Dell - probably the most incompent company on Earth

On November 20, 2009 I paid Dell $2439 + t/s/h for a M17X. Since then 4 technicians have visited my house and replaced the motherboard, the GPU, the keyboard and the touch capacitive media control panel. The motherboard has been replaced twice. In addition to the onsite repairs Dell sent me a replacement hard disk drive in August. I have reinstalled Windows 7 64bit nine times. Not sure how many apps (Adobe CS, MS Office, games, etc.) I reinstalled.

On September 6th I contacted Dell to request depot repair on my M17X since none of the tech visits resulted in a stable computer. In fact 2 visits resulted in broken components unrelated to the visit – the tech broke something incident to the issue he was there to fix. During my phone call I explained I was moving from Long Beach (I closed escrow on my house 2 days prior) and the moving truck was scheduled to arrive on September 10. I gave the rep my new address.

On September 8th a shipping box arrived from Dell.

On September 10th I packed the computer and shipped it with my household effects on the moving truck.

On September 14th at 330pm, 4 days after arriving in San Marcos, I shipped my M17X to Dell for repair. Inside the box supplied by Dell were the Dell support ticket form, which I completed by hand and indicating my new address, a typed summary of what was broken and again indicating my new address, and the computer with power brick.

On September 17th (according to FEDEX) Dell received my M17X.

On September 21st at 1204pm I received an email and an automated phone call from Dell stating they received my M17X and had started repairs.

On September 21st at 109pm (over an hour after the first email and phone call) I received an email and phone call from Dell stating they had repaired my M17X and were shipping it to my address. The email contained a FEDEX tracking number.

Keep in mind I already indicated three different ways (initial call to Dell, the Dell formatted trouble ticket form, my typed summary of problems) what my new address would be.

I checked the FEDEX tracking number and saw FEDEX in fact received the computer on September 20, a day prior to the emails and phone calls from Dell – no surprise. Shockingly I saw the package “was out for delivery” to Long Beach!

First call to Dell, one minute after noticing the computer was being delivered to the wrong address – after a four minute hold I get a rep, give him my service tag number, and he politely transfers me to Latin America. I do not speak Spanish and my girlfriend who does is at work. I hang up.

Second call – after a nine minute hold I get a rep, give him my service tag number, and he politely transfers me to Latin America.

Third call – after a four minute hold I get a rep, give him my service tag number, and he transfers me to Latin America. OVER!

Fourth call, almost forty minutes after seeing the FEDEX tracking info – after a two minute hold I get a rep and I immediately ask for a supervisor. I have to give my service tag first and after an eight minute hold I get a supervisor. I explain my grief getting transferred to Latin America and ask, “Why is my computer being delivered to Long Beach.” He checks something at his end and eleven minutes later determines the depot computer systems are not connected to the tech computer systems, so when I gave my new address to the tech that initiated the trouble ticket and the shipping box, my address change was not migrated down the line. HOLY INCOMPETENCE BATMAN. And this company sells networking systems to other companies?

Instead of contacting FEDEX, who unwittingly made three successive attempts to deliver the computer to the wrong address, Dell was content to let FEDEX return the computer a week later to Houston. Since that day I have called Dell every other day and almost every time was put through the ‘Latin America’ gauntlet.

My latest call was yesterday; when I finally got to an English rep he had no idea when I would see my computer again. “Someone should be in touch with you soon with a tracking number. Is there anything else I may assist you with?”

 

yeah the DELL reps have the wrong routing number for alienware tech support. that happened to me.

you have to call 1-800-ALIENWARE not the dell number. otherwise you will end up in Latin America/islands

it sucks about all your problems man. i'm sending my computer into get fixed also. my mobo is screwed also. i think the r1 mobo's suck pretty bad.


oh and i just remembered you have to treat your query as if it's a tech support question, not an order/whatever question otherwise they send you to dell, which sends you to Latin America.

 

PM Sent.

Good Luck.

 

this remind me of when i was trying to get my atual alienware from the original AW head quarter and they ketp sending me back to dell canada wich at the time could only sel the fresh out of enginering m17x-r1 that i absolutly wanned to stay away from

 

Thank you to Necrotopsy for the phone advice and thank you to danp224 for the PM. Unfortunately I have little faith in anything Dell promises to do from this point on - please read why...

No consolation, but FEDEX delivered my computer 40 minutes ago. Maybe that is why Dell had no tracking information - their shipping department is using a different network than their tech department. I expect an email and phone call from Dell about this time tomorrow stating my computer has been received, repaired, and shipped, with a tracking number.

Needless to say, Dell does not offer complimentary services like you expect when you drop off your truck at the dealership for an oil change; an attendant drives the truck to you right outside the waiting area and the truck exterior has been washed and the interior has been vacuumed. Now keeping in mind I could have sent the computer to Dell with all the issues identified in my pictures, but if so, why the heck would I even bother complaining?

Pic #1 - It appears for some ungodly reason Dell again replaced the touch capacitive media panel. The panel now does not fit flush and there is a piece of tape wrapped below the panel that I cannot completely remove, I am guessing, without first completely removing the panel. Holy smokes!

Pic #2 - Dell did fix this issue I identified in my depot ticket; the tech that arrived at my house to replace the motherboard (2nd time) did a poor job of replacing the touchpad wristpad (I am guessing the nomenclature) so the rubber screen protector thingy (again guessing the part names) was flush, not sticking up like the other side. Unfortunately Dell seriously marred the panel surrounding the rubber thingy. I tried removing it with some light water and soap to no avail

Pic #3 - This really pisses me off. I take very good care of my stuff regardless of how much I paid for it. Not only are there black fingerprints all over the back portion of the lid but I have two deep gouges in the middle and on the opposite side (did not feel like taking any more pictures). Why me? Keep in mind I have not used this computer very much in almost a year simply because it failed to work for a complete hour, ever. When not in use it was stored in the original Alienware shipping box.

Additionally, the battery problem does not appear to have been resolved - the battery indicator in the Windows taskbar is stuck @ 75% regardless if the power brick is plugged in or not. Mouse over reads, "75% available (plugged in, not charging). Are you kidding me? So I have no idea if the battery is charging or discharging, but hey, it is plugged in so okay.

This is easily the worst experience I have had with anything I have paid more than a thousand dollars for.

 

I new immediately knew what the ending was going to be, as soon as you said you were switching address. Teaching Dell your new address is equally challenging as teaching a dog nuclear physics. One thing I learned about Alienware, it comes with absolutely no support. The on-site techs are a joke, most of them never saw, not to mention open Alienware computer and they regularly break things is process. This a consequence of, in the case of m11x, the way its assembled (trying to get to a certain part is like walking through a minefield), and the other thing: a consequence of techs not being careful enough as it's really easy to break things on these laptops if you touch them on the wrong spot or pull in the wrong direction.

 

Best part(?) about having Dell is about having @ home service... and demanding a depot service wasn't the best idea imo.

Keep at it with @ home service next time, and if it doesn't get fixed, just request for a replacement pc.

I would try my best not to do a depot service even a tech asks me to send one in. Why should I be the one with my PC for days because they can't fix it?

 

Off topic, but OOHRAH and Semper Fidelis

 

Semper Fi Devil Dog!

 

Dude if Dell damaged your laptop in any way then kick off hell and DEMAND a replacement unit. I had a tech replace my mother board and he "forgot" to replace 9 screws after he put the machine together again - he told me they were his spare parts. The next engineer told me they were missing from the system. I kicked of sheer hell with them and got a brand new replacement worth approx £1500 ($2400) more than my original system.

 

If you got the Inhome service then no way I will send it to depot.
I also had 2 bad experiences with it. Both the times, my laptop had deadly scuffs and scratches and I really take care of my laptop and no way I will accept in that condition. So, I let Dell change whole housing and other visible components.
Call and ask for replacement in home parts.

 

I appreciate the support from everyone that has posted.

Things got a wee bit more irritating as I removed the back panel to reinstall my original #1 HDD; since I am pretty sure Dell removed the #0 HDD I left in the computer when it went to Depot, they apparently got lazy, or simply have little pride in workmanship - one screw is missing from the HDD cage. Pain in the butt now I have to find another little friggin screw. Additionally when I turned the computer slightly side ways just before putting the battery back in, a very tiny (about the size of a HDD screw) gold colored gear-like piece fell out! I never saw anything like this before so of course have no idea what it goes to. I just stashed it in a zip-lock bag until I either figure it out or just get tired of looking at it and toss it in the trash.

