The hard drive is fine, but inaccessible for two weeks while I ship off the hardware for repair by Dell.  The insane luck part: I ran a backup the day before it died. I try to do them regularly, and I ought to automate the process, but it was by sheer luck that it failed right after a backup.

I’ve tried to be good about backups, as I’ve had a few hard drives fail over the years.  It certainly paid off this time. So as a public service, this is me, reminding you, back up your work.  Now would be good.

It’s a Dell XPS M1330, for those keeping score.

Update: Purolator dropped off my notebook already, good as new.  Here’s the timeline for my repair:

• Tuesday afternoon: The motherboard fails. I call Dell, they spend a few minutes trying to diagnose it then tell me I’ll have to send it in.  Unfortunately, the warranty is in Staples’ name, where I bought it, so I had to update my information, which I’m told takes about 24 hours to complete in their system.
• Wednesday morning: I receive an email from Dell saying that the update of my info is complete.  I call them back, and they arrange for my notebook to be shipped to them.
• Thursday morning, 9:00 am: Purolator shows up to drop off a box.  I remove my hard drive and place the notebook in the nicely padded box.  I slap-on the pre-paid shipping tags and  I call back Purolator.  They come get the box that afternoon.
• Monday morning, 8:25 am: Purolator arrives with my repaired notebook. Everything seems to be in order.

Pretty quick, I think.  I’m fairly impressed by Dell this time.  (Now, I have to get back to work!)

I was repeatedly seeing “Call Failed” when I tried to make or answer phone calls.  I would answer my phone, for example, and a few seconds later it would abruptly drop the call.  At first I assumed it was Rogers’ fault… just because it usually is.  But in this case, it was not.  The solution is simple.

Turn your phone off.

The iPhone is a computer, and as you’re probably aware, computers suck.  They don’t always work like they should, and after some time, they need a restart.  Powering off the phone and turning it back on seems to fix the problem.  I’ll try to remember to restart my iPhone each time I charge it.  (Thanks to the guy in the Rogers Plus store for letting me know.)

I’ll admit, I felt a little stupid after that.  Normally, when I call a support desk or ask for help, I’ve already tried the obvious stuff like restarting my PC, checking all the cords, etc.  For some reason I wasn’t expecting the same with my phone.

I hope this helps someone.