Venting... AAARRGGG
Nov. 9th, 2006 11:25 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
valiskeogh.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
techrecoverylet me explain. no is too much, lemme sum up.
This got really long, here for the full story
large company, just recently switched to dell from ibm for our pc's (thank god, the ibm's sucked. they were fine, until they collected a BIT of dust. cooling on the beeches is completely inadequate and the heatsinks on the processors are laughable.)
one of my units needs some dual monitor computers. if i were at home, not a problem, on corporate pc's it's a bit more of an annoyance.
they need to order 6 dual monitor machines.
so our purchasing people, who are kind and trusting and overworked and generally will take the advice of people they ask it from. unfortunately they asked our dell rep who apparently is a freakin moron.
they told him specifically what they wanted, 6 dual monitor machines.
he specified this particular model of optiplex gx520 as well as a specific matrox video card. our purchasing people went over it a couple of times making sure everything would fit (cause normally these types of corporate pc's only take half height cards)
the pc's arrive, as well as the cards, and it's handed over to me so that i can image the machines and get them up and running and deliver them.
PROBLEM ONE:
While we were given the larger size optiplex, it still only accepts a half height video card. a riser board is needed. no risers. i tell the purchasing people, they call the dell rep. please note, the same one person is working this on dell's side. risers ordered.
PROBLEM TWO:
Riser cards come in a couple days later. i happily accept them, and go to put them into the pc's. uuuhhh... wait a damn minute... there are two pci slots on these risers... no pci express slots... these cards are pci express... grrrr... go back to purchasing people... faith in dell rep dwindling...
PROBLEM THREE:
few more days later risers come in with a pci express slot. finally! i go up and put the cards into the computers, put the video cards in (which have already been tested and known to be working), turn on the pc's and... nothing... absolutely nothing... i fool around in the bios... download drivers... NOTHING. not "can't install the drivers" i mean NOTHING. it's like i haven't made a single change to the computer. nothing shows up in the device manager as new when computers are brought up, nothing in the bios, nothing in the post messages, nadda zip, zilch, zero. i notice that the mobo of the pc doesn't have a pci express slot, it's only on the riser. i start to thinking... i go to dell's site to look up info on the optiplex systems. there are three differen't models of the optiplex gx520, to cut things short lets call them small , medium, and large. the small is the normal we get, the medium is what we got for this application. i notice on the big "Features" page for all of them only the LARGE says anything about pci-express.
mmmmhmmmmmm... i check the manuals for them, the medium says that it only supports pci cards.
peeved, i call dell tech support.
give him service tag, express code on machine, ask him to verify for me that this machine will support a pci-express video card. he looks it up and says that it will, of course asking me first all the stupid ass basic questions you'd as of any Luser (except i'm not one and they only annoy me but i know they have to be asked, such as "have you installed the drivers for the card?" "no, i can't, the hardware doesn't SHOW UP! there is NOTHING in device manager!"
he still says the pc will support it. i ask him to direct me to the documentation where it says this, and explain to him again that we have the medium sized version. he goes to the web page, and i faithfully follow his lil clicking on to find the manuals (which i already had in front of me)
"go to support" okay "go to manuals" okay "go to optiplex" okay "click on english" okay "click on view under html documents" okay "and there is the manual"
now wait. which one are you clicking on?
"any one, they're all the same."
oh you THINK so do you? Which one are you clicking on?"
(he chuckles like "yes, silly luser, they're all the same" but doesn't know he's about to be pwned.) "click on mini tower"
aha. you see, i dont HAVE the mini tower (aka large) i have the DESKTOP version, which i already told you. click on THAT and show me where it says pci express.
he clicks. i point out the video card portion of the manual. he looks for a second or two. gets his ass owned. which leads to...
PROBLEM FOUR
that computer doesn't support pci express video cards WHATSOEVER.
so to quickly summarize, our purchasers had the dell rep specifically tell them what they needed for a dual monitor computer setup.
when things arrive the cards wouldn't fit into the pc's without risers, which weren't included
when the risers arrived they weren't pci express, and the cards are pci express
when the pci express risers arrive i find out that the computer doesn't support pci express video cards to start out with.
so now this unit is about 3 weeks behind in completing a move of the department because of this fiasco. YAY!
before giving this bit of news to our purchasing people i asked them to both sit down, remove any objects from their hands, and place their hands out flat on the desks where i could see them.
after delivering the news one purchaser asked "... so... when can i move my hands... " i said " as soon as i step out of the room!"
i dont think she threw anything, but i knew she wanted to :)
Valis
(we'll probably now go with WHAT I SUGGESTED IN THE FIRST PLACE, which is get some damn half height pci video cards. i coulda gone to damn best buy and had this taken care of but nnnoooooooo....)
This got really long, here for the full story
large company, just recently switched to dell from ibm for our pc's (thank god, the ibm's sucked. they were fine, until they collected a BIT of dust. cooling on the beeches is completely inadequate and the heatsinks on the processors are laughable.)
one of my units needs some dual monitor computers. if i were at home, not a problem, on corporate pc's it's a bit more of an annoyance.
they need to order 6 dual monitor machines.
so our purchasing people, who are kind and trusting and overworked and generally will take the advice of people they ask it from. unfortunately they asked our dell rep who apparently is a freakin moron.
they told him specifically what they wanted, 6 dual monitor machines.
he specified this particular model of optiplex gx520 as well as a specific matrox video card. our purchasing people went over it a couple of times making sure everything would fit (cause normally these types of corporate pc's only take half height cards)
the pc's arrive, as well as the cards, and it's handed over to me so that i can image the machines and get them up and running and deliver them.
