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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
 Posted - 08/31/2003 : 14:17:31
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Okay. I know this isn't a tech support forum, but some of the people on it (Cult of Frank, El Barto, and Dave) seem to know their way around computers. I have asked this question on an actual tech support forum, too. No one responded. I just got a new DVD drive for my computer. I have Windows XP, and after I installed it, it read it in the device manager. The door opens and closes, and obviously the computer recognizes it is there. But it will not play a DVD to save it's life. I'm wondering if, because it is recognized in the device manager, does that mean it has the neccessary drivers to operate properly? I have been on Microsoft's website, Dell's website, and the brand of the drive, Samsung's, to find the appropriate drivers. But no luck. I did manage to find the drivers on an independent forum specifically devoted to finding drivers, but it didn't seem to work. Any ideas, anyone?
Quantum nonlocality does not prove that "signals" travel "faster than light." Rather, it shows that at a deep level of reality the speed of light as a limiting factor is irrelevant because phenomena are instantaneously connected regardless of distance. |
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BLT
> Teenager of the Year <
South Sandwich Islands
4204 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 14:29:57
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I don't think it's a question of drivers, but rather having some DVD playing software (which will install codecs). I've used PowerDVD and WinDVD. There may be some freeware DVD players out there, but I don't think Windows Media Player plays them out of the box.
--edit--
Also, some video cards come with DVD software. I remember an ATI card I bought a few years ago came with one. |
Edited by - BLT on 08/31/2003 14:31:09 |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 14:36:12
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I have all the disks that came with my computer, to reinstall drivers, programs, etc. I have Power DVD installed right now, but it won't play anything.
The other thing you mentioned might be the problem...I have a ATI Radeon video card, and it comes with it's own DVD player, CD-Player, TV-Out connection, and a few other things. Think I'll check into that...although, when I first got my computer, and the DVD drive was the original, it played through Windows Media Player. I didn't even have all the ATI software installed. Anyway, thanks for your suggestions.
Quantum nonlocality does not prove that "signals" travel "faster than light." Rather, it shows that at a deep level of reality the speed of light as a limiting factor is irrelevant because phenomena are instantaneously connected regardless of distance. |
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BLT
> Teenager of the Year <
South Sandwich Islands
4204 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 14:49:14
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| You said it appears in "My Computer," right? If so then it should play with PowerDVD. I don't think you need to install the ATI player. I haven't installed a DVD player in XP, though. At home and work we're still on Windows 2000. |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 14:52:03
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It does read in "My Computer" but it won't play. And, I had the ATI DVD player already installed, because awhile back I wanted the cable TV hook up. The ATI player won't play it either. Maybe Dell sent me a shitty DVD player to replace the one that fucked up in the first place..?
Quantum nonlocality does not prove that "signals" travel "faster than light." Rather, it shows that at a deep level of reality the speed of light as a limiting factor is irrelevant because phenomena are instantaneously connected regardless of distance. |
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Visiting Sasquatch
= Cult of Ray =
USA
451 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 15:00:06
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| Try troubleshooting...uninstall and reinstall the DVD drivers, then uninstall and reinstall Power DVD. Also, make sure you are using the LATEST drivers for both your DVD drive and your video card, and the LATEST build of Power DVD, which is 5.0.806..etc..Other than that, you might have to suffer Dell's support. |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 15:12:58
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I HATE DELL TECH SUPPORT!!! I could do better than them. I don't know much about computers, but I swear to God I could do their job. All they are paid to do is go through a series of tests, like opening up the tower and unhooking and reattaching the connections. If they're feeling squirrely they might have you go into BIOS to fix the problem.
Quantum nonlocality does not prove that "signals" travel "faster than light." Rather, it shows that at a deep level of reality the speed of light as a limiting factor is irrelevant because phenomena are instantaneously connected regardless of distance. |
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BLT
> Teenager of the Year <
South Sandwich Islands
4204 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 15:22:21
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| If it's a Dell make sure the jumper on the DVD drive is set to cable select (CS). They set everything to CS from the factory. |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 15:23:31
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What is the jumper? How do I access that?
