damon@tirerack mentioned Dell charged his uncle $100 for the same issue.

There is a difference between hardware warrenty and software technical support. My laptop monitor got a hot spot, Dell sent a tech to my house and they replaced the screen, free, under warrenty. I get a virus because I let my virus update license expire ... not a warrenty issue. Even though software problems are not a warrenty issue, Dell would probably be glad to walk you through the restore process if you need assistance. They want you to be a satisfied customer.

 

Jesus Berk! F'in call them and stop listening to BS. Just have the serial number on the bottom of your computer handy.

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...n/by_phone_DHS

 

Hearsay, I did it myself, not my uncle, brother, sister, cousin, pet chinchilla.....................They charged me nothing, nada, zilch, zero.

 

Sad to see another person go. Grass is not always greener though, Apple has been releasing patches for various viruses on their OS as well. Firefox also had more vulnerabilities than IE.

Pretty much all you need is Win7 and Windows Defender, you almost have to go out of your way to get a virus, they do not mysteriously install and self activate with you just sitting there.

Also, most antivirus (especially Norton) should not lapse. They all have auto-updating capabilities, and should usually be set to update at least once a day, if not check for an update every hour.

BTW, I would not go with Dell if you decide you don't want an Apple after all. Dell is notorious for loading all types of useless "bloatware" on their machines. Their components are less than satisfactory as well. I'd highly recommend HP instead, if not a boutique shop like hypersonic-pc, or Sager.