(If you are getting here from a search engine, the whole story is
at
http://www.omnux.com/kvandivo/laptop/ )
From kvandivo@caracas.ks.uiuc.edu Thu Dec 9 09:57:23 1999
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 1999 09:57:23 -0600
From: Kirby Vandivort
To: ert2@gateway.com
Subject: To: Mike Osterholt : Question concerning replacement equipment
Message-ID: <19991209095723.A29459@caracas.ks.uiuc.edu>
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This is to:
Mike Osterholt
Mr Osterholt:
As you probably remember, I had a Pentium 2 laptop that had LCD screen
problems and ended up conversing with you on this issue. You sent out
a replacement computer, which ended up being a regular Pentium, and then
said that you would send out a Pentium 2.
As you know, I have been keeping a web page describing the events
related to this issue at: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~kvandivo/laptop
I wanted to send you a brief transcript of what I added to that page
this morning, and get your comments on it. Here it is:
(I encourage you to look at the web page if you want a slightly more
organized "read")
---
On December 9 I had a chance to work with the Pentium machine that
they sent me. I put the battery, hard drive (they didn't send me a
screw for the hard drive, so it is sitting in the computer without
being firmly secured), and floppy drive into the Pentium and booted it
up. It booted up, found a number of new devices (related to Pentiums
and the PCI Card Bus) and asked to reboot. I rebooted it, and it found
the exact same devices again (at least the Card Bus; I don't actually
remember it "finding" the Pentium again). It asked to reboot. So, I
rebooted again.
Then I decided to update some items from the web that I hadn't been
able to do, so I went to Internet Explorer and started doing that. I
remembered that I had almost left a CD in my Pentium2 before boxing it
up, so I checked the CD on the Pentium. It had a Gateway QA Test CD
Version 2.0 dated 12-29-98 in it. I went ahead and closed the CD cover
again, and looked into 'My Computer' to see what was on the CD. "Wow..
619 megs of stuff.. Wonder what it is..." And, about that point, the
computer locked up. Ctrl-Alt-Del did nothing. So, I had to power
cycle it.
I turned my head for a bit, and when I looked back, it was in
Windows, asking to reboot. So, I went ahead and told it to reboot.
While it was getting started again, I took the CD out of the drive. It
booted up OK, except that the CD icon on the LCD panel was staying on
(it normally only comes on when actually accessing the CD) I thought
maybe it was confused. So, I opened the CD drive (remember there was
no CD in the drive at the time) and closed it again. At which point I
heard about a second of "static" come out of the speakers. It sounded
exactly like a radio that isn't tuned to a station. This was fully
repeatable. Every time that I opened and closed the CD drive with no
CD in, I got static.
So, I put the CD back in the drive... And Windows didn't even
recognize that the drive existed (when I went to 'My Computer'. So, I
tried to reboot it. It completely acted the same. So, I put the CD
back in and rebooted. It hung right after the bios check and before
accessing the hard drive. The CD icon was on. I rebooted, it came
up (no CD icon), and no CD drive listed under 'My Computer'.
---
In addition, here is something that I had put on the page earlier:
---
When I got my new laptop (back a year ago) from them it had a clear
plastic sheet over the screen (to protect the screen). When I got this
one the clear plastic sheet was laying on the outside of the laptop and
the LCD screen actually had some fingerprints on it. This concerned me.
:
:
So, I called Mike Osterholt and left a message on his voice mail to get
back to me. What is even more interesting is that it has a 'Intel
Inside - Pentium 2' sticker on the laptop (even though it doesn't have
a P2 inside). I really get the feeling that they have taken a used
chassis (because of the plastic sheet, the fingerprints, and the
sticker) that someone else returned (for who-knows what reason) and
just sent it to me.
---
So, I am curious: Exactly where do these chassis' come from that get
sent to people like myself, and, since they are apparently not new, how
thoroughly are they tested?
What kind of warrantee comes with these "new" chassis' in a case like
mine? (in light of the issues with the above Pentium this concerns me)
and,
Is there any way that I can find out the status of the "new" chassis
that is being shipped to me? (since I can't use the CD on this one)
Thank you for your time,
--
Kirby Vandivort Theoretical Biophysics Group
Email: kvandivo@ks.uiuc.edu 3051 Beckman Institute
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~kvandivo/ University of Illinois
Phone: (217) 244-5711 405 N. Mathews Ave
Fax : (217) 244-6078 Urbana, IL 61801, USA