Technology For those of you who have had problems with Dell laptops, what happened?

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I still want one. Either a 700m (the 12" small one) or the M140 (14"). Love the prices and the features, and it won't be my primary computer so I don't need to go all out and buy the best or fastest.

I'm just concerned about all the people who have had problems with Dell laptops in the past...what happened? What went wrong? Was it the hardware that died? If it's software problems, I can fix my own.

Just curious. Thanks.
 
Dallenoff, I have an Inspiron 5100 that hasn't given me any problems. I had a previous Inspiron that had an extremely noisy fan, a CD-ROM that worked about 1/2 the time, and a screen that was virtually unreadable for small text (more because of the extreme resolution (1600x1400) and not because of poor screen quality).

The only three complaints about the Inspiron 5100 are extremely short battery life (1.5-2 hours, but this is NOT a portable CPU, it's a full Pentium 4), and a fan that is a decent noise maker, it's heavy as crap.
 
Dallenoff said:
I still want one. Either a 700m (the 12" small one) or the M140 (14"). Love the prices and the features, and it won't be my primary computer so I don't need to go all out and buy the best or fastest.

I'm just concerned about all the people who have had problems with Dell laptops in the past...what happened? What went wrong? Was it the hardware that died? If it's software problems, I can fix my own.

Just curious. Thanks.
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I have an Inspiron 5100 and its been nothing but problems since I bought it. I spend many, many hours with Dell's tech support but was unable to speak to somone in the USA who was abel to help. Since I bought the system 2 yrs. ago I had to change my hard drive 3x, keyboard sensor 2x, and CD rom 1x. They attract you with their cheep price but your getting a cheep product.
 
My friend had problem with Inspiron 8500. Her network card didn't work at all. She spend two days on the phone with four different customer rep until she convince them to send comp back to factory. They changed network card and she is not having any problem since after.

One month ago I bought new Inspiron 630M (exactly the same as M140, but cheaper - you can find it via small business section of site). So far I love it!!! Fast, quiet, good battery life, relatively light and excellent wide screen. 🙂
 
I tore an old Inspiron 1200 down to the nuts and bolts... but I couldn't put it back together again... However, I wouldn't say that's Dell's fault...😀
 
You might want to go to the store and take a look at a 700m in person if you are interested in it. It has a really cramped keyboard and even though I have small hands, I found it difficult to use.
 
I have an Inspiron 2600, purchased in 2002. I bought the 3-year CompleteCare warranty. In late 2004, the hard drive died. Customer service was very helpful - all I had to do was take out the old hard drive, give it to a man who showed up at my door with a box (DHL), and 2 days later I had my new hard drive delivered to my door. Then in 2005 (literally days before my warranty expired) a connector to the LCD screen broke and the display cut out. This time they took my whole computer but I had it back in 2 days again. Has worked fine since.

The DVD drive is very noisy when running. I still think Dells are great for the price and customer service has been wonderful to me so I would buy Dell again in a heartbeat (if I wasn't currently thinking of switching to an iMac 🙂)
 
I dropped my axim in the water one day, past the warranty period. I called dell and told them "there's water in my screen and it wont work" (wasn't a lie). I had a new one on my doorstep in <24 hours (!) and just had to put mine in the box to send it back.


It was unreal.
 
southerndoc said:
Dallenoff, I have an Inspiron 5100 that hasn't given me any problems. I had a previous Inspiron that had an extremely noisy fan, a CD-ROM that worked about 1/2 the time, and a screen that was virtually unreadable for small text (more because of the extreme resolution (1600x1400) and not because of poor screen quality).

The only three complaints about the Inspiron 5100 are extremely short battery life (1.5-2 hours, but this is NOT a portable CPU, it's a full Pentium 4), and a fan that is a decent noise maker, it's heavy as crap.
Click to expand...
Pretty much my same complaints about my Inspiron 9100. It has a heavy black base with dual fans that make it extremely heavy.

Also, my AC adapter has stopped working 2 times and needed to the be replaced. The first time under warranty it was free, the latter I had to fork up the cash for.

I would recommend getting a LONG warranty just so you don't have to pay for all of the crap.
 
