8400 - Choppy Sound - Don't Call Dell

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

That sounds good...

I had a diagnostic fail this morning on the mouse test. We use the
machine for doing Livechat during the day so we'll look further...

Thanks for the suggestion.

John


On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 12:11:44 GMT, "WSZsr" <nospam@hotmail.com> wrote:

>Burn an image of your current boot drive to your second hard drive. Then
>boot to the XP CD, delete the boot partition, format and reinstall the OS,
>the chipset drivers, and all other drivers. No apps. Then see if the
>problem is present. If it still is, it is probably and hardware issue. You
>can also restore the boot partition in just a few minutes using the image
>you created.
>
>
>"nospam mindspring.com" <jrcat7@> wrote in message
>news:4bfag1l21dcc5mknvep8kec1mejndd9n56@4ax.com...
>> The poijnt of mentioning the CIO business was to indicate that I had
>> been around technology for many years...as I pointed out "that didn't
>> make me a technology expert"...
>>
>> I had considered hardware but I've got a room full of
>> hardware...that's why I was asaking for help...looking for a place to
>> start.
>>
>> Before I start indicriminantly swapping parts out I was looking for
>> some advice on where to start. I realize there are people cruising
>> through this group looking to bash anyone with a disenting view but
>> I'll take the chance. As it is...I can still get help even if I must
>> sift through the innane remarks.
>>
>>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

And to think I used to do this for a living and actually thought I and
my peers, wares supposed to give intelligent, insightful answers to user
questions. No wonder all the tech support jobs went overseas.

KC

"nospam mindspring.com" <jrcat7@> wrote in message
news:ggv9g1pomqgv8v4jua8hbh3lrt5o4vd973@4ax.com...
> If I hadn't been so irritated I would've found a lot of humor in some
> of the dialog:
>
> Tech: "looking at the motherboard do you see a jumper on the right
> side?"
>
> John: "right side from the front or the back?"
>
> Tech: "uh...one moment...(shuffling papers) do you see a lot of wires
> plugged in to the motherboard on one side?"
>
> John: "No...I see a lot of wires plugged into two sides. Are you
> talking power connectors or interface wires?"
>
> Tech: "one moment (shuffling papers)... uh..."
>
>
> or...
>
> Tech: "tap rapidly on the F-12 key while booting. Now what does your
> monitor say?"
>
> John: "it shows the Windows XP startup screen"
>
> Tech: "You didn't start tapping soon enough. Reboot and tap F-12"
>
> Tech: "Now what does your monitor say?"
>
> John: "It says keyboard error"
>
> Tech: "you're tapping too fast"
>
> John: If you'lljust tell me you want me to boot to a setup screen or
> to a boot menu I can do that..."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 17:26:02 -0400, "joe_tide" <joetide@nowhere.com>
> wrote:
>
> ><major snippage>
> >
> >" But it bothers me much less now than it did before."
> >>
> >> John
> >
> >LOL Not to make light of your problem, but that made me chuckle.
> >

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

No, they went overseas because it was cheaper that way.

--
Ted Zieglar
"You can do it if you try."

"Kevin Childers" <wildthing123@charter.net> wrote in message
news:QjpNe.2290$ih4.1292@fe02.lga...
> And to think I used to do this for a living and actually thought I and
> my peers, wares supposed to give intelligent, insightful answers to user
> questions. No wonder all the tech support jobs went overseas.
>
> KC
>
> "nospam mindspring.com" <jrcat7@> wrote in message
> news:ggv9g1pomqgv8v4jua8hbh3lrt5o4vd973@4ax.com...
> > If I hadn't been so irritated I would've found a lot of humor in some
> > of the dialog:
> >
> > Tech: "looking at the motherboard do you see a jumper on the right
> > side?"
> >
> > John: "right side from the front or the back?"
> >
> > Tech: "uh...one moment...(shuffling papers) do you see a lot of wires
> > plugged in to the motherboard on one side?"
> >
> > John: "No...I see a lot of wires plugged into two sides. Are you
> > talking power connectors or interface wires?"
> >
> > Tech: "one moment (shuffling papers)... uh..."
> >
> >
> > or...
> >
> > Tech: "tap rapidly on the F-12 key while booting. Now what does your
> > monitor say?"
> >
> > John: "it shows the Windows XP startup screen"
> >
> > Tech: "You didn't start tapping soon enough. Reboot and tap F-12"
> >
> > Tech: "Now what does your monitor say?"
> >
> > John: "It says keyboard error"
> >
> > Tech: "you're tapping too fast"
> >
> > John: If you'lljust tell me you want me to boot to a setup screen or
> > to a boot menu I can do that..."
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 17:26:02 -0400, "joe_tide" <joetide@nowhere.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > ><major snippage>
> > >
> > >" But it bothers me much less now than it did before."
> > >>
> > >> John
> > >
> > >LOL Not to make light of your problem, but that made me chuckle.
> > >
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Ted Zieglar" <teddyz@notmail.com> wrote in message
news:e_pNe.10233$0s4.6543430@news.sisna.com...
> No, they went overseas because it was cheaper that way.
>
> --
> Ted Zieglar
> "You can do it if you try."
>
If we weren't required to actually think, we could have done cheap. Who
Knew?

