SP2 and Dell
The SP2 download for XP has cost Dell at least one customer -- me. I ordered a Dimension 4600 and received it late Monday (9/20). 48 hours later, it was on it's way back to Dell for a refund.
I started the process of setting up the computer and transferring programs and working files from my old Win98 machine to the new Dell about 8am Tuesday. For the first couple of hours, everything went swimmingly, and I was actually impressed with the machine's performance. Dell's Web site, and the messages you (have to) listen to when you're on hold with Dell's tech support, urge you to download and apply SP2, saying that "getting the latest updates helps to solve many problems". So I downloaded and installed SP2. Seemed to install perfectly, no error messages.
Then I tried to get back on the Internet. No connection. Called Dell TS. Told them that I had no problem getting onto the Web BEFORE installing SP2. The tech rep. they told me (in his best Indian accent!) that SP2 was "untested", bad, full of problems, and I should take it off. While I was on hold for a minute or so during our discussion, I thought "...wonder what would happen if I removed IE from Windows, then added it back. I did that, and loe and behold, my Internet connection returned. Then the rep. came back on the phone. I told him that I had solved the problem, but he insisted that SP2 would cause future problems, and could slow the machine. He still wanted me to remove it. His way of removing it was to reinstall XP1a from the CD that came from the machine, so that's what I did.
MAJOR MISTAKE! After the reinstall finished, I opened Outlook Express to look at my e-mail. Have 2 identities, one for business, one personal. The business identity looked fine. Tried to switch to the personal identity. When I did, it showed the same messages that were in the business identity. Also, I could not send or receive. Viewing the accounts showed both to be BLANK (nothing in them, so no way to change anything). Called Dell back. This rep said I would have to delete the main partition (wiping out everything), reinstall XP and all the drivers from the Dell Resources CD. Started that process. When I got to the integrated video driver on the Resources CD, got an error message "32-bit self-extractor module has encountered a problem", and it would not install (retried twice after rebooting first). So there I sit with a PC running the default 640x480 resolution, no way to install the video driver to change it. At this point, I was so angry at Dell, who's Web and phone messages tell you to install SP2, but whose tech reps. tell you to avoid it, and who's easy-reinstall Resources CD doesn't work, that I packed the machine up and had UPS pick it up to go back to Dell the next day.
In a way, I'm glad it happened. I have reformatted HD's on my machines many times, reinstalled Windows and all the drivers, and never had a problem. Had I not had this problem, I would have kept the machine, and would have only discovered that the driver CD they give you wouldn't work after reformatting the drive. Needless to say, there will never be another Dell in this office.
