Part Two....

So Saturday came and went. Comcast arrived, two cablecards in hand, and they were activated within 15 minutes. I know... surprising.

HOWEVER... Once things were setup and ready to go, I found myself in a battle with Dell. HEre's the deal:

HDTV Recording is only available on OEM machines that are "certified" for use by CableLabs (douchbags). The XPS 420 is one of those machines. What Dell doesn't tell anyone, and what apparently nobody inside Dell really knoes, is that the OCUR capability ((or on/off switch) Google it) is disabled on machines that are ordered through a partner channel, or business account. Consumer machines have it enabled.

Yes.. the same exact hardware configuration gets two different BIOS images based on how the machine is ordered. The second part is the Vista Ultimate COA is also different for Digital Cable machines. So I basically needed a new bios, and a little sticker with a number on it. What does Dell do? The set up a full system return, reprocess the order, and now the new machine is again in the queue to be delivered in about a week.

Can you just email me the correct BIOS image, and mail me the additional COA key? No. Apparently not. That would be too easy.

Idiots. This seems to be a clear cut case of wasting money and resources... maybe someone should point this out to the guys who created ITIL, Six Sigma, or some other BS set of processes... I think Dell needs to Ideate on this one a bit longer.