%$#@&*^&% Dell Computers

[KevinTodd]

I keep saying I'll never buy another PC and then I start shopping Mac and can simply never bring myself to spend the money....

My barely one-year-old Dell Inspiron 15R greeted me this morning (or not) by deciding out of the blue not to boot.

Gray screen, nothing else. I have run diagnostics and it gives me a specific boot drive error code but I haven't called tech support yet--because I want my weekend to start with less stress--so it can wait.

I have a few apple products--phone, ipad, a few ipods...they all work fairly trouble free. Again-I just have a hard time spending $1300 on something that I can get in PC form much better equipped for less than half the money.

I guess it is still true that you get what you pay for.

I hate Dell.

Rant over.

[id10t]

I like to buy Dells as a small business, simply because the warranty they come with is great (next day on site parts replacement). I also like the Dell business line because they take Linux with no fuss and no muss.

[recycled sixtie]

I have a 15 inch Dell Inspiron which is 3 years old. It has now become slower than molasses. I have taken over my daughter's Toshiba 13" laptop(she got a new Samsung) which is 6 years old and no major issues. Similarly I don't like spending big $$$ on a laptop for my simple needs. Dell does not work for me either.

[Lapkritis]

Bought a dell mini with Windows 7 starter for automotive interfacing only. I run Tunerstudio and VAG-com which are reputably developed. The laptop was fine for a month and then began to access the hard drive constantly. Installed antivirus and no virus found, no malware either. All windows updates done and stripped down startup and still overcome by disc activity and really slow. Splurged and bought increased memory to try to salvage my initial purchase as the only two programs I cared about k. The machine would not run without operational pauses rendering them useless. Now dies not see boot drive on start up and refuses to work. Maybe 200hrs of use. Never buying Dell again. Ever. Have a 6yr old IBM that runs like a clock and use a Seagate removable hard drive to back up photos etc every month.

-Andrew

[aap1966]

Paying half the money only makes sense if the laptop lasts as long as a Mac, and is as reliable.
Macs have higher up front costs, but last longer and cause much less aggravation. The less aggro alone is worth the extra $$.

[Por_sha911]

Dell used to be good. Now they suck.

Tech support is worthless unless you need to know how to turn your machine on. They ask a questions I already answered, run tests that don't work, and have no clue how to fix a problem. Their answer for everything is reformat or replace hardware. They don't give a rip if you have the same problem over and over again and will not make any attempt to compensate you for their screwups.

They no longer stands behind what their salesman promised. 2 different times I found that I was lied to but they refused to stand behind it (or investigate if he lied). I tried to get some help from Customer Service and they said 'so sad too bad, you get nothing' . I complained to corporate that CS was totally unresponsive and guess what, CS calls me again. I told them my complaint and don't call back unless they can do something for me. They call back to say 'so sad, too bad' again! There is NO WAY YOU CAN TALK TO ANYONE IN THE USA!!!!

They have become as bad a Compaq (and that's pretty bad!)

[HHI944]

My current Macbook is the original Unibody variant. I purchased it the day it came out in October 08. I just finished with having the screen and track pad replaced (I'm an idiot and stepped on it) and told the repair guy to max out the RAM while he was in there. It was $100 extra for the RAM, $20 for the latest OS and she's purring like a kitten and running blazing fast...I have a few buddies with new PC laptops and side by side, this little 4.5 year old Mac still hangs with no problem, actually it damn near hangs with a brand new Macbook Pro

[Baz]

Current model is 4 year old Dell Vostro 200 desktop and works fine.

Wouldn't rule out a Mac in the future.

[KaptKaos]

The components in a Dell are the same as the components in a Lenovo, an HP, a Sony and an Apple.

It's all the same bits and pieces folks. They're just cobbled together a little differently. So hardware failures are the same pretty much across the board.

