I’m having some very annoying problems with my new laptop. I bought it about a month and a half ago, and about a month ago the hard drive crashed and dell support agreed to replace it, giving me the windows 7, Roxio software, and DVD power discs and of course the new hard drive. The technician installed the new hard drive, and installed windows 7 for me, telling me that i could install the drivers myself with the drivers and utilities disk I already had. I was also told to re-download McAfee Platinum, my graphics driver, and Microsoft Office Home and Student online. My main problems now are the following:
McAfee keeps crashing and the Action Center tells me to turn it back on, which I do but it happens every few start-ups anyways. I did a full scan with McAfee several times but to no avail.
Drivers keep crashing, especially my wireless card. At one point I also had another 3 unknown driver problems as well. i had to use system restore every time, and it gets very tedious and nerve-racking. The fact that system restore seems to fix these problems make me think its not a virus, but a computer flaw.
The turning on of the computer is flawless, but at login it goes very slowly, and seems to be getting slower every start-up. This does not occur at when I login, log off, then log back in again, and I find this strange.
Turbo Boost for my i5-2410 crashed but for some reason I was able to turn it back on again.
In short, I almost expect a new problem every time I open my laptop, and its starting to make me anxious. I have thought of two main solutions:
Call Dell.Support again and demand a full replacement
Re-install windows 7 (will this remove all problems?)
Hopefully one of those works, if not any suggestion? Please, I’m all ears!!!
MTH, i’m a bit unsure of how to do that. do I just insert the disk and follow onscreen instructions or something? Also, will re-installing windows completely remove any previous files, programs, etc. in case it is a virus problem? Also, I have no special files i need to keep, so wiping my hard drive would be no problem.
PS: I’m new to computers so please make instructions thorough.
Melinda, I’m not sure if that site’s reliable, because mcafee doesn’t have a check mark over it, it has a question mark, so i’ll pass thanks.
Carling, I’m actually seriously considering Linux, but I have a few questions: Do I need drivers, and can I run the following programs just as good as on windows: Itunes (with the store working of course), media go ("), DVD video soft, steam (a biggie, as i have bought several games already, and i love gaming on PC), any PC games ("), microsoft office home and student (I know about open office, but I already bought this. Yes I have hears of wine, but I also heard it was a bit buggy, and running two OSes at once could be a major slowdown, esp. when I’m playing Crysis! Thanks in advance
MTH, I don’t have a lot of time right now (exams), but i’ll try it out in about a week, thanks.
Oh, and Carling, I have a geforce 540m, and I’m not sure how to install the drivers. I also heard that geforce drivers could be a problem on linux. any suggestions?

I live in the Maryland/DC area and I was recently employed by a company that sold mortgage loan modifications..at my initial interview I was a little sketched out because the company had just opened, did not really have any sort of history, I couldn’t find anything about them on the internet. The man who interviewed me showed me a chart of the earning potential (there was no salary-straight commission) and it seemed way to good to be true. I was leery. He also said "you can have any sort of life you have ever wanted making this kind of money’ I felt he was selling me on the position almost, I should have gone with my gut instinct. After the interview, like I said, I attempted to do some research, I have a background in mortgages, I was employed as a loan officer straight out of college several years ago before the bubble popped and made quite a substantial living for a person straight out of college. I found little on the company so I researched the industry and came across some red flags, such as it was illegal to charge a fee to do a mortgage loan modification in the state of Maryland.
The next day the man that interviewed me called me several times to offer me the position, another red flag. I finally took the call and told him my concerns that I had learned during my research, naturally he had an answer for everything, the "used car salesmen" that he was. He said it was illegal to charge for loan mods in Maryland but they got around it because they were headquartered in a state where it was legal. I had been interviewing for weeks, with companies offering as low as per hour, I am a college grad with a decent amount of successful sales experience, so I caved in and took chance with this company.
I ended up staying with them only a few short weeks. During that time I did sell a client on a loan mod, my boss whom interviewed me assisted in my first closing, but I obtained the client and sold her. The week I was supposed to be paid I finally got fed up and quit. There was technical glitches and the phone system was down and I wasted 5 days of my life playing poker on FB out of boredom with nothing to do. So I quit. I contacted the owner of this company, or president, whatever you want to call him, and asked him if they could send my commission check to my house because I had quit and explained why..he first tried to convince me to go back saying the glitches had been worked out, but at this point I was beginning to see the whole thing as a scam and was over it. He told me he would look into the status of my deal, and check to see if they had received the payment from the client and contact me the following day. After I got off the phone with him I emailed a former coworker who was actually the only employee to stay with the company for more then a few weeks and told her what had happened..she looked into it and discovered that they had received the payment from the client and the deal had indeed went through..she even provided me with a Fed Ex tracking number, but then asked me not to let them know that she had given me this information as it may be deemed unethical or a breech of security, I agreed to protect her by not saying anything about it. I contacted the headquarters two days later after not receiving a call back , I identified myself to someone else who answered the phone and asked to speak to the boss, he put me on hold and returned to say "yea he said we have no of that file or that client. sorry’ and hung up on me.

