Dear friends-

More than a week has gone by since I last wrote about my computer issues. Whenever I think things are fine, or will be, I am surprised by how much more can go wrong.

Remember, I am talking about two NEW REPLACEMENT computers that had similar issues as their predecessors…

Another technician came to the house on Monday the 20th to install a new pre-loaded hard drive but by this time neither computer was working and he took it upon himself to work on both. He had to reinstall the Operating System and drivers of the computer (Inspiron 14R) that had just had the hard drive replaced but didn’t install programs properly. On the other the XPS 15, he decided not to replace the hard drive but to reinstall the whole mess.

When he left, things looked like they were working. But were they?

The latest issue: 2/21/12: The Inspiron 14R: the wireless mice wouldn’t stay connected. It seems to be working on the XPS 15.
It is suggested by Dell that they send me a new mouse. I’ve tried three by that time and none would work.

2/24/12: No mouse resolution. Maybe I have the three blind mice?
By that evening I am still fiddling around. At this point I find that my new external Toshiba back up hard drive is not recognized by the Inspiron 14R. There seems to be a USB issue.

In addition, the router went down and it took me several hours with Netgear to get it reconfigured. The next day both laptops refused to stay on-line.

I spend an hour or more on the phone with technicians from Toshiba. They inform me that it is a Dell issue and that I should take it up with Dell. There appear to be missing drivers.

I decide to call another support subscription I have, Netger Gearhead Services, in hopes that may have a different take. The technician worked on the issues to no avail. He tried to install suggested drivers from a top Dell technician I am in touch with and is unable to complete the task. After a few hours he maintains that the problem is a hard drive with a partition issue and that I should, as Toshiba told me, “take it up with Dell.”

I continue to have wireless mouse issues, an external hard drive that still doesn’t work; the computer doesn’t recognize it.

2/27/12:
I installed and reinstalled another mouse I had that I had purchased and put away, it was untouched…what felt like a few hundred times. I have tried four wireless mice and none stay configured with the 14R. Thank goodness the XPS 15 has a nice relationship with is mouse.

Emails go back and forth between various Dell technicians and me–a near crazed woman who is about to dedicate the rest of her life to pencil and paper.

I installed various drivers, took about 20 screenshots to show the device drivers to the technician and still no Toshiba drive working and no mouse. I resort to a wired mouse.

Meanwhile I am setting up the XPS 15 and get the shock of the week:
it is beginning to display the same issues of it’s three previously replaced cousins: Computer Poltergeist. When typing, the letters scatter over the wrong lines.

Letter to Dell tech:

As I am working on this computer, on emails on AOL, I have noticed the same issues that I had with the previous replaced computers: words are ending up on the wrong line or in the wrong position on the line. If I turn off my mouse and just use the touchpad, the same thing happens. On previous computers in the past, disabling the touchpad didn’t help. I had to undo and reposition the mouse and cursor at least 20 times today, it is the craziest thing. To wit:

This is what I had on the previous replaced computer. I arrow down the parametersam trying to nappened

Ok if you look above you see what h

That’s twice above I couldn’t complete a sentence correctly. It’s nutty!

Now I will disable the mouse and keep on ty (couldn’t complete the sentence, the battery indicator popped up!). Ok going to try again, trying to be very conscious of my hands and the touch pad which I now have covered with a paper…the cursor is following me fine now, still trying to reproduce the problem. Never had this issue with my desktop, but it seems to be a laptop issue. It seems random for the most part.

nd
Going to type a while in word…same thing happene

Happening again here, happened in Word document. This time I have the touchpad uncovered.

I am copying and pasting something from Word and you can see how the words are ending up on the wrong line:

Dear has always been on the questAlexandra,

it was so good seeing you yesterday, I can’t tell you. The reading made me think about a lot of things and it also was a revelation about them.

I realized:

h

Get the picture??? Like I said, in the past technicians have disabled the keyboard when the mouse is in use but that didn’t change anything. I am totally baffled by this Terry! THIS is a big issue and if Dell can figure out what is going on, it will help a lot of people. I asked an onsite tech about it and he said he has seen this many times with faulty hard drives.

at you think

Here we go again!

Anxious to hear wh

The above sentence broke up and split on different lines!

Thanks for your help!

Friends, this has been, since 2009, the most inconceivable of issues I have ever seen on any computer. I have just about give up on any Dell computer being properly functioning. I have bought a Mac during this nuttiness in that began in January, and when I took it out of the box it WORKED. Learning curve but it works.

If anyone knows of a computer exorcist, please yell.

Yes, the story continues here!

And it all begins here–index.