MSIE 9 - Breaks WordPress - even with "Compatible" Meta tag

Hi.  I love you guys.  Excellent ideas.  

I'm going to award points now and limp along through the holiday week-end because:

1. Tried the reset - didn't work
2. I'm too scared to uninstall MSIE, because:

    a. I just finished the fourth or fifth factory re-install on my expensive ($4K+) Alienware M18x Laptop. (With the top warranty available and extra "my tech team" support.)  
    b. Since purchase in January 2012 - I've spent more time fixing the computer than completing work for my clients.

Moreover, I'm WAITING on senior level support from:

   1. System Mechanic Pro  - It's been THREE days.  Do you think they'll call me over the holiday week-end?  I think I made a big mistake buying this program (for 32 months).  Dell/Alienware are pushing SMP big time.
   2. Dell DataSafe Online - don't buy this program.  They many of my backup files - but I can't access them.  Lot of good that does after a factory re-install.  Again, senior level support said on Thursday the earliest they could call me is next Monday.

So I'm just a bit frustrated.

I'm going to use FIREFOX and do some work to get my bills paid.  I bought two 1 terabyte external hard drives to  back up to the hilt ... while I limp along with this "high rated" laptop.  Good grief.

I am manually creating restore points every two days.  And I'm manually backing up my registry before every install or change.

CAN YOU FEEL MY PAIN?

I thought Alienware was fantastic - but I am beginning to miss my Toshiba Qosio.

Thanks again.  And thanks for listening to the rant.

Best thing to do with "name brand" machines/laptops is to do a fresh install of the OS (even if you have to buy a copy of Win 7 to do it), not a "factory" restore. Those companies put so much bloatware on the machines to the point that they run like slugs.

The price of buying a retail copy of Windows 7 will more than pay for itself in the time you get back and the stress you lose not having to deal with some CS rep every other day.

I agree a fresh install of a normal Win 7 copy will run extremely smooth. Also in my opinion, especially with PC laptops in the future you are better off just buying Acer or Asus laptops. They typically are cheaper than all the other main companies and have less junk installed on top of them and great internal components.

For backups I would always stick to standardized methods and never use anything overly proprietary. Either windows built in backup or just set up directories to sync on an external drive. Microsoft makes a great little application to sync between two locations that I use to keep 2 machines backed up over samba shares at home.
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=15155

It's called Sync Toy, super easy to set up and works well. It does not do incremental backups just keeps two location in sync, but if all you are looking for is a secondary copy of the data its a good thing to use.

I want to thank alsh0083 and PAdocIT  for above comments.  It's taken me a long time to admit Alienware is causing me problems.  I long for my old Toshiba.  

I worry that Iolo System Mechanic Pro is a big part of the problem.

Such a shame.  I thought I was paying for top of the line Laptop and SERVICE.  

I'm afraid I'll void the three year warranty I bought if I just install from Windows 7 disc w/o their help.

Meanwhile, I'll limp along.   I've got to pay bills and can't spend week after week trying to get my Laptop to work.

THANKS AGAIN.  A little empathy goes a long way.

Best regards, April

P.S.  Almost three weeks later and Dell Data Safe says they still can't fix the program.  So all the files I backedup using them are unavailable.

SOLUTION - UNINSTALL ANY TYPE 1 HELVETICA FONTS!!!

IT FIXES THE MSIE9 PROBLEMS.