Dell Inspiron 8000:
I had been using macs since 1988. Yes, back when public enemy was still relevant.
In 2000 I got a Dell. I ordered a combo DVD/CD-RW drive (and paid for it), they sent me a CD-RW drive. Within a year this drive broke and then they re-sent a CD-RW drive instead of the correct one. Within a year the HD died (replacing it was easy), the new one worked but made a really high pitched, loud whine after a few months. I had to get a new one. The trackpad just stopped working one day. This was a dell provided driver issue, they told me. The AC adapter had problems and I had to get a new one. The keyboard is crap (keys just stopped working) and these problems are apparently exacerbated, again, by a dell-authored driver. It weighs close to 10 lbs. These problems happened before they outsourced all of their support staff because back then I never had problems when I called them, it was just the rigamarole that I didn't like.
The nice thing about Dells is they are really easy to open up and replace any hardware. It's accessible. It's straightforward. It never took more than 30 minutes.
I got a powerbook last year. I hope I never have to buy another dell so long as I live. But Macs are almost impossible to upgrade - aside from RAM or the airport card.
 
dell inspiron 8500:

Right after the 1year warranty was over, my system would just randomly crash over a few hours of usage. I eventually found out that my fans weren't turning on to cool down the processor. The only way to circumvent this was to download a program that would run the fans on all the time. This was not fun but the only way to keep my processor cool

Next my trackpad stopped working. Of course it randomly works whenever it feels like it which sucks. The same problem occurs with my trackball so I need an external mouse to go around this

Lastly my video card failed so my screen couldn't display anything. I called Dell tech support and they told me that my LCD was defective and i needed a new one. I told them that they were wrong and that my video card was the problem but they disagreed. I eventually bought a video card myself and got it installed and the screen worked fine

A week after my video card was powering up my screen again, I encountered a worse problem. My computer won't power on. My battery seems to be dead but even while plugged in, my computer refuses to turn on. I've taken it to get "fixed" a few times but within an hour of it coming back in my hands, it fails to turn on again. I don't know whether its a loose wire but its quite aggravating. right now my dell just collects dust and I might just part it out to salvage whatever i can
 
My university supplies us with a Dell Latitude D600 as part of our tuition. Thus there are probably about 7000 identical laptops being used here. They were brand new in September 2004, and by March 2005 the failure rate of the harddrives was over 50% so it was decided to uniformly replace every single harddrive. It may have just been a bad batch, but a bad batch of 4000 harddrives seems odd.

The second problem with them that might be more of a concern, is that for this model, Dell uses a shiny silver casing. They get the crap scratched out of them however within a couple months which is big downside. I'm very careful with mine, it doesn't leave my room that often because I prefer to take notes on paper, but it still looks like it's being through a war zone. Even if you use a laptop sleeve, the zippers on the sleeve can still nick it. For comparison, IBM uses a matte black finish which holds up a lot better. Other than those two problems, the Dells seem to be pretty good. I'd probably opt for something lighter than the Latitude D600 if I was to buy my own laptop though since it's a tad heavy for my liking (4.6lbs). Only other complaint some people have is that the left handrest (ie: space left of the touchpad) heats up (not sure what component sits under there) but not too an uncomfortable level. Bonus is that it's got a 15" screen, which is very viewable and easy on the eyes.

Cheers!
 
simple get the 4 years warranty and call them once you have a problem.. I have been ok with dell!
 
I have a 700m. I purchased it last June... no problems. I upgrade to the larger capacity li-ion battery. If I could do it all over, I would opt for the regular battery. The larger capacity battery sticks out of the back of the laptop. Hope this helps,

-B
 
My roommate's girlfriend has a Inspiron 4700 that's about 3 years old, and last summer, 2 things happened: the right hinge broke, but I easily replaced that, and I think the video card started to die, since the screen was acting all screwy and had a lot of artifacts. Plus, little bits and pieces of plastic have been falling off since then. It's weird.

Regardless of what company you go with, it's usually a good idea to get an extended warranty for a laptop. It's one of the few products where it actually makes sense to get one.
 
my inspiron 5100 just died this week. i'm pissed. previous to talking to tech support it was acting buggy but i could still coax it into working, after tech "support" i haven't been able to start it once. so now it's send it in for $500 or just buy a new one. i'm looking into the gateway m250 or the dell inspiron 710m as portability is my major concern.

will def be purchasing extended warranty in future.

-J
 
I'm a dell man:dell PDA, Dell desktop, Dell DJ jukebox(mp3 player), and dell laptop. Love them all. I cracked the screen on my Dell PDA and got a replacement even though it was not under warranty. I sold my PDA on ebay for almost the same price i got it for 2 years earlier too!

sign up on their website for the constant sales they have.
 