Quantum nonlocality does not prove that "signals" travel "faster than light." Rather, it shows that at a deep level of reality the speed of light as a limiting factor is irrelevant because phenomena are instantaneously connected regardless of distance. |
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BLT
> Teenager of the Year <
South Sandwich Islands
4204 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 16:36:47
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http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm?term=JUMPER&exact=1
It should be visible on the back of the drive near the ribbon cable connection. There will be three choices, CS MA SL (cable select, master, slave). If the hard drive is set to CS, you want everything else to be CS, too. Otherwise weird things happen, like drives periodically disappearing or acting weird. |
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Visiting Sasquatch
= Cult of Ray =
USA
451 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 16:54:39
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Regular CDs work, right? If so, it's not a physical problem, like jumpers, rather, it's a software problem. 1) Uninstall ANY previous drivers you installed. 2) Uninstall PowerDVD. 3)Let Windows XP find the "best" driver for it, THEN test it with a DVD movie to see if it can see the non-movie files, like all the extra junk they add. 4) THEN reinstall PowerDVD, and see if you can play the movie.
If this doesn't work, check to make sure it really is a DVD drive. Hehe. If it is a DVD drive, call Dell to see if they have any known issues, or if you just got a DOA drive...I'm betting it's bad drivers, or bad DVD decoder software.
Some links for you.
http://windowsmedia.com/9series/personalization/Plugins.asp?page=4&lookup=Plugins
http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/index.jsp
http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/topics/segtopic_services.htm |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2003 : 22:08:33
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I wouldn't go that far yet, but Visiting Sasquatch is correct that if your drive is recognizing DVDs (does the label or name of the DVD come up when you put a disc in?) or CDs, and if you can play a CD, you don't have a hardware problem. But I don't know that you've said that regular CDs work or that it shows the label on the DVD.
If regular CDs won't play in there and the above is not true, then I would recommend actually not using cable select as this sometimes causes problems with different BIOSes. If you have it on the same cable as a hard drive or other CD player, select the hard drive as Master (this is probably already done) and the DVD as Slave. Then you don't have to worry about your system trying to figure it out and you'll notice a small speed increase to boot.
BLT's advice is right, CS (cable select) does weird stuff in a lot of situations, so it's better just to set it properly and be done with it. The jumper is a little plastic cap that connects two pins, almost always found on the back of the drive where the cables plug in. Just make sure it's set properly before you get into uninstalling and so on. Though these drivers you downloaded may be part of the problem as well.
Choosing Master/Slave:
The master, as the name implies, is the more important one. Your boot hard drive MUST be set to master or your computer will not boot properly. You can only have one master and one slave per cable, so if anything else is on that cable, then it is the slave.
On the other channel/cable, if there is a hard drive as well, make it the master. If not, the next highest priority are writable drives like CD/DVD burners, and ZIP drives. If there is only one drive on a channel, it also must be set to master.
If that doesn't help, then we've got to go the route of Mr. Sasquatch and uninstall those drivers and start again. Assuming, as he says, that it IS a DVD drive.
Hope that helps you a little. If it's not recognizing the DVDs (or CDs, etc) even after you do this, then you might want to double check that the IDE cable (the big flat cable) is connected properly. The coloured wire (usually red) goes to pin 1, which will be labelled on the drive. It sounds like this part is connected properly, or I don't think Windows would even recognize the drive, but... |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 00:02:39
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No CD's will play in the DVD drive. If you put a CD in the CD-R drive, the computer starts the fan up, and you can tell because of the noise. If you put it in the DVD drive, it just sits there and does jack shit. It doesn't matter if it's DVD, CD, or whatever. If you go into "My Computer" it reads DVD Drive F, but it won't display the name of any CD you put in there. I've unplugged and plugged back in the IDE cables for both drives.
How do I actually change the jumper? I opened the computer up earlier, and saw the "CS" connection. But, I didn't see any way to "set" it.
Sorry if this exhausts everyone's suggestions. I've tried like, everything I know to do, and it still doesn't work.
Thanx for all your suggestions, tho.
Quantum nonlocality does not prove that "signals" travel "faster than light." Rather, it shows that at a deep level of reality the speed of light as a limiting factor is irrelevant because phenomena are instantaneously connected regardless of distance. |
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BLT
> Teenager of the Year <
South Sandwich Islands
4204 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 07:22:14
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| You remove the little plastic jumper from wherever it is (probably master) and push it on in the CS position. The way CS works is that either everything or nothing must be set to CS. You can't have one IDE component set to CS and another on MA or SL. We get new Dells all the time at work, and they are always set to CS (including the hard drive). This lets the computer figure out how to set the IDE channels. Is your machine a Dell Dimension? If so what number (4100, 4500, etc.)? If you have one of the newer black cases (model 4300 and up) you should be able to get to the jumper without removing the drive. |
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Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 10:34:59
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k, it's not so much the drivers, it's not installed properly since a CD won't play in it either.