The inside of the HDD compartment has more of the same goofy fingerprints, not so concerned about that just busted up about the missing screw which certainly could have been avoided and now pieces are falling out?!?

I checked the BIOS and they did not even have the decency to upgrade the BIOS to AO5. At least I know they replaced the motherboard because I shipped the computer with AO5.

It's funny two of you guys mentioned a replacement - since my warranty expires the end of next month, during my Depot request phone call on September 6th I did ask the tech if Dell would consider replacing the computer due to my ongoing grief with it. He instead tried to be coy by suggesting I just renew my warranty for another year! So I figured I did not have a strong enough case to get a replacement.

Considering what I am going through right now, can anyone suggest who I contact that would be more reasonable than a regular representative to get my computer replaced?

 

Try contact Dell Unresolved Issues support:

https://support.dell.com/support/to...care/outstanding_issues?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=gen

 

I'm not enjoying a lot Dell's product quality / service either.
I always saw Alienware as a company that would create and test their computers to perform really well and make a difference that way. In that sense it is a shame that it got bought because all that effort seems to have disappeared.
It is sad to see all my calls redirected to a support line in India where these guys don't have a clue about anything.

My guess it that if Alienware re-opened as a new company the gaming community would prefer to buy from them.

 

Have you checked out this thread? LOOK! It will help you greatly, I promise. And PM me if you have any questions. You it seems to me, have a GREAT case for a replacement.

 

Got off the phone with Dell - no replacement computer but they are sending another tech to my house to replace the vandalized lid, the touch capacitive media bar, the keyboard, the panel where the mouse/touchpad is, and will replace the missing hard disk drive cage screw.

I am responsible for updating the BIOS. No biggie just have to march down to Staples and buy another CD.

For the cost of all the techs sent to my house, all the phone calls, and all the replacement parts (basically an entire computer worth), they could have just replaced the computer and been done with me. WOW Dell is a piece of work. I can only imagine what their health plan is like!

For comedy sake I uploaded the part that fell out of the battery compartment yesterday when I turned my computer upside down - I emailed the photo to the tech I just spoke to and he said it looked like a replacement part for the headphone jack and I can toss it. Okie dokie.

Now my headphone jack does not work

 

I'm still wondering why you said "probably the most incompetent company on Earth"

It really does come down to luck on the technicians, I had a guy come out the other day to replace both the GPU fans in my rig and he did a great job, but I was *very* nervous!

 

Don't waste your time with phone tech. Contact the unresolved issue team like anod said, and they will contact you in a couple of days. I would demand for a system replacement since the system is ruined by Dell.

You will probably end up with a refurb, but I'd go from there.

 

The title was born from a combination of things, first and foremost my 11 month grief with an unstable computer. Secondly the obscene number of techs visiting my house to repair one computer - another tech is scheduled for next week! Third Dell's goofy and dysfunctional address update system that allowed my computer to leave Dell/Houston TX one day, arrive in Long Beach CA two days later, ride around in a FEDEX truck for a week, travel back to Dell/Houston TX the following week, and a week later travel to the correct address.

Lastly, me opening the box yesterday, 3 weeks after sending it to Dell, to find my computer, for a lack of better terms, vandalized and missing parts. AND not even the courtesy of updating the BIOS!

Surely I could have been more diplomatic about the title of this thread but hey, I was pretty darn pissed off that Dell apparently cares very little about the hard earned $2500 I spent on their product.

 

I received several PMs today - thank you very much for your advice! I have a several emails and phone calls to make tomorrow

In an effort to document my ongoing grief, I hope no one minds if I keep this thread updated.

Just finished the A05 update; still dumbfounded why Dell did not do it after they replaced the motherboard. Regardless, I let the computer restart and the first thing I saw was the pop-up in the attached image. And the taskbar battery icon still shows with "99% remaining" even though the computer is plugged in.

Great!