KC

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Oh, so in your opinion, Americans are inherently smarter than Indians?

Your remarks serve to further illustrate my point: Most posters who complain
about Indian tech support are only looking for a soapbox to vent their
racist views.

--
Ted Zieglar
"You can do it if you try."

"Kevin Childers" <wildthing123@charter.net> wrote in message
news:42qNe.2301$ih4.751@fe02.lga...
> "Ted Zieglar" <teddyz@notmail.com> wrote in message
> news:e_pNe.10233$0s4.6543430@news.sisna.com...
> > No, they went overseas because it was cheaper that way.
> >
> > --
> > Ted Zieglar
> > "You can do it if you try."
> >
> If we weren't required to actually think, we could have done cheap.
Who
> Knew?
>
> KC
>
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi Kevin,

Yes...I remember insightful intelligent answers....been a while since
I've gotten them except from AT&T.

I had occasion recently to work with AT&T DNS Services on some server
issues and found very knowledgable technicians who really knew their
stuf...and were customer-focused.

(...and yes, Ted, they didn't sound like they were overseas).






On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 13:11:36 -0500, "Kevin Childers"
<wildthing123@charter.net> wrote:

> And to think I used to do this for a living and actually thought I and
>my peers, wares supposed to give intelligent, insightful answers to user
>questions. No wonder all the tech support jobs went overseas.
>
>KC
>
>"nospam mindspring.com" <jrcat7@> wrote in message
>news:ggv9g1pomqgv8v4jua8hbh3lrt5o4vd973@4ax.com...
>> If I hadn't been so irritated I would've found a lot of humor in some
>> of the dialog:
>>
>> Tech: "looking at the motherboard do you see a jumper on the right
>> side?"
>>
>> John: "right side from the front or the back?"
>>
>> Tech: "uh...one moment...(shuffling papers) do you see a lot of wires
>> plugged in to the motherboard on one side?"
>>
>> John: "No...I see a lot of wires plugged into two sides. Are you
>> talking power connectors or interface wires?"
>>
>> Tech: "one moment (shuffling papers)... uh..."
>>
>>
>> or...
>>
>> Tech: "tap rapidly on the F-12 key while booting. Now what does your
>> monitor say?"
>>
>> John: "it shows the Windows XP startup screen"
>>
>> Tech: "You didn't start tapping soon enough. Reboot and tap F-12"
>>
>> Tech: "Now what does your monitor say?"
>>
>> John: "It says keyboard error"
>>
>> Tech: "you're tapping too fast"
>>
>> John: If you'lljust tell me you want me to boot to a setup screen or
>> to a boot menu I can do that..."
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 17:26:02 -0400, "joe_tide" <joetide@nowhere.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> ><major snippage>
>> >
>> >" But it bothers me much less now than it did before."
>> >>
>> >> John
>> >
>> >LOL Not to make light of your problem, but that made me chuckle.
>> >
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Hi Stew,

The Raptor is the boot drive and also contains a lot of data. The
drive has about 34 gig of data so it's about half full.

The Maxtor 250 that partitioned and now is an F & G drive. The F drive
contains the original Dell install and exhibits the same symptoms as
the boot on the Raptor.

Yes, I'm using a Soundblaster Live-24 and have the integrated audio
disabled.

Thanks,
John


On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 20:57:13 -0500, "S.Lewis" <stew1960@mail.com>
wrote:

>
>"nospam mindspring.com" <jrcat7@> wrote in message
>news:kn6ag1p22fklnil2erlopb12m1ni93jhkl@4ax.com...
>> Hi Stew,
>>
>> I changed the hard drives immediately upon receicing the machine.
>> Installed a WD Raptor as drive 0 and moved the Maxtor 250 to the drive
>> 2 position.
>>
>> The problem began to occur about 4 months later. No new hardware or
>> software added around that time.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> John
>>
>
>
>Fair enough. Are you using the integrated sound or a soundblaster PCI card?
>
>Also, what's on each drive and do you have one you can "spare" for a test
>clean install?
>
>
>Stew
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

No slight to Indians in general, my peers over there have equal skills,
but they aren't the guys who answer level one tech calls unfortunately. Not
that the guys who answer the phone are dumb, just under trained for the
jobs. They are further restricted by company policy's that require them to
stick strictly to their scripts and not to deviate. Not that is, unless
they want to get fired. It's part of the environment that further hinders
their development of better skills. Not that they are getting paid all that
well for working 6x10.

