Thanks for your help. As Microsoft Techs we need to be more decisive on mission critical. When I terminated our call after 3.5 hours I was pretty sure it was a hardware failure ( you were ready to continue). It was,,, Motherboard. We failed by spending 3.5 hours on a hardware problem. Within 40 minutes a Dell tech determined the motherboard failure. As tech's we don't need to do the same thing 5-10 times. 1-2 times and we still get failure lets move along. I may lose that client because of our indeciciveness on the problem. I contact you for the point specific details because one day I'm working on a database, the next I'm connecting 35 computers. I rely on you for things I've not thought of. I really hate it when I repeat things I've done such as a chkdsk or a sfc /scannow, etc. Your job is to QUICKLY resolve the problem or quickly move it to the next step whether it's hardware or engineering. Working closely with the Hardware vendors would be the logical first step. The public is both Hardware & Software and we need to work that way. Not us or them. 

Remember when I defer to you, you need to quickly make determinations. Don't string me along because of your expertise in a specfic os/server. If I tell you the things I've done, don't make me repeat them. I'm also certified and have thousands of hours experience. I was working on this before I called you and frankly, MS's support rarley comes up with anything different. I research all issues. Have you ever passed a Microsoft Certification test. Give us a break, in some instances I know I have more knowledge than you when you can't come up with anything different than what I've done. I've loaded 1000 WinXP os's on various machines, etc. My 8 years experience and 4-5 years of College IT studies help.

On the 3 incidents I called in this year, I teched them all. You (Microsoft) were unable to fix any of them. I cut short our call Tuesday to have Dell tell me what the actual problem was. The other 2 calls were unresolved, maybe hardware. I have been helped last year doing roaming profiles with Active Directory but mostly nothing.

Thanks

 

Rick

 

Think out of the box on this one...... Most modems from Verizon, Brighthouse & Knology have the optional USB connectors. My client had a lightning issue that precluded his onboard Network Interface and a new PCI Network Interface (Nic) from connecting properly. The verizon tech instead of telling him to replace the NIC, should have assisted him in using his USB connection with the cable provided with that in mind. I pluged the USB cable into his computer & Verizons modem, used the disk provided for the WestStar Modem and he was online in seconds. He also was able to take back that NIC he Did NOT need.  Think out of the box Techs.....

Major server failure and NO secondary server. That's major trouble. I recommended to a boss of a small company to add a fail over server. Too expensive he said. We'll, have 25 employees sitting; doing nothing is far more costly. I'm not going to cry for you. You blame the updates when the Motherboard was the problem. I bust my butt for your mistake. Motherboards fail for many reasons but not Microsoft Updates. Now you’re going to curtail all future updates. I’m going on vacation and putting this business behind me.

One of the new update restarters I saw was a major improvement over the automatic restart. This one holds off until the user intervenes then you have many options from hours to days. Nice... No more losing all your work thru automatic updates, Good job Microsoft, has there been a shift in thinking..

 

In other news Microsofts Tech Supports still running 2 days behind. Who can handle having there PC down for that period????

Microsofts Vista is worth the wait. This Operating System is both Consumer & Business designed. The event viewer is now setup and logging the important events, not like its predesessor that logged very little unless configed to watch more. Network Admins don't have to spend a day setting Event Viewer, but can spend just minutes tweaking it if needed.

 

I'm running the Beta 2 and have found a few errors but nothing a service pack can't fix. I normaly don't reccomend buying a new program for 6 months to a year after its release  to allow for the bugs to get fixed. In this case, the new security features warant a early purchase.

 

This little gem of an operating system is what I come to excpect from Microsoft and I can't wait for this to go mainstream.