The computer is completely lethargic. I updated all drivers today.
- My aunt's M440 which I believe is several years old loads the same Web pages almost 75% faster. We are connected to the same FIOS router.
- CIV 5 which runs extremely smooth on my desktop crashed 3 times on this computer. I set graphics to the lowest I could.
- YouTube videos, besides long load times are choppy and audio is out of sync.
- Tried two mouse; both skip and drag like they are in molasses. Double clicking a word in Notepad takes almost a half second to highlight. One mouse is a generic Microsoft optical and the other is a Cooler Master Storm. Both USB with the latest drivers.
- The touch capacitive media buttons must be pressed and held down for at least 3 seconds before the OSD appears and the button action actually takes place. Several times I had to tap really hard on the WIFI button to turn off the radio.
- It took over 6 minutes to burn the 5mb BIOS ISO! Is that right? Not 5gb but 5mb!
- No comment on the touch pad performance.
- Video performance is terrible. I tried the 197.52 version found on this Web site. Used Driver Cleaner to completely remove it. Tried the official NVIDIA Web site version. No better. In fact it took me 3 reboots to get it to stick.

4gb RAM, 2 HDD not in RAID, 260M GTX with 1gb, and a Q9000 2.0GHz. Can someone tell me - maybe this really is a slow computer and I am just expecting too much.

 

Someone will take care of you have you PM'd Erawneilia i think is how it is spelled Brian. Because you are being treated really unfairly, I was in your shoes with my SXPS 1640 and that was an 8 month battle, and it was only due to a Dell rep here that the issue got resolved.

 

Regarding your last post, OP, it could be Stealth Mode. Make sure your computer is not in Stealth Mode and start from there.

Good luck!

 

That is for one of the screws on either the touch panel(might be why it is jacked up on one end) or the palmrest. You MUST get it fixed.

 

It's ALIENWARE-but backwards! Erawneila.

As for the battery issue-if you remove it while plugged in and reinstall in, it should show correctly. Yes, dumb I know.Actually had a phone tech tell me that too!

 

I think you are probably being too nice on the phone. Even though you are 11 months down the line with your laptop its still under warranty. They have sold you a faulty system, tried to repair it numerous times, damaged it in the process and then nearly lost it because of delivery mix-ups. My advice would be to read up a bit on American consumer rights laws and quote a few phrases back to them. Technically you could also report them for criminal damage (bit extreme - but they did damage your $2100 laptop). This is not premium service for a premium product and you should make it absolutely clear you will not stand for it. Be tough, be firm, give them the options to salvage your customer satisfaction and be prepared to take it to the next step if necessary. You should get a contact email for dell corporate (they have the "power") and not stop complaining until you get a replacement system.

 

Hopefully once this is done if anything else comes up they will take care of you.

 

Again thanks for the suggestions and encouragement. Unfortunately Dell strikes again.

Repair guy showed up with a black lid to replace my damaged silver metallic. Holy Smokes! Gets worse. After he is done, I swung the computer around and around and sure enough the new lid was misaligned. He claimed it is due to Dell sending the wrong part, not designed to fit on this computer. I could care less because again Dell failed to slow down, check my service tag to determine the correct part replacement, and shipped an otherwise innocent repair guy the wrong lid.

Additionally the repair guy said no-go on the replacement hard disk drive cage screw. He does not carry that size.

Called Dell a few minutes after the guy left. They can only replace the computer with a refurbished unit. The rep also suggested I purchase another 1 year warranty.

 

Ask for a Supervisor.

 

X2 on "you are too nice on the phone". Agreed we supposedly playing nice, but still, there are times you need to put in some attitude.

And did you try the Unsolved problem link? It's magic. Don't pass it.

 

you are being to nice with the guy if they send a wron part it would have been for the m15x and thus would never have fited on if a guy ever made this to my laptop he would not have been able to leave the house until the laptop is fully repaird or dell said they would send an other guy

i'm just so happy i never got to send bvack my laptop to them for repair

 

Boxboy, Please send your service tag number.

 

I can confirm LittleFisher is with Dell. LittleFisher, please do not post asking members to post their service tags. This is sensitive data of course and most users will not want to do this openly. Please see this thread which has info on how you can send Private messages on the notebookreview forums:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sit...-send-private-messages-create-signatures.html

Welcome to the forum and we look forward to having you around!

