Noob with his first notebook

[Quintz]

Just got my first note book and I have a big noob question...


Is it safe to plug in the AC adapter while I have the notebook running? I'm thinking not due to a power surge/spike to the system, but thinking that there may be some protection already in that will safe gaurd it.

Oh, I got a Dell Inspiron B130, nothing fancy, just something to have for a portable DVD player and have next to me while watching NASCAR with live stats. :-)

Shoot... just saw that I put this in the wrong forum... sorry mods, please move to correct one.

[not important]

I'm not sure about the "correct" answer but I plugin, and unplug, mine while it is up and running.

[LaptopExtreme]

It'll be fine, plug away. The power brick should do fine.

[Staren]

If you have bad power (as in you fry surge protectors on a regular basis) then you might do something to your power brick at some point, but otherwise you should be fine.

[Quintz]

This really doesn't pertain to the title, but it is related and I did not want add another thread to the board. A little of a rant...

Well, my brand new Dell laptop took a header on me yesterday while having the live stats on the race. So not only was I hot because of the idiots on the track, but then losing my computer.
So I ran some diagnostics that Dell had preinstalled, and was finding errors in the HD. So I called Dell, gave them the errors and they told me that the HD failed because I removed to many applications too soon. I've been working with computers for almost 30yrs now, and I hate a store brand due to the junk that comes preloaded, so the 1st thing I do is remove this junk, and it shouldn't cause a HD failure, so I told the rep this so after some "discussion" the rep told me that they would send a new HD preloaded from the factory. I asked the rep if this made sence since the first thing I'll do is remove the junk again and possibly cause another failure if thier product is that sensitve. After more "discussion" I am getting a new HD with nothing on it, and all application disks where I can load what I want on the computer and throw away everything else.

Got to love it!!!

[mairving]

I don't know if you did but you should never lead any tech support guy on. Saying something like 'do you think me uninstalling the software caused the problems?', makes it too easy for them to give you a yes answer.

Hard drives are made to add and remove things from them. No way that made your hard drive go bad. They told you wrong.

[Quintz]

That's just it, the tech person asked me originally after hearing the errors I gave her, "what did you do with your computer?" I asked her what she meant by that, and then she asked "have you loaded alot of applications and or deleted some?" My responce was "I'm 35 years old and have been using computers since I was 12, I've had 10-12 computers that I have done the exact same thing to them, as I did with this one, which is immediately remove all of the junk you install on the computer that I do not want and none of them had a problem with it." That's when the rep went into warranty replacement of the HD.

[Quintz]

The saga continues....
Today I receive a package and it's my recovery & application CD's but no HD. I noticed last nite on my Dell account that this was coming with a charge for it. I called Dell then to tell them that there is no way I'll be paying for them and the rep said I shouldn't be (I got thier name and ID#). I noticed though of no sign of the HD even being sent. So I give Dell another call today at lunch, and after being transfered to 3 different reps, I find out the HD has not even been ordered yet. So having the tell the rep that I don't have time to try the recoverey cd's to repair the HD (was on my lunch and already over my hour), they ordered my HD and put it on 2 day delivery. I asked for next day and "it was not in thier power to do so".

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR