# Dell computers...



## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

Not necessarily a bash against Dell - they have some good products, my work laptop running XP has [knock on wood ] ran quite fine over the past 1.5 years; only complaint is a hangup where MS Media Player starts to suck all the system resources after ~2 hours, freezing the entire computer :down: but, that is another story... 

Anyhow, and however... just a friendly word of caution:



> http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5587443.html
> A California law firm has slapped Dell with a class action lawsuit charging the computer giant with "systematically deceiving" its customers. The suit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court on Feb. 14, seeks class action status in California and accuses Dell of "bait and switch" practices, false advertising, fraud and deceit in sales and advertising, and breach of contract. The law firm behind the suit, Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins, publicized it on Wednesday.
> 
> The case centers on the allegation that Dell advertises low prices for its computers, but people who try to purchase a machine at the advertised price find it's no longer available for that price. Often those customers wind up with another computer, the suit said.
> ...


Also, I believe that many Dell parts are specific to Dell computers, so be careful when you desire to upgrade/replace parts - they may be difficult and/or more costly than you thought, if they are even available to be replaced - someone have better or more current info on this? My apologies if this is not true, but its what I've been led to believe. However, do know that many of their parts are not of the same quality as if you were to obtain it yourself. But, you get what you pay for... 

One very interesting article, that also has some good words of wisdom near the bottom, is at: http://www.thisistrue.com/dellhell.html These words [the 4th bullet point in the conclusions] should hold true for whatever brand/style/type of computer/appliance/machine you buy.


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

I've found that windows media player 9/10 is a very big resource hog no matter what. It's the only thing that has ever made my computer doing a total system lock-up. I've had a couple of instances where a program fails and does that 'do you want to send a report'? window, but those are isolated and only a minor annoynace. WMP is pretty bad though.

Anyway, I'm even more glad I build my own


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## Lusi (Feb 22, 2005)

MSM I have to comment on this. I bought my Dell computer about three years ago now I believe. It is a Dimension 4300S , upgraded the memory on purchase and could have sworn that it listed a free upgrade of a 20GB hard drive to 40GB and unfortunately at the time of purchase I was pretty ignorant and never checked out what I had gotten. Needless to say a while down the road I realize when I start running programs on here and the son wants game space we don't have half of what we need.  I was pretty upset about that but my fault was that I did not keep the orginal article that told of all the "goodies and upgrades" that you were supposed to get and now I find that there is no room to even add
another hard drive because of limited space in the case. 
And Dell awalys touting their award winning support team...BAH!  I swear every time that I had to call them for a problem I could barely, if even understand the tech on the other end and when I asked for them to repeat what they were telling me because their English was so broken then they would get irritated and start talking to me like I was an idiot and a few times even hung up on me!
I can honestly say that my next purchase if from a corporate sales company for PC's will probably be a Gateway. I did some work for my son's friends on his computer (Gateway) had to call their tech line several times over about a weeks time and every time contacted someone who was very polite, eager to help in any way that they could, and they could be understood. 
I have to say , I do not know a whole lot on Gateway, have not heard too many say bad or good about it...but to me the service that you get with a company alone is enough to make me want to purchase from them. 

I do hope that in the future when we do have the money and I have the time, that I can can build myself a new computer with all that my family wants and needs.


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## Dave Perry (Feb 24, 2005)

New Dell's are very cheap on eBay (where I got mine). I'd never buy them retail or direct.

If you can get one cheap, they're probably worth it. They are not full of the best components imaginable.


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## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

BigK - yeap, that is exactly what is happening here... not a fault of Dell or any manufacturer, but of the WMP program. Unfortunately, not many other alternatives that I can do on this work computer, w/o getting the IT gestapo on my case worse than they are due to "unauthourized" programs I've on here... such as irfanview,,,   BTW, what do you recommend, WinAmp? Thanks.

Lusi, welcome to TSG! Sorry to hear about your problems. Do know that my mom and brother-in-law are both very happy w/ their respective Gateways. Mom has had very good phone support and upgrades over the past six years w/ hers. Do think I heard that Dell's phone support was being moved away from India - they've receive a lot of complaints regarding their terrible phone support there. Yea, building your own is a rewarding experience. Best thing is that the phone support to the builder is pretty cheap! 

