You may recall that a while back I reported that I had lost the "I" key on my Dell Inspiron 600 m keyboard and needed to press several times on the squishy rubber thigamabob (you geeks know what that means) that was located where my "I" used to be.
I've been waiting for my new ThinkPad, which I thought would have been here a week ago, but there were some UPS snags. It is now scheduled to arrive tomorrow afternoon.
But that's not why I write. Instead, I wish to share with you the continuing saga of a computer as it slowly disintegrates. Mind you, that until I wrote the reasons why I would never buy another Dell a couple months back, --my Inspiron 600m worked just fine.
Since then, I've come to believe in the existence of mean-spirited Dell demons working in concert against me. Here are a few of the lowlights of what has happened in the last four weeks with my Dell:
- The battery had worked fine. Just fine. Two days after my "I " fell off, it died. It went from holding a charge from 3.5-4 hours down to just 20-minutes.
- I have a USB Hub on my desktop, with four peripherals plugged in. When I plug the Hub into the Dell, I hear four ding-ding sounds for the peripherals as I should. But then the ding-dings continue randomly. Sometimes it sounds like a Salvation Army Santa Claus is ringing a bell inside my Dell.
- The bottom plate that covers my DRAM SIMMs fell off the computer. I thought it would just require a tiny screw driver to fix. But no, it turns out that the screw holes in the form had stripped out. The problem is in the form itself, not in the screws themselves.
- Today, I went to print a check in my Quicken and I could not get my menus to stay open so that I could click on "Print." I know this sounds like a software problem, but but somehow, I suspect Dell is behind this as well.
- If you squeeze on the Dell palm plate to the left of the Touchpad, there's an audible squeak. If you squeeze to the right there a slight click. Neither gives sound enhances my confidence.
- A close inspection of the surviving keys on my pad reveal that the paint on the left "Shift" key, as well as the "A" "S" & "D" have pretty much worn off. I should not complain. At least these keys remain connected to the keyboard.
- The rubber doo-hickey that keeps the power cord wrapped around the voltage brick, when traveling broke off, but now I'm just being overly picky.
In case you are wondering how I am writing this now, I went out a few days ago and bought myself and external Dynex USB keyboard at Best Buy for $29. It works quite well. I would have schlepped it to the Syndicate Conference where I was dying to live blog, but the keyboard sounds louder than my old Underwood 018 manual typewriter that I bought in a pawnshop when I was 14 and still keep in my garage. Also, it's impossible to use a full sized keyboard with a notebook on my lap, at least it has been since I lost some weight. There were tables at the conference, but I needed to stay near power sockets, because the **&%^$$ battery only had 20 minutes of life in it.
I've missed blogging at two conferences in two weeks. Ive been sending emails to people from these conferences using an "8" whenever I needed an "I," as someone had suggested this. then do a universal replace. That worked for a while, but then the rubber doo-hickey dried up and I could not squeeze anymore I's out for a universal replace. You can't just paste an I in on Word Search and Replace, or so I have learned. I was typing 8s to a bunch of people in a panel talk this afternoon, when one of the speakers mentioned how unprofessional typos appear. I thought: "Gr8!"
Summary: I really hope my ThinkPad comes in tomorrow. Goodbye Dell. I promise not to write anything more bad about you. You guys play really rough.
