I bought a decked out Dell system in late 2000, mainly because I heard good things about them and was under the impression that they were reliable.

Out of the box, the system was fantastic. Their customer support is completely top notch as well.

However, I've had an unusual number of hardware components go bad since I bought it, and I'm starting to wonder if Dells are all they're cracked up to be. Have any of you Dell owners on here had this much trouble?:

- 19" Trinitron started to go bad. The corners became so blurry the text was unreadable, even though the print towards the center was perfect. They sent me a refurbished one as a replacement. 7 months later, I'm beginning to notice the same problem gradually starting to occur again.

- My hard drive begins to emit a high pitched grinding noise. Dell informs me that thats a sign its going bad. They send me a refurbished one as a replacement. I have to do a complete reformat. ONE MONTH LATER the same thing starts happening again, so they send me yet another refurbished drive. So far this one seems to be working.

- The Harman Kardon speakers that came with my computer are also starting to go bad. At least 2-3 times a day the sound will sink into a deep rumbling noise, almost as though the bass and volume have been turned way way up. The only way I can get the speakers to "snap out of it" is to turn them off then on again, or to play the "critical stop" wav or some other loud noise within Windows.

Right now I have sort of a bittersweet opinion of Dell. Have you non-Dell owners on here had this many problems with your systems as well?

I will say, Dell is very timely in sending you replacements, and they take care of all the costs (they will even send someone out there to install the parts if you prefer). But ultimately, I paid for a new computer with new parts, not refurbished ones. And its flat out an inconvenience each time I have to go through this.

Has anyone found a reliable computer manufacturer? LOL

I know IceNine is going to flame Dell on this topic.

Anyhow, I bought a Dell in August of 2001, over a year ago, and haven't really had any of the problems you have.

I've got all the things you mentioned, except mine's a 17" monitor, and I've had no problem with it.

The only thing I've had go wrong was my harddrive, and that was my own fault. I blew my harddrive September 6th. I remember, because it was my brother's wedding. I hadn't known I'd done that, though, and stayed up forever trying to tinker with it.

I called tech support the next day, and the chick informed me I'd blown it. Luckily, I have a 3 year warranty. They sent tech support to me the following Tuesday, which wasn't too long of a wait, seeings as I'm in the middle of nowhere. Took the guy about 5 minutes, and he was done. The tech support people are really friendly.

So, yeah, no matter what IceNine says, I like Dell.

I bought a Dell last year, and I spent half of that year on the phone with customer service. Like a moron, I forgot to extend my warranty-thing, so now whenever something fucks up I either have to just deal with it or try to fix it myself.

The three biggest problems I had to deal with last year were:

- The free printer they sent me was NOT compatible with my computer. They pointed fingers at Epson, Epson pointed fingers at Dell. After dozens of phone calls to both companies, Epson was able to fix the issue in late December, 4 months after I received the computer. Oh, and this did not occur without me having to send back the printer twice.

- When I upgraded to Windows XP, everything in my computer started to die. First went some programs, then went my speakers. After dozens of phone calls to Dell, I found out that the WinXP was not compatible with my computer, as I had not ordered the OS from Dell. Therefore, everything in my system would slowly but surely quit working. I then had to reformat and go back to ME.

- The free DVD drive that I received has stopped playing 99% of DVDs. Now all it will play is The Shining.



Oh, and I fucking hate their tech support. The people are really rude. And ever call after about 10 PM PST? They redirect your calls to India. Poor guys, they were often on the receiving end of my screaming.

Wow...

Aside from them sending me a brand new nVidia card because the first one was defective...I have had no problems with my Dell XPST500 PIII System that I bought back in May 1999. It has a Zip drive, a floppy,network card, and a DVD drive that came with it. I also have a Dell monitor. 3 Dells have now been bought for this household - a 166MHz PI(LOL), and recently a P IV 1400MHz - no problems.

My roommate got a Compaq for shits n giggles... I won't EVEN go there... tried out a Hewlett Packard... :Roll: There customer service line is not toll-free...back to Best Buy!

I have since added memory, an additional hard drive, a cd-rw drive, and XP Pro...no problems~!

I have also recommended them to some friends who have been more than satisfied...

I still have no complaints about the reliability, manufacture and upgradability of my Dell.