Out of curiosity, do you have the DVD drive plugged into the ATA ribbon (big fat wire-thing) into the motherboard, or an ATA card (like your video/sound card) inside the box? I found out that it has to be plugged into the mobo..
Sounds like it could be a jumper prob too..
When you start the computer, does the BIOS read the drive as well? I guess, since it's in the XP device manager..hmmm..weird that it's in there, but not working. |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 14:26:26
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 I opened up the computer. Both disc drives were set to CS. I was about to take Cult of Frank's advice, and switch the hard drive to master. But, the hard drive doesn't have a little white tab as do the other three drives. It has a little black one, and there are four sets of two little prongs each, instead of three as on the other drives. This made me somewhat nervous. I don't know if the hard drive was set on "CS" or "MA," as it wasn't labled like the others. I could see where it said MA and SL on the DVD and CDR drives, but it wasn't labled on the hard drive, and since there were four choices instead of three I didn't know which one would be the Master. (I did, incidentally, try setting both drives to SL without touching the hard drive. It wouldn't read the drives upon starting, in fact it wouldn't even open Windows.) |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 14:51:16
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You guys are amateurs compared to me...I could have had this problem solved in half the posts. However, someone FINALLY came up with the master/slave/cs solution, which is the first thing I would have suggested...if nothing is showing up, chances are that is your problem. I never used cable select on any of my drives ever, they're all set manually to master or slave. Don't go fucking with the master/slave/cs settings of your other drives because the position for each varies from drive to drive. Most drives tell you which is which on the label on top of the drive, or sometimes it's even etched into the back of the drive where the cables and shit actually plug into.
Does it show up when the system starts up? Since you have a Dell, it probably has one of those annoying boot logos up that covers up all the nitty gritty of the bootup process. Try hitting ESC or something, and you should see it list all your drives.
Is your new DVD at the end or the middle of the cable? If it's at the end (or very oddly, but still slightly possible, the middle), chances may be that the cable is upsidedown, ultimately positioned incorrectly which would cause things NOT to be readable. Make sure the cable is also firmly attached to the motherboard. Don't worry about trying to play DVDs just yet, you should be able to do that once you're able to actually access the rest of the drive.
Tell me this, how many drives do you have in your system right now? I'll assume you have 2 IDE channels.
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FRANK BLACK SATAN WORKSHIP BLACK MASS |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 15:06:00
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I have, besides the hard drive:
a DVD
a CD-R
a ZIP drive.
El Barto, you mentioned that you always manually set the jumpers to appropriate Master/Slave positions, but you told me to not mess with the settings on the other drives, because they are all specific to the individual drives?! I thought that only two things could be possible. One, you set everything, all your drives, to CS, and the computer sorts it out. The other is that you manually set the hard drive to Master, and all other drives to slaves. I don't know if my hard drive is set to master position, but it probably isn't, because when I set the other two drives to Slaves, the computer didn't recognize them in the BIOS. If the hard drive had been set to Master, this should have worked. The problem is, there is NOWHERE on the back of the fucking hard drive that specifies where the Master position is. I would simply say that it corresponds to the Master position on the CD-R drive, which is labeled clearly, but there are THREE positions on both those drives, while there are FOUR unmarked ones on the hard disk.
I'll check about where the DVD drive is on the cable. |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 15:27:46
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Lemme clear that up...I have always set mine manually because I see no point in cable select if I can just go ahead and do it manually. I also heard a few years back that some systems flat out get confused with cable select.
When I said "not mess with the settings on the other drives, because they are all specific to the individual drives," I mean that the master position for the jumper on one drive could be different from the master position on the next drive...it's not really a standard which is which, so manufacturers seem to randomly set up their drives that way. If I were you, I would manually set them ONLY IF YOU KNOW which position is which. Therefore, leave your harddrive as it is, since you said it's not marked. You might even want to find out the exact model of the harddrive and check the manufacturer's website, but that doesn't matter, let's move on...
