can't access the internet - then we've tried every trick in the book and yes you will have to resort to a re-install.....hope the refresh of ipconfig works though.
Otherwise go ahead and grab those CD's and re-install
jmwills
2 Intern
•
12K Posts
0
January 8th, 2004 21:00
marcparrish
22 Posts
0
January 10th, 2004 22:00
Sentinel Master,
FYI...........I went back to the older idea of buying a cheap network card at Best Buy, and installing it in one of the slots. It works! So I think my problem is solved. I need to call Dell and tell them the news, so that they can take back my pc and fix a faulty network card.
Thanks again for all of your help.
Marc
volcano11
2 Intern
•
28K Posts
0
January 10th, 2004 23:00
Hmmm - I seem to recall suggesting this solution back on December 23 - Oh well.
Steve
marcparrish
22 Posts
0
January 10th, 2004 23:00
Yeah, I wish I had followed up on your idea when you suggested it. But better late than never. Thanks.
Marc
bayoucajun
6 Posts
0
January 13th, 2004 01:00
Hi Marc,
I recently got my wife a Dimension 2400 with that Broadcom 440 built in NIC. I have a similar situation to yours and after installing that $14 DLink NIC I am replying to your post on her PC. I am very interested to the rest of your story. What has Dell done now? Have they made you jump thru any more hoops? Are you happy yet?
I bought a PC from the cow back when dvd's first came out. After over 40 hours of my time either on the phone or doing what different support people read off of their scripts, replacing motherboard, reinstalling software, receiving someone else's replacement PC, I wound up paying a $700 restocking fee to get my other 3K back, then went to a local chain and bought a 2k store bought special that still works for a living, just can't do new things. After that I swore I would never buy from an online dealer again or any one else where I was unable to place a broken one on their counter.
Well, that was then, and now after about 30 hours of frustration and two conversations with Dell, followed all Dell instructions where they determined PC and built in NIC was okay, instructions to call your ISP (not likely I have two other PCs on my network), I dropped the $14 and here I am back on the Internet. I am going to give the Dell the chance to make me happy, cause thats what a company is supposed to do when they take your money.
So, I am curious what has happened to fix your situation, if you don't mind sharing?
Anyone else? How does Dell respond at this time, any better than the cow? and please no bull!
Thanks,
Craig
marcparrish
22 Posts
0
January 14th, 2004 16:00
Craig,
I am still not happy. I've only made one call to Dell since successfully installing my store-bought network card, but that one call was long and frustrating. In a nutshell, the Dell technician remains unconvinced that the network card is the problem, in spite of the fact that I've spent hours doing tests from small to large (including reinstalling the OS & all software), my ISP cable modem works with both an old pc, and that it now works with my new PC/new network card. To make matters more frustrating, english is not the first language of the Dell technician with whom I spoke (frequently the case), and while the technician is probably 10 times smarter and more multilingual than I am, he has difficulty explaining to me WHY he believes that I am wrong in believing that my successful network card installation proves that we've found the problem. He is also unable to explain to me how it is that he believes that "the network card is fine".
The one phone call lasted hours, and involved many tests again (some similar to tests already done in the past). In addition to disabling my purchased network card (which made sense to me), the technician also requested that I uninstall it (?) and physically remove it from the box. I found the latter odd, and it took me a while to put humpty-dumpty back together again after our phone call so I could get my recently acquired internet connection back again through my network card. Then he suggested that I needed to reinstall XP & all of the software again, even though he clearly understood that I had done that days earlier. At that point, I began to worry about not being able to get back to my new "status quo", so I said goodbye.
I have a question for anyone reading this post, and believes as I do that my problem is the Dell network card. Do you have any recommendations on how I can get Dell to fix it? Do I demand to be elevated? Do I cooperate with endless tests at my own risk? Heck, do I just completely give up and keep my subpar network card (the connection can be intermittent at times), or go out and purchase a more expensive and adequate one? The idea of spending $100 to avoid what could be EXCRUCIATING frustration sounds acceptable to me. If someone thinks that it still is conceivable that the network card is not my problem, then I would be interested in that too.
I haven't given up though. I'll be calling again. Craig - Let me know how your problem progresses.
bayoucajun
6 Posts
0
January 15th, 2004 02:00
Marc,
I replied earlier with a long message. Someone didn't like it cause it ain't here. I am calling Dell in the morning, to see if I can get satisfaction for the same problem you have. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Craig
bayoucajun
6 Posts
0
January 15th, 2004 13:00
Marc,
I found out that when the wife bought this thing, it went thru an employee purchase program, the support system maybe a little different than for straight consumer, which by the way I don't agree with. I spent 1 hour this morning, an a technician is coming out tomorrow with a new motherboard.
Tips:
Ask the person you are talking to, to exchange information with you at the start of your call. When they ask for service code, before you give it get their name, badge number and physical location ( Grace-xxxxxx-Bangalore, India). Tell them you have followed all of their previous instructions, and you expect full resolution of the problem early in this phone call. Ask them to please document everything you say(they do anyway). Ask them to pull up your service history, because you don't want to repeat anything unnescesary. Tell them you have non functioning Dell equipment, that you can make work with non Dell equipment added in. Tell them this is not what you paid for. Be nice, and say you expect them to make it work now. Be nice, but don't take no for an answer. I think part of what they do is planned wearing down of you. Don't play into it. Expect what you paid for, demand it and don't settle for less.
Let me know how it turns out. I will let you know about the new motherboard.
Craig
bayoucajun
6 Posts
0
January 18th, 2004 19:00
Hi Marc,
My turn to be dissapointed again. Grace(you believe like I do this was her name) in India took two phone numbers from me and told me a technician would be calling to install a new motherboard. So I waited. I happened to check the Dell site and saw that a motherboard was shipped and it had an Airborne Express tracking #, then to my surprise I looked it up on Airborne's site, and Dell had shipped the Motherboard to my house and Airborne had tried to deliver it and of course nobody was home. I was able to get the board at Airborne's office at the end of the day. But what now? Am I the technician again? This is not what I was told.
Details to follow when they happen.
What have you decided to do?
Craig