 

Ho God this reminds me of my 2-3 months long battle with dell to get my refund. they took my laptop(M15x) when i called in after a week of them receiving it they tell me that the case is CLOSED!!! can u believe it?? ie my refund is not being processed and if i hadnt called, it would have been an endless wait and no one would have cared(other than me ofcourse).. the best part is that they opened it again and the following week it was closed again and this went on for 3 more times (~2.5months)... they really have poor communication between alienware and dell.. and once an alienware rep (can't tell his name here) openly told me that, they are fed up of dell customer care reps who transfer your call around themselves with 20-30+ mins wait in between... they are responsible to give the refund here in uk not the alienware (as they are only tech dept).. I really dont know why these dell reps have so much attitude.. they shout for no reason...

I really think you are being WAY WAY WAY nice to them...i mean you have to be nice ofcourse but that is untill you understand they dont care... always demand to talk to the manager/supervisor...if they are busy ask them to get the manager to give you a call back (they do that)...and try dealing only with him through out...and if they fail to repair a single issue more than 3 times they are liable to give you a full refund (from alienware manager and it worked for me)...

As of now I am very happy with my M17x... i really cant find any fault with this machine(**knock on wood**).. Hope I never have to use my 2 years warranty ;-)..

 

Something more important...

Could someone interpret the attached text file? I copy/pasted from the Dell Web site and this apparently is the computer they are replacing my B/O machine with but I have no idea what most of the line items are.

I don't need every line interpreted just the common stuff like RAM, motherboard, video card and so on.

Thanks.

 

I attached my current system based on the order email from November of 2009.

Can someone tell me if I am getting the same computer, better computer, or worse computer?

 

I can see your getting a better CPU in terms of core clock however its not quad core as compared with the Q9000 you had. The Q9000 really isn't a true quad core anyway but thats besides the point.

Ummm lets see what else have we got here.

6gbs of ram over your previous 4gbs.

Hmmss something about SSD hdds in there. Nice upgrade there if so. oles

Overall looks better chiefs.

Cheers.

 

Looks like the replacement is:

Lunar Silver M17xR1
Dell/AW 1510 Wireless Card
280M GTX SLI
Dell Bluetooth 370 Module
T9800 CPU
256GB SSD
6GB RAM

Possibly a TVTuner - not sure. Could just be the software which is installed on all R1's (my system shipped with it).

 

FEDEX dropped off my refurbished system.

First impressions:

1. Case lid is scratched -- not much better condition than my original computer when Dell returned it from repair
2. Palm rest has an identical issue I sent my original computer to Dell for - the rubber protector for the screen when you close the computer is below flush with the palm rest on the left side.
3. The computer started with Windows Home Premium even though the sticker on the bottom reads Windows 7 ULT OA and the included CD reads "Alienware Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit." What happened here? So I guess I am reinstalling the O/S.
4. Keyboard is warped!!! Looking at it straight on it looks like the wave at a football game OMG.

On the phone with tech support right now. Jeesh here I go again.

 

THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to this thread. I received a new system yesterday and returned the really bad refurbished system!

Someone is supposed to call me on Monday to discuss fees for an extended warranty since my current one expires on the 13th.

I noticed on the new system a program called AlienRespawn Basic Edition. I clicked the link to upgrade simply because I could not find any detailed info about it. $39 does not seem like much, but why should I upgrade? Is AlienRespawn like EAZ-Fix or Rollback Rx?

 

You can if you want chiefs. Its the recovery partition they will install make on your harddrives. The manufactory settings/state your notebook will come shipped to you as. So if you ever want to go back to a fresh factory setting in the future you can use that. It would seem with all the updates recently Dell has decided to update it with the latest updates and also decided to charge us for it. Its up to you. I would just format and install the OS fresh myself and then just update the drivers and software off their dell drivers and support webpage.

Cheers.

 

Congrats on new system, but must admit I am quite curious as to which specs you ended up with

 

my Red one came back from Depot all scratched up as well, as if it were dropped or something. However OP I understand where you're comming from. I've had 12 service calls in the past 5 months, 4 in-home's a depot and now I'm sitting on my new system exchange. not mentioning that I acutally recieved another brand new system exchange by accident as well for whatever reason. The result of all this? It's fixed.. but now I have a 50% change of sucessfully ejecting the CD from my drive or the whole system freezing. The only saving grace is that I'm absolutely postivie I'll have a brand new upgraded computer at some point in the 3 years of CC in warranty I have on the thing, otherwise I would have already returned it by now.