Spyware chewed up my hard drive last year, and I had to replace it on my 600m. I spent lots of hours on the phone with Tech support doing this. I wonder cumulatively how many hours everyone in the world has spent on the phone with Dell Tech support (and the fix is always the same) in the last year and how many zillions of dollars the world economy has lost in productivity due to this?
 
LovelyRita said:
Spyware chewed up my hard drive last year, and I had to replace it on my 600m. I spent lots of hours on the phone with Tech support doing this. I wonder cumulatively how many hours everyone in the world has spent on the phone with Dell Tech support (and the fix is always the same) in the last year and how many zillions of dollars the world economy has lost in productivity due to this?
Click to expand...

Couldn't you just format the hard drive rather than replace it?
 
tinman831 said:
Couldn't you just format the hard drive rather than replace it?
Click to expand...

I would seriously suggest not considering Dell. I have had my laptop for barely two years and the LCD screen stopped working. I spent $1500 on the computer and had to spend another $300 to get the LCD screen fixed (Dell wanted to charge me $500, but I was able to get them to reduce the price). I have been without my computer for two weeks and finally got it back today only to find out that it still is not working. The box that Dell shipped it back to me in looks like it was retrieved from a dumpster. DHL came to pick up the computer again and it is on its way back to Dell's repair center.

I have spent the last month dealing with this issue between trying to work out a deal with Dell that I could afford and finding out what is going on with my computer. Their customer support is completely inept and apathetic to customer problems. I even had to file a complaint about one particular rep that was very rude and inappropriate to me. Everything with Dell seems so esoteric and no one takes accountability for anything, they simply transfer the call. I will certainly go with an Apple computer before I start medical school.
 
Dallenoff said:
I still want one. Either a 700m (the 12" small one) or the M140 (14"). Love the prices and the features, and it won't be my primary computer so I don't need to go all out and buy the best or fastest.

I'm just concerned about all the people who have had problems with Dell laptops in the past...what happened? What went wrong? Was it the hardware that died? If it's software problems, I can fix my own.

Just curious. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Get the Gold Technical Support, and it won't matter. They will replace every part of your computer until it is essentially a new computer, if you drop it from a 2nd story, for example.

With Gold Tech Support, you will have a guy at your house WITHIN 24 HOURS......you can't beat it
 
tinman831 said:
Just get a Mac. 🙂
Click to expand...
I wonder what the new MacBook Pros are going to look like. Rumor has it when Apple incorporates the Merom chip in late August/early September, they are changing the design somewhat. I've also heard rumors of an extremely thin (1/2") notebook. I'm holding out to see what changes are in store, and will probably upgrade my Powerbook G4 to the new MacBook Pros or even a MacBook when Leopard comes out. For those not in the know, Leopard is Mac OS X 10.5, which should be out on time... unlike Windows Vista. 🙂
 
My undergrad engineering program required us to buy their specific Dell. They were crap. My friend had one that literally caught fire in the middle of class. For several weeks prior to this it just smoked up the lecture halls. Every time, they would replace a part of it, and it still smoked/burned after the "repair." Finally he turned it on and stuck it in his (filled) bathtub and when he gave them this, they replaced his computer.
 
well i've always had dell laptops since i started college..usually i just dont end up renewing the antivirus software and i just get bogged down with viruses..its my fault though not dell's. i personally love my dell ..i especially like the in-home service they provide.
 
my dell laptop was a POS : / maybe i just got a lemon, i dunno.

1. network card didn't work, had to get it replaced when the laptop was brand-new
2. three! keys fell off of the keyboard right after my warranty ran out, and i spent a good two years copying/pasting letters for papers until i could afford a new stinking laptop
3. it had multiple vertical lines on the screen of different colors that just randomly showed up and went away
4. the battery would not hold charge
5. something was wrong with the power cord and it was recalled
6. one of the fans broke, also right after the warranty expired, and it overheated very quickly
7. died on me twice (virus related?) but luckily my fantabulous hubby is a computer freak and was able to bring it back

needless to say, I will never purchase another dell : /
 
JourneyRn-MD said:
my dell laptop was a POS : / maybe i just got a lemon, i dunno.

