Yes, apparently because Dell ships their systems with UNGROUNDED, 2-pronged adapters, the laptop’s unfortunate user acts as a grounding strip for the 120 volts of electrical wonder. How nice. But Dell, on their forms, claim that this “tingling sensation” is expected behavior of all 2-pronged devices. That is absolute garbage! You shouldn’t be shocked for surfing the web, listening to your iPod, or scanning pictures of your face with your scanner.

But don’t worry… Dell is conducting a survey so that they can decide IF they want to offer a program for people to PURCHASE safe, 3-pronged adapters to replace the old ones. Nice. We are sending you dangerous electrical marvels, but we will send you safe ones at a “discounted price.” Oh, how nice. Yet the person I talked to today denies that their systems are unsafe, and claims that they had no knowledge of the issue. NICE… you don’t even know about issues posted on your own site!

Needless to say, I promptly canceled my order, thanking them, but graciously declining the chance to be launched 10 feet into the air and being crispy fried before hitting the ground.

So, I will be doing some rethinking. My laptop will become my cheap laptop for taking to classes at college, my Vista machine will become the server, my mac will stay at home…my brother is extatic about that! , and I will build a marvelous new machine… I will post specs in a new post.

What a disappointment. I was looking forward to a great new laptop, but I was sorely disappointed. Thanks Dell!

I will post pictures of the new system when it arrives. Here are the specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 (2.5 GHz 6MB Cache)
• Midnight Blue Casing with “Microsatin Finish”… whatever that is
• 4 GB DDR2 RAM at 667MHz
• Hi Res 1680 x 1050 LCD screen with 2 MP camera
• 256 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT Video
• 250 GB 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
• Windows Vista Ultimate… though it is the 32-bit version, so I will be upgrading it to 64-bit
• Intel Next-Gen Wireless N
• 6 Cell battery… only about 2.5 hours of life, but I’m ok with that

I have a two year old HP laptop that is now acting as a server. (The very server that is powering this website! ) However, I have had too many problems with it, and when it came to it, HP’s support left me just about high and dry. Award-winning customer service my rear. So, naturally, I was looking to another manufacturer to lighten my seemingly dark path to laptop bliss. Gateway is out of the question. If I wanted a Fisher-Price laptop, then I would buy one from Wal*Mart. My next choice was Dell. Things looked promising. They offer a significant discount for students, and I was able to find everything that I wanted for almost $800 off the retail price. Great…ish.

Let me set the scene for you. I am going to be getting Vista, which, if you don’t know, is a HUGE resource hog. So, I figure that I would go big. One aspect of a computer that is important to me, is RAM. More RAM, more programs running at the same time, the happier I am. However, I wanted to go REALLY big, 4 GB big. Ok, great. No problem. Dell has that option – standard, in fact. There is only one problem… Dell is really only offering you 3 GB, and selling you 1 GB of useless silicone.

Allow me to explain. Windows comes in two varieties, 32-bit and 64-bit, the latter being the newer. Because the 64-bit architecture is still new, there are compatibility issues, with software, drivers, etc. However, the crucial difference between the two architectures is that 64-bit can see and utilize 4 GB of RAM. 32-bit cannot. Microsoft will allow Vista SP1 machines to SEE the additional GB, but it still cannot utilize it. Great. Sell me something I cannot use. So, I want to bite the bullet and go 64-bit. BUT NO! Dell doesn’t sell 64-bit OS… or maybe they do?! I chatted with a “Product Adviser” today, and initially the technician said sure, you can get that option. After asking if I would need to call to get it “special ordered,” the technician flip-flopped and said that I couldn’t get it! WHAT?!?! You just said I could. After asking for clarification, they confirmed that I could not. I asked if I could special order it, or if they knew when they might offer 64-bit. They responded saying that they couldn’t disclose that information, but that they don’t offer 64-bit. I was fuming. After thanking them for their “help,” they ended with a perfectly, grammatically sound, “Welcome.”

So, now I am at a loss. I have two options. 1. Go with HP and know that half my hard drive will be chuck full of bloatware, spyware, and a recovery partition that does NOTHING, or 2. I buy the system from Dell, and then reinstall the 64 bit Vista with the disk that I have. But then this raises another question. If I reinstall the 64-bit OS, only trying to get the full use of my system, will Dell then void or ignore my 3 year warranty because it is not the “original operating system?” Oh trust me, HP tried to pull that on me once before.

After being dumbfounded at Dell today, I sent an email over to the wonderful folks at PC World’s On Your Side column, asking them for advice.

I will keep you updated as I hear from PC World, and then ultimately make my final decision.

I leave you with this final thought. “What happened to the world where the customer was always right, when the company was there for the customer. What kind of world are we coming to when we are at the mercy of the corporate monster who cares more about selling its customer useless junk than satisfying its customer?”