On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 12:37 PM, Scott Silva <ssilva at sgvwater.com> wrote: > on 2-10-2009 5:44 AM Timothy Murphy spake the following: >> Spiro Harvey wrote: <snip> >> On swapping the two 2GB memory modules, >> the message changed to >> "Uncorrectable ECC Error DIMM 2,2". >> >> This seemed to me to be pretty strong evidence >> that the fault was indeed with one of the memory modules. >> Unfortunately it was difficult to convince Dell of this. >> The technical support man I spoke to (in Scotland) >> claimed that it might be a software error caused by installing >> Windows XP Pro as a second OS on the machine. We have four Dell Dimension boxes in our house. They have the right to require one to restore the system (HW & SW) to the original configuration, before you get Tech Support. Usually they are not that hard nosed about it, but it requires some patience. Obviously, in this case, you could have booted from the CentOS LiveCD and run memtest86 on the memory, or, you could have run Dell's Diagnostics on it, which probably would have been more satisfying to the Dell guy in Scotland. IMHO, you are lucky you were not talking with someone in India or some other country. > Many 1st level tech support people have a book of scripts they have to follow, > and anything not in those scripts throws them off. You almost always have to > escalate to the next level to actually talk to someone who is allowed to > "think for themselves". That can also apply to getting parts, for those of us who do not live in the USA. Some years ago, I needed a new Bezel for one of our boxes. The Spare Parts person said special permission was needed, to ship it to me, from the USA. Since they had shipped the box down here, I could not believe it. I contacted Dell Management and they sent me the Bezel. Our impression is that Dell Latin America has *much* better Tech Support than they provide in the USA. We always recommend Dell to people here who are contemplating buy a new PC, because of their Support. They have really stood behind our purchases. :-)