1239ff43afb7
tech



Hello Roy - 

CA>> The last time I used the laptop it complained about a low
CA>> battery and seemed to be unaware it was plugged into the
CA>> wall? When I removed the battery pack I found a button on
CA>> the side that, when pushed, lit up three of a total of
CA>> five 'green dots'. No mention is made of this button or
CA>> the green lights in the user manual 

RJT> Could this be an aftermarket rather than the original
RJT> battery? 

AFAIK this is the original battery shipped with the system when
it was new. 

CA>> and now I notice pushing the button does _not_ light _any_
CA>> of these dots. My first inclination was that the power
CA>> cord had breaks in the wiring but now am wondering if the
CA>> battery has internal shorting? Maybe it's both? 

RJT> Maybe. Or maybe there's some other defect in the charging
RJT> circuitry. 

Could be. 

CA>> Calling DELL connected me to India where a seemingly
CA>> nice/polite  person tried desperately to speak in English
CA>> to me. I had to ask him to repeat every other phrase he
CA>> spoke. Terminology doesn't lend itself to mispronunciation
CA>> but he patiently repeated the phrases until I could grasp
CA>> the meanings of what he was saying. 

RJT> This kind of thing drives me nuts. 

It's a bit depressing after reading about all the jobs being
shipped out of the USA. :-\ 

CA>> Short story: DELL does not sell parts even where they have
CA>> a physical presence. All parts must be ordered through
CA>> India who then passes the order to Texas where the parts
CA>> are actually shipped from. This requires about 10 working
CA>> days to _ship_ then  whatever time it takes for the
CA>> actually delivery over land to the destination. 

CA>> I did not bother. 

RJT> I wouldn't either. And what you're saying here is a *good*
RJT> reason not to buy Dell. In addition to the fiasco a while
RJT> back where a supposed "ATX Power Supply" had radically
RJT> different connections than what they were supposed to be.
RJT> Fortunately the system involved wasn't damaged. 

I am aware of no compelling reason to buy Dell myself. 

CA>> I drove 150 miles back to where my desktop is at and am
CA>> finishing the work on a REAL workstation using W2K.
CA>> Laptops are 'toys' IMO and XP s*cks. :-\ 

RJT> :-) 

It's good to be back at my 'whitebox' machine. :-) 

>
>        ,                          ,
>      o/      Charles.Angelich      \o       ,
>       __o/
>     / >          USA, MI           < \   __\__
 

--- * ATP/16bit 2.31 * 
... DOS the Ghost in the Machine! http://www.undercoverdesign.com/dosghost/