[To begin this story at the beginning, see “Black box appears in Denver; no identifying marks“)
With luck, this will be the last chapter of Grandma vs. the Alien. Cross your fingers.
My last mention of the Alien was about ten days ago, when my alien nemesis was sent packing back to the mother ship. In the meantime, the aliens were constructing a totally new replacement. Said replacement was launched a few days later, with my house as its target.
Alien II landed yesterday.
Shhhh. Come closer. I don’t want to jinx it or anything. Alien II obeyed its programming, started up promptly, and has been running ever since. As I type, it is humming happily to itself in the back room. It’s been 24 hours now, and there hasn’t been so much as a hiccup. I don’t want to jump to any hasty conclusions, after all this time and aggravation, but it appears that I may have my new computer — finally.
(For those of you new to this story, the Alien was originally ordered August 23, and my first report followed a few weeks later.)
Update: 11/03/2008 – It’s been several weeks now, and Alien II continues to perform well, without incident. Quite likely the first computer, as my son said, was just one of those flukes, a lemon with something wrong somewhere that no one seemed able to diagnose. And I really can’t fault the company’s service; they were always courteous and responded about as promptly as one could expect. Still, it was an extremely frustrating experience and it will probably be a very long time before the memory fades.
Update: 11/29/2009 – A year later, there have been zero problems with the computer. Fast, flawless performance running Warhammer and, more recently, Aion. Vista loads so slowly that I rarely turn it off, but that’s not the computer’s fault. One good/bad thing I’ve noticed — I used to expect, and in the winter, count on the heat generated by my computer to help keep the room cozy. This Alienware computer puts out virtually no heat, or at least not enough to be noticeable or to affect the temperature in the room (tiny room, about 9′ x 10′). Even Grandma knows cooler is better when it comes to computer operation. That’s it. Just thought I’d mention this since so many people seem to be hitting this series of posts with this year’s Christmas shopping season underway.
At last. Praise God and and all the fantasy creatures that roam the earth! LOL, 30 – Gramma vs the Alien. You cwack me up.
Annie
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Me so happy. I’ll reserve ecstatic for, say, a week from now. 🙂
WHOOT-WHOOT! *aw, shoot- sorry* What I meant to say was,
I’m glad things are going well… *knock on wood*
LOL!
I’m happy for ya, shhhh!
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Thanks. Let’s all cross our fingers for the next few weeks, cuz I’m not convinced yet. I had come to think of the old Dell as “bullet-proof.” I feel like now I have a colicky baby on my hands.
Congrats – Personally I think Alienware Customer Service (and mind you, in my opinion, that title is a misnomer) SUCKS. Heaven forbid you get your laptop or system from a friend and something goes wrong. NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT. Nada, nothing, just a mook on the Cust service line telling you if you didn’t buy it you won’t get any kind of help. And the worst part is I really liked the laptop I had, but will never recommend it to anyone. These guys are a joke with their high prices and lack of support. They’re just money hungry.
Long before it was all over, I really started missing Dell service. Dell taking over Alienware didn’t seem to have made any difference. Of course, I had come to think of my Dells as virtually bulletproof. I guess I was just long overdue for a really awful computer experience. And I hope that’s the one and only time.