Freeze on Boot and other issues

Not sure Yoda, I haven't shut it down yet as it's been downloading Windows Updates.......as of 0430 this morning (It's now 5:05am here) it was still installing them. I'm thinking it will be around lunch time or later before I can shut it down for several hours to find out.

One of the reps here on the board is going to research my case, I gave him all of the numbers, but I spoke to Costa Rica last night and was informed that even if it was a hard drive issue, they can't send one to an APO so that I can try and fix it, so at this point I'm stuck until I get home no matter what.

I spoke with several people in India and finally got them to ship a replacement computer to my home address in the States so it should be there when I get home. If it works flawlessly I'll keep it and return this one, if it has issues I will return them both and get a refund.

 

Okay, the replacing of the HDD seems to have resolved the issue. The computer has been shut down for extended durations several times and has booted without issue each time it's been turned back on. It would appear as though if I could get Dell to ship me a replacement HDD it would save the need to do an exchange, so if any of you Dell reps are reading this, you already have my information, maybe you can make that happen.

The computer is currently operating with a 5400rpm 500GB Seagate, original configuration was a 750GB Seagate.

 

That's great news, SlimShady. I had a strong hunch it was the culprit based on the behavior identified in your original description of the issues.

Rather than rely on a Dell rep finding your post, it might be more efficient to PM one of them and chances are they can send you a replacement HDD. (There could be some shipping restrictions to Afghanistan that I don't know about.) Even if they cannot, it's great that you can function without problems until you get home. I'm very happy for you, bro.

When you get the new drive, grab Seagate DiscWizard for free from the Seagate web site and you can clone your 500GB installation to the replacement 750GB HDD. DiscWizard is a rebranded version of Acronis and it works nicely on any system with a Seagate drive attached to it.

 

Mr. Fox,

When I spoke with Tech Support they informed me that they cannot ship a HDD to an APO address. Seemed a little strange to me considering that Dell shipped an entire computer here but the gentleman I talked to insisted that was the case.........think this was India and not Costa Rica though.

I could PM one of the folks you told me about in your PM however since the initial "we'll look into it" response I got from all 3 a couple of days ago all I've heard is crickets so I figure they're busy with other issues or they've read the file on this system and know that it's already marked for exchange at the end of March when I get back to CONUS and figure that's a good enough resolution.

Would think it'd be better to ship an HDD than an entire computer but maybe there's some "economy of scale" factors I'm not aware of due to the Thailand flooding or some other supply chain concerns.

Thanks again for the assistance provided thus far.

 

thats awesome dude, hope you are able to enjoy it as much as i have enjoyed mine of the past couple months. slap some games on there and see what she can do.

 

I'm still trying to figure out if I can "fix" the 750 that came with it. Just used Norton to format it and "Ghost" the 500GB to it. Wouldn't boot and had to do a "Windows Repair" to fix the Boot Manager but it just booted about 30 seconds ago, going to run it like this and see what happens. If it works great, if not I can put the 500 back in it and exchange the system as planned.