I'm going to go ahead and assume that you have 2 IDE channels, with the harddrive and the ZIP drive on one channel and the CD/DVD drives on another, am I right? Which one is on top (end of the cable), and which one is on the bottom (middle of the cable)? The one on top, if you're going to manually set them, which I'd recommend if it's marked, should be set to Master. The one in the middle should be set to slave.
quote:
One, you set everything, all your drives, to CS, and the computer sorts it out. The other is that you manually set the hard drive to Master, and all other drives to slaves. I don't know if my hard drive is set to master position, but it probably isn't, because when I set the other two drives to Slaves, the computer didn't recognize them in the BIOS.
When you have an IDE setup, you basically have 2 devices per channel. When you have two devices, the one at the end of the cable is set to master and the one in the middle is set to slave. If you have a lone drive on a channel, it should be set to master. You're correct in the assumption of having things set to CS is one complete solution.
Are you able to access all your other drives? Lemme know where all your drives are connected. While you're at it, you might as well toss the ZIP drive...talk about obsolete!
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FRANK BLACK SATAN WORKSHIP BLACK MASS |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 15:49:39
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I found out, El Barto, that the zip and hard drives are on one IDE cable, and the two disk drives are on the other. I set the jumpers on the DVD drive, which is on the end of the cable, to Master, and the CD-R drive to Slave. While it still recognizes both drives, it acts the same as before. The CD drive works fine, but the DVD won't play music, movies or anything. When you insert any type of disk into it, it simply says "Please insert a disk into Drive F." Very confusing.
By the way, I guess my hard drive is set to Master. I was going under the assumption that if that was indeed set to Master, EVERYTHING else, on both that IDE cable and the other, should have to be set to Slave. On a positive note, this has been a very informative topic for me, as of yesterday I had virtually no clue about jumpers, IDE cables, and whatnot.
Quantum nonlocality does not prove that "signals" travel "faster than light." Rather, it shows that at a deep level of reality the speed of light as a limiting factor is irrelevant because phenomena are instantaneously connected regardless of distance. |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 16:03:50
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Glacial, if your hard drive came with a manual, jumper positions are probably in there. The fact that it's black instead of white doesn't change anything, it's basically just a little wire with a plastic cover that connects the two prongs as you put it. Here's what I would do:
1) Try to find documentation for your hard drive (manual, top of the hard drive (sometimes there's even a diagram), etc. If you find it, then set it to master and make sure it's the drive plugged into the end of the cable. Set your DVD as slave and plug it into the same cable. Make sure that your hard drive stays connected to the same place on the motherboard that it was before you started.
-> If you can't find any documentation, just disconnect the other drives (make sure you keep track of how they were connected) and use trial and error to figure out which jumper setting is the master. You assumedly know which on CS is, so it shouldn't take more than three boots. Just try a jumper setting, reboot, and if it works (of course, you'll have no CD-ROMs) then you've got it set to Master. As long as you know how your computer was set up in the first place, you can't do anything wrong this way. It just won't boot. And then you try the next one. If none of the jumper settings let you boot, then you've probably got a BIOS setting that is conflicting and that's a whole other can of worms.
2) Once you've got your hard drive set to master, set up the other drives as follows:
DVD: slave to hard drive.
CD-R: master on the other cable (again, make sure it's the one connected to the end of the cable)
ZIP: slave on the other cable
3) Make sure your BIOS is set to either Auto-Detect your Primary/Secondary masters and slaves, or if it is already set up to know your hard drive, etc, then just leave that be. For the record, Primary is the cable that your boot hard drive is on and goes into IDE channel 1. So the primary master is your hard drive, the primary slave is your DVD. The secondary master is your CD-R, and the secondary slave is the ZIP drive. They are obsolete, as Jim pointed out, since CD-R is better and faster, but you probably have a lot of stuff that you'd need to transfer from ZIPs to CD-R's before you can pull it out.
4) Play a CD/DVD in your DVD and CD players to make sure everything is working. If it is, great. If not, then we have some other problem.
PS You may have to pull your hard drive out to see the top and where it will probably tell you the jumper positions. On MOST hard drives, but not all, the second set of pins in from the power cable is the Master selection and the third is Slave. |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 17:46:42
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That's physically impossible, Dean. 5 1/4" drives are above the 3 1/2" drives. Leave the harddrive and ZIP drive the way they are. Obviously you're gonna have to worry about the IDE channel with the CD & DVD. Are you positive the power cable is plugged in? I don't think it'd show up without it, but it's worth a shot. Make sure all cables are snug.