Dave, that is true - but, for many regular users, if bought off of eBay, they'd not have the phone support, for whatever that may be worth...


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## jawchild (Feb 24, 2005)

As far as windows media...why even bother. Use winamp, or whatever is better out there. 

As for Dell, I've purchased one at home 2 1/2 years ago, and have been working with their servers, laptops, and workstations at work. When put up against HP, emachine, etc...they've come out on top. I haven't played with gateway for some time, but I know the older machines (mid-90's) where nice. The thing is, they suck on any sort of longevity. They're sold to be cheap. If you want a nice computer from them, you'll pay out the ***, mostly for things you don't want too! Anyone serious about computers should DEFINETLY be building their own. Its easy as hell, and there are so many tutorials, webpages, etc.. dedicated to it. If you're too scared to build one, go to a local computer store (NOT OFFICE MAX) where someone will build you exactly what you want, probably for cheaper than what Dell is pushing. 

Main thing, don't buy into Dell's B.S. promises. They'll sell you all sorts of magic beans. You're gonna end up spending twice as much in the long run. UP TO FOUR TIMES AS MUCH if you finance one from them! Do you're research kids.


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## GatewayTech (Feb 24, 2005)

Better to get financing locally in my opinion. You can probably get
a better rate. As for WMP why blame it on the computer? Microsoft
makes it. Besides that its a huge resource hog. Use WinAmp somebody's
already mensioned it. Like 20932908423 times better than WMP. Seriously
what does WMP have to offer that winamp doesnt do?

http://www.winamp.com


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## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

GT - thanks, but I was not blaming the issues I was having w/ WMP on the machine, just relaying that that program was the only thing causing me problems to date, sucking up system resources... please reread my original post above, and then the 2nd one where I also mentioned about me downloading more programs that the IT people are very restrictive about.  Yeap, I'm going to try to d/l it, but will have to do such at appropriate time, when prying eyes are maybe not so keen... 

BTW, welcome to TSG!


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## GatewayTech (Feb 24, 2005)

Thank you


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## Big-K (Nov 22, 2003)

Winamp definatly. If its a proprietry file that can only be played with wmp, use wmp classic(search google).


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## Lusi (Feb 22, 2005)

MSM Thanks a bunch, glad to be here! I think I like it.  Yeppers I aint skeered, I think I am gonna build my own by golly! lol

Oh and BTW...Mark Twain: "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines, Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream."

Absoultely LOVE it...I had this in my siggy line at another chat board once upon a time. 
Does that make us kindred spirits? lol


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## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

You bet! Anyone that has the ambition to think for themselves, dream how to get there, and then to actually try, even if they stumble, is bound to succeed, or at at least have one he!! of a good time trying! 

When ya do go to build it, just remember that quality in = quality out...


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## Fidelista (Jan 17, 2004)

In my experience , Dell builds a 'good' machine, never thought about another brand. I have worked with e-machine--compac--HP and IBM.
My next? will be homebuilt---obvious advantage.
I do believe that Dell is a good as any store machine , and better in my experience. "help' from any manufacturer is almost useless.
I must add, I have no experiece with Sony and the other brands, maybe I would be impressed?.
I think best is 'built' ---without company programs---only what consumer desires loaded--starting with XP from M$--- a real disk, not a partisoned harddrive copy , or a company restore disk.
I also know from working with them--assembling hardware is not that bad---you are not "building" a PC, only assembling one. Software is much the problem , when there is one.  >f


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## Lusi (Feb 22, 2005)

Hey Hobbes, Carpe Diem babes, Carpe Diem!!


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## jillian2 (Sep 11, 2004)

About Dell computers. I got my Dell computer 21/2 years ago. The speakers went out and Dell replaced them. Then the Hard Drive needed to be replaced. When the man came to replace the Hard Drive, on the package it stated: " These Parts may be  new or refurbished" It said the same with the speakers. So, with Dell , you just never know if you are getting new or refurbished parts. Also, I want to upgrade the memory. Crucial had memory that they said was compatible with my computer, but Dell said "No" that I was to get memory up grade with Dell. People, this is my first and last Dell computer. Never again will I get a Dell.

