Very nice!

As part of my asset acquisition process, I have to document serial numbers and assign an asset tags to each new asset. When I turned the monitor around, though, I ran in to a problem:

WTH?

Hey, uh, Dell? Did you forget something?

Well, actually they didn’t. Apparently all of the required labeling is too much of an ‘eye sore’, so Dell has decided to hide it:

Pretty Sneaky, Dell

I would have appreciated it if Dell would have made more of an effort to point out where it is (I actually had to refer to the unpacking diagram to show me), but that’s it. Hidden with the USB ports is a small little pull-out card. Now that I know it’s there, though, it does make it easier to get a serial number off of a monitor when I have to figure out which asset belongs to which program when someone has inevitably pulled off the asset tag.

Fun Fact – Number of times the word ‘ass’ appears in this post: 6.

Seriously, Dell? All that for one lousy DVI extension cable? Well, at least they’re still better than HP.

10:04:03 AM System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
10:04:03 AM System Connected with ***_Oliver_******

10:04:08 AM ***_Oliver_******: Hi, thank you for contacting DELL Canada support, my name is Oliver, how may I help you?

10:05:01 AM Laslow: I have a system that is unable to POST. If I remove the video card and use the onboard video, it POSTs fine. If I take the video card from an identical unit and try that, it also works fine. It appears that the video card is defective, and I need a replacement sent out.

10:07:13 AM ***_Oliver_******: I’ll do my best to assist you with this one.
10:07:48 AM ***_Oliver_******: I could see here that system is an ***** and warranty is active until *****.

10:07:55 AM Laslow: That is correct.

10:08:58 AM ***_Oliver_******: I’ll replace this.
10:09:13 AM ***_Oliver_******: Would you like me to send an onsite tech ?

10:09:21 AM Laslow: No thank you – the part will be fine.

10:09:33 AM ***_Oliver_******: May I have the shipping address?

10:09:58 AM Laslow: ***** ***** ***** *****

10:11:23 AM ***_Oliver_******: By the way, may I know who’s the registered owner of the system?

10:12:46 AM Laslow: ***** ***** ***** *****

10:13:28 AM ***_Oliver_******: Thanks. I’ll go ahead and process the case and dispatch. This would take me about 5 minutes. Hold on.

10:13:34 AM Laslow: Thank you.

10:13:39 AM ***_Oliver_******: Would you like me to send the reference numbers thru email instead?

10:13:50 AM Laslow: That would be greatly appreciated.

10:14:49 AM ***_Oliver_******: Please wait for the part next business day. Return to us the old part not later than ten days once the replacement part is received. You could use the same box that came in with it.
10:14:54 AM ***_Oliver_******: Anything else I can help you with?

10:15:09 AM Laslow: No, that is fine. Thank you very much! You have been very helpfull!

10:15:19 AM ***_Oliver_******: Would you like me to contact you to followup on this?

10:15:36 AM Laslow: No, that will not be required.

10:17:39 AM ***_Oliver_******: Ok. Thank you! Thank you for choosing DELL, have a good day!

10:17:51 AM Laslow: Thanks again!

As the system was a Dell, it had a set of Diagnostic LEDs on the front to help diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, looking up the Optiplex 745 manual, it didn’t list the particular code the lights were showing: 1 3 4.

Looking through the listed codes, most of the ones related to 1 or 3 4 were for either faulty RAM or a bad memory controller, so I started there. I tried removing one stick, then replacing it and removing the other, using a completely different stick, and then none at all. Each time I was met with the same diagnostic code, 1 3 4.

Convinced I had the problem pin-pointed, I tried to get on to Dell’s Live Chat Hardware Support to get a replacement motherboard as the system was still covered by Next Business Day parts. The site, unfortunately, was down, so I was forced to call Dell instead.

Now, there’s a reason that I typically use Live Chat instead of the phone. The main reason is on Live Chat, I can quickly bang-out the troubleshooting I’ve already done, and 9 times out of 10, the tech will just send me the part. Phone support is rarely that easy, and this time was no exception.

The wait time was average (maybe about 5 minutes), and once I got the agent on, I quickly rattled off my troubleshooting and told him the diagnostic code. He put me on hold for a few minutes and when he came back, told me that the diagnostic code 1 3 4 on an Optiplex 745 means the video card isn’t working. Figuring it would be easy enough to test, I pulled out the PCI-E video card and switch to the onboard video. Sure enough, it worked.

At this point, I figured we’d be done. I didn’t have another PCI-E card to make sure it wasn’t the slot, but I supposed out loud that if I got the replacement card and it didn’t work, I could always send it back, make another call, and get a motherboard sent out. The ‘tech’ had another idea, though.

Him: There’s actually one more troubleshooting step I’d like to try.