 

Well I experienced the "we sold your system to someone else" result after waiting for my Outlet purchase to come out of "production" after 4 days. I wonder how long they would have went before they told me if I hadn't called them up? He said he checked for a similar system, then canceled my order.

Funny thing is I grabbed an m11x a month ago from the outlet and it shipped same day and got it in 2 business days. That one went perfect.

 

Are you serious? They canceled your order because they sold it to someone else? That's BS.

 

Yup. He said it was first in first out, that they sold my system to more than one person, and that my order would not be fullfilled. I said "ever?" He said yes and asked if I wanted him to check if there was another one available. He checked but found nothing.

I would rather they just say, "we did a final check on your system and it failed so we're trying to locate a replacement for you."

I said the hell with it and ordered a new one. It came out to about $400 more plus I have to wait a week or two, but at least it will be new.

 

Wow.. Never seen that one before.

What did you end up ordering? Did they give you a good deal to make up for their error?

 

No they didn't really try too hard to make it up to me. They transferred me to sales and I worked with a nice gal in Texas. She was very helpful and easy to understand. We worked up a decent system with a $400 discount, and after going to her supervisor offered me $50 more off. That sounded good, but when I went and configured one on my own it was actually cheaper so I didn't even use thier complimentory discount.

I think the problem was they were using some special laptop config to get the discount, which included CPU, memory, and HD upgrades that costed more money and I will have my upgrades in hand already. I called back to ask for the same deal without those "upgrades" but it was part of the deal to get the $400, so I couldn't downgrade.

Here is what I ended up with. I am so tempted to grab 8gb of memory from Newegg but I mainly play games and I don't know of any that would benefit from 8gb.

Black color (didn't really want the red color that was canceled anyway)
i5 520 (940xm on order)
4gb
250gb HD 7200 rpm (2x750gb HD on order)
dual 5870's
blue ray (didn't really need but got it anyway)
led display (didn't really need but got it anyway)

 

Strange. Your "old" system just appeared on the outlet for $1949 before coupon. Exact same specs.

 

Lol, good luck to the next victim!

Another thought was when someone used a 20 or 25% off coupon and thier pricing was already agggressive maybe they cancel the order to avoid selling away a system for less than they want?

My system was 1909 before 20% off from the order confimration, so either they raised the price or it is a different system.

 

1 224-8108 Lunar Silver - Anodized Aluminum
1 310-0173 Airborne Documentation, System Exchanges,Factory Install
1 313-8792 AlienFX Color, Quasar Blue
1 313-8944 5.1 Channel Audio
1 313-8977 8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive,QuickSilver
1 317-3664 6GB Memory (1x 2GB, 1x 4GB DDR3)
1 317-5661 Intel Core i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache)
1 320-8856 17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
1 320-9009 SLI 1GB GDDR3 Nvidia GeForce GTX 285M
1 330-6175 Standard Nameplate
1 330-7841 Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
1 342-0666 250GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD
1 420-6436 PC-Restore, Dim/Insp
1 420-9691 DataSafe Local BackUp
1 421-1305 Nero 9 Media Burning Software
1 421-1360 Steam and Portal Factory Installed
1 421-1398 Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English
1 421-1721 Soft Contracts,Banktec Care,Alienware
1 421-2261 Alienware Command Center, M17x
1 430-0628 Bluetooth 2.1 with EDR
1 430-3688 Dell Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini Card

Been using it since it arrived on Friday, I think - kinda lost track of time because I seem to finally have a working notebook Not one crash of any kind, which ironically kinda irritates me because it appears all my past grief could have been diminished considerably if Dell had stepped up from the beginning. Would really like to figure out one day how much Dell spent on all those phone calls, replacement parts, tech visits to my house, the depot repair, and shipping the crappy refurbished system - had to be way more than the new system they finally shipped me.

I did purchase another year of warranty, just in case.

CIV 5 is still a bit sluggish even with the dual GPU. I think the game settings have been reduced enough though to provide a good balance between visual and less lag.

Again, thanks to everyone here that contributed as I truly believe I would still be pissing on my original broken system if not for some stellar intervention.