BTW, my daughter has a 5 year old HP that is faster that my Dell.

Jillian


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## Dave Perry (Feb 24, 2005)

jillian2 said:


> Also, I want to upgrade the memory. Crucial had memory that they said was compatible with my computer, but Dell said "No" that I was to get memory up grade with Dell. People, this is my first and last Dell computer. Never again will I get a Dell.
> 
> BTW, my daughter has a 5 year old HP that is faster that my Dell.
> 
> Jillian


That's not surprising if it's still under warranty. Most companies probably have policies like that. If it's not under warranty, ignore them. Go with what Crucial suggests. There's no such thing as proprietary "Dell" memory, through with the motherboards it's a different story.


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

" These Parts may be new or refurbished" 

I think all PC maker do the same. Also if you buy your own hard drive they can do the same under warranty.


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## GatewayTech (Feb 24, 2005)

Maybe you had a lemon I duno. Most have a lemon clause. About the refurb ["remanufactured"] parts.. read your warranty. If you dont agree with the warranty then don't buy the PC. It dont matter if you buy a "big name" pc or a clone or a self-assembled one.. most warranties are the same. Sending new drives out all the time and not refurbing them is wastful and doesnt do any good for the environment. As for your hard drive, Dell didnt make your hard drive.. Maxtor or Toshiba or _____ did, and a hard drive is the most used peice of equip in a computer. Its bound to fail. PPL spend 2k on a computer and expect it to run perfectly for a lifetime.

The tech's who told you it had to be "Dell memory" probably just wanted commission. Sure doesnt make Dell look good but what ya gona do.

I will tell you this tho it doesnt matter what company you go with you have equally a chance of having a horror story with any of them. My suggestion, understand your warranty before you buy a pc.. and for god sakes dont buy a pc from a sales person but from tech support.. those guys are the people who support the warranty later. They have the most understanding of how you'll be treated later. I still say tho you're still better off going with a big company that has good techs on the phones supporting you. A lot of people wouldnt know how to fix their sw issues if it werent for us.


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## jillian2 (Sep 11, 2004)

Thanks DAVE PERRY , my Dell is still under warranty. I know that some things are not compatiable with Dell's. I am more concerned about the parts saying that "These parts may be new or refurbished" I still won't buy another Dell.

Jillian


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## jillian2 (Sep 11, 2004)

GATEWAY TECH , I did not see a warranty when I bought it. I ordered it over the telephone. I paid over $ 1750 for my computer. They shipped it to me via UPS and I never saw a warranty when It was purchased over the telephone.

Jillian


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## GatewayTech (Feb 24, 2005)

I know gateway posts the warranty on our website. I am sure dell does too. Anyway the point is know what you're buying before you find that you end up with something you dont want. Hey I'm just like you guys I just buy stuff I never think about what's going to happen down the road..


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

Even if you buy and build your own PC the same thing can happen.
Look at the Maxtor hard drive Limited Warranty Statement.
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M.../Warranty Services/Limited Warranty Statement

You see it says...
If Maxtor elects to repair a Product, Maxtor owns all parts removed from the repaired Product. Maxtor uses new and reconditioned parts made by various manufacturers in conjunction with warranty repairs and replacement Products. Repair parts or replacement Products may, at Maxtor's option, include an equal or better model or features.
You see the same thing from other companys.


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## jillian2 (Sep 11, 2004)

Thanks, heewee as I did not know that. My thinking was that if you buy something and it is under warranty and it goes out, then they repace it with a new part. Like a car for example. If I buy a new car and it is still under warranty and the transmission goes out, then they replace it with a new one and not a rebuilt one, so that was how I was looking at it.

Jillian


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## hewee (Oct 26, 2001)

jillian2, Yep most do this so read the warranty and you find that it is there in the print.

