The Dell Repair Division does not exist!

Woohoo! I got my Dell Mini 9 back today, and guess what! It's not working. Yep. Still the EXACT SAME ERROR MESSAGE as the first time.

I have come to the determination that Dell does not have any sort of repair offices in Texas. It is an old toothless grandpa that works out of his west Texas house, signing for DELL packages, and then just returning the packages to their origin.

This is just plain ridiculous. How can I return a machine for repair TWICE and have NOTHING done about the real problem. It does not boot windows. If you replace the drive, put WINDOWS on it and make sure it boots. Pretty simple right!

So, now I call DELL Technical support AGAIN to tell them of my frustration. I have now been mailing my laptop in for repair for more time than I actually HAD the laptop up and running. At this point, I think the DELL Inspiron Mini 9 is the worst product I could have ever thought of buying.

If it works, you are safe, but the first time you have to have it repaired, you are screwed! (Just my experience only, but I would at least warn you to do your research!)

So, they want me to try some things to troubleshoot. NO!
They want to send me another box to return the Dell Mini for repair. NO! (I already have two boxes!)

I tell them specifically: "You will send me a brand new Dell Inspiron Mini 9 that MATCHES my original laptop, exactly! Once I receive a working Mini 9, I will return this non-working one."

Amazingly they agree.
I now have an order in place for the replacement machine. It is due to Ship on 11/3 or 11/4 overnight. About Frickin' Time!

Return Box for the Dell Mini 9 --- Round 2

Well, the second box, to return the laptop is here. WooHoo! Glad I sent it in for repair the first time, so they could ignore the repair request, and keep the DHL guys in business shuttling my non-working laptop around the country. Enjoy your journeys little laptop. If only you could boot up and use your webcam to see this lovely country!

Off the laptop goes for another attempt at repair. The technician I talked to yesterday ASSURES me that the laptop will be repaired AND tested before it is sent back.

Does Dell actually fix laptops when they are sent in for repair?

Ok. This is pretty sad. I received my Dell Mini 9 back from the repair division of DELL (in Texas somewhere), and they did not do ANYTHING with the laptop. The machine still boots with the same error and is not working.

Was nice to have the little letter in the box that says that it was quality checked before shipping. WTF?

My guess is they were busy in the shop, or didn't feel like working today, so they just put a new label on the box and shipped it back to me. Thanks for nothing guys.

I go ahead and call Dell Technical support AGAIN, to try to resolve the original problem. I tell them that it's the same non-working Mini laptop, but they still want me to try some troubleshooting. I humor them for the 1 hour phone call, but my patience is wearing quite thin.

Finally, the tech on the other end of the line realizes. "Hey... this laptop wasn't repaired." Thanks... can I have my hour of life back!

So, here goes round two of the saga of the Dell Mini 9 that no longer want's to boot.

Operating System Not found

Dell's tech support -- Brains not found

10/8/2008 - Return Box arrives for the Broken Mini 9

Well, I had the machine for less than 15 days, and now it is being returned to Dell for Repair. My Dell Mini 9 died after only 2 weeks of use!

I received a box to return the Inspiron Mini laptop one day after Dell Technical support decided it should be returned for repair. I packed the unit up in the box with all of the provided packing materials, and the pre-printed packing label, and dropped it off at an authorized DHL pickup site. Hope it's not gone too long!

Uh. Oh! The trouble has begun.

My new Dell Mini was working great until this afternoon. I had Microsoft Office installed, some web tools, etc...
But, then, I received a blue screen of death, and now the machine won't boot. It's as if the hard drive is bad, or no OS. Not a virus, because the Mini 9 comes with Mcafee for 30 days, and all of the Microsoft Patches were installed. I even installed the Dell PC Tuneup software.

The Error Message I receive is part of the Power On Self Test (POST):

Intel UNDI, PXE-2.1 (build 082)
Copyright (C) 1997-2000 Intel Corporation

For Realtek RTL8101E/8102E PCI-E Ethernet Controller v1.08 (080408)
PXE-E61: Media Test Failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM.
Operating System Not Found

After a few hours of troubleshooting (on and off the phone) with Dell Technical Support, we finally decide I should send it back for repair. They put in a request to have a box shipped to me, with a label, for the return, under warranty.

Well, now it's going to be gone for a week or two for repair. Oh well!

NOTE: One thing I wanted to mention is that I also provide technical support as part of my job. It was obvious that the script this guy at Dell Tech support was following, was not yet updated to reflect this new Mini 9. It was for other DELL laptops. Maybe other Inspiron Laptops from Dell, but not the Dell Mini 9.

Research, on my own showed me that the problem was the hard drive, and that the above message is an indication that the bios tried to boot a CD, the Hard Drive, and eventually tried to boot over a network ethernet connection, but could not find any viable operating system, so it dies with an error.