PROBLEM ONE:
While we were given the larger size optiplex, it still only accepts a half height video card. a riser board is needed. no risers. i tell the purchasing people, they call the dell rep. please note, the same one person is working this on dell's side. risers ordered.
PROBLEM TWO:
Riser cards come in a couple days later. i happily accept them, and go to put them into the pc's. uuuhhh... wait a damn minute... there are two pci slots on these risers... no pci express slots... these cards are pci express... grrrr... go back to purchasing people... faith in dell rep dwindling...
PROBLEM THREE:
few more days later risers come in with a pci express slot. finally! i go up and put the cards into the computers, put the video cards in (which have already been tested and known to be working), turn on the pc's and... nothing... absolutely nothing... i fool around in the bios... download drivers... NOTHING. not "can't install the drivers" i mean NOTHING. it's like i haven't made a single change to the computer. nothing shows up in the device manager as new when computers are brought up, nothing in the bios, nothing in the post messages, nadda zip, zilch, zero. i notice that the mobo of the pc doesn't have a pci express slot, it's only on the riser. i start to thinking... i go to dell's site to look up info on the optiplex systems. there are three differen't models of the optiplex gx520, to cut things short lets call them small , medium, and large. the small is the normal we get, the medium is what we got for this application. i notice on the big "Features" page for all of them only the LARGE says anything about pci-express.
mmmmhmmmmmm... i check the manuals for them, the medium says that it only supports pci cards.
peeved, i call dell tech support.
give him service tag, express code on machine, ask him to verify for me that this machine will support a pci-express video card. he looks it up and says that it will, of course asking me first all the stupid ass basic questions you'd as of any Luser (except i'm not one and they only annoy me but i know they have to be asked, such as "have you installed the drivers for the card?" "no, i can't, the hardware doesn't SHOW UP! there is NOTHING in device manager!"
he still says the pc will support it. i ask him to direct me to the documentation where it says this, and explain to him again that we have the medium sized version. he goes to the web page, and i faithfully follow his lil clicking on to find the manuals (which i already had in front of me)
"go to support" okay "go to manuals" okay "go to optiplex" okay "click on english" okay "click on view under html documents" okay "and there is the manual"
now wait. which one are you clicking on?
"any one, they're all the same."
oh you THINK so do you? Which one are you clicking on?"
(he chuckles like "yes, silly luser, they're all the same" but doesn't know he's about to be pwned.) "click on mini tower"
aha. you see, i dont HAVE the mini tower (aka large) i have the DESKTOP version, which i already told you. click on THAT and show me where it says pci express.
he clicks. i point out the video card portion of the manual. he looks for a second or two. gets his ass owned. which leads to...
PROBLEM FOUR
that computer doesn't support pci express video cards WHATSOEVER.
so to quickly summarize, our purchasers had the dell rep specifically tell them what they needed for a dual monitor computer setup.
when things arrive the cards wouldn't fit into the pc's without risers, which weren't included
when the risers arrived they weren't pci express, and the cards are pci express
when the pci express risers arrive i find out that the computer doesn't support pci express video cards to start out with.
so now this unit is about 3 weeks behind in completing a move of the department because of this fiasco. YAY!
before giving this bit of news to our purchasing people i asked them to both sit down, remove any objects from their hands, and place their hands out flat on the desks where i could see them.
after delivering the news one purchaser asked "... so... when can i move my hands... " i said " as soon as i step out of the room!"
i dont think she threw anything, but i knew she wanted to :)
Valis
(we'll probably now go with WHAT I SUGGESTED IN THE FIRST PLACE, which is get some damn half height pci video cards. i coulda gone to damn best buy and had this taken care of but nnnoooooooo....)
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no subject
Date: 2006-11-10 05:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-10 06:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-15 08:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-10 06:55 am (UTC)This is a...fuck!
no subject
Date: 2006-11-10 07:08 am (UTC)Granted my suggestion of replaceing the three/four difference "batches" of these particular machines we have with 12-15 beige boxes built in house got shot down pretty much instantly. Oh well, it's mostly a vendor issue anyhow...
no subject
Date: 2006-11-15 08:11 pm (UTC)plus the newest ones we're ge3tting have dual core pentium D processors. which handled what our users do (i.e. check email) VERY quickly!
When I found you
Date: 2006-11-10 04:13 pm (UTC)sorry
Re: When I found you
Date: 2006-11-15 08:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-10 06:41 pm (UTC)The displays went back.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-15 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-10 10:28 pm (UTC)I'm sorry you had to go through that but....the purchaser's reaction to the news.....priceless.
no subject
Date: 2006-11-15 08:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-11-11 02:18 am (UTC)Dell reps are useless. Incredibly f*ckin useless.
Though I can probably generalise that to saying that all sales reps are useless.
Sometimes the ones at Sun are useful though ...
no subject
Date: 2006-11-15 08:13 pm (UTC)