[Scott Douglas]

10 years ago (has it been THAT long ago already?) when my kids were getting ready to go off to college, I got them both two identically equipped Dell desktops from their refurbished site. Those computers worked fine and I think I'm still using one out in the garage. A year after going to school my son decided he really needed a laptop for travel with the baseball team. He found a Dell Inspiron on the refurb site that had up sized HD and RAM compared to 'stock' and at a good discount too. We bought that for him.
Fast forward 2-3yrs, it quits working on him. He calls to say he's buying himself a new one so I tell him don't throw it away I'll take it.
I store it for a year and then get a letter saying there's been a class action lawsuit against Dell regarding our laptop. They offer to send a return mail box and they'll fix it for free. Within two weeks of turning it in it comes back. It's been working ever since then.
Yes, I've had desktop trouble and had to sit thru two hours of talking to India before getting to talk to someone in Texas. Texas was able to solve the problem within a matter of a half hour of giving me instructions over the phone on how to remove a certain jumper and reboot it.
When I finally upgraded my desktop I went with an HP from Best Buy. Bought it without doing any homework on it, based solely on price/performance as seen in the store. Turns out it happened to be their best selling gaming machine. Guess I got lucky as it's been working for quite a while now with no problems.
There, I've jinxed myself I'm sure now.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

The components in a Dell are the same as the components in a Lenovo, an HP, a Sony and an Apple.

It's all the same bits and pieces folks. They're just cobbled together a little differently. So hardware failures are the same pretty much across the board.

I disagree. There are parts (mother board) that are propritory and then then there is the software they add on top of Windows.

That said, its their lack of qualified tech support (even in level 2) and their unwillingness to stand behind their product and their promises that makes them trash.

[RWebb]

that proprietary hardware thing re Dell was true at least up until 4 years ago; not sure now - Dell seems way worse than before - it used to be pretty good


Kevin, I had so many hardware problems with PCs that I bought a mac mini - only about a $200 price premium over a PC

the mental switch over is a long hellish learning and delearning curve but in 6 months you'll be glad

OS X is not as far advanced over Win 7 as previous comparisons; but the search facility is still much better on the mac

it also appears that the mac OS is just a front end for UNIX; I can drop into Terminal and run the 2 or 3 Eunuchs commands I still remember

there are a lot of GIS and datalogging programs I cannot use on the mac tho; but they also don't work on some newer PC's

[MysticLlama]

Apples break too, just less often because they are built better.

Just as Dell Latitudes are, Inspirons are not.

Basically all Apple stuff you can buy is comparable to the business line of a PC maker, not the consumer line, that's one of the reasons they cost more. When you do a more fair comparison, the PCs aren't half as much, more like 70-75% as much.

Also, you get entirely different tech departments with most major brands by going with the business grade stuff.

The consumer stuff can be a bit of a sad race to the bottom most of the time. Apple not having that at all is one of the things that make them different, but PCs can be had that are just as good.

[widgeon13]

Just bought a new MBPS retina after having my 15" MBPS for 5 1/2 years. Better service, much less frustrations, it's worth it to me.

[techweenie]

Can't you just walk it into the Dell store and have the folks at the Genius Bar help you out?

'If I were running Apple? I'd shut it down and give the investors back their money.' -- Michael Dell 1997

[azasadny]

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

The components in a Dell are the same as the components in a Lenovo, an HP, a Sony and an Apple.

It's all the same bits and pieces folks. They're just cobbled together a little differently. So hardware failures are the same pretty much across the board.

Yep!

[onewhippedpuppy]

Dell was great until they cheapened their computers to compete in retail stores, now they are crap. Back when you ordered everything direct they were a great PC for the money, I ordered probably close to 10 of them for myself, friends, and family. Today, no way in hell. I have a Sony that's still working great after 3 years, it's no Mac but its also 1/3 of the price.

[azasadny]

I build my own PC's and those for my family, friends and people at church. I can build a much better PC than the major manufacturers and I match the person's requirements to the build to be sure the PC will meet their needs.Most people don't do this and then complain because the PC isn't what they want...

[nota]

as the title said the majors all use crap low power supplys
so you need to up grade to add a good vidio card or extra HDs

and poor M/B without many extra slots

btw there is a new M/B made to have a error free vannila boot mac build [hachintosh]
[just get osx- what ever and load]
this M/B uses mac friendly nic and sound chips and other stuff so it just works without alot of fooling around
will not ship intil may 13 but worth the wait if you want a mac tower for cheap
and you can dual or 3rd boot win or linix too

[nota]

haswell is comming soon to
a new faster better intel chip in june
but of course it will not fit older m/b