BTW for those who have a problem with the language, blame it on the
British. Back in the days of the empire, the British Rodge ( I probably
have misspelled that) obviously failed to provide an adequate basis for the
masses to gain a useful education. But then if they had cockneys answering
the phone I doubt if most of us could understand them any better.

KC


"Ted Zieglar" <teddyz@notmail.com> wrote in message
news:kjqNe.10712$rq4.6503552@news.sisna.com...
> Oh, so in your opinion, Americans are inherently smarter than Indians?
>
> Your remarks serve to further illustrate my point: Most posters who
complain
> about Indian tech support are only looking for a soapbox to vent their
> racist views.
>
> --
> Ted Zieglar
> "You can do it if you try."
>
> "Kevin Childers" <wildthing123@charter.net> wrote in message
> news:42qNe.2301$ih4.751@fe02.lga...
> > "Ted Zieglar" <teddyz@notmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:e_pNe.10233$0s4.6543430@news.sisna.com...
> > > No, they went overseas because it was cheaper that way.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Ted Zieglar
> > > "You can do it if you try."
> > >
> > If we weren't required to actually think, we could have done cheap.
> Who
> > Knew?
> >
> > KC
> >
> >
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"nospam mindspring.com" <jrcat7@> wrote in message
news:d4dcg1108oel6h1bo5e4av7kf3qu8llodm@4ax.com...
> Hi Stew,
>
> The Raptor is the boot drive and also contains a lot of data. The
> drive has about 34 gig of data so it's about half full.
>
> The Maxtor 250 that partitioned and now is an F & G drive. The F drive
> contains the original Dell install and exhibits the same symptoms as
> the boot on the Raptor.
>
> Yes, I'm using a Soundblaster Live-24 and have the integrated audio
> disabled.
>
> Thanks,
> John
>
>

John,

What happens if you removed the SBLive24 while unplugged (connect the black
front audio to the mb connector), then power up and boot into BIOS and
enable the integrated sound.......and ultimately into Windows?


Stew

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I AM HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM! I have a dell dimension 2400 ... the
sound is always choppy. Hardware tech support just gave me quick
fixes (reinstalled windows, checked speakers, replaced mother board,
downloaded piotodma) --- ALL TEMP FIXES... now they want me to pay
300 bucks to fix this problem... it's rediculous! What do i do?
Someone help me!

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I think it is fixed..

It's been running a week now with no sound or mouse problems.

The last change I made was:

I toggled the bios setting for mouse from PS-2 to COM and back to
PS-2.

John

Thanks to all for the ideas and help.








On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 16:27:41 -0400, jrcat7@(nospam)mindspring.com
wrote:

>Last week I wrote a note here because my 8 month old 8400 was
>experiencing intermittant choppy sound and erratic mouse problems.
>
>So, after several weeks of this and being sure the machine is
>spyware/virus & worm free and not seeing any obvious conflicts or old
>drivers we finally broke down and called India.
>
>Brief Background: I've purchased 7 Dells from a 266, 500, Inspiron,
>1500 and have been a Dell supporter since the very early days. Years
>ago I called Dell on a Sunday night with a bad motherboard and had a
>tech onsite replacing it on Tuesday morning.
>
>I'm sure many of you know a lot more than I do but I'm a retired CIO
>of 25 years (not that this qualifies me as a technical person) but I
>can take care of things.
>
>Well, that all changed Tuesday when we called about a choppy sound and
>erratic mouse complaint. In the space of 2 hours (after a 45 minute on
>hold wait) India took the machine from having an irritating but minor
>problem to one where the machine had a BSOD part way through the boot
>sequence.
>
>And the tech & his manager were telling me it was MY fault it
>happened. 2 hours into the call they discovered the machine had 2 hard
>drives and that the Dell installed hard drive was now the second drive
>on the machine. Once they discovered this they said that I would be
>transferred to the India Help Line, for which I would have to pay. I
>said "because yout have caused a BSOD on a machine that started with a
>minor problem I now have to pay to fix a problem that YOU caused?"
>
>While arguing with them I was able to stop the auto reboot and get the
>BSOD message that the Boot.ini file had been damaged. I fixed that,
>adios'ed the Indians and came away with the very clear impression that
>Dell support has taken a BAD turn. I used to be able to talk to techs
>who really knew their stuff. Now I get people who read from
>troubleshooting guides and ask for answers.
>
>The manager said "If we'd know you had 2 hard drives we would not have
>diagnosed your machine because our techs aren't trained on that". I
>said "if it's so important why don't you ask when you first take the
>call?" He said "Dell sells 10,000 machnies a day and we have to have
>efficient support". I said "Thanks". Have someone from Dell who cares
>call me tomorrow (yesterday). Haven't received any calls but I'm now
>back where I started with a minor choppy sound and erratic mouse
>problem. But it bothers me much less now than it did before.
>
>John