Finally, I would double check your BIOS and make sure it's set to auto detect for all drives (primary master/slave, secondary master/slave). If that's all set, I don't think there's much more left other than to suspect the drive is bad. What brand is it, and did you buy it brand new in box or what?
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FRANK BLACK SATAN WORKSHIP BLACK MASS |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 20:50:33
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Whoa, what's physically impossible? I didn't mention floppies anywhere, nor physical locality. Maybe I should clarify that he shouldn't touch his floppy drives as they are actually on an independant controller and are not IDE devices. So they can't be part of the problem.
His power cable is in because he can use the disc tray, and it wouldn't show up without power as you pointed out.
Anyway, I'm not trying to give the guy conflicting info or get into some sort of "who's the ultimate computer guru" contest here, just trying to help him implement what has already been discussed. |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 21:49:50
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The power cables are all snug, the IDE cables are all properly attatched. In BIOS, the drives are all set to auto detect.
I don't have a "floppy" drive, as in 3 1/2" diskettes. Unless the standard size for cd-rom drives is 5 1/4", I don't have one of those, either.
Maybe it is a bad DVD player.
Quantum nonlocality does not prove that "signals" travel "faster than light." Rather, it shows that at a deep level of reality the speed of light as a limiting factor is irrelevant because phenomena are instantaneously connected regardless of distance. |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 22:13:15
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It's quite obvious I'm the ultimate computer guru here.
quote:
2) Once you've got your hard drive set to master, set up the other drives as follows:
DVD: slave to hard drive.
CD-R: master on the other cable (again, make sure it's the one connected to the end of the cable)
ZIP: slave on the other cable
That's physically impossible.
I can't think of anything else, glacial...sounds like the end of the line to me. Did you buy the drive new in box or used or what? Are you also positive the IDE cable is in properly and not upside-down? Some drives/cables have knotches on them to prevent this, so that you can't put the cable in unless the little bump goes in the knotch of the cable input on the drive. Eh?
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FRANK BLACK SATAN WORKSHIP BLACK MASS |
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Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 23:24:33
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Remember, it's shown up in his Device Manager, so Windows can 'see' it for the most part..
Maybe try using less devices, just hook up the HD and DVD, and see what happens there. If no dice then, i'd say try it in a different computer to make sure it's not fucked in some way. |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2003 : 23:30:51
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| Thanks for the explanation, but it's quite possible. I assume you're referring to the fact that ZIPs tend to go in 3.5" bays, except that not all computers have those now or ever, and there's a very convenient little adapter that allows 3.5" devices to go in 5.25" bays which has been around since the days of the 8086 and probably before. And I can only assume that's to what you're referring... unless ZIP drives operate on the Floppy Channel and not on IDE? I couldn't say one way or another on that one. |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2003 : 00:57:39
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I have a feeling that this topic has gone beyond me and my little problem...
Quantum nonlocality does not prove that "signals" travel "faster than light." Rather, it shows that at a deep level of reality the speed of light as a limiting factor is irrelevant because phenomena are instantaneously connected regardless of distance. |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2003 : 06:51:04
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| Exactly what I was trying to avoid, but I can't help defend what I've said. Did you try what I suggested a little while back/what Dave suggested above? If so, let us know what happened and we can work from there. |
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Dave Noisy
Minister of Chaos
Canada
4496 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2003 : 10:23:37
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Allow me to rephrase - only hook up your HD and DVD. Leave the zip, burner, etc. off...
Could be a weird cable..i've had that.
But if it doesn't work with only the two IDE devices hooked up, there's a good chance it's not a healthy drive. |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2003 : 10:45:00
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glacial, tell me, DID YOU BUY IT NEW IN BOX OR USED? There's only two possible outcomes that I can think of at this point:
1. The drive itself is bad
2. The IDE cable is on incorrectly
Dean, maybe your right. I was saying hooking up DVD as slave to HDD is physically impossible, but with EIDE, isn't it possible to set the drive at the end of the cable to slave and the middle to master and not have a problem?
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FRANK BLACK SATAN WORKSHIP BLACK MASS |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2003 : 11:11:23
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| I believe so, but I'd have to double check. |
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glacial906
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1738 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2003 : 12:57:52
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In answer to El Barto's question, I had it replaced by Dell through my warantee. It was in a box, but it might or might not be refurbished. Dell makes no distinction between brand new replacement parts and ones that THEY have deemed to be in perfect operating order.