I have looked into filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau but learned that they only deal in consumer complaints and not with employee-employer issues. My commission was only a few hundred dollars so I can’t see hiring a lawyer. At this point it is not even about the money. I spent over 100 hours at this establishment working my tail off chasing this imaginary dream of financial success that the man had pitched me. Looking back I should have followed my gut and not taken the position, now I just want to let people know so that no one else falls victim to this b*llshit scheme and wastes there time in already difficult economic times.

My question is: Is there a way to even go about getting my money? ( I doubt it) OR is there a place or public forum I can file a complaint so that others when researching the company can be made aware of what they are, and not fall victim to the same thing?

–I should also note that the coworker that I mentioned has since quit from not receiving payment on at least 4 deals that she closed and is considering taking legal action and that she found out that the last company that this man ran was shut down by the FED ..

I know this was a long post so I greatly appreciate anyone that takes the time to read it and provide feedback.

I got my daughter a phone in October. In the last 2 weeks Capitol One has been calling her at least twice a day. I’ve told them to stop several times, and that the person they were looking for was NOT at this number. I’ve been told it takes 72 hours to remove the number from their system. 2 weeks has been ample time. The people calling were rude to her the first time they called, and I’ve instructed her not to answer 1-800 # calls. What can I do at this point to get them to stop? They have no business contacting me at all.
I would like to pursue the highest form of legal action I can against this company. From what I’ve read on the web, they are ruthless to their customers and I have no tolerance for banks at this point. They are not allowed to do what they wish to people.
itsjustme: Did you read my question? If you did you must not be capable of comprehending the English language. You must live under a rock or something because kindergartener’s have cell phones these days. Guess what, she also does her homework on her own laptop, has a flatscreen in her bedroom equipped with a ps3 & wii!

When I search for a network, the network I set up is listed several times. It will be listed as network, network2, network3. I only set up the network once. Is this a problem? Is it some sort of security risk? The network is hidden and security enabled. I am not that computer savvy and was concerned that these variations on my network have appeared. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks.

…and the party says they didn’t even call you. It later rings several times, I later call back and the caller yells at me.

This is driving me crazy. Any ideas? I can’t block the phone number on my t-mobile phone.

We just got Clear/Cisco because AT&T screwed us over. We’ve never had a wi-fi before, and I have no idea why it continuously disconnects me. It lets me get online for a minute, but disconnects and wont reconnect again until after unplugging and plugging the router back in several times…This is happening on all computers and it’s extremely frustrating. How do I fix this?

For instance, when you call an airline and you’re asked via the automated system to enter your departure city, date and time (and then it tells you several times that, "I m sorry, I didn’t understand what you need").

I just got a phone call at work that sounded like it was from overseas. The caller was "confirming" our company’s "free yellow pages business listing." He already knew our company name and contact info and I said "correct" as he read it back.

Then the call got weird. He got me to spell out my name and then asked for my job title. When I answered, he said that title wasn’t in their system and I should just say I was a "supervisor" when he transfered me to someone who was going to confirm our listing.

A second guy came on and said his call was being timed, so to please not interrupt him because he had to complete it in so many seconds. Then he said to interrupt him if the info was wrong. He repeated this mumbo-jumbo several times.

When this caller asked me my job title, I gave my original answer. He said, "A supervisor?" When I answered, "Not really," he hung up.

Has this happened to anyone else? I’m afraid I said "yes" at one point and they’ll be able to scam me.
They already knew our company information, so the only thing I really gave them was my own name.

I’m not sure what it means that they hung up on me.

I’m from kuwait, I bought a voip card from a store here. I returned it but they ignore it, they said the reseller didnt accept it, it’s not their fault why it’s expired. I just opened the card for few days and haven’t used it even a single second. I’ve emailed the cards company, but no reply. several times it happend to me.

This has happened several times in my nearly 14 years with my employer…..

