The Best Buy Geek Squad guy called about 8:30 p.m. yesterday to say they need the power cable for my Dell XPS 700 because they don't have any power cables heavy enough to run it.
So I took it to them shortly after they opened at 10 a.m. today and one of the techies dove into my computer in search of the problem (no video output).
A short time later, he called me back behind the plastic curtain to see what he had found. He'd pulled the dual video card array and then discovered a loose motherboard part lying on the bottom of the case. It's a little lozenge-shaped silver gizmo with black numbers on it - about the size of a ladybug - and he showed me where it had originally been secured to the motherboard. I believe he said it's a resistor and he seemed to think it was associated with the video circuitry.
So I signed off on the $69.99 charge for complete diagnostics and left the machine with them to finish a thorough check of all systems to determine if anything else was amiss. They are to call me later today or tomorrow with their findings and recommendations.
At this point, it kinda looks like the whole thing will have to go to their service center in St. Louis and I'll probably need a new motherboard which could amount to about $300 in parts and labor. And the guesstimate is that it will be out of my hands for 5-6 weeks.
Oh, well. That's a whole lot cheaper than buying a new system.
1 comment:
Ouch!
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