Me: Okay, what’s that?

Him: Well, leave the video card out, boot in to Windows, go to Device Manager and remove the device. Then turn the computer off, put the video card back in, and see if it work.

Him: I just want to see if the driver is the problem.

Me: …what?

At this point, I nearly hung up the phone. Instead, I figured a little education would be in order.

Me: Okay, I think you might be a little confused. The problem is that, with the video card in, the system won’t even POST properly. I fail to see how a Windows driver could possibly be the problem, because at this stage in the boot process, the computer has no clue what operating system is on the hard drive. It hasn’t even looked to see if there’s a hard drive there. How can a driver possibly be the problem.

Him: Sir, it’s just part of my troubleshooting process.

Me: Okay, I’ll humor you. I’m going to pretend to boot my computer.

Him: No, I need you to actually–

Me (interrupting): Now I’m going to pretend to open Device Manager. Oh, would you look at that! Because the video card isn’t present, it’s not showing in the list.*

Him: …oh. Well, I guess we can send you a replacement video card….

Me: I thought so.

This morning, I received a call back from Dell asking me if I’d received the video card. I said no, and he told me that the card had been delivered and signed for. Figuring that maybe Purolator had delivered it to the wrong office, I put the agent on hold and checked around, but nobody had received anything today. Going back to the agent, I asked who signed for it, at which point he informed me that it hadn’t been delivered yet and would likely arrive this afternoon. Gee, thanks for that.

*Note: I’m aware that you can make Device Manager show non-present device by following this KB article, however that would have only confused the poor agent and wouldn’t have made a difference anyway.

I ran the Dell Hard Drive Diagnostics next, as the system is in warranty (with next-business-day parts) and they always insist on doing that, but surprise surprise, it passed. Moving on, I ran the Western Digital test which failed quite quickly. Then the drive started clicking.

After I got back to my office I called Dell Support. Normally I use their online chat, but at first it told me that it wasn’t available in Canada, and then it said that it was closed, despite still being in business hours. After navigating through their menus, I got an agent right away. As that almost never happens, I thought I’d have an easy time of it. Not so lucky. After giving the lady my Service Tag and confirming the company, the following conversation ensued:

Her: So what’s the problem with the system?

Me: The hard drive is dead. I need a replacement.

Her: Okay, so how do you know the drive is dead?

Me: It was running slow for a few days, then today it wouldn’t boot to Windows. I ran chkdsk and it failed, so I ran the Dell Diagnostics and those passed. Then I ran the Western Digital test, and it failed that.

Her: Okay. Do you have Gold Support on this system?

Me: No, just Next-Business-Day parts. Why?

Her: Oh, well, in that case we will need to troubleshoot the issue. I need an error code from the Dell Diagnostics before I can send a replacement part.

Me: What? The drive is obviously faulty, two other tests failed it, but the Dell one didn’t. You’re going to make me run it again, wait for it to finish and pass, then tell me you can’t replace the drive?

Her: We need to troubleshoot, sir, or else–

Me: I’m hanging up now. — Click –

I sat and steamed for a few minutes, then called back. I waded through the menu, and again got an agent right away. After going through the same greeting process (Service Tag and confirming contact information), we got down to business:

Him: What can we do for you today?

Me: Well, I’ve got a system with a failed hard drive and I’m not having a lot of luck trying to get it replaced. I – Repeat my explanation from above –

Him: Oh, okay. Let me check the warranty. –pause– Okay, you’re still in warranty, and have Next-Business-Day parts. What time is it there right now?

Me: About 1:30pm.

Him: Okay, can I put you on hold for a few minutes?

Me: Sure.

–Five minutes–

Him: I’ll just be a few more minutes.

Me: Okay.

–Five more minutes–

Him: Alright, the part is on it’s way. Depending on the shipping guys, it may go out today or tomorrow. Anything else I can do for you?

Me: Nope! Thanks!

Him: No problem – sorry about the trouble on your last call in, and have a nice day!

Just goes to show. If you get someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about, try-try-again!

Within the next week I’ll be receiving a custom built Dell PowerEdge 2900 III server, and I’ll be posting unpacking pictures and a setup tutorial post. Some of the specs:

• Two Intel Quad-Core Xeon Processors (E5420) @ 2.5Ghz (2x6MB L2 Cache)
• 16GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM
• 4x 250GB SATA2 HDDs (hot swappable) in a RAID 10 Array
• Redundant Power Supply

This setup will be running Windows Server 2008 Enterprise with Hyper-V, hosting two virtual environments (a Server 2008 Terminal Server and an Exchange 2007 Server). More details to follow!

Update (02-April-09): The hardware and software are in! Tomorrow I’ll live blog the setup process!