Computer issues

Last week my DVD drive stopped reading. No Sims2, listening to audio CDs through my headphones, and the necessity to buy a new drive before Tuesday. The new Civ4 expansion comes out tomorrow! It has uber cool scenarios (fantasy, historical, and futuristic), many more civilizations, and is the biggest Civ expansion yet. So excited! Understandably, Saturday we went to CompUSA to buy me a new DVD drive (with burner this time, as it's now standard). We got lucky on the timing. We picked out the one we wanted, took it to the checkout, and learned there was an unadvertised, 2-day only, $20 instant rebate. Then they handed us a form for another $20 mail in rebate from the manufacturer! Couldn't have been a better time to get a replacement.

There were problems with it though. The box was opened and likely already returned and reboxed from someone who had the same problem we encountered - would burn CDs just fine, and read discs, but kept freezing when burning DVDs. We took it back to the store and they had to root around for another one, but we finally got it replaced for a new unopened one (which works great). Tomorrow is a state holiday, so I'm hoping the game gets in early so I can play it lots. =)

Lesson: Don't buy computers from Dell. We paid lots for cheap parts (even look/feel cheap). In the three years we've owned our two computers, we've had to replace my mouse, disc drive, hard drive, and video card; my hubby's computer has needed new keyboard, power supply, and video card. They didn't come with the stickers with Windows OS Key (I think that was it) and the checklist never mentioned needing to look for them so we didn't realize they weren't on the computer or elsewhere until I got my new hard drive and we needed the number. Took a lot of convincing for them to send us new ones for free. What's going to go out next?