This is a case where some person in some authoritative capacity deliberately causes a crisis of some kind. Say, for purposes of illustration, they are in charge of purchasing supplies for an infirmary. This person orders his or her subordinate purchasing agents not to purchase some kind of bandage. Then only days before the supplies are depleted he or she will “discover” the shortage. He or she will “save the day” by purchasing the bandages and having them shipped overnight mail. He or she will deflect the fault to someone else, and claim all the credit for the “save”. The last time this happened the shortage was blamed on a software glitch even though the guilty party was alerted almost a month before the crisis.

I have seen this before. The guilty parties get away with it for a while. Eventually the management catches on and the person gets removed. But that is never before this person has stalled the process for weeks, and/or embarrassed the company.

I am pretty sure I am observing it happing as I type this.

The last time I pointed this out, the person was somewhat charismatic and nobody believed any of us. He was later found out, and dismissed. They never remember who “blew the whistle”. In fact the “whistleblower” (me) was made to look like a big jerk.

This time I want to just save my “evidence” and “let the dominos fall where the will”. Once the crisis becomes critical, I can show my evidence. Would you do that?

I used “bandages” for illustration only. I really am a software developer for electronic banking.

a person rang me several times and hung up when i said hello…. im quite intrigued and i need to find out who it is. any ideas?? i tried ringing my service provider and they said that i have to file a police complaint before they can provide me with the number… so any other way? if any of you are computer hackers or something… you might know

Disk management doesn’t recognize my Maxtor MaxLine 500GB SATAII that I just added to my Dell Dimension E510. The Maxtor’s model number is 7H500F0 or possibly 7H500FO. I put the drive into the open slot under the 250GB SATAII that came with my comp. I hooked it to the same power cable that powers my 250GB SATAII.

I then hooked the 500GB SATAII to my mobo with a SATAII cable I bought at Fry’s. I plugged that SATAII cable into the mobo in the slot that says RAID 2 next to the RAID 0 slot that my 250GB SATAII is plugged into.

I did all of this with the power off and the power cable unplugged when the light on the mobo was off. I rebooted the comp several times. I read online manuals/PDF. I tried to call customer support. I have tried the maxblast4win.exe software from maxtor.com (it doesn’t have my model number and looks like its just a list of instruction manuals). I downloaded the satacard driver 300 and the sata card driver 150. I don’t know how to use them, theyre zipped

answer 1a only…..

1a) Are you male or female?

1) You try to enter your password on the microwave
Yes
No

2: You haven’t played patience with real cards in years
Ye
No

3: You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 3
Yes
No

4:You e-mail your work colleague at the desk next to you to ask ‘Do you fancy going down the pub?’ and they reply ‘Yeah, give me five minutes’
Yes
No

5: You chat several times a day with a stranger from South America, but you haven’t spoken to your next door neighbour yet this year
Yes
No

6:You buy a computer and a week later it is out of date
Yes
No

7:Your reason for not staying in touch with friends is that they do not have e-mail addresses
Yes
No

8: Your idea of being organized is multiple colored post-it notes
Yes
No

9:You hear most of your jokes via email instead of in person
Yes
No

10: When you go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner
yes
No

11: When you make phone calls from home, you accidentally insert a ’9′ to get an outside line
Yes
No

12: Your Curriculum Vitae is on a diskette in your pocket
Yes
No

13: Your biggest worry when a system crash is that you lose all your best jokes
Yes
No

14: Holiday is something you roll over to next year
Yes
No

15: Your relatives and family describe your job as ‘works with computers’
Yes
No

16: You read this entire list, kept nodding and smiling
Yes
No

17: As you read this list, you think about forwarding it to your ‘mates you send jokes to’ e-mail group
Yes
No

18:It crosses your mind that your jokes group may have seen this list already, but you decide to send it anyway
Yes
No

I have recently restored my pc. Have done this before with no problems. Now, I am attempting to reinstall Sony Screenblast and find that I am having difficulty getting the activation code. I have tried several times and each time it says that there is an error contacting the server and to call customer service. Well they are closed saturday and sunday but I need to use the software today. Can someone help me out please? Does someone have an activation code? Thanks in advance.
By the way, I have my serial #, I do not need another serial #. I need an activation code only. Thanks.

We live in the U.S. and have a family plan (three phones on our service). We need about 800 minutes per month (U.S.); but travel internationally several times per year and would like a phone that works internationally.

We have friends that we visit overseas and some occasions to work overseas. For example, over Christmas we were lost in Germany trying to find out friend’s home. It would have been worth a lot to have been able to call them from our car for a few minutes and get directions…so, the cost of the international roaming isn’t the biggest concern. We wouldn’t be using it that often; but when we needed it, we would want it to be reliable. We travel worldwide – so a plan with the most coverage (Europe, Asia) would be best.

We also want a reasonable rate on our family plan, since this is really what we use the most. Thoughts?