Now at Costco store http://www.costco.com/ I hear they will replace things with something new. Don't know what all they will do this on but I know someone that had a Maxtor hard drive go out and there was like a month of the warranty on it left. They too it back and costco have them the money back for it and she got another new drive that was bigger and it cost less after getting a rebate on it. Plus being a all new drive you get a all new warranty that starts over again.
Not a bad deal.


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## MSM Hobbes (Apr 23, 2004)

Another article regarding the suit against Dell...

http://money.cnn.com/2005/02/22/technology/dell_lawsuit.reut/



> ...snip...The lawsuit can be broken down into two separate consumer rights violations, said Jeff Friedman, a lawyer with Lerach Coughlin.
> 
> First is the bait-and-switch accusation. A statement from the law firm given to Reuters said the suit was filed on behalf of a San Francisco nurse who claims that in 2003 she was led to believe that she was buying a Dell notebook computer listed at $599 and an $89 printer, but was later billed $1,352.
> 
> ...


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## uneek (Jul 28, 2005)

a few years ago i purchased 3 dell desktops that came with windows Me 
remember that abortion of an OS? anyway i "downgraded to win 98 SE and when i called dell for proprietary drivers only available from dell they told me that the warranty on my 25 day old computers was void because i changed the OS and they would not allow me to get the Drivers that were necessary 
i did not know that i was not allowed to change to Os to a better or shall we say an OS that works on my own computers and they told me that i would have to buy the OS or any OS upgrades From Dell or the warranty would be void !! i say bull crap 
Well being 25 days old i promptly packed up all three computers and returned them all and have trashed dell any chance i get since then 
My gateways have been the best computers ever. 
i have purchased 19 Gateways since that time and love them and their tech support 
I don't know the quality of gateway since their merger or acquisition of e-machines their computers seem changed to me but i have had no problems yet with the two that we have so i keep my fingers crossed 


DELL SUCKS DELL SUCKS DELL SUCKS


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## brendandonhu (Jul 8, 2002)

Its not Dell's fault you didn't bother reading the warranty, which clearly says they won't provide support if you change your OS. Many Gateway warranties say exactly the same thing.


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## GatewayTech (Feb 24, 2005)

brendandonhu said:


> Its not Dell's fault you didn't bother reading the warranty, which clearly says they won't provide support if you change your OS. Many Gateway warranties say exactly the same thing.


That may be true but they should have AT LEAST provided the drivers.
If you buy a Gateway and you change your OS, as far as technical issues
that arise.. if its quick we'll fix it, if its a bigger issue or a can of worms..
then we give you other support options than "warranty tech support".
For instance there is a free automated line, a fee based line, and finally
an awesome website [support.gateway.com] that I have spent a lot of
time on I love it. Its way better than Dell's support site.

Anyway back to the driver's issue. Any Gateway Tech regardless of what
OS you upgraded to would have gone out of their way to send you links
to drivers that are available on the website for free. They all come with
instructions too. If we dont have the driver then you may want to try the
manufacturer of the actual part [for instance talk to 3com for 3com modem
if you need win 98 drivers]. If they dont have them then either go back
to the original OS or buy another modem.. 10 bux. Anyway


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## elizaj13 (Jun 2, 2000)

I also have had a Dell for a couple of years. There was only 128 m RAM and as soon as the warranty expired went out and bought a compatible 512 mb RAM, installed and works great. So, they are full of malarkey if they say it can't be done. I find their service horrible. My father in law passed away in Aug 2004 and to help my mother in law out, my hubby attempted to take over the payments of his dads computer. Well, they manage to take their money but after about 30 phone calls and faxes asking for signatures and papers filled out we finally got this fax from Dell saying they could not transfer the contract over ???? until they got the original contractee's signature. That is my father in law and he is deceased. Go figure.

Thats my 2 cents about Dell.

Janey Liz


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## elizaj13 (Jun 2, 2000)

Dave Perry said:


> That's not surprising if it's still under warranty. Most companies probably have policies like that. If it's not under warranty, ignore them. Go with what Crucial suggests. There's no such thing as proprietary "Dell" memory, through with the motherboards it's a different story.


