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Grumbling about computers
I have to vent about Dell's online support, but can't find anyone at Dell to vent to.
I had a keyboard at work fail, and when I got the replacement back, it was a better keyboard (up from the basic model to the enhanced multimedia keyboard). I put it on the system, and installed what I thought were the drivers. Something went wrong (I discovered later that I had installed the USB drivers by accident, and they don't work with PS/2 keyboards), and then the keyboard would work during boot, or from the recovery console, or from a Win98 boot CD, but once windows loaded (in regular mode, safe mode, vga mode, last known good mode, etc.), as soon as windows started, the keyboard would lock up. I also tried several (PS/2 and USB) keyboards to no avail.
Since this was late Tuesday night, and I had until tomorrow (Monday) to fix it, I emailed Dell with what I had done and how I had tried to fix it, and waited for a response to the question "How do I uninstall this driver whan I can't make the keyboard work?"
Dell said (on Wednesday) "Please run the diagnostic program included with your computer."
So I did (on Saturday). I then sent Dell the results via email. I also was searching microsoft's kb, and poking around in the computer remotely (I hadn't thought of that originally). I then sent Dell another email telling them what driver I had installed, and then sent them a third email when I found directions on remotely editing the registry and removing values from the keyboard driver settings (MSKB article 318906, which tells what key to look in and, if you read the whole thing, says you can delete all the keyboard drivers that are listed except for the kbdclass driver, which fixed my problem).
This generated three emails back from Dell (on Sunday).
The first said I should uninstall the driver and reinstall it, but came with no directions on how to do it on a computer that doesn't have a working keyboard.
The next said I should try the Last Known Good configuration, which I had already said didn't work.
The third, in response to the question of what driver should I have used, sent me to a web page on Dell's site that didn't list the keyboard I had described in my original email.
I replied to the first asking how I was supposed to have done this without a working keyboard. Dell responded to me by asking me to resubmit my request with the 30kb of diagnostic info (that I clipped off the bottom of the email to save space) reattached so they could read it again.
I replied to the second saying I had already tried that, and Dell (on Sunday) responded by saying "Try a different keyboard, and try the multimedia keyboard in a different system to see if that works." I had already tried several PS/2 and USB keyboards when I sent in the original service request.
I replied to the third saying that that web page didn't list my keyboard, and my keyboard came from this service call and is this specific model. Dell (on Sunday) replied by telling me to install the USB keyboard driver that originally started this mess (and which says right in the driver description 'Don't use with PS/2 keyboards.').
There are now 20 emails and 8 hours of my time in this project, my computer works, but I still don't have the right driver.
I had a keyboard at work fail, and when I got the replacement back, it was a better keyboard (up from the basic model to the enhanced multimedia keyboard). I put it on the system, and installed what I thought were the drivers. Something went wrong (I discovered later that I had installed the USB drivers by accident, and they don't work with PS/2 keyboards), and then the keyboard would work during boot, or from the recovery console, or from a Win98 boot CD, but once windows loaded (in regular mode, safe mode, vga mode, last known good mode, etc.), as soon as windows started, the keyboard would lock up. I also tried several (PS/2 and USB) keyboards to no avail.
Since this was late Tuesday night, and I had until tomorrow (Monday) to fix it, I emailed Dell with what I had done and how I had tried to fix it, and waited for a response to the question "How do I uninstall this driver whan I can't make the keyboard work?"
Dell said (on Wednesday) "Please run the diagnostic program included with your computer."
So I did (on Saturday). I then sent Dell the results via email. I also was searching microsoft's kb, and poking around in the computer remotely (I hadn't thought of that originally). I then sent Dell another email telling them what driver I had installed, and then sent them a third email when I found directions on remotely editing the registry and removing values from the keyboard driver settings (MSKB article 318906, which tells what key to look in and, if you read the whole thing, says you can delete all the keyboard drivers that are listed except for the kbdclass driver, which fixed my problem).
This generated three emails back from Dell (on Sunday).
The first said I should uninstall the driver and reinstall it, but came with no directions on how to do it on a computer that doesn't have a working keyboard.
The next said I should try the Last Known Good configuration, which I had already said didn't work.
The third, in response to the question of what driver should I have used, sent me to a web page on Dell's site that didn't list the keyboard I had described in my original email.
I replied to the first asking how I was supposed to have done this without a working keyboard. Dell responded to me by asking me to resubmit my request with the 30kb of diagnostic info (that I clipped off the bottom of the email to save space) reattached so they could read it again.
I replied to the second saying I had already tried that, and Dell (on Sunday) responded by saying "Try a different keyboard, and try the multimedia keyboard in a different system to see if that works." I had already tried several PS/2 and USB keyboards when I sent in the original service request.
I replied to the third saying that that web page didn't list my keyboard, and my keyboard came from this service call and is this specific model. Dell (on Sunday) replied by telling me to install the USB keyboard driver that originally started this mess (and which says right in the driver description 'Don't use with PS/2 keyboards.').
There are now 20 emails and 8 hours of my time in this project, my computer works, but I still don't have the right driver.
no subject
If support doesn't come from someone you can grab by the lapels and shake, it's not real support. They're involved but not committed (like the chicken and pig at breakfast).