1. network card didn't work, had to get it replaced when the laptop was brand-new
2. three! keys fell off of the keyboard right after my warranty ran out, and i spent a good two years copying/pasting letters for papers until i could afford a new stinking laptop
3. it had multiple vertical lines on the screen of different colors that just randomly showed up and went away
4. the battery would not hold charge
5. something was wrong with the power cord and it was recalled
6. one of the fans broke, also right after the warranty expired, and it overheated very quickly
7. died on me twice (virus related?) but luckily my fantabulous hubby is a computer freak and was able to bring it back

needless to say, I will never purchase another dell : /
Click to expand...


I have had great luck with my Dell... anyways, they still have the best prices/deals you can find out there.
 
Had my first Dell issue with my 6month old xps laptop. While out at an away rotation, recieved the "blue screen of death." After much trouble shooting on my own, I figured out it was a massive memory/RAM failure. I finally got the replacements today (4 days after initially calling dell) and now it's working fine. Needless to say, I don't view this computer the same way anymore
 
I've personally never had a problem with any Dells I've bought. Imho, the reason there are so many reports of broken/problem Dells is simply because they have such a large market share. If you've got nearly 20% of the market, then nearly 1 in 5 broken computers are going to be yours. No matter what company you buy a laptop from, it might break. That's true about Dell, and it's true about everyone else too.
 
dells have always been good to me. nice product for a good price.
 
Hey guys, I sold used laptops on ebay a while ago and I am going to tell you some advice: EXPECT ANY LAPTOP HARD DRIVE TO DIE within two years of buying it. Laptop hard drives last much shorter than desktop drives and typically last 2-5 years. It doesn't matter if the are made by IBM, fusitzu or toshiba. Yes, sometimes a few last ten years or more, but on average they will fail you in 2-5 years depending on use. It is not Dell's fault that many of you had failed hard drives, this is just how they are made. Laptop hard drives last very short. Expect to replace yours so back up your data all the time. Also, some times you can fix a "broken" drive with bad sectors by erasing all data with IBM's drive fitness test.

Typically the batteries also have short life spans, however two compaq models I sold had really awesome batteries that lasted forever. Also, frequently the main lcd cable gets loose in laptops from opening and closing the LCD thousands of times. This is usually easy to fix if you are handy (not on IBM thinkpad models though, they are fragile) but otherwize, you will break the lcd. Laptop keyboards also suck a lot but buying a second hand keyboard on ebay and attaching it is an easy fix instead of buying a new part which costs hundreds of times more.

I have a 7 year old laptop still working great after doing a little maintenence here and there.
 
yanky5 said:
Hey guys, I sold used laptops on ebay a while ago and I am going to tell you some advice: EXPECT ANY LAPTOP HARD DRIVE TO DIE within two years of buying it.
Click to expand...

Then something's wrong with your laptops. I've owned 3 Mac laptops with nary a problem, except for when I dropped one of the powerbooks pretty hard. (And even then it wasn't the hard drive that failed, it was the latch)

OTOH, I've had the misfortune to have to use several Dell laptops in grad school - two had failed hard drives, one had an LCD that failed, and another had a motherboard that died. Not to mention they weighed like a million pounds and had the asthetic appeal of a doorstop.

My husband does IT for an academic institution which has a service contract with Dell (and Apple). He sees lots hardware failures with the Dells, esp the laptops. But they have a service system in place that makes it very easy for the IT staff to get replacement parts quickly. This is the reason the institution recommends Dell over other PC manufacturers, not any inherent superiority in design or manufacture.
 
Hurricane said:
Not to mention they weighed like a million pounds and had the asthetic appeal of a doorstop.
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I never understood this. Who gives a crap what a system looks like, as long as it does what you need it to do.
 
Eponym said:
I never understood this. Who gives a crap what a system looks like, as long as it does what you need it to do.
Click to expand...

Well then I suppose you would be happy with a purely functional machine. Me, I prefer both form and function that sacrifices neither. Viva la difference.
 
southerndoc said:
Right. So you just pick any car regardless of what it looks like? As long as it gets you from point A to point B?
Click to expand...
Exactly. If it has all the features I want and is the right price I could care less what it looks like.
 
I figure my input here is better late than never.

Bought a Inspiron 8100 in Jan of 2003. No problems until Jan 2005 when one of the fans died. I forked out the $200 to have it replaced since laptop prices were kinda high at the time, and I figured that if $200 preserved it for another two years I could just get one at some point during medical school. July 2005 - the SAME fan died again. The one I had paid $200 to replace a year and a half prior. At this point I gave in and bought a Compaq instead of attempting to salvage the Dell. It made me sad, though, 'cause I was hoping the Dell would last until I had enough saved for a cool Mac.
 
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