 "Previously posted with another post" 
I upgraded my RAM from a 128 to a 512 just past christmas and it is not a Dell upgrade. And it is working fine. I found the best deal in my town and thats what I got. So I would say they are full of malarkey and just want you to keep buying their stuff.

My 2 cents, lol

Janey Liz


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## stantley (May 22, 2005)

I've had a Dell for about a year and overall I'm happy with it. It came with 256 RAM and a while ago I got another 256 of Kingston memory for $18 and it works fine. It probably would have cost over $50 if I'd gotten it from Dell.

I've had a couple of minor problems that customer support was able to help me with, so my experience with them has been positive. I hope I don't have to find out they'd be like if I had a major problem.

My biggest complant is that you can only use Dell ink cartridges in their printers. No wonder they throw in a free printer. Since it's going to cost me $60 for new cartridges, I might just buy a new printer and spend about the same amount.

Dell Computers: Parts made in China, assembled in Mexico, and if something goes wrong you talk to a dude in India.

As Don King once said, 'ONLY IN AMERICA'


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## brushmaster1 (Jun 15, 2002)

Dell, Gateway, Compaq, HP... *any* name brand computer will have proprietary parts and service/tech support issues. The best way to go is to build your own.

If you *must* buy a branded computer, bite the bullet and spring for something from Alienware!

That said, my two main computers are a Dell Dimension 2400 (cheap junk) and what *used* to be a Gateway 450. So far, I've had no problems with the Dell, and the Gateway is only a MB and case from gateway... everything else inside it is from my home-built that fried the MB.

The Gateway was originally my ex-wife's, and she had some very positive experiences with Gateway tech support, BTW.


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## tdi_veedub (Jan 29, 2004)

Is it just me, or are the "Dell Sucks" threads becoming more common? Not just here, but everywhere. I have mixed reviews on Dell. I have some old GX1's that are great, my sister had a lemon, their tech support sucks, and my coworker bought a laptop that took him a week to get the advertised price (they kept pushing fincancing on him, but he didn't want financing).

I don't think I will ever buy one, and I certainly don't recommend them anymore ( I used to). IMO, they used to be good, but now the share holders dictate what the company does, and quality always suffers when that happens ...

The company I work switched from Dell to HP and I work for a big company so I know it was a big hit to Dell.


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## GatewayTech (Feb 24, 2005)

stantley said:


> My biggest complant is that you can only use Dell ink cartridges in their printers. No wonder they throw in a free printer. Since it's going to cost me $60 for new cartridges, I might just buy a new printer and spend about the same amount.


Of course that's what they do.. but who cares the printer is free.
Ink for any printer is expensive. I know a few ppl who buy a new
printer each time instead of getting ink and then sell them locally
or on Ebay for few bucks.


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## GatewayTech (Feb 24, 2005)

As for the RAM thing.. I dont know of any Gateway that NEEDS "Gateway"
RAM. You can buy SimpleTech, Kingston... whatever so long as the specs
match then you're good to go. I think the people you talk to at Dell or even
the ones at GW who say you need proprietary RAM are just lying to improve
their sales and their stats so that they don't get fired for not pushing sales
on their customers.


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## GatewayTech (Feb 24, 2005)

brushmaster1 said:


> The Gateway was originally my ex-wife's, and she had some very positive experiences with Gateway tech support, BTW.


When I began working for Gateway our support had to be done by the
letter.. you couldnt go out of the scope of support. Awhile ago they have
been letting their agents focus a lot more on customer satisfaction and
bend the rules a little more to end up with a happy resolution.. which
makes everybody happier.


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## brushmaster1 (Jun 15, 2002)

I'm glad to hear that, GT! I have been involved (as a tech support agent) with many different companies. The best client ever was Insignia Solutions... no limit on call times, and customer satisfaction was the *only* goal. The longest call I ever had was a little over seven hours...


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## robertjr (Aug 10, 2005)

what i have found is that defaults item checked off may differ from the advertised item -- for example when advertising a free 15" FP - the no monitor option is checked so if you are not careful you will not receive your free monitor

once again this is somewhat sneaky.


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