Rosie's Reviews

By Sandra Rosenzweig
     
      Look Two at the Shuttle
      In the past few months, I've mentioned (an inordinate number of times) how much I love my white-enameled toaster-size Shuttle XPC G5 series small-form-factor computer. However, things aren't always what they seem in Shuttle Adoraland, so it's time for a second look at my still-beloved dynamo.
     
      To recap from my first look ("Rosie's Reviews," March), the two front USB ports of this Shuttle XPC G5 8300h, as well as the Firewire port, microphone, and headphone jacks, are hidden behind a spring-loaded white door. The 16x DVD+RW Dual Layer drive is hidden behind another, and the third door conceals a built-in 8-in-1 media card reader-giving the box a sleek, sculptural look. Two more USB ports; a TV-in jack; three monitor ports; a good, strong wireless antenna; and a bunch more audio and video jacks and connectors sit on the backside of the box. The first time I plugged the Shuttle in, its XPC wireless kit (compatible with both 802.11b and 802.11g standards) found every wireless network in the neighborhood, including our three, and logged onto the one whose WEP (wired equivalent privacy) key it already knew. This cunning little computer is so quiet, I can't hear it at all unless I'm sitting in an almost silent room. (Or is silent like pregnant-you can't be almost?)
     
      However, Shuttle's internal USB media card reader stopped working one day and never returned to consciousness. Although external card readers are priced about the same as a loaf of good artisan-made bread, I'd rather not ruin the newly uncluttered look of my desk.
     
      Of course, nothing I tried fixed the reader. Finally fed up, I called Shuttle tech support in the City of Industry, 888/972-1818, according to the website. Fortunately, it was Wednesday, mid-morning; Shuttle tech support is only open 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Pacific Time, weekdays. They take tech support seriously at Shuttle USA. Most tech-support phone centers have people who do triage on the first call, making sure that your computer is plugged in and that your problem is related to their product. At Shuttle, however, you just leave a message over ordinary voice mail, rather like calling a friend: "Hello, Shuttle? It's me, Rosie. My computer's broken. Call me." I left my number. But no one called me back.
     
      Not good. I called again, this time on Saturday, when I knew they wouldn't answer. Got the same voice recording, but my message was quite a bit more insistent: "It's Rosie again. If you don't call me back by the end of business Monday, I'll tell your boss on you." Monday came and went.
     
      I Googled. I read user forums (whatever happened to fora and other proper plurals?). Google now owns Deja News (groups.google.com), so I searched the newsgroups. In these groups and fora, authorities recommended that I flash my BIOS (more on this later); that I reinstall the operating system; that I troubleshoot all of my hardware using Windows Device Manager, or Windows System Configuration Utility, or Windows Disk Management console.
     
      I'd been told that med-school professors teach their students, "If you hear hoofbeats, look for a horse, not a zebra." In other words, assume maladies are common ones and, at first, apply the most common remedies.
     
      Two or three times in my career, some zebra-centric tech-support person talked me into reinstalling the operating system. Wasted a week each time. And as for flashing my BIOS (a formidable exercise even when you know what that means), you need to be a hardened techie with a leprechaun on your shoulder.
     
      I've never met a leprechaun, though I can sing almost every word of every song in Finian's Rainbow. Besides, updating the built-in commands that tell your computer how to turn on and run, like reinstalling the operating system, is a systemic solution. Only the card reader was broken. So I checked the Shuttle site's tech-support pages and found that Shuttle had posted an updated ROM for my model of card reader. Flashing a ROM (the instructions that tell the card reader, in this case, how to talk to the computer) is a big nothing. Download a little program, then double-click on it-that's it. And it was.
     
      I still love my Shuttle, although I don't love its telephone tech support, and the company did provide the solution online. I should have looked there first, not to the techie sites where I received advice from people the age of college freshmen. And if it turned out I had a zebra on my hands, I should have gone to the sites listed in "Tips and Tricks" (page 37).
     

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