I love my Dell.





[This message was edited Sat Nov 2 20:56:31 PST 2002 by LaVisHh]

Natsume said:

Brilliant! Jeez!


Epson printers aren't that good. To put it mildly.

Supernova said:

Okay, but it was FREE!

Natsume said:

I know, but I'm saying that's why it was free. Epson was the very first printer I bought, I don't have it anymore but I'd never buy one again.

Supernova said:

I agree, though. My Epson is noisy and needs its ink to be replaced often. Too often.

But, it's better than nothing...

Supernova said:

Epson's photo printers are incredibly sharp and their ink is more archival. I believe Epson/Seiko are the same company. I'm not sure how good their $100 printers are. One thing that drives me nuts about all their printers though it that they constantly clean themselves (translation: pointlessly waste ink so you have to replace it sooner) every time you start up your computer. I usually leave mine turned off until Im ready to use it.

Dell computers suck badger nuts.

...
[This message was edited Sat Nov 2 21:27:26 PST 2002 by IceNine]

IceNine said:

any recommendations?

Tom said:

I'm not familiar with Epson printers NOW, since technological advances move at a fast rate (especially when it comes to computers), but about 6 and a half years ago when I bought one I remember having to take it back once. Being given a new one, and having that one malfunction too.

Supernova said:

Hehheh, believe me I've had Seiko watches fall apart on me ( in contrast to their slogan ) lol. I hear ya

Tom said:

Well, I am a 100% Mac guy... so I would (of course) suggest a PowerMac G4 tower.

I have no suggestions on PCs though...

IceNine said:

I prefer PCs, but I was using a new iMac today, and now I'm in love

dell sucks, but not as much as gateway...trust me I know I own a shittay gateway.

Anyone know anything about Alienware computers? I'm looking for a new PC and I was kinda wanting to get one of those (A purple computer...kewl ). I'm using my roommate's iBook right now...grrr...I kick it regularly

Dell and Gateway... it's all the same shit. Bog standard components off the shelf. I would never buy stuff like that for myself (I build my own and choose top notch components) but for work etc it's fine, their servers do the job and the warranty and support is pretty good.

To be honest, anything is better than buying a PC from a high street store (e.g. Packard Bell or some shit like that - don't do it!).

You guys should check out the Shuttle PC (xpc?) - a tiny formfactor, really cute!

Anyway back to the topic:
- Dell are OK, as good / bad as the rest of them. Infinitely preferable to an off-the-shelf PC.
- Building your own is better of course, you get to choose all the bits. But it can be expensive and time consuming. My home PC is an overclocked monster in a lovely anodized aluminium case.
- If you are buying a laptop, DO NOT BUY SONY! I bought a very expensive Sony Vaio last year (around £3000 UK sterling) and it's a piece of shit. Sure it's pretty but it's fragile (the PCMCIA socket is a bit wonky now causing probs with my wireless card... takes a bit of wiggling to get it working), it is noisy (the CPU is so fucking loud), the peripherals cost a fortune (had to pay £120 stg for a new power supply and £300 for an extended battery... fucking hell!) and the support is APPALLING! I would have paid pretty much "whatever" to get an international extended warranty so for example if I am in Japan and my hard drive breaks, I can get a new one within 24 hours or whatever but they just don't sell such a service. Sony are not built with business users in mind. It's out of the warranty now so I'm basically gonna buy a new laptop in the new year, take a dump on my Vaio and post it back to Sony. Bastards!

Dell HP/C Apple it's all the same shake em hard enough and they rattle, shake em harder and they stop working..

I just wonder if warranties and extended warranties do offer value for money

And if you are looking for Customerservice well
usually the Helpdesks aren't as effective as Google...

What r the major differences between a Mac and a PC? And r there any good books on building ur own computer? I was thinking of building my own but I don't know much about it.

cntrvrsy said:

When you work with them there isn't much difference, they all have a tendency to crash from time to time and run similar programs. the debate is usually testosterone driven (mine is bigger than yours)

When you want to build them there is a sea of difference, as you do not have that much to choose from with a mac as only a few components are not built by themselves.

Again Google your way to build a computer > usually more up to date than books. Though you can have my instructionbook from '96 for entertainment value.

Well... I won't be buying a Dell next time after reading this thread!