Tuesday Tech Tips 101: the computer has amnesia

Dear tech friends and children of all ages,

When I last wrote about my ongoing (years’ worth) of issues with Dell laptops, I was waiting for a replacement computer; one of many replacements. I was getting help from Dell corporate technicians and the final replacement 14” laptop was personally set-up by said tech. Both the 15” and 14” had the same issue: non-recognition of my new Toshiba external hard drive.

After emails going back and forth, and links to drivers, the 15” is now working consistently. For some reason the 14” has defaulted to its primal state of stubbornness and defiance. It refuses to recognize the external drive. It “sees” the flash drive but is squeezing its eyes shut tightly; it seems to be spooked by Toshiba.

I pay a premium for Dell North American Support and spent over two hours on the phone with a technician on the West coast who, after tweaking and upgrading chipsets (had already been done) and drivers (that too) announced that this was a Toshiba issue. I reminded her I had been down this road before and Toshiba sent me back to confront Dell.

“Why then, I asked, would the head technician finally be able to get the other computer running and the hard drive recognized?” She knew I was correct but had no answers.

To humor myself I did call Toshiba and was connected to the Philippines where I was informed that there are no drivers for these drives, they are plug and play, and it is a Dell issue. What’s more I was informed that “it’s all how the computer is configured and sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t…you have to know the operating system it is compatible with. I reminded this fellow that it said on the box that it was compatible with Vista and Windows 7 and that is what I am using. It is recognized by two other computers running those operating systems.

Seeing as I was getting nowhere I just plain gave up. Called, “UNCLE!” Yelled, “I SURRENDER!”How much can a person take?

So again I ask: is it too much to ask for things to work?

I have just spent a while googling around the net and see the same question asked over and over again: Why isn’t my Toshiba external hard drive recognized by my Win 7 computer.

It’s time to start twittering again…here I go…