Thinking about buying a Dell Laptop? Read this first

[Band Saw Box]

Hello everyone
Well I got burned again by Dell. You may have noticed I have not been on every much over the last month or so part of the reason is that our Dell laptop was at the dell repart depot. The AC adapter would no longer power the comptuer of keep the battery. I could not do a back up on it before I sent it in because the battery died. I did think it would be a problem I wrote on the the service sheet and also checkec a box on the sheet telling them not to repair or replace the hard drivyye for any reason. Well the laptop came back on Tuesday with a new hard drive and as with the other Dell that I had to have repaired onlynthe windows 7 os was installed. Thankfully I did have the old system backed up and Iwas able to recover just about everything [email protected] reinstall my Windows live mail program.
As with the other dell computer dell was no help they just told me that the hard drive had to be replaced. And that all of the programs other then the os are only installed on a new computer and they could do nothing about that. I have the computer up and running ok now but it took about 4 hours to do it. When I ask about why it took so long they said there was a typo on the service tag when they wrote it up so it took some time .to find it.
What have I learned from all of this. Don't buy a dell thay are no longer that company they were and just don't care about customer servive. And their tech support staff is just as bad

[RangerJay]

It may have become the nature of the beast - your story seems a virtual parallel of my own - but with HP - 3 years ago. In fact the path to get the thing fixed took several bizarre turns - in the end it ultimately completed its life as a frisbee and now I own a Gateway - so good so far - and hopefully for a while longer yet - thanks to regular back-ups I was also able to restore pretty much everything I had.


Jay

[Jan]

I know that as a Mac addict I'm in the minority here, but...........when I had a problem with a Mac, I took it to an Apple Store. The tech checked it out, turned out it was still under warranty and I got a new computer on the spot with all of my work and software transferred to the new one by the tech. I also had a problem with an older Mac....it was about 8 years old. I sent it in to a Mac repair center, got it back in about 48 hours with the repairs done as requested. The cost was downright reasonable considering they replaced the motherboard. Just saying.

[handibunny]

Jan, I'm a Mac addict, too. So far my machine (bought in 2008 when I nearly lost critical files on my Dell) has been very reliable, and I'm buy another in a heartbeat.

Dan, sorry for your frustration. We had some bad experience with a Dell laptop that went through 2 hard drives. Now we have an Apple notebook, and so far, it's been trouble free. It cost more upfront, but seems to be worth it in the long run.

I use an off-site back-up (Carbonite) which costs me about $50 a year, after my back-up hard drive suddenly stopped functioning. That way, I just don't have to think about losing important data. Of course, these days, there's less and less important data, aside from my process photos, but I still feel better doing it.

[Jan]

Yay! Another Mac Addict! I have an Apple Time Capsule with 1 TB storage that I use with the Time Machine function that is part of the OS. The computer automatically backs up every hour and keeps enough backups that it is easy to go back by time and date to where the problem occurred and allow an easy fix. So far (knocking wood) I've never had to use the backups. The other amazing thing about our Macs is that with the dual or quad processors, it is very easy to run the Mac OS on one processor and the Windows OS on the other. Two computers for the price of one. I do that only because there are a couple of programs I use for patterns that are not available in the Mac format. I NEVER go online using the Windows platform. Even though someone has come up with a virus that attacks the Mac, it is much less vulnerable to those than the Windows programs. In 20 years or more of using these computers, I've never had a virus and I've never purchased anti-virus software. OK, I'll get off the soapbox.

Jan

[Mayo Farmer]

I used to have a Dell too. They used to be good reliable machines. But it seems like so many things that they shift the manufacturing to China, the customer care to a phone centre where they have English as a 2nd or 3rd language, and we all spend our time being down-sized and looking for another job.

I don't get it. Don't start me on Ryobi.

[daveW]

O K Mayo,....what happened with ryobi? am always curious cause i have quite a few of their tools ..........so far all have done their job with no malfunctions.....my scrollsaw motor DID go bad under warranty but was replaced (the complete saw ) with no questions asked....6-7 yrs. back.

[Mayo Farmer]

O K Mayo,....what happened with ryobi? am always curious cause i have quite a few of their tools ..........so far all have done their job with no malfunctions.....my scrollsaw motor DID go bad under warranty but was replaced (the complete saw ) with no questions asked....6-7 yrs. back.

