Meltdown at 1521

Last night my Dell Inspiron 1521 was very ill. I had been surfing the Internet all afternoon with no problems. Then all of a sudden, it just shut down in the middle of what I was doing. I let the computer turn itself off, waited a bit and then turned it back on.

I keep my desktop password protected and after I logged in, things started loading up as usual. But about 15 second in, it decided it didn't want to do what I wanted it to do, and it shut itself down again.

Bugger.

This continued to happen four more times before I gave up and called tech support. The FIRST call to tech support got me nowhere. Dell's tech support is located in India and while they speak English, some of them don't speak it very well or very clearly. The representative and I had a very hard time communicating and he seemed fit to be tied with my problem. He said he was going to place my call on hold and get someone to assist him in figuring it out... but he never came back. After a few minutes I got a fast busy signal and the call was disconnected.

I tried a few things on my own, working in what is known as "safe mode" but couldn't get to the root of the problem. After tweaking a few things here and there and attempting to log on in normal mode, the computer would proceed to load for 15 seconds and then shut itself down.

Obviously the problem was in one of the start up processes. But which one... who knew.

I called tech support again and got a rep that spoke clearer and understood my problem a little better. But in the end he still wasn't able to fix the problem and then transferred me to Dell's "elite team of techies" for further assistance. Dell-Connect isn't free, isn't cheap, and isn't easy. But soooo worth it.

After having me try a few things we were finally able to get the computer to load up in normal mode and NOT shut down. Once that had been accomplished, I was able to connect to the Internet and then connect with the representative in a screen sharing type thingy similar to "go to my pc". He told me to sit back and relax while he worked on my computer.

He was in India. I was in New Jersey... it was strange. But he kept talking to me the whole time, telling me what he was doing, looking for, etc. And after determining that there was something making my computer sick, he downloaded free anti-virus detection software to my computer and started scanning for issues.

It didn't take long before 4 threats were detected... which turned out to be 4 components of a Trojan Virus. Nice.

The scan took nearly an hour, during which I learned that American Pop Culture is booming in India. I learned that my rep loved the Transformers films and is slightly obsessed with Optimus Prime. When I told him I drove a big rig he was thrilled and had lots of questions. We chatted while the scan continued off and on. During the quiet times, when he was surely talking to other reps in his work station area, I was reading a book and enjoying the peace and quiet.

Once the scan was completed I restarted the computer to completely wipe away the virus and was then thrilled that my computer loaded up, stayed on and allowed me to do my usual thing.

However, had the issue not been so "easily" resolved, I'd likely have lost EVERYTHING on my computer. Which is why I am now going to upgrade my Dell Data Safe online backup system, which I have had a free 10GB since I bought my dell, but have since used up and need more space. Of course, I will be signing up for that additional space and utilizing on the regular to protect my data, photos, music, etc.

I suggest the same to everyone. There are other programs you can use, including www.carbonite.com, which is recommended to me by every techie friend I have and every talk radio host I listen to. ;o) But I can appreciate these sorts of programs that store your data at an off site location to protect what you don't want to lose most. If you've never had a computer crash, at least know that it will and be prepared for it with offline backup/storage of some sort. Whether it be on a flash drive, burnt onto CD's, or on with carbonite or similar. Its worth the investment, trust me.

Well anyway, right now I'm hanging tight in Jersey on a load that I was going to deliver this morning but have since decided to sit on it until later today. It doesn't have to be where it goes in PA until midnight at the latest, and since my next load can't pick up in Philly until 4pm, I am just gonna hang out and not start my clock or waste any of my hours until it's necessary.

I figure that in order to make it to my pick up location in Philly on time, I need to deliver my load in PA around 1pm and then get my empty trailer and head east. Once I'm loaded up with my next work assignment, I'll head west and towards home. Hooray!

Then it's a few days off to visit, hang out, celebrate, and relax... not necessarily in that order.