I guess I'll have to call Dell and have someone come and hook it up for me, although it seems absurd to have to call tech support to do such a ridiculously easy thing...I don't really think I'm the problem here, which sucks because when you call Dell all they do is walk you through stuff you've already tried. You don't have to be a rocket scientist or a computer guru to open the computer up and make sure all the wires are connected squarely. The only reason I didn't have someone come and install the drive for me is because I didn't think it'd be this difficult. Oh well. I guess from now on I'll take the free tech support wherever I can get it. |
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Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =
Canada
11687 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2003 : 13:55:07
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| Well, we'll all be curious what the problem was... would suck if the drive was defective after all that. |
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El Barto
= Song DB Master =
USA
4020 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2003 : 14:03:44
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I might get it replaced if I were you, or if you can get them to hook it up for free, go for it.
RANT:
Fuck Tech Support. I have an immense, deep-seeded hatred for any and all tech support. I swear to god they pick people who own a computer and have a semi-friendly phone manner to read off a list of pre-distinguished answers, and rarely do they ever ask you anything that might actually HELP them DIAGNOSE the problem. They are fucking idiots, and the only time I ever, EVER call them is when I've hit lower than rock bottom. I've discovered the chances of getting someone who knows what they're talking about is nearly 1/10.
STORIES:
Back when I first got my cable modem hooked up at my place in Shippensburg, I had purchased my own modem and had them set it up for me. They needed the MAC address for the modem, which helps identify it on the network and keeps all unauthorized users from just hooking up any cable modem to their cable line and stealing cable internet. So I had it all well and good for a while, until one day it just stopped working. I did all my usual checks, blah blah blah, been through it a hundred times, and nothing worked. I received a package in the mail the next day which had a fucking cable modem in it along with the starter kit. I TOLD THEM I OWNED A MODEM AND THEY KNEW THAT BECAUSE THE LADY HAD TO FUCKING SET IT UP. So I called several times, and talked to at least 5 different people (power cycle, wait, plug modem back in, ipconfig, reboot, blah blah YOU FUCKTARDS IT DOESNT WORK I'VE DONE THIS BEFORE), until one time I FINALLY got ahold of this lady who, "just out of curiosity" asked me to read off the MAC address on my modem...guess what? IT DOESNT MATCH THE ONE ON MY FILE! Bingo, this lady hit the fucking nail on the head, and I praised her, letting her know "how good it feels to finally get someone who knows what they're talking about," and we talked about how she met her husband online and how she knows a bit about computers, etc. So thank fucking god some people have brains.
Now I'm sitting here with a Comcast bill, PAST DUE with $163.88 from my old place. I moved August 9th. I called TWICE during the month of July to notify them that I would be moving. I had my account paid in full from July 4 - August 4 and I told them I do not want to receive another bill and want to be cut off then. WELL APPARENTLY if I were to have services disconnected when I called, THEY WOULD DO IT RIGHT THEN. So yeah, PLEASE CUT IT OFF RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF JULY EVEN THO I PAID UNTIL THE BEGINNING OF August. So I said fuck it and called them up at the beginning of August. I told this lady my story that I wanted to be cut off at the 4th and no more, and she said OK and told me about the equipment return, that they can come pick it up on the 4th and disconnect. "Does it cost money to pick up?" "Yes" "No thanks, I'll drop it off" "OK, your services will be disconnected when you drop off the equipment." I have a receipt sitting in front of me dated August 8th from the day I dropped off the equipment, and I received a bill today, PAST DUE, saying I owe for August -> September and September -> October. I wonder how many fucking assholes I'm going to have to go through to get this mess cleared up.
Seriously, how can these FUCKING BUSINESSES continue to function when they're so FUCKING UNORGANIZED? These are PROFESSIONAL BUSINESSES and they fucking have all their wires crossed constantly. I'd love to see what they actually bring up on the screen, what it says, and what they actually do, because how can my account NOT be disconnected. I FUCKING MOVED.
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FRANK BLACK SATAN WORKSHIP BLACK MASS |
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speedy_m
= Frankofile =
Canada
3581 Posts |
Posted - 09/02/2003 : 14:40:56
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| You should spice up your story with some colourful language. |
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