Well Dave 6/7 years back you might be lucky. This was a simple 2-stroke petrol, strimmer/bush cutter. Went u/s after 4 months. The shop "lent" me a more powerful model after 2 months that packed up. The shop replaced it with Ryobi's new model, an electric start 2-stoke strimmer. That lasted a few months. The shop replaced it with Ryobi's latest a 4-stroke. That lasted a few months and now the engine is kaput and the cluch has gone.

All the best, hopefully you have one of the pre-China models.

[stephenD]

For the last dozen or so years I have had home built computers. My son-in-law is a computer wizz and builds marvelous machines. His is so "hot" it literally is cooled with a radiator.
I'd have an Apple otherwise. I've never had one but that is the benchmark for excellence, other than Arnold's home built ones.

[HAMMER]

The name on the outside may be different but the same little guy in Japan makes all the internal parts for all the computers on the market today.

[jigsue]

I built 2 computers, but there is so much stuff to choose from now and not all of it is compatable, so I have a 3 year old Hewlett Packard laptop, but a 10+ year old Dell desktop. Both run fine and quickly and I have never had to reconfigure either of them. I am very tidy and do maintain regularly using isobit software. I back up regularly onto external hard drives and duplicate all storage, too. Perhaps I'm just lucky. Shame about Dell, they used to be wonderful.

Sue

[Band Saw Box]

Thanks for all the comments. I got a call for Dell's corporate office. It turns out I gave Dell the OK to replace my hard drive even thought I didn't know it, I check a block which said I gave Dell the OK to reinstall my OS to Dell that means replacing the hard drive so this case is closed. The Dell laptop is running OK now that I have all the programs and files back on it. I told the person I talked to that I will never buy another Dell and do what I can to steer others from buying one. I have to agree with Mayo and Sue Dell was at one time good computers and their customer service and tech support was good as well. I have looked at Mac's and may buy one someday. I'm using our new HP laptop that we got when it was taking so long to get the Dell back. It's a much better system.
Are you still thinking about buying a Dell.... Don't you'll be sorry.
I said at the start of this thread that part of the reason I have not been around much was the computer I guess i should tell you the other part. My job or a part of my job would be better said. A part of the job involves checking dates to be sure nothing is out of date or is close to going out of date say with in the next 30 days on just about all of the items our store sell, each week I have different sections to check a section may be just a small 4 foot wide 3 shelf area or a 30 foot section with 6 shelfs in a sections like that I may do half one week then half the next week I check the date on each item and set in aside until every item is off the shelf I put in in order as I do newest date to oldest date then I put all then items back in order with the oldest date in front. There was be just 3 bags of dog food or 48 cans of soup it takes a lot of concentration. Over the last month I have spent about 30 hours each week checking dates and I only work 40 hours. After looking at that all those items that last thing I wanted to do was to be out in the shop or any thing that required concentration. It looks likes I wont have as many section to check this month or I'm hoping to get back out in the shop that is if the weather gets a bit cooler.

[cj53]

I am also a MAC addict. I got tired of having issues every 2 yrs with HP. I went with a Mac desktop and love it. I also have 1TB of back up and have gone totally Apple, laptop, iPhone, and iPad.

[Khalid]

I have Dell Inspiron 1450 core i3...A week ago my hard drive crashed without showing any abnormality.. . All my family pictures, my collections, and programming went into holy grave...
I am idiot enough not to have a backup of the data...
Lesson Learnt:
1- Always Keep the data backup
2- Use a good laptop cooling pads

[RangerJay]

I have Dell Inspiron 1450 core i3...A week ago my hard drive crashed without showing any abnormality.. . All my family pictures, my collections, and programming went into holy grave...
I am idiot enough not to have a backup of the data...
Lesson Learnt:
1- Always Keep the data backup
2- Use a good laptop cooling pads

Family photographs are important.

Take your computer in to a service depot and see if the data can be recovered - the drive may have crashed - but that does not necessarily mean all your data is lost.

Presuming you get it back - then think about getting an external hard drive - or tap into an internet service that offers backups - and start doing them